We are going thru and in the process of setting up for ISO certification soon. I have always worked for larger companies, and am now working for a company with less than 10 employees. It is a tool and die shop enviroment and am struggling on an easy, but yet effective way to do compentence assessments.

In the past when I worked with larger they made the system for doing this way to complacated.

How is everyone else going about this?

We are going thru and in the process of setting up for ISO certification soon. I have always worked for larger companies, and am now working for a company with less than 10 employees. It is a tool and die shop enviroment and am struggling on an easy, but yet effective way to do compentence assessments.

In the past when I worked with larger they made the system for doing this way to complicated.

How is everyone else going about this?

Hello jlhutt,

In a small shop, it can be done in a very simple manner.

The Supervisor assesses/evaluates each employee compared to what the employee is expected to do and is able to accomplish relative to his or her job. That's called competence. The supervisor prepares a simple report that could be even in a narrative form and files this away as a record. Voila! Done. In a small shop, one needs to be very careful not to make the processes too complex. Simple does not mean less effective.

Good luck!

Stijloor.

While competency evaluations are one means within a small shop, I know that the availability of resources to do this may be difficult to obtain. It may be helpful to try the following when it comes to evaluations:

Develop a schedule for when Assessments are to be conducted (i.e., who is being assessed and when and who is doing the assessing)
Assess only those tasks that are critical to the final product.
Include safety and environmental awareness in the evaluation process.
Use this as a communication tool. This is where a correction to how the job is being conducted can occur. However, this assessment is also the opportunity for internal benchmarking - if the assessee has a better way of performing the task, ensure that it is properly communicated to the appropriate people.


There are other ways of evaluating competency....nonconfomances, audit findings, and customer complaints. Keep in mind, however, that using this is more reactive in comparison to an assessment's proactive approach.

To use nonconformances, etc., this is where data analysis is used. At a defined interval (defined by your organization), you may review these items and look for trends. Perhaps all customer complaints have been attributed to products made by a particular crew. Maybe all audit findings have been in one area of the manufacturing process. This analysis may indicate a gap in the area of competency, however, root cause analysis would require you to determine why there is this issue.

Being an ex-Tool Maker, I can tell you what I'd set up, (based on Roxanne's suggestions about the schedule etc.)

Create a checklist of the criteria that each position should possess.

Blueprint reading, GD & T interpretation, set up and operation of lathes, mills, grinders (wheel balancing etc) and so on. Operation and care of measuring equipment (I'm guessing they go out for calibration). Maintenance of any equipment and tooling used, if they have responsibility

You can add in responsibilities and authorities for situations like when they find non-conforming products, unidentified material etc.

How's that for starters? I'm guessing others will chime in, but that's a basic set.

We are going thru and in the process of setting up for ISO certification soon.

Hi there, our situation is similar, I am in the small workshop too. I suggest that you keep a record of working experience of your colleagues and any certificates (if any) as a start. I am not sure for your company; in our company, most of my colleagues in workshop did not graduate from technical institutions, they learnt through years of working experience and they are able to produce parts within tight tolerance. I would say that they are competent enough.


There are other ways of evaluating competency....nonconfomances, audit findings, and customer complaints. Keep in mind, however, that using this is more reactive in comparison to an assessment's proactive approach.


I agree with this, as the recordings for nonconformances, audit findings and customer complaints being made with implementation of ISO; we will know in details of how competent a person is and any trainings should be prepared for him/her.

Hopefully it helps! :)