A skill matrix template for agricultural equipment makers (free download)

Ask a works manager who can bring the drip lateral line up from cold, and he answers instantly. Ask who can cover that on the night shift during Diwali leave, and he goes quiet. The matrix answers the second question. Here is a grid to rule into a spreadsheet or onto a sheet of chart paper this afternoon. Copy it, then cut it down to your own bays.

Part A, People: token number, name, bay, shift and grade. Then date of joining and mother tongue. Then on our rolls or contractor-supplied, with the contractor named. Last, returns each season, yes or no.
Part B, Grid: names down the left, critical stations across the top. In each box put the dots, the date, plus initials from the senior who watched.
Dots: one dot, has been shown. Two dots, does it with a senior watching. Three dots, does it alone on any shift. A ring round the dots, can teach it.
Forge and implement bays might list: plate shearing, power press blanking, drop hammer, quench tank, tempering furnace, edge grinding, frame welding, powder coat booth.
Pump bays might list: shaft turning, impeller balancing, stator winding by frame, varnish dip and oven, test bay head and current, final inspection.
Irrigation bays might list: lateral extruder start-up, die change, emitter inserter, dripper moulding, coiler, flow and leak test.
Attachment and harvester bays might list: overhead and vertical welding, jig setting, PTO shaft fit, hitch pin check, test pit run, harness and sensor wiring.
Part C, Gap sheet: station by station and shift by shift, count names with three dots or a ring. A cross where the count is one or nil. A circle where it is two. Blank where three or more.
Beside each cross: the learner chosen, the senior teaching him, and the week he should reach three dots.
Bottom line: date the gap sheet was last read, and the plant head's initials.

Those station lists are prompts, not a standard. Strike out bays your works lacks. A sprayer maker may add boom nozzle calibration. A dairy and flour mill equipment maker will split stainless TIG seams from seam polishing.

Most jobs do not. Yard sweeping, loading the tempo and carrying scrap stay off the grid. Test each candidate station like this. Picture a shift with nobody capable at it. Would trucks wait at the gate? Would a cracked tine or a weak pump go out to a dealer? If either answer is yes, give it a column. A typical works lands somewhere between ten and twenty.

Three dots is the mark that lets a man work unwatched, so write its meaning before dotting anyone. Each definition should be something a mistri can see during one shift.

• Quench tank: loads to the lot plan, judges heat and soak, avoids warped shares, and every sampled tine passes the file check.
• Lateral extruder start-up: takes the line from cold to steady wall and bore inside the scrap allowance your shop already uses, and writes the readings in the log.
• Stator winding, one frame: winds, inserts and laces to the sheet, clears the growler and megger checks, and has no burnt sets traced back to him this season.
• Overhead and vertical welding: finishes a trial joint in both positions on your own plate, which is then cut open and inspected.
• Test pit run: runs the rotavator or loader on the pit, checks bolt torque and hitch fit, and signs the unit sheet.

1. 1

   Mistri, every Saturday

   Suggests dot changes from what he saw during the week, and knocks a dot off anyone who has not touched that station for months.

2. 2

   Senior hand, at the moment of sign-off

   Watches the learner through a full job and initials the third dot or the ring. Nobody initials his own box.

3. 3

   Office clerk, Monday morning

   Types in the changes, recounts the gap sheet and pins a fresh print outside the production cabin.

4. 4

   Plant head, first week of the month

   Goes through every cross with the mistris, agrees learners and target weeks, and reads it once more a month before the season opens.

If the dots never change anyone's pay, the sheet is dead by the next season. Tie grades to them. One shape is helper, then operator with three dots on two stations, then senior with a ring on one. Pin the ladder beside the grid. Workers then ask to be tested, and that keeps the dots fresh. The harvester makers' cross-training page applies this to harness electricians. For quench know-how, see the forge shop training page.

• Dotted once from memory, laminated and forgotten.
• Three dots handed to nearly everyone so the gap sheet stays blank.
• Season hands and contractor workers left off, though they run paint and packing.
• People initialling their own boxes.
• The gap sheet first read on the morning after a resignation.

First week, settle the columns with the production head. Second week, write what three dots means at each. Third week, sit with each mistri and dot honestly. Fourth week, read the gap sheet together and choose a learner for every cross. Where a single person holds a skill, our post on keeping a lone winder's or die setter's craft goes further. The HR page for farm equipment works places the grid beside season hiring and pay.