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Training and Development

Training and Development The main problem that Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana, commonly known as TMMI, faces in the training and development of its employees is getting their group leaders trained. This program is structured so the group leaders can learn decision-making, leadership, communicating, problem-solving, and analytical skills to bridge the gap between the upper management and the team members on the assembly line. The problem with getting group leaders trained is the fact that they also work on the line. The production of vehicles is the primary reason they are there, and it is very hard to pull them away from the line to train them. This does not make sense in an automobile manufacturing plant, but the production of vehicles gets in the way of the training of group leaders. Kirkpatrick’s A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development mentions that the main issue with on-the-job training is the actual job itself. On-the-job training is the main type of training that is used at this time, so TMMI is “up to speed” with everyone else with the training program they are using. It is just a matter of “getting the bugs worked out” of the program since they are such a new company. TMMI is located in Princeton, Indiana, which is approximately 25 miles north of Evansville on Highway 41. They first opened their doors in 1997 for the development of orientation. In February of 1998, team members started to enter the plant for the first time. In September of the same year, the supervisory program was introduced at Toyota. To begin training, group leaders were brought from the Kentucky plant, as well as from Japan, in order to instill the correct corporate culture into TMMI’s team members. Some managers of the TMMI plant were sent to Japan for training at the Toyota headquarters. Toyota of Indiana was to specialize in the production of the Tundra pickup truck and this process began in December of 1998. This was initially the only vehicle to be built in Princeton, but now the plant is being expanded to produce the new Sequoia sports utility vehicle that Toyota is adding to its line. The Siena mini van, which is currently made at the Kentucky plant, will also be produced at TMMI in the near future. When the expansion is complete, Toyota will provide work for over 4300 Southern Indiana residents. TMMI is structured similar to other vehicle manufacturing plants. They have two specific job classes. The first one contains the associates and specialists. The second consists of a hierarchy of employees that work in a domino effect and report to the person above them until they reach the manager, if needed. The employees are given the following titles: team member, team leader, group leader, assistant manager, and manager. Team members are those that actually assemble the vehicles. Team leaders are in charge of four team members and oversee production and small machinery problems. Group leaders have two groups of team leaders underneath them. They are the link between the workers on the line and management. They take care of communication problems on the line and make decisions that should not be taken to management. TMMI places an enormous emphasis on teamwork. This comes from the Japanese culture and their business philosophy; as a result, Toyota demands a great deal of camaraderie amongst team members and overall team building exercises in order to fulfill the emphasis they place on a team-oriented workplace. Toyota feels very strongly about the group leader position as a whole and feels that it is the most important role of the chain of communication. According to TMMI human resources department, the training of group leaders is an essential and effective way for communication to grow and develop between the workers on the line and the managers who are in their offices all day. Constant contact with the group leader will lead to immediate feedback to problems or situations that arise; therefore, group leaders must possess very strong supervisory skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, communicating, and leadership skills. Since the purpose of workers at TMMI is to build trucks, Toyota faces the dilemma of being able to get the team members trained as group leaders in a supervisory position. One main problem that Toyota faces is that of the group leaders being pulled from the assembly line to take their training. This could be distracting to others, as well as the manufacturing process, and also reduce the overall efficiency of the plant. The trainers and the human resource personnel have no authority to set a specific deadline by which training will have to take place. Also, they cannot force a manager to have a team member or leader leave the line and take part in the training process. TMMI wants to train their group leaders in supervisory skills to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the leadership role expected at Toyota. Instilling the proper attitude and motivation level in their employees is also a reason to train. This is so Toyota workers can give as much effort as possible to get a task done. In addition to these, knowledge and skills needed for the job as a group leader are also very important factors for the reasoning of training and development for the betterment of the company. The proper channels of communication can correct understanding the importance of the leadership role. Training and development can improve the attitude and motivation used in the workplace. The knowledge and supervisory skills needed to become a group leader can be learned through an effective training program, which must be designed to meet the needs of the trainees. The needs of Toyota’s group leaders include problem-solving skills in order to take care of disputes between co-workers on the line, the correct technique used to communicate between team members and upper management, analytical skills and decision-making skills so they can assess a problem and