IMF UPDATE

Test stops turnover

Companies often find themselves training and hiring employees that only stay with the organization for a month or less.After the employee leaves, the company is short-staffed and short-changed. Finding the characteristics of the long-term employees and searching for future candidates with the same qualities could be a resolution to the problem.

Employee characteristics can be determined by a Predictive Index (PI) survey, which yields a reliable profile of a worker's personality traits and aptitude for certain types of work. Finding employees motivations and character traits may lessen a company's turnover rates and increase productivity.

Developed in 1955 by Arnold S Daniels, and based on the work of behaviorist B F Skinner and others, the PI suggests how managers can more effectively communicate with workers, and could improve productivity and profitabiltity.

Managers or human resource professionals who have been trained in how to evaluate the PI can review the results of a potential employee and determine what type of position the person would thrive in.

Giving the test to current employees improves communication, motivation, supervision, training, conflict resolution, and builds morale.

Artex International, Highland, IL, had a turnover rate of 50% in its St George, UT plant until using the PI survey. Atrex was able to lower turnover-related costs by $31,000.

"If you understand the behavior traits of people you work with, you can create an environment where they thrive, and the company does, too," says plant manager Jim Duby.

Find out more about PI in Metlfax's Interactive Metalworking Forum at http://www.metlfax.com.

Boosting quality in metal fabricating

Quality output in 15 metal fabricating industries has improved enough so the cost of poor quality--waste, spoilage, rejects, and rework--has decreased significantly in the last four years, according to Woodruff Imberman of Imberman and DeForest, a management consulting firm, Evanston, IL.

Companies in these industries produce everything from aluminum castings to steel. They shear, stamp, bend, drill and tap, grind, debur, weld, and finish.

A 1994 study covering poor quality costs in these industries found that such costs ranged from 4.3% to 7.0% of sales, with an average of 5.6%. Extensive data for 1998 indicate that poor quality costs have declined to 4.7%--good, but still too high. For a typical medium-size metal fabricating plant with annual sales of $12 million, poor quality costs average about $565,000 annually--still too much cash to be throwing away.

Two factors streamlined the improvement in quality. The first was the introduction of QS-9000 by the Automotive Industry Action Group. That action pressured automotive suppliers to shape up on quality, or else be frozen out by the Big Three auto businesses. A second factor was the introduction of many bonus incentive plans to motivate the hourly workforces to improve quality.

The introduction of QS-9000 affected not only the Tier 1 suppliers, but affected all the tiers below.

To read more on this go to Metlfax's Interactive Metalworking Forum at http://www.metlfax.com

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