Understanding the Training Needs of the Plastics Industry

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Understanding the Training Needs of the Plastics
Industry

• Prepared By Colmar Brunton for Plastics New
  Zealand Annual Conference
• May 15th 2008

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What Will We Look At Today?

• Why do we need Research?
• Setting the scene
• Profile of New Zealand Plastics Companies
• Attitudes to Training and Education
• Training in the New Zealand Plastics Industry
• Future Training Needs of the New Zealand Plastics
  Industry
• Drawing it All Together

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Why Do We Need Research?
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Why Did We Conduct Research?
To gain a thorough understanding of the
perceptions, attitudes and beliefs of key
industry stakeholders with regard to education
and training, both now and into the future.
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How Did We Conduct the Research?
Qualitative Research 15 In-depth interviews
conducted among senior managers in the plastics
industry to explore key feelings and views of key
stakeholders. Interviews were conducted in
Auckland/ Hamilton/ Christchurch.
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Quantitative Research70 Online interviews among
businesses in the plastics industry to measure
strength of perceptions and attitudes.
Businesses across the country took part.
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Setting the Scene
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A Number Of Challenges
Environmentally unfriendly?
Global economy
High NZ Dollar
Time poverty
Kiwisaver increasing costs
High capital outlay
Sustaining manufacturing in NZ
Employees- Attraction / retention / shortages
- Skill development
Shrinking / competitive marketplace
Cost of labour - especially in a global market
Shareholder pressure for ROI
Relationship with union
Cost of raw materials
Clients/customers squeezing margins
Industry image factory based
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Focus on Employees

• Shortage of skilled staff
• Shortage of unskilled staff
• Increasingly selective over who is employed
• Need to train staff quickly and effectively
• Motivational issues with less skilled staff
• Need to train staff in company specific / unique
  processes
• Getting the right mix of skills/levels

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Profiling New Zealand Plastics Companies
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Business Process
First of all, which of the following
manufacturing processes is your business involved
in?
About half of the businesses we talked to were
primarily involved in Injection Moulding
Other processes Film converting, Masterbatch
manufacture or Recycling
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Number of Full Time Employees
How many full time equivalent staff does your
business currently employ?
Businesses of all sizes took part in the research
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Plastics New Zealand Member?
Three quarters of the sample are currently
members of Plastics New Zealand
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Location of Business
Upper North Island 57
Lower North Island 21
South Island 21
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Business Performance
And which one of the following statements best
describes your overall business performance over
the last year?
Generally there is a positive outlook among
plastics companies, with only 14 saying they
have been in decline in the last year.
55 are growing or stable
45 are declining or variable
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Business Turnover
To the best of your knowledge, what is the
annual turnover of your business?
38 have lower turnover
30 have medium turnover
27 have higher turnover
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Overall Performance of NZ Plastics Businesses
High Performance
Medium - high turnover and growing or stable
performance
Low turnover and growing or stable performance
21
35
Lower Turnover
Higher Turnover
Medium - high turnover and declining or variable
performance
Low turnover and declining or variable
performance
26
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Low Performance
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Attitudes To Education and Training
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Where Does Training Fit in the Business?
Ad-hoc and unplanned approach If time permits
May be driven bottom-up Weve been left to
our own devices so have been pretty much been
muddling along. When things get busy or
difficult, training is one of the first things to
go
Critical to the organisation Incorporated in
strategic goals Seek to maximise training
opportunities Typically formal structures in
place Driven top-down Its absolutely
critical, its always being discussed, reviewed,
measured. We are doing a lot of work internally
to apply, retain, develop and deliver knowledge
it is a real crusade for us.
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Where Does Training Fit in the Business?
On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means training
tends to be unplanned and ad-hoc and a 10 means
training is a formal part of the business culture
where does your business fit in terms of staff
training?
Training is a formal part of the business culture
Training tends to be ad-hoc and unplanned

