Investment in training, new facilities and equipment has paid off for Wilson Transformer Company, which has increased its market share, boosted productivity and quadrupled its production capacity in less than seven years.
Through long-term partnerships with several registered training organisations (RTOs), the Wodonga-based manufacturer of power and distribution transformers has enhanced the skills and flexibility of its workforce, and expanded its market share from 25 to 45 per cent.
Training Coordinator Julie Campbell said the company started to focus on training back in 2004 when it engaged private RTO Educational Living to conduct a skills audit of its workforce and align knowledge gaps with competency-based training.
“As a regional manufacturing business with staff working three shifts over 24 hours, one of the things we were looking for was high quality training that could be delivered onsite outside normal working hours.”
Melbourne-based Educational Living developed a tailored solution for the company, where the majority of training is now delivered onsite by three locally-based trainer/assessors across three shifts.
Staff are upskilling in qualifications including Mechanical Fitting, Fabrication and Electrical apprenticeships and the Certificate III in Engineering – Mechanical Trade (Production). Since 2006, 160 staff have completed Certificate III, IV or Diploma-level training.
Wilson Transformer Company also has successful ongoing partnerships with Wodonga & Riverina TAFE and the National Industrial Skills Training Centre for onsite delivery of Certificate III in Warehousing and Distribution.
Recently the company invested more than $15 million in new facilities, including a dedicated training centre, where more than 80{87a03eb4327cd2ba79570dbcca4066c6d479b8f7279bafdb318e7183d82771cf} of staff are involved in formal training at any given time. “Our employees now work across a number of areas and disciplines, which is a huge benefit in terms of production flexibility and keeping labour costs down,” Ms Campbell said.
Along with improvements to factory layout and associated training, she said the company had seen a significant return on its investment, with a high employee retention rate, increased productivity and reductions in rework and waste.
“We’ve actually reduced our manufacturing cycle from 14 days to less than 2 days, while also increasing safety awareness and reducing our WorkCover premiums by 37 per cent since 2004.”
Director of Educational Living, Edward Stone said, “Wilson Transformer Company is a model for other businesses on how training can be used to help achieve production targets as well as support employees. The by-product is an enhanced regional workforce that is able to work in national and international markets.”
For more information about the training, click here or contact Suzanne Wells on (03) 9938 0165 or at [email protected]
