MACHINERY
TOP TIPS FOR DELIVERING EFFECTIVE MACHINE TRAINING IN A COVID ERA
Alex Dalton and Warren Handley, director, and operator trainer at Daltons Wadkin
T
raining operates almost like a second business within Daltons Wadkin. We have three full-time trainers and were set to hire a fourth before COVID- 19 hit earlier this year. It had seen a great deal of growth - because it is a legal requirement - to the point that we were delivering machine and power tool training to businesses right across the UK and Ireland. Most manufacturing companies closed their doors in March and have only re-opened fairly recently. Procedures and risk assessments have been put in place, allowing firms to operate as close to normal as possible. That, however, has been a little tougher to achieve with on-site and external training.
Due to its very nature, training is hands-on and it’s hard to get away from that. We work with different machines, different tools, and different manufacturers; tailoring all the courses according to the needs of our customers and clients.
In a COVID-19 environment, however, with social distancing measures that are in place, there are challenging hurdles that businesses, like ours, need to get over to deliver training not only to the same high standard but safely, too. As with every aspect of our business, we carried out a rigorous risk assessment and produced suitable method statements that allowed us to carry out training, both on-site with customers or even right here at our own Nottingham-based workshop - depending on what was the safest approach. We’re starting to see the demand for the training rise again. But how can businesses like ours carry it out safely?
Warren Handley has 36 years of experience working and training in the woodworking industry and he has shared his insight into the best practice and
18 SEPTEMBER 2020 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
how manufacturers can deliver their expertise safely to its customers, clients, and colleagues.
DEAL WITH THE EARLY SENSE OF APPREHENSION HEAD ON
Training, before COVID-19, was fairly fast-paced and was immensely important to clients and customers.
No one job is the same. We could be spending several days with businesses training multiple colleagues across multiple machines, or working with a smaller company to train all its operators across a number of machines in one go.
Like many, however, I could only watch as my calendar got decimated. Everything that was booked was cancelled or put on hold, and shortly after that, I was put on furlough. Training dropped off the radar completely. None of us have experienced anything like this before and there’s still certainly a sense that we’re all treading water. In the beginning, when we were starting to phase training back into the business, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a feeling of apprehension about what delivering that training was going to be like and whether it could be realistically delivered safely. That apprehension, however, disappeared after we discussed the logistics of how it would work and since delivering the first course, it has become second nature.
ABOVE ALL ELSE, COMFORT IS KEY The most important factor is comfort - on both sides of the coin. You can’t
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