Only a third (30) of plastics businesses say
training is a formal part of their business
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Where Does Training Fit in the Business?
Training is a formal part of the business culture
Training tends to be ad-hoc and unplanned
67 are had stable or growing business
performance in the last year
50 are had stable or growing business
performance in the last year
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What are the Benefits of Training?
Industry Upskills / grows the industry
Networking Industry standard criteria Access
to latest technology Future proofing
Organisation Helps retain skill within the
business - staff retention Ability to compete as
business gets more technical Exposure to new
thoughts / ideas / technologies / enthusiasm
Provides an indication of potential employees
ability/ limitations Networking opportunities
Better output / Quality control Increased
productivity Greater ROI (personnel)
Individual Career path Transportable
qualification Motivating Greater job
satisfaction Progression / advancement
remuneration
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What are the Benefits of Training?
For your business, what are the benefits of
sending staff on training courses?
The main benefits of training for businesses are
increasing skills and knowledge of staff as well
as the business.
Other Benefits Maintaining competitive
advantage, Succession planning and gaining
insight into latest philosophies.
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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What are the Barriers to Training?
What are the barriers or issues that stop you
from sending staff on training courses?
The barriers to training tend to be functional
barriers
Those who have unplanned or ad-hoc training are
more likely to say the cost of training or the
lack of value are barriers
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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What are the Most Important Topics for Training?
Please choose the four topics that you consider
to be the most important to your business
Plastics processing technology is seen as the
most important topic for training among NZ
plastics businesses.
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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How did the Training Perform?
MeanPerformance Score 7.6 6.7 6.6 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.
4 6.4 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.1 5.6 5.6 5.5
Please use a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 means the
training did not meet your business requirements
at all, and a 10 means it met all your business
requirements?
Base All Plastics manufacturers who have trained
staff
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Importance Vs. Performance of Training Topics
High Importance
Low Importance
High Performance
Low Performance
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Training in the New Zealand Plastics Industry
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Which Topics Currently Have Training Available?
Which of these topics currently have training
courses available in New Zealand?
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Which Topics Has Your Business Trained Staff On?
Below is a list of training topics relevant to
the plastics industry. Please indicate which of
these topics, if any, your staff have been
trained on
97
84
84
81
79
79
76
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Most Likely Topics To Train (Top 8)
Thinking now about how likely you are to train
staff on the following topics in the future. For
each topic below, please indicate how likely you
are to send any staff member on a course teaching
these topics.
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Most Likely Topics To Train (9 -15)
Thinking now about how likely you are to train
staff on the following topics in the future. For
each topic below, please indicate how likely you
are to send any staff member on a course teaching
these topics.
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Aware of DDSP?
Recently Plastics New Zealand has introduced the
Diploma of Design and Specifications of Plastics
course (DDSP). Before today, were you aware of
this qualification?
Just over half of plastics businesses are aware
of the DDSP qualification
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Importance of DDSP to Business
Using a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 in not at all
important and 10 is extremely important, how
important do you consider this qualification to
your business?
There is a range of attitudes towards the DDSP
qualification. 23 say it is important to their
business while 27 say it is not
MeanImportance Score 5.7
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Awareness Usage of PaMPITO Qualifications
Which of the following qualifications are you
aware of?
Which of the following qualifications have your
staff ever enrolled in?
Conversion
Awareness
Enrolled In
69 31 46 47 31 45 28 16 15 0 0
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Future Training Needs of the New Zealand Plastics
Industry
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Most Important Education issue for Future of the
NZ Plastics Industry
Now please think about the future of the
plastics industry in New Zealand - what do you
consider are the most important education and
training related issues that need to be
addressed?
Almost a quarter (23) of plastics businesses
consider plastics/polymer/processing/ materials
training the most important to the future of the
industry
Base All Plastics manufacturers (n70)
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Most Important Education issue for Future of the
NZ Plastics Industry - Verbatims
Plastics are an important element of the
products that we produce. The level of knowledge
and skill with this plastic medium enables us to
innovate and remain competitive.
Improved efficiency and building competitive
advantage i.e. automation to maintain
manufacturing in New Zealand.
Loss of skills in the industry due to declining
opportunity's and competition from imports. Our
training needs to be focused on looking outside
the square and challenging the boundaries of
plastic product design and manufacture.
I think getting young people more trained in the
recycling side of plastics as there are so few
people in New Zealand that have this knowledge.
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What Does The Ideal Training Provider Do?
Relationship based / consultant

• Engage with the business be an extension of
  us
• Partnership approach
• Know our business
• Key account approach (same rep) for those with
  multiple operations

Proactive Regular visits to uncover needs

• Anticipate needs
• Audits of specific training needs

Strategic Tactical Approaches

• Strategic
• Organisational / managerial level
• Succession planning
• Optimal balance / mix of skills
• Bastion of Best Practice
• Tactical
• Ongoing monitoring of trainees progress
• Identification of employees with ability
• Provide motivation/encouragement to staff
• Mentoring of trainees

Future focused

• Continuously looking at the industry and adapting

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Drawing it All Together
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Drawing it All Together

• Ongoing education and training is only one of
  many pressures on New Zealand plastics businesses
• However, as the squeeze on staff skills and
  shortages increases, training and retaining of
  current staff will become more important

• Currently, only 30 of plastics businesses have
  an integrated and formal approach to training
• While each business is unique and will need its
  own approach many are also unsure of the value of
  training currently available to them

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Drawing it All Together

• Plastics Processing Technology is currently seen
  as the most important training topic for plastics
  businesses
• However, the course does not currently seem to be
  meeting the expectations and needs of businesses

• More Plastics/process/polymer/materials knowledge
  is seen as the most important education and
  training related issue to the plastics industry
• Followed by training in competitive or lean
  manufacturing and recycling or environmental
  issues

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Any Questions?