make decisions regarding trivial matters. There are many different kinds of supervisory training techniques that could be administered exclusively or in combination with others at Toyota. On-the-job training and experience, according to Kirkpatrick’s book A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development, is the most important method in which the boss is heavily involved in the actual training process. In a General Electric study, approximately ninety percent development of employees is done on-the-job. The next best method in training and development is that of classroom training. The trainees in this position can get individual help from the instructor or learn in a group setting with a question and answer atmosphere. This allows the trainees to be put in a situational demonstration of problems that could arise and enabling them to take notes that would help them retain information better. Another technique that could be utilized is selected reading, which is a common means for improving knowledge and changing attitudes to fit a company’s overall standards. In addition to these types of supervisory techniques, correspondence training could be used. This is where the trainees take books home and study them, then take quizzes and tests to show what they have learned from the texts. Programmed instruction is a lesser-used technique. This is either a print or computer based program that gives situations that could be faced on-the-job. This method allows the trainee to select the answer they feel is correct without influence from a boss or classmates. If the answer they picked is right, then they can proceed to the next situation; however, if the answer they chose was incorrect, then they must try again to choose the answer that the company feels is the best way to handle the situation. On-line, or web-based, training set up on a company’s web site is a growing means of training. However, TMMI feels that this would not be a good idea because the trainees would not be working on-the-job in-group situations (Uiterwijk, 1998). The final method used in training and development is using programs directed by outside organizations. Depending on the organization chosen to do the training, there could be a variety of previously mentioned training techniques utilized. With this in mind, if the company decides to rely on an outside organization to train its employees, then the trainees should be counseled before attending the training and after the training is over. This is to make sure that the employees obtained the information needed during the session and did not pick up the other company’s culture in the process. Implementation of this training will be the final test to see if the out-sourcing of the training process was a success (Supervisory, 1996). At Toyota, an attempt is made to balance the training between the two most important methods used in training and development, which are on-the-job experience and classroom lectures with demonstrational situations. TMMI feels that this combination of training will be the most effective for their plant. Toyota employees that have either had the training or are higher in position and know the training process teach the classroom sessions. These are the people that are very familiar with the results that TMMI is leaning toward in order to achieve success in the industry. Also group leaders of the Kentucky plant were in charge of some of the training. A few managers were sent to the Toyota headquarters in Japan for training and overview of the cultural practices to implement in the TMMI plant. However, Toyota relies very heavily on on-the-job training and past experiences of employees in order to achieve the leadership skills and knowledge needed to become a group leader. The human resources department along with the help of the management personnel chooses who will become group leaders at TMMI. When the plant first opened, group leaders were hired by the experience they previously had acquired. The reasoning behind this was so they would know more about the position and would not have to have as much training, since the assembly line needed so much technical training. Group leaders that had jobs of similar rank in other companies were prime candidates for the positions. This way the company culture and line of command had to be instilled in them instead of all of the knowledge and reasoning used by a group leader. Now that TMMI is getting its feet planted firmly in the production aspect, they hire group leaders from the employees that hold the positions of team members and team leaders. The workers just move “up the ladder” in the hierarchy of employees at Toyota of Indiana. Personalities and how well they work with others are just a couple of qualities looked for in a prospective group leader. The Japanese ways of business and the team members and team leaders already know the goals of TMMI, which is one reason that TMMI wants to allow employees the opportunity for advancement. The supervisory training program used at TMMI should take two years to complete. Since there is no deadline being enforced by management to complete the training, many in the program are behind schedule; whereas, just a few are actually ahead of where they need to be in order to fulfill the training in the two-year time frame. Since the TMMI plant started production in December of 1998, no one has completed the training program, but there should be employees who are close to finishing the course in December of this year. Management needs to stress the importance of this training so group leaders will finish the courses in a timely fashion. If the managers do not accept the need for the training program, it will never work the way it is meant to work. The managers need to reinforce what is learned in the training program in the actual workplace in order for the training to be effective. Toyota’s human resources department has set requirements in order for class lectures to take place. At least six group leaders are needed for a training session to occur. Some classes