The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), has created the PMMI Technical Training Community of Practice (COP). The Community of Practice is an open forum offering end users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) the ability to address common challenges to develop best practices and clearly define expectations.
“The Community of Practice was created by PMMI to bring together packaging machinery manufacturers and end users to openly discuss training needs and expectations from both parties,” says Greg Brown of the Kroger Company. “The collaborative environment will help to establish best practices for training that create time, production and economic efficiencies for brand owners and packaging machinery manufacturers.”
The Community of Practice will hold quarterly meetings, hosted by participating end users. The initial COP meeting was held on February 13, 2007, hosted by Kroger Foods in Cincinnati, Ohio. Participants included representatives from but not exclusively PIAB, Mettler-Toledo Safeline, Omega Design Corporation, Kraft Foods and Rockwell Automation. Kroger Company presented their inroads in e-learning and discussed ways in which training has helped to streamline their operations.
The next COP meeting will be hosted by Anheuser-Busch, on June 13, 2007 in St. Louis.
It is part of PMMI’s Certified Trainer program, and was initially created to enhance the equipment training throughout the packaging industry. The program is designed to provide trainers the skills needed to provide quality instruction to improve equipment reliability and efficiency in the packaging field. Proven teaching techniques geared to help new trainees adapt to mew technologies, improve throughput, increase efficiency and ultimately increase profits.
“Both OEM’s and end users face similar challenges. High turnover rates, round-the-clock manufacturing schedules, multiple shift changes and increasingly complicated technology are part of the business environment,” explains Maria Ferrante, director of workforce development for PMMI. “The PMMI Certified Trainer program helps end users by reducing downtime and total cost of ownership, while increasing overall productivity.”
Raising the bar for technical training and setting an industry training standard are goals on PMMI’s Community of Practice. In addition to quarterly meetings, the group can communicate through a virtual posting board and file exchange program where they can post questions and discussion points on training issues that may arise between meetings. The online forum can be accessed through www.pmmi.org/certified.
For more information concerning the Community of Practice and PMMI, visit PMMI Online
SOURCE Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI)
Nicole Camiola
New Equipment Digest
Online Content Editor