Lead and train a team of Skip Tracers

This book is a continuation of my Dissertation for my Doctoral degree. Training and Performance Improvement in a Lean Manufacturing Environment

Developing a training curriculum for Clark Pacific employees. My goal is to design and build a "Clark Pacific University" where all CP employees will be able to significantly advanced their abilities and careers through a structured training process.Achievements • Analyzed training needs for yard personnel, engineering, and leadership positions. Built a comprehensive training plan for every job title in the company.• Hired 3 employees to staff the training department. Trained the staff to coordinate, develop, and deliver training courses.• Rolled out a Structured Train-The-Trainer program that enhances lean manufacturing methodology. This program is credited in reducing the time for on-boarding yard personnel from 3 weeks to 1 week. • Developed and delivered core leadership and advanced leadership courses. These courses were developed in-house and addressed company specific methods and issues. These courses are credited in substantially reducing turn-over rate of newly hired personnel. • Built a training department page on the company intranet. This page allows employees to review and register for upcoming training courses. Newly developed training records are now accessed through the company intranet.• Trained subordinates to build computer based training for general studies and hazardous processes. These courses are very well received and are credited with reducing training time by over 50%. • Submitted the newly established training department for state funding and was awarded a two year grant of $277,344.00.• Developed and implemented a change management strategy that allowed long term employees to understand and accept new ideas like using training to upgrade performance.

Plant trainer for Apple manufacturer. Taught processes and procedures for diagnosing and repairing Apple iPhones.Achievements • Organized and updated training aids for all 30 work stations. Redesigned training aids to be user friendly for new workers. • Redesigned SOPs so they were more job specific and congruent with overall training plan.• Trained over 90 new and re-hired employees on 30 iPhone repair stations.

As Academic Dean/Director of Education I am responsible for managing the Education Department including:• Implement educational programs appropriate to the mission of the institution and maintain educational standards, which will ensure that the needs of the institution and its constituents are met by the delivery of sound educational programs. • Provide for the successful delivery of the course content of every program in the school to students in compliance with accrediting agencies, corporate policies and state/provincial regulations and maintain sufficient academic supplies and facility space. • Recruitment, selection, orientation, supervision, development and evaluation of faculty and the Education Department staff. • Maintain an acceptable retention rate of students in accordance with institution, accreditation, and company guidelines through the implementation of Inspire guidelines. • Evaluate and resolve student inquiries, issues, and problems through appropriate action and to the satisfaction of the student, company and/or regulatory agencies in compliance with policy, procedure and legal requirements. • Maintain departmental compliance in all regulatory matters.

As the Training and Performance Improvement Manager, my goals are to implement a blended learning strategy to our manufacturing plants along with a TWI methodology.Achievements: • Analyzed new sales team training needs; replaced job shadowing with blended learning strategy consisting of 10 web based modules followed by 8 hour lecture / discussion; training program reduced on-boarding of new sales personnel from 30 days to 2 weeks. • Implemented ‘Training Within Industries’ train the trainer strategy credited with 40% cost savings in training downtime during introduction of new processes, trained 1200 assemblers; TWI strategy adopted at all UniSolar plants. • Secured $300K+ in state and federal grants for needed production training to meet upcoming manufacturing changes, ensuring company remained competitive. • Designed and developed training curriculum and work station standard operating procedures measuring 900 tasks for continuous improvement; project credited with plant achieving constant 95% quality score. • Developed and taught lean manufacturing courses including standard work, continuous improvement, level work load, visual control, value stream mapping and plant scorecards, taught to all 2,000 employees allowing organization to meet quality and quantity goals.

My title at Raytheon was Training and Development Manager however I also fulfilled the roles of Curriculum Manager, Project Manager, and Lead SME. I began most assignments by traveling to the client’s business and performing a needs or gap analysis. The results of the analysis were documented, converted to goals and objectives, and a project plan was developed. During the development phase I took the role of lead developer and often performed the project management responsibilities. Courseware development was usually internally developed but frequently externally developed.Additionally, I was responsible for the development and maintenance of the Master Technician Certification program for a major manufacturer's technicians. This program consisted of performance and knowledge based assessments as well as a curriculum of training interventions to include Web Based Training (WBT), Interactive Distance Learning (IDL), and a Hands-On component to assess performance based objectives.My proudest accomplishment with RPS was the successful development and application of a project training plan for a newly built vehicle manufacturing plant. The goal of this project was to train 2300 assembly line and skilled trades’ personnel in less than 14 months. The successful delivery of this training was credited as key to the triumphant launch of the new product.

While assigned to Chrysler’s Advanced Technical Training group, I was responsible for conducting yearly needs analysis for new technologies introduced on the upcoming products. This needs analysis was conducted with the plant line workers, engineering groups, and associated vendors. The analysis resulted in creating learning objectives which was then used to guide the development of training materials.One of the high points in my work at ATT was becoming an MQAS internal quality system auditor. In this capacity I evaluated departmental processes and practices against ISO 9001 quality systems standards. This experience allowed me the opportunity to view the organization’s processes in a unique way by examining diagonal slices of the processes at given milestones. This exclusive experience provided a deeper understanding of training development processes and how parallel processes affect their performance.

During my 15 years in the U.S. Air Force I spent 12 years as a heavy equipment technician specializing in the repair of flightline and structual firetrucks. After volunteering for instructor duty, I spent 3 years assigned to the U.S. Air Force's Heavy Equipment Maintenance Technical School where I taught the repair and diagnostic procedures for heavy equipment vehicles. I was offered, and accepted early retirement during my 15th year.