A skill matrix template for forging and metal forming units (free download)

Ask a forge owner who can manipulate on the big hammer when the regular man is off, and watch the pause. He knows the answer is one person, maybe two. He also knows that the heat treatment night shift rests on a single hand who reads the tempering chart. None of this is written anywhere, so none of it gets planned.

The grid below puts that knowledge on one sheet. Nothing needs downloading beyond these lines. Paste them into any spreadsheet with people down the side and stations across the top, or print the sheet at A3 for the roster board. It covers hot and precision forging, cold heading, deep drawing and roll forming, so delete what you do not run.

SHEET HEADER: unit, section, shift, month reviewed, reviewed by.
CODE 0: not cleared; may not operate or assist at this station.
CODE 1: may work, but only with his named minder at his elbow.
CODE 2: runs alone on repeat parts and known dies.
CODE 3: sets up, proves the first-off, handles changeovers and odd material.
CODE 4: trains others and may sign clearances up to code 3.
ROW DETAILS: name, employee number, grade, usual shift, date joined, own staff or contractor's worker.
SAFETY GATE: hot work, hearing protection and press guarding induction dates, with the trainer's name.
BAR AND BILLET: cropping shear, billet sawing, bar end checks.
HEATING: pusher or slot furnace firing, induction heater feed, banking and relighting, pyrometer reading.
HAMMER OR PRESS CREW, per machine: heater, operator, manipulator on tongs, helper.
DIES: lifting and racking, preheat, seating and keying, graphite spray, die card entries.
AFTER FORGING: trimming press, piercing, coining, hot or cold sizing.
HEAT TREATMENT: normalising, hardening and quench, tempering, hardness testing.
FINISHING AND CHECKS: shot blasting, fettling, crack detection, gauging, lot card filling.
COLD HEADING, if run: wire coil loading, header setting, thread rolling, sorting.
DEEP DRAWING, if run: blank shearing, draw press, redraw, annealing between draws, trimming.
ROLL FORMING, if run: decoiler and coil changes, roll set change, punching, flying shear, stacking.
EACH CELL: code, date cleared, assessor's initials.
COVER ROW, under each machine and crew role: headcount holding code 2, 3 or 4, shift by shift.
RED CELL: a crew role or station where a shift has under two such people.
LAST COLUMN: the next station this person is learning, with a month to aim for.

A hammer is not one skill. The heater judges when a billet has soaked. The operator controls the blow. The manipulator turns the hot bar on the tongs between blows, and a helper clears scale and moves forgings to the trimming press. Lose any one of them and the crew slows until a replacement fits the rhythm. Giving each role its own column under each hammer shows you which crews can absorb an absence and which cannot.

For roll lines and draw presses the same thinking applies to the setter. A line with five capable operators and one roll setter is a one-person line on changeover day.

1. 1

   On joining day

   The shift in-charge adds a row. Every cell starts at code 0, experienced hires included, until they are seen working on your parts.

2. 2

   When a clearance is signed

   An assessor holding code 4 observes live production, then pencils in the code, date and initials. Recollection does not count as evidence.

3. 3

   Every Monday

   The in-charge reads the cover rows against the week's roster and shuffles names so every red cell has cover before the first billet is heated.

4. 4

   Once a month

   Plant head and HR walk through each red cell and the last column together, agree trainees and months, and note which clearances lapsed.

5. 5

   Each quarter

   Choose a few cells blind and have each person demonstrate. A code not exercised for months drops a step until rechecked.

6. 6

   On leaving

   Strike the row through rather than deleting it, so the cover count falls the same day and the gap is visible.

Once the codes are trusted, connect them to grades. A helper who reaches code 2 as manipulator on two hammers should see that reflected in his grade. A code 4 heater who clears a junior can earn a teaching allowance. Publish those links beside the grid. Give the assessors a quarter to calibrate against each other before any pay moves on a code.

Forged parts suppliers to vehicle makers face customer audits that ask who is trained on which station. A current grid with dates and initials answers that better than a file assembled the week before. The trained-person list gets fuller treatment on the forged automotive parts competency page. Planning transfers by crew role is shown in the hot forging crew record.

• Listing people by section, so nobody can see who manipulates on which hammer.
• Contractor helpers left off, so night cover reads stronger than the floor really is.
• Clearances signed in the canteen by an assessor who never saw the work.
• Filling it once before an audit and never again.
• Pay tied to codes before the assessors have agreed what each code means.

The general method behind any grid is in our step-by-step skill matrix guide. Turning red cells into trained setters is covered in how to build setters from within. Crew dependence and die care sit with other recurring issues on the forging people hub. To have a grid and grade scale drawn up for your floor, start a requirements note.