even have prerequisites that group leaders in training must meet before attending. Many of these prerequisites are just other class sessions. The classes, on average, are four hours in length. Even though many classes only last from 45 minutes to an hour there are a few that last a total of eight hours. In order to know whether the training program is working or not, Toyota needs to evaluate the success of its training and development. TMMI uses the model from Kirkpatrick’s A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development that suggests there are four levels of evaluation. The first level is one of Reaction. At this level, the measurement is not very subjective. TMMI uses what they call a “smile sheet” to evaluate the performance of the training program at the reaction stage. For example, the “smile sheet” contains questions such as “Did you like the training?”, “What did you like about the training?”, “What did you not like about the training?”, and “Did you feel that you benefited from the training?”. The next level focuses on Learning. A quiz could be used as a measuring tool in order to show what attitudes, skills, and amount of knowledge were learned during the training process. The questions asked at this level are more open-ended than those of the first level. Behavior is the concentration of the third level. For this level of evaluation, the measurement of success could be managers watching the trainees in the field to see if and how their behavior has changed. They have realized that this is a difficult objective because some group leaders have progressed to this level in the training program. For example, if a group leader does not have to solve problems with co-workers on the line very often, then the manager might observe a day with no conflicts. This makes it hard for the manager to decide if the training the group leader participated in has changed his or her behavior. The final level of evaluation is centered on Results. Toyota wants to be able to see the results of how the training and development program benefits TMMI as a whole. The impact on the company is a result that needs to be measured. If the program improves profits, then it will be a successful training program. Cutting costs, absenteeism, and employee turnover are all positive results that come about because of the on-the-job experience and classroom lecture training techniques. These results are hard to measure since many are centered on financial issues; with the plant still being in the infant stage, Toyota is not completely financially stable yet. Once a year, TMMI holds meetings to form priorities for the following year. In these meetings, Toyota uses the Diagonal Slice feedback method. This allows representatives from each level of employment to give feedback about the training program and its results, both positive and negative. Questions asked in the meeting would be things such as “What did you like about the program?”, “What did you not like about the program?”, “Did you feel that the training program worked?”, “Did the training help you at all?”, “If it did help, in what areas?”, and “If you could change things about the training, what would they be?”. Another evaluation and feedback method that is used a lot in the business world is that of the multirater 360-degree feedback method. This method goes more into depth that the method that TMMI currently uses. It has four steps to evaluation of the feedback you obtain. The first step is defining what to evaluate and measure. This step allows the human resources department to set objectives and decide what would benefit the company the most. The article we found concerning this method gives examples of questions that should be asked and answered during this step of the process. The second step is to design a survey. This allows a company to focus on the areas of interest. There are many questions on preprinted surveys that do not pertain to the area the company is working on improving and waste the employee’s time to fill it out. Gathering the data is the third step in this process. Some suggestions on distributing the survey are as follows: administer it online to save time at work, do it at the same time that the company sends out satisfaction reports, maximize confidentiality, and minimize the use of many open-ended questions to ensure the employees will take the time to complete it. The final step is to analyze the data and summarize the results. The company could use a spreadsheet, such as Excel, to generate an analysis useful for the areas in which they are studying. The article also gave a list of possible problems that could occur during the evaluation. These areas should be carefully monitored to reduce the risks associated with the evaluation process (Kowack, Hartley, & Bradley, 1999). Toyota Motor Manufacturing has many production plants domestically, as well as globally. The plant in Canada is having similar problems to those of TMMI. The Kentucky plant however has a training center and many trainers. Their organizational structure is quite different from that of Toyota of Indiana. The North American Toyota office is trying to standardize the training across all the plants. Kirkpatrick’s A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development program and evaluation is the only one that TMMI has tried to implement in its short history. TMMI feels that they should continue to use this training program because they need to establish their current plant and program before they begin to try something new. The Toyota Production System is telling them to first standardize, even if it is not for the best, then change the system of training if needed, and standardize again. With TMMI using on-the-job training programs for their group leaders, there is not a lot of room for improvement since they are using the best method of training and development. We have come up with recommendations for TMMI to increase participation in their training program. This should allow the trainees to finish the program in the two-year time frame wanted by the human resources department. We felt that they could take a step in improving their training program by setting training sessions around the peaks and valleys of production. We made this suggestion because the demand for vehicles is different throughout the year. When production decreases, training should increase. There could be so much more training done and out of the way when there are not as many vehicles and problems on the line. Some classes are up to eight hours long, so they can have longer sessions when they have the time available. We feel that this will help the managers realize how important the training is and they will allow their employees to leave the line for training. A program that we feel TMMI should implement in conjunction with their training program is one that gives incentives for completing classes in a timely matter. Just so trainees want to get into the program and actually learn about communicating, decision-making, and problem-solving, and leadership, we fell that TMMI could offer a percentage discount on a new Toyota vehicle for finishing the training and development program in the two-year time frame. TMMI should use stepping-stones to reach the overall goal of completing the program. For each time a trainee finishes a training session, Toyota could give incentives such as t-shirts, jackets, amusement park tickets, monetary rewards, etc. in order to encourage them to move on and take the next training session. We fell that this would greatly increase the desire to participate in the program. Also, TMMI should ask the group leaders under which circumstances that they learn the most. We feel this is important because many people learn differently. If a prospective group leader learns better by being in a situational position, then TMMI should use classroom lectures and selected readings in order to train that employee. This may be more work for the human resources department because they have to monitor and control more than one method of training, but the trainees will take more knowledge back into the workplace, which is a very important goal for Toyota of Indiana. Standardizing the training across North America would also be a recommendation that we would give to TMMI. They should use the same training program that other Toyota plants are using. This way when they run into problems, more than likely other plants can help them out. The program that TMMI is using has not been used in any other Toyota plant, so they have to work through every problem, which is taking a longer amount of time. The TMMI human resources department could not give us any reason why they chose this training and development method, except that they were trying something new at their new plant. We fell that these recommendations will not change the behavior of the organization or the organization itself, but it will increase the amount of training that takes place. Our group learned many things about managing group work while working on this project. The main thing we learned about working in a group was how to work around many different schedules. In the past when we have worked in groups, we have been able to choose our group members. Because of this, we usually have things in common and it is easier to meet since we pretty much have similar schedules. However, we were working with a very diverse group that included a basketball player with practices and games; a fraternity member with meetings and special events; a member of the band with games, rehearsals, and concerts; and one who is married, lives off-campus, and works a full-time job. It was very hard to arrange meetings to where everyone can attend. We did however set the meetings when everyone was free, but there were many times when someone would not show up and not let anyone know why. This made it hard to keep everyone up-to-date on what we were talking about at that particular meeting. We had a central location for meetings so we would only have to set up the time and day. During this project, we had to learn to trust our group members more than in the past. There was a lot of work that was individualized and then brought to the group and used for the project. We split up several tasks and tried to keep the workload equaled out, but even with this idea, some of the work was not evenly matched and some members ended up pulling a heavier load than others. We worked together to make decisions by putting all ideas on the table and then discussing them in order to weed out the weaker ones. We had problems finding the right type of resources that we wanted to support our project topic. Many were too vague or did not pertain enough to the topic we wanted information on. We learnt that we had to keep narrowing down the topic being searched to find the information we needed. We feel that our group improved overall throughout the course of the semester. The more that we worked together the better we worked together. It was easier once we knew how everyone else’s work ethics and how they usually went about trying to solve problems and tackling assignments. The only thing that really changed about the way our group worked was we started taking initiative and grabbing parts of the project to finish. Overall, this project has been a huge learning experience for all of us. Bibliography: References Davis, Tom-TMMI Group Leader. Personal Interview. March 2000. Kirkpatrick, D.L. (1971). A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Nowack, K.M., Hartley, J., and Bradley, W. (1999). “How to Evaluate Your 360 Feedback Efforts”. Training & Development, Vol.53. “Supervisory training program available”. (1996). Air Conditioning Heating & Refrigeration News, Vol.197, p.101. Uiterwijk, J. (1998). “Test Center Comparison: Web-based training solutions; The virtual classroom; Education is the key to a motivated and loyal workforce, but it is the first to go in a budget crisis”. InfoWorld, Vol. 20. Wilson, Tracy-HR, Training and Development. Telephone Interview. January 2000.

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