A skill matrix template for packaging manufacturers (free download)

Every packaging plant has a few names that stop the floor when they are absent. The printer who keeps a metallised laminate on shade. The setter who knows the autoplaten make-ready for a tricky windowed carton. The extruder hand who can bring a bubble back after a colour change. A skill matrix writes those names down, so a gap shows up before a leave application does.

Below is the layout, free to copy into any spreadsheet. Each line is a tab or a group of columns, so the sheet can be built in an afternoon. Keep only the machines your plant actually runs.

Tab 1, People: employee code | name | crew | shift | grade | joining date | languages spoken | own payroll or contractor (with the contractor's name).
Tab 2, Positions: one column for every machine or station that can hold up an order.
Print columns: rotogravure | CI flexo | sheet-fed offset | narrow web UV flexo