A skill matrix template for foundries and casting units (free download)

Who can judge sand at the muller when the night crew comes on? In most foundries the owner names the same old sand man, hesitates, and names him again. That hesitation is the reason for a skill matrix. It lays every person against every casting task and records, by letter, what a senior has seen each one do with real metal and real moulds.

This version suits melting bays, green sand and pit moulding, core shops, die and wax rooms, knockout, the fettling shed and the inspection bench. Copy the lines below into any spreadsheet; nothing else is needed. Delete the columns your process never uses, then add whatever your floor has that this list lacks.

Row details: name, staff number, section, usual shift, date joined, grade, own staff or contractor's.
Hot-metal gate: date of the molten metal safety induction and who gave it.
Melting columns: charge make-up, induction furnace running, tapping, spectro sampling and correction, ladle inoculation or magnesium treatment.
Pouring columns: hand ladle pouring, crane ladle pouring, crane signals and slinging.
Moulding columns: small boxes by hand, large floor or pit moulds, moulding line operation, core setting and chaplets.
Core and sand columns: CO2 cores, shell cores, muller operation, sand testing for moisture and compactability.
Die and wax columns, where used: die mounting, first-off approval, wax injection, tree assembly, slurry dipping.
Cleaning columns: knockout, gas cutting of risers, arc air gouging, grinding, shot blasting.
Checking columns: visual inspection, dye penetrant, hardness testing, dimensional check against the drawing.
Level A: watches; keeps hands off metal, moulds and controls.
Level B: assists while a senior stands beside; never starts or halts the task unaided.
Level C: handles routine work unaided and halts whenever metal, sand or a mould looks odd.
Level D: handles every job unaided, the awkward castings included, and catches faults before they spread.
Level E: teaches the task and may sign others off at A to D.
Each cell: the letter, then initials of whoever signed, then the date.
Column foot: how many people stand at C or higher, written per shift.
Colour amber any column where one shift relies on just one person at C or higher, and red where it has none.
Final column: target letter, task and month for that person's next step.

• Pressure or gravity die casting: add die preheat and coating, shot or tilt settings, trim press tool change and leak testing.
• Investment casting: split wax work into injection, pattern repair and tree welding; split the shell room into primary dip, backup coats and dewax.
• Steel castings: add repair welding with preheat, heat treatment furnace loading and radiography film handling.
• Casting plus machining: add the first two or three machining operations, so cross-trained hands show up on the sheet.

1. 1

   Name tasks, ignore job titles

   Payroll may call two men furnace hands while one can tap and correct a heat and the other only charges. Task columns make that difference visible.

2. 2

   Fill the draft with two seniors talking

   Bring the senior melter and the senior moulder together and go through the muster roll. Each tempers the other's kindness to old mates and severity towards new boys.

3. 3

   Treat round one as pencil

   Over the following month a letter holds only after a signer has stood by during actual production. Someone claiming D on pit moulding who has never rammed a big box under watch remains at C.

4. 4

   Look up every hot-metal induction date

   Anyone without one stays at B on all melting and pouring columns until the induction is given and written in.

5. 5

   Total each column per shift, then colour

   Amber and red columns form the risk list. Expect the muller, spectro correction and the biggest moulds to light up on at least one shift.

• Shift in-charge: writes a new letter the same day a signer approves it, and pins the printed sheet beside the attendance board.
• Senior melter, senior moulder or quality lead: initials a letter only after watching. Self-signing is barred.
• HR or the accounts clerk who keeps personnel files: each month adds rows for joiners, strikes out leavers with their last day, and checks that contractor hands are listed.
• Owner: looks only at amber and red columns during the monthly people review, and asks whose training will turn each one white.

Every quarter, carry the printout onto the floor and pick five cells at random. Ask each person to show the task. Sheets rebuilt from recollection before an audit go stale fast, and nobody on the shop floor trusts a stale one.

Workers ignore a chart that never changes what they take home. Next to the sheet, print the grade step earned by reaching D on the key columns, even a small one. Pay a teaching allowance to an E who brings a learner up to C. Each target then needs a dated training route, which a foundry training plan that survives busy months lays out. We design grids like this, linked to grades, through our skills and talent mapping service. The steel casting skills mapping notes apply the idea to heavy pours.

• Grouping by section instead of task, so nobody can tell who pours the large boxes.
• Dropping contractor fettlers and casual knockout labour, which flatters night cover.
• Letting a senior initial a friend's letter without watching.
• Waiving the hot-metal gate for anyone who has worked in another foundry.
• Dusting the sheet off before a buyer's audit and filing it away again afterwards.

A floor-neutral version of the method is in building a skill matrix for any shop floor. Hot-work strain, the low standing of the cleaning end and melt-led rosters each get their own section on the foundry people practices hub.