Computers can be fickle creatures. The notion, that they only do what you tell them to do, can sometime be difficult to grasp - especially when you didn't just tell your desktop to crash, but it does anyhow.

If computers are tricky, then browsers are trickier. It's like adding another layer to you existing four layer dip. Sure, what dip couldn't use a fifth layer?! But, if you don't do it correctly, your new topping may accidentally taint your bottom layer - long before the chips ever arrive.

Web browsers have lots of settings and lots of security controls. Depending on where you're accessing from (work, home, school, etc), the network administrator may have even tighter control over the browser settings. This means, you may or may not have the access required to fully manage the browser you're using.

Let's add another layer to that dip. Java versus JavaScript. Java requires a plug-in for your browser. JavaScript is built in to all newer browsers. Periodically, Java puts out new updates. Users are often automatically prompted to then download the update. JavaScript updates are part of the overall browser updates and generally go unnoticed by users - they just see a new browser version.

What does all of this has to do with eLMS and/or custom learning content? SCORM!!!

To run SCORM properly, you will need to install some API files on your content server. These API files are available from KMi in both Java and JavaScript.

It turns out the last Java update, 6.22, does not play friendly with SCORM. Thusly, we had a handful of content providers, whose SCORM content worked for users who had Java 6.21; but not with Java 6.22. Of course the end users have no idea how to resolve or even determine this. They simply follow their automatic prompts.

Fortunately, the folks here at KMi where able to quickly step up and replace (for free) the Java SCORM API that many of third party content providers had opted for, with the JavaScript SCORM API.

This means, it doesn't matter what version of Java any individual end user has. As long as their browser is not older than 5 years, JavaScript will work. More importantly, this means fewer tech support calls to the third party content providers.

If you have Java problems with your eLearning, come talk to KMi - we can help simplify.

Most people would agree that custom eLearning can provide a successful vehicle for training most of your supply chain. It is only recently, however, that many of our clients have embraced custom eLearning for their warehouse staff.  And, it has proved to be highly successful! Historically, online training for warehouse staff has been considered too intrusive to the daily routine of the staff members or computer access has been inconvenient. At KMi, we have seen a reversal on this perspective as companies realize making computers accessible and providing online training time for employees has resulted in better trained and better functioning staff.

Developing customized eLearning content for your warehouse teams results in:

• Just-in-time and on-demand training access. This allows your staff to participate in training exactly when it relates to their job need resulting in a higher level of learning as they apply the knowledge more immediately.
• Custom eLearning can be developed and deployed quickly as learning gaps are identified or new skills are required. This means that your training program is dynamic and speaks to the real needs of a work environment. It eliminates the training delay common with most other learning programs.
• Customized content speaks to their actual job function.  When you provide custom eLearning content curricula, you are presenting the content that relates to the staffs’ actual jobs, functions, and skills. There is no extraneous content to cloud and confuse the learning. It saves time and makes the learning more valuable to both the employee and the company.
• Increases skill level of the warehouse staff and improves productivity of the warehouse. As your staff understands that the training is truly valuable to their job success, they embrace the opportunity to participate. And, because the training is available continuously, it can serve as a refresher and knowledge bank, adding ongoing value.

In addition, the training can be tracked and reports generated through our SCORM conformant LMS, eLMS. This can assist you in understanding where your learning gaps are, how your learning programs effect your warehouse function and provide other metrics for evaluating your learning curriculum.

If you would like to learn more about how KMI can help develop your warehouse staff, please contact Margie Herron  at mherron@kmionline.com .

So last week, we presented the challenges  that faced one of our clients, a manufacturer and distributor of health care supplies and services. This week we will share the solution and resulting impact.  Remember, the challenges were identified as :

• Keeping workers safe.
• Training with greater efficiency.
• Boosting training effectiveness.
• Tracking and documenting training.

THE SOLUTION

• Adapt eLMS online training. In 2007 this company formed a partnership with Kibler & Associates  and KMi Inc. to adopt KMi’s eLMS online learning management system. The initial task was to move training and record-keeping to an online portal. At inception, it was accessible to two thousand employees in forty locations. Integration with the existing HR database ensures the user list is always up-to-date.
• Develop effective online content. The first courses were safety tutorials and refreshers for warehouse activities. These have been strengthened by dozens of custom courses covering all aspects of warehouse knowledge: from Forklift Safety, to Hazmat training, to Units & Measures.
• Devise custom tracking and notifications. The standard eLMS reporting tools have been extended in two directions. First, custom reports and metrics have been added that highlight training metrics and compliance reports that are mission-critical to this company. Second, custom notification tools do things like: email the admins in a warehouse when an employee fails a course twice in a row.
• Expand the tool-set. The classic LMS functions of online coursework have been strengthened with new tools. For example, employees can be tested to ensure they understand handbooks and safety documents, and a wage calculator helps employees measure earning potential in various internal career paths.

IMPACT

In its first two years of operation, the online Training Academy for this company has become a central part of the company’s training programs. As of February 2010, more than 2,700 employees have completed nearly 17,000 courses. In every quarter new online training has been added to a growing part of the company’s operations.

So far, the impact has been outstanding.

Safety

• Accidents on the job were reduced by 55% in 2009. And this was done with only a limited release of online training to thirty warehouses. More safety courses may reduce injuries even further.

Efficiency

• This company  retains their best workers. Those who left the company during the period had an online course failure rate more than 50% higher than those who stayed.
• Workers are learning their jobs faster. Managers in the field have reported a savings of two to five days in getting new employees up to speed.

