In the not so distant past workers in manufacturing were trained for one job and one job only. More recently however, cross-training has become less of a phrase to be bandied about lightly. Companies are focusing on cross-training to ensure worker flexibily as a plants’ needs change, and to ensure a worker remains valuable no matter what the needs of the facility are.

Training software should provide an easy to use framework for providing and tracking employee training, skills and certifications.

Identifying specific roles for an individual not only assists in ensuring processes occur correctly but is also useful in identifying what roles an individual needs to be trained in. Building qualification portfolios for individual workers will make those workers more valuable to the company in the long run.

In the process of training and cross-training a worker for specific jobs within a manufacturing facility, the scheduling system used there needs to understand what roles an individual worker is qualified for. The system should only assign tasks and jobs to an individual if that individual is trained for those roles. If there’s no qualification there, the system needs to identify someone who is properly trained for the role. This will also be a method for identifying who is not trained for a specific role and, more importantly, who should be trained.

Scheduling systems such as those from Tuppas Software can ensure roles are identified and assigned correctly within a facility. Reports for training personnel can also ensure cross-training is progressing well.