1. Innovation in Operator Training Macquarie Textiles Established 1869 Training Design Wodonga TAFE …… of course

2. Macquarie Textiles Group  Woollen Mill – Adelaide Hills – 1869  Chinese Joint Ventures 1985  8 entities amalgamated on one site – Albury 1996  40,000 m2 under roof 1996  Non woven plant commissioned 2003  Australia’s largest vertical wool textile mill  Accredited to ISO 9001 - 2000

3. Product Diversity  Knitting yarn  Weaving yarn  Blanket fabric  Apparel fabric  Furnishing fabric  Non woven fabric

4. Process Diversity  Woollen carding  Woollen spinning  Woollen winding and twisting  Worsted combing and drawing  Worsted spinning  Worsted winding and twisting  Sectional warping  Sample warping

5. Process Diversity cont  Drawing in  Weaving – Jacquard  Weaving – Rapier  Mending  Top Dying  Yarn Dying  Piece Dying  Wet finishing processes  Dry finishing processes  QC testing

6. Labour  182 people directly in manufacturing  Average 12 years service  Workforce characteristics  good hard workers  predominantly female  often not the primary wage earner  more interested in security than advancements  not usually higher socio economic status  often less educated and articulate than in service industries  Aptitude tends to be practical rather than theoretical

7. Current Training System  Based on ALMITAB TCF Package – Cert I – IV  All training is formalized, documented and contained within our QMS  3 main training documents on the QMS  operating instructions – evolving documents  Audit, RATS, NCR, PAR  competency criteria – from ALMITAB package, and Competency Assessor Forms

8. Problems with current training system  Instructions vary in history, format and detail  Machine/production focused  Promote department barriers

9. Aims for the new project  Integration of safety, management, environment and quality into operational training  Reduce reliance on external bodies  Common instructions and assessment throughout the mill  Simplify cross training

10. Aims for the new project cont  Culture change  build bridges between departments  Minimise impact on production  Self paced, in-house  Ownership of training is with operators and supervisors  Provide greater and consistent underpinning knowledge  Induction Training Manual

11. Wodonga Tafe – Macquarie Textiles Product Development  Templates for the development of Training Manuals  Workplace Assessor – CD ROM  Freddie Fibre Training Software

12. Training Manual Template  Contains  Standard Operating Procedures – includes sections on general safety, house keeping, personal protective equipment  Training and Assessment Program – includes sections on training and assessment procedures and a workplace competency matrix  Competencies – includes sections on assessment and training conditions

13. Training Manual Template  The template enables employees to develop training manuals aligning training and assessment to the TCF Training Package  The template is transferable to all areas within the textile industry and can be utilised by other industries  The manual then becomes a single document for the operators/technicians and includes all functions

14. Workplace Assessor  The program provides assessors with the skills to assess the competence of textile manufacturing workers against the standards in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Training Package

15. Workplace Assessor cont  The Workplace Assessor CD ROM provides  flexible portable training  is self paced, easy navigable and in plain English  enables the learner to use the CD as a reference during and after the learning process  can be reused by multiple learners  tracks learner progress

16. Freddie Fibre  Focus  What happens to a fibre at each production stage  How operator actions influence downstream processes

17. Freddie Fibre  Freddie Fibre is an  Interactive  Animated  3 dimensional multi media product  Designed specifically for Macquarie Textiles and the industry to support learning at Certificate II in Textiles Production

18. Freddie Fibre  Features  Supports Certificate II in Textile Production  Training and Induction Resource  Expands operator knowledge of the entire process  The five detailed areas are marked against Certificate II competencies

19. Freddie Fibre  Potential opportunities  Customisable  Concept adaptable to other textile sectors  Can support organisational change This file is an IFC edited version of the presentation made by Macquarie Textiles and Wodonga TAFE at the Education & Training Seminar in May 2004 to enable file upload to the IFC web site