The Same Page (or Maybe Not)
Basic and Advanced Training/Education
Barbara Kanegsberg
Invest some time in an in-house educational program
on industrial cleaning, critical cleaning, and contamination control. You
are likely to see an
immediate break-through; and you are virtually certain to see process
improvements.
Picture the following typical scenario. There we are, in the manufacturing
facility of a private client, standing in front of a sea of bright, shining
faces delivering an education or training seminar. Clients have multiple
reasons for asking us to conduct such programs. There may be a general
desire for education and training. There may be a new product; and
the client wants
to rapidly evaluate and select industrial or critical cleaning processes.
There are a host of other reasons to do training and educations: the clients’ desire
to update cleaning protocols, to improve yields, to validate a cleaning
process, to troubleshoot, or to resolve regulatory problems. Someone comments “we
all use process A.” Inevitably, someone else breaks in to announce that
they use process B, followed by others who announce that they use or plan
to use processes C through N, where N can represent an unexpectedly
high number of processes and associated chemistries. This often happens
during
the basic, introductory part of the program. Because most people have not
had a course in cleaning and contamination control, knowledge has been
developed based on pragmatic experience. Therefore, we usually start with
the basics.
We have discussed analytical techniques with experienced analytical chemists
and found unexpected disparities in technique and approaches, even with
exacting specification requirements. This is not surprising; language
is open to interpretation;
and normative standards; are open to interpretation.
Even if we are involved in troubleshooting, failure analysis, or yield
improvement, I would say ESPECIALLY if we are helping a client to solve
a specific problem,
we suggest getting as many of the pertinent people as possible together
in one room for an educational program and brainstorming session. Covering
the
basic topics, even briefly, prompts your employees to step back and
think about exactly what they do as part of their job be it build,
inspection,
Q.C., purchasing, design, tests, safety – whatever.
Then, they begin to speak out. They talk to me, to Ed, to both of us,
to their bosses. We listen, facilitate. We may, in fact, serve as
referees; often we adapt the program on the spot. We begin to outline
the scope
of
the problem(s), the root causes. Most importantly, we help the client
develop answers.
Based on our experiences, we are convinced that in-house education
and training in critical cleaning and contamination control is
often the
most efficient,
effective route to higher profitability, higher quality, and a
more favorable competitive stance. Adding in-house education to the
activities
of trouble-shooting
teams can result in lightning-fast resolution of the problem. Given
complex manufacturing requirements, it is rare for all people to
be on the same
page; training and education serves to shine a light on those pages
and to harmonize
the differences; or at least use the creative dissonance effectively.
