Homegrown training program pays off.

Software publishing might seem like a far cry from injection molding. Yet these two pursuits became closely related at Dimension Molding Inc., soon after OSHA came knocking on the door three years ago. "They came in telling us what a bad shop we had," recalls Michael DeGrenier, a partner in this custom molder and toolmaker in Addison, Ill.

Though OSHA's safety audit ultimately vindicated Dimension of any wrongdoing, the encounter With the "feds" spurred the company to step up its safety training efforts. So Dimension hired a full-time trainer and began to develop its own computer-based training programs. "We started from the premise that safety is learnable," says DeGrenier.

He explains that Dimensions initial training efforts focused on a neglected segment of the molding workforce: basic machine operators in need of common-sense instruction. "You don't want to take someone who's flipping burgers one week and put them the next week on a $150,000 press with an $80,000 tool and tell them, 'Don't break it,'" he says.

Do it yourself

DeGrenier and his partners at Dimension, Mike Stiglianese and Byron Rossin, decided to create their own software after they surveyed the commercial training marketplace and came up empty. At prices as high as $40,000, some of the commercial training programs were too expensive for a 65-person molding shop, DeGrenier says. What's more, he felt that most of the commercial software was directed at more advanced workers. "Those programs are great for $25/hr-and-up people," says DeGrenier. "But I don't necessarily want my operators to have too much technical knowledge, because that's not what they're paid for. They're paid to stack parts, trim gates, and be the first line of inspection," he says.

Not finding what he wanted, DeGrenier concluded, "If you don't do it yourself, no one else will." So Dimension wrote its own PC-based software, which creates an interactive learning environment from text, still images, and animation. DeGrenier chose computer-based training because he worried about the effectiveness of classroom and video instruction in terms of cost and knowledge retention. "Put people in a classroom, or start a video, and they are looking out the window five minutes later," he says.

The results of the new training program were immediate and impressive. Workman's Compensation claims went from $86,000 down to $22,000 in the first year the software was in use, according to DeGrenier. And the plant ran as long as 526 days with no lost work time due to injuries.

In the same boat

In 1997, Dimension took things a step further and started a new business, Desktop Dimensions Interactive, to market its software to other molders. DeGrenier figured that if he could not find what he needed to train his workers, other small molders would probably be in the same boat. So why not market his creation? The company's safety program thus was reborn as the "On Site Safety Assistant." And software teaching the basics of machine operation became "Injection Molding Operator."

DeGrenier stresses that both these products deliver training content in a format and price that are accessible to molders of all sizes, "not just the Fortune 100." The software comes on a CD-ROM, runs on an ordinary PC, and costs a few hundred dollars.

Following its initial success, Dimension has moved to fill other training voids. The company launched a suite of safety and training programs for electroplating, an it fleshed out its Injection Molding Operator series with three new programs that go into greater detail.