4 Questions - Meet Barb Bense
RR Donnelley’s Barb Bense on the power of a Lean-based training tool.
BY PHIL BOLSTA
Barb Bense is a training manager for RR Donnelley, a Chicago-based company that is the one of the country’s largest—if not the largest—provider of printing and document management services. She worked for Banta Corp. for 12 years before it was purchased by RR Donnelley in January 2007, and continues to work at the same Long Prairie plant. In February, the Long Prairie facility received a grant from theMinnesota Job Skills Partnership to conduct TWI (Training Within Industry) sessions for 60 employees ranging from top management and supervisors to on-the-job trainers.TWI is a Lean-based training program designed to standardize training processes and teach supervisors and trainers how to teach operations to employees more effectively.
1. What does theTWI process look like?
There are three training modules, each of which is taught, for the most part, in five two-hour sessions on five consecutive days. Job Relations (JR) teaches supervisors how to build positive employee relations, increase cooperation and motivation, and effectively resolve conflicts. Job Instruction (JI) helps supervisors teach employees the best way to do a job correctly, consistently, and safely. Job Methods (JM) teaches supervisors how to improve productivity by making the best use of their people,machines, and materials.
2. What was your initial reaction toTWI?
We were finding that we needed to focus more on standardized work, so when I heard about TWI, I was all for it.We were going through the transition to RR Donnelley, so we wanted as many people as possible to go through the Job Relations portion in order to improve communication; and the Job Instruction portion would help us create standardized work procedures.
3. What is the status of your TWI training?
So far, we’ve conducted six sessions of Job Relations, because the class size is limited to 10 people. We can tell that relationships have improved—supervisor to supervisor, and supervisor to employee.We’ve also completed four of six sessions of the Job Instruction,which we expect to have a big impact on quality, spoilages, and customer concerns. We’ve hired some new employees, so we wanted to make sure we’re telling them all the same information, that we’re consistent with the process, and that we’re maintaining a safe environment.
4. What do you think of TWI overall?
So far,what I’ve seen is excellent.We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm after we completed the Job Relations module. Some people who have been here 30-plus years said, “That’s the best training I’ve ever gone to.” That’s a very good message—and I’ve heard it a number of times.