Effectiveness

• Every worker is being trained according to enterprise-standard procedures instead of learning processes peculiar to a single facility or trainer.
• With testing uniform across the company and mandatory passing scores, this company can be certain all workers have understood the training.

Compliance

• In response to a pair of major accidents in 2009 the firm was able to immediately show that OSHA’s training expectations had nevertheless been met.
• A wrongful termination suit was easily countered by using eLMS training records to show the employee took thirty-four attempts to pass three courses. A well-documented training history was a valuable part of the defense against this EEOC claim.

CONCLUSION

This experiment with online training on the eLMS platform has been closely watched by this company. After two years of success, they’ve resolved to take it further and make it grow. More than a dozen new courses are planned for the next two quarters covering a broader array of topics: from lifting and bending safety to SAP tutorials. Employees are safer and better-prepared to do their jobs. Managers have reported increased productivity, and can bring training to their people 24/7. And these same managers can track training progress and verify compliance at the touch of a key.

This move towards effective online training emphasizes how this company continues to lead their market, and is better-prepared for the challenges ahead.

Can you imagine what applying these solutions might do for your company? KMi will work with you to understand your specific challenges and objectives, your audience, and the success metrics you wish to track and document. Please contact Margie Herron at mherron@kmionline.com for a free assessment of your needs and solution development plan.

Last week we discussed some of the reasons that a robust custom online training curriculum can enhance the success of your supply chain. This week we will look at a specific business case study to understand the challenges that such a program needs to address.

Client: One of America’s largest manufacturers and distributors of health care supplies and services

Company Profile: This company ships more than 100,000 products to health care facilities around the world. With nearly 7,000 employees spread over dozens of locations, they have a long-standing investment in employee training. One of their core values is to “create an atmosphere of growth and opportunity where all employees can reach their potential,” and they have sought innovative solutions to ensure their workforce skills are constantly improving. With employee training, they have a strong need to obtain the best results in the most cost effective way. 

Company Challenges:

• Keep workers safe. The most valuable outcome of effective training is to prevent injuries in the workplace. The question for this company is: how can training be improved to reduce risk?
• Train with greater efficiency. In lean economic times, there is pressure to reduce HR and training resources. Investment in training has to have the greatest possible result for dollar spent.
• Boost training effectiveness. Offline training puts a room of learners in front of one instructor. This training is difficult to offer to everybody, especially for firms with dispersed facilities and 24/7 operation. By its nature, face-to-face training makes it difficult to ensure every worker has the proper job skills and knowledge.
• Track and document training. Training across many facilities creates a formidable bookkeeping problem. Records have to track the initial and ongoing training of every employee. And good training records are mandatory for those daunting realities of business life: regulatory compliance and liability claims.

Sound familiar? At KMi we have discovered that most of our clients who have large, complex supply chains and warehousing and distribution facilities to support their business, encounter these same challenges. Next week, we will share the solution that KMi developed to successfully overcome each of the challenges using our outstanding custom (client-specific) content development team with our robust SCORM conformant LMS platform, eLMS.  If you are facing these challenges and would like to learn more about the KMi solution, please contact Margie Herron at mherron@kmionline.com.

Why should better training practices, including eLearning, be important to your company?  To be part of the leaner and more efficient supply chain of the future, companies must transform their investment in worker training – new technologies create new opportunities. Over the next few blogs, we will discuss just how  using innovative, client-specific eLearning can impact training and business outcomes.

Training and compliance within the supply chain has in the past been hampered by several formidable obstacles to efficiency. Here are some of the obstacles that must be overcome:

• New hires should learn all of the company policies, procedures, and best practices before they ever set foot into the facility. And they will be proficient in their jobs in nearly half the time it would take an experienced person to train them.

• Uneven training has to stop: all should receive the same training, free of biases or ambiguity, regardless of their supervisor’s interpretation of the content.

• The best employees must not be pulled from productive work to explain the basics to new hires.

A robust online training curriculum supported by a SCORM compliant LMS ( such as KMi's eLMS) creates an environment that addresses each of these concerns.

The Deep Filing Cabinet
Nobody will miss the filing cabinet when it’s gone. When reports are needed on training, or when compliance and liability information must be produced, a company cannot continue to have an army of filing cabinet experts poring over stacks of folders. It’s inefficient, time-consuming, and error-prone. With training managed online, a few mouse clicks will generate up-to-date training histories, test results and compliance reports. And, unlike a filing cabinet, this solution scales upward to bigger companies, more complex supply chains, and more difficult tasks.

• A well-designed online training solution can be the key factor in meeting these goals: initial training can be done before a new hire begins work, the same training and practices will be shared by all, and new hires can be brought into operations without interrupting work or dragging the more productive people down.

In summary, training in the supply chain of the future should come at a lower cost than before, and should be far more effective at creating a consistently well-prepared workforce.

With an online training solution, developed with your own subject matter experts, with your own specific content, geared to your variety of audiences, you will achieve your learning goals while reducing training costs, increasing productivity, lowering risk and growing internal compliance and  job skills.

In future blogs, we will share exactly the impact this approach has had on one of our medical products manufactuirng and distribution clients. The overwhlelming and quantifiable success of their Supply Chain curriculum has been felt from the warehouse, through order fulfillment, to customer service, all the way to the customer. 

Meanwhile if you would like more information on how KMi can help you achieve the same success with your supply chain, distributuion and warehouse enterprises, please contact Margie Herron at mherron@kmionline.com.