Page 39 - MetalForming February 2013

Marlin Steel Wire Products LLC\Workforce Development
www.metalformingmagazine.com MetalForming/February 2013
zone and heavy in another on certain days, so we repopulate cells as need- ed. Transferable skills enable that.”
A panicked call from a major retailer provides a recent example of cross-training benefits for Marlin and its customers. The retailer had ordered 7000 wire baskets from a Chinese manufacturer, but the sup- plier couldn’t ship in time.
“We received a call for the work on a Wednesday, on Thursday we received a purchase order and on Friday the customer approved a print drawn up by our engineers,” recalls Greenblatt. “Within a week we shipped 4500 baskets and shipped the rest a week later.
“We had never made this type of basket,” he continues, “but we can offer speed to our customers because of our engineering skills and cross- training. We produced prints quickly and moved people to cells to pro- duce that work in a hurry. I don’t know what customers will order next week. That is part of the benefit of us being so broad—everything from milling to laser to punch to wire—combined with our cross-trained employees. If one workcell goes heavy, we can fill it with people who know how to do the work. That makes our people valuable and impervious to recession.”
In fact, during the brutal manu- facturing landscape in 2009, Marlin did not lay off a single employee, for which Greenblatt is rightly proud. The Skills Matrix and related training program is largely responsible for that, and also provides the benefit of showing, at a glance, which skill areas are deficient and require more trained employees. Marlin so focus- es on cross-training that the com- pany will overdo it, admits Green- blatt, sending more employees than sometimes necessary.
“We have less than 35 employees and we have sent eight of them for punch-press training,” he says. “But the punch presses are very impor- tant to what we do so we want to make sure we’re always covered. Pretty
much any employee that wants to learn a skill will get a shot at it, maybe not in the first pass, but definitely at some point. Convincing people to avoid complacency—where they are comfortable with their current skill sets—is the biggest challenge we face in our training program. Incentives such as the automatic wage increase combat that.”
With engineering so key to com- pany success, Marlin invests in its design capabilities. The company hires many of its engineers from the University of Maryland’s highly regarded School of Engineering, located only about 30 miles away. At Marlin, engineers use state-of-the- art design software, according to Greenblatt, and undergo software, programming and machine-opera- tion training under the Skills Matrix program. The company also provides engineers and other front-office employees with 30-in. computer monitors for design work, and another 28-in. monitor to access e-mail and other programs. The setup reduces eye strain and eliminates the need to constantly switch on-screen windows to access multiple programs.
Training Pays Off in Production
Incentives at Marlin do not end with training. New skills can bring production bonuses, paid on a regu- lar basis, often in a following pay- check. Bonuses, a dollar amount based on a percentage of a particular job or task, are arranged around workcells and/or teams, including front-office support personnel such as designers and purchasers.
“Everyone has a stake in the bonus program, so all departments pull for success,” says Greenblatt, detailing the unique arrangement. “Engineers have to supply good part prints in a timely manner, for example, and pur- chasers must make sure we have the material on hand to complete a job. So we tie a lot of functions together in determining who is eligible for which production goal.”
When the bonus program began seven years ago, only the production manager had a stake. Over time, company officials realized that reach- ing a goal demanded effort from other employees and other depart- ments, so the program evolved to include anyone and anything that drove project success.
Marlin’s bonus compensation plan certainly has put dollars in employee pockets, with production employees earning anywhere from 5 to 156 percent of their hourly or salary compensation in bonuses in 2012. Most employees are in the 10 to 40 percent range, and bonus pay- outs in 2012 ranged from $50 to more than $20,000. Bonuses are paid above and beyond steady hourly compensation increases earned via skills enhancement.
At Marlin, the production man- ager is responsible for setting all bonus-program goals, which usually run for a week or two. Greenblatt believes that the company has reached a good balance, with goals that are achievable, but requiring effort to attain. For example, he notes, in the past 26 pay periods prior to MetalForming’s visit, the company paid out bonuses in 14 periods. Employees are not penalized for not reaching goals, with shortfalls earn- ing scrutiny as part of continuous- improvement efforts.
Production bonus goals are dis- played publicly at Marlin, allowing all employees to chart progress.
“Doing that provides some com- petition, where our people can see how we measure up to other teams,” says Andy Croniser, Marlin’s pro- duction manager who personally sets production goals and charts progress.
As mentioned, bonuses are paid quickly, an important aspect of the program. Incentive can be lacking when employees are working in Feb- ruary to achieve a one-percent bonus payable in December, according to Greenblatt.