At C&R Manufacturing Inc. (Shawnee, Kansas) President Ron Wosel says he can't put a price tag on training.

"I just know it costs enough that I don't want anyone to leave", he says. Machinists undergo at least five years of in-house training to run highly sophisticated equipment, he says.

The company does custom precision computer numerical control (CNC) machining and robotic welding.

Wosel describes how the company has achieved a near-zero turnover rate among 11 shop employees. In 10 years the company has lost only two shop people. His strategies:

1. Upgrade the job. "We make the jobs higher quality than you'd find at other machine shops", he says. "With automated equipment, we don't have the dirt and grease associated with machine shops. And we don't make people a slave to a tool. There's no future in that. We move them around. As we add customer contracts, people can move up to a job that needs higher expertise but less work."
2. Provide opportunities to advance. He believes in hiring entry-level people out of high school or trade school and giving them a future. "We're very careful about who we hire", he says. "A lot are referrals. I'll ask our employees if they know someone with good mechanical and math skills, the kind of person who likes to work on cars or lawn mowers." Workers start at the low end of the job scale, driving a truck, sawing, and doing other low-level jobs. Then they move up the scale, learning how to run CNC parts, how to measure, how to correct the machine if the measurement isn't right, and finally how to program machines to make the parts. "That takes about five years", says Wosel.
3. Delegate control. The company's management style is to enable each worker to be his own boss. In spite of the pressures of just-in-time delivery and zero-defects quality expectations, Wosel says once employees receive their work schedules, it's up to them to determine how to carry them out. "No one is breathing down their necks, checking everything they do",he says. "We have a working supervisor who can be called away from his machine whenever someone needs help. Otherwise they're on their own"
4. Pay well and provide incentives. Wosel says most of the company's shop people earn about 30 percent more than they would in another machine shop. Starting pay is $7.00 to $7.50. "A number of people earn more than $40,000 a year."
5. Higher productivity is one reason for the higher pay. "We average $200,000 annual output per employee, whereas the industry average is $100,000", Wosel says. We'll probably hit $300,000 within the next three to five years." He explains that output measurements are a standard set by the National Tooling and Machinists Association and take into account all of a company's employees, not just machinists. He attributes the higher output to automation and to daily and monthly incentive programs that motivate workers to find ways to boost output. "The monthly bonus has to do with profits and efficiency", he says. "It's shared by all employees."
6. Offer exceptional benefits. Wosel says the company has generous benefits and retirement programs. Incentives include all-expenses-paid group vacations, held every two to three years. The most recent trip was to Maui. This is in addition to the employees' regular vacations."

Connection: Ron Wosel, President

C&R Manufacturing Inc.

6790 Martindale,

Shawnee, KS

66218;Phone: (913) 441 - 4120

Fax: (913) 441-0330.

1: Reprinted with permission, Cost Control Strategies, Siefer Consultants, 525 Cayuga Street, Storm Lake, Iowa, 50588, 1-172-732-7340, siefer@ncn.net