PMMI announces Technical Training Community of Practice

The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), the global packaging industry resource and trade association, has announced the PMMI Technical Training Community of Practice. The Community of Practice is an open forum for end-users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to address common challenges in operator training in order to develop best practices and clearly define expectations. The Community of Practice will provide input to the PMMI Certified Trainer program.

The Community of Practice will hold quarterly meetings and will be hosted by participating end users.  On February 13, 2007, the kick-off COP meeting was hosted by Kroger Foods in Cincinnati, Ohio, and featured participants from PIAB, Mettler-Toledo Safeline, Omega Design Corporation, Pactiv Corporation, Anheuser-Busch, Kraft Foods, Rockwell Automation, Goodman Packaging, and PMMI. Kroger Company gave a presentation about their inroads in e-learning and discussed ways in which training has helped to streamline their operations.

The next Community of Practice meeting will take place in St. Louis on June 13, 2007 and will be hosted by Anheuser-Busch.

‘The Community of Practice was created by PMMI to bring together packaging machinery manufacturers and end-users to openly discuss training needs and expectations from both parties,’ said Greg Brown of the Kroger Company. ‘The collaborative environment will help to establish best practices for training that create time, production, and economic efficiencies for brand owners and packaging machinery manufacturers.’ 

The Community of Practice is part of PMMI’s Certified Trainer program, which was created to enhance the equipment training throughout the packaging industry. The program is designed to provide trainers in the packaging field the skills needed to provide quality instruction to improve equipment reliability and efficiency. Participants in the program learn proven teaching techniques geared toward helping trainees adapt to new technologies, improve throughput, increase efficiency and ultimately increase profits.

‘Both OEM’s and end-users face similar challenges. High turnover rates, round-the-clock manufacturing schedules, multiple shift changes and increasingly complicated technology are part of the business environment,’ explained Maria Ferrante, director of workforce development for PMMI. ‘The PMMI Certified Trainer program helps end users by reducing downtime and total cost of ownership, while increasing overall productivity.’

PMMI created the Community of Practice to raise the bar for technical training and to set the industry standard for training.  In addition to quarterly meetings, the group can communicate through a virtual posting board and file exchange program where they can post questions and discussion points on training issues that may arise between meetings. The online forum can be accessed through www.pmmi.org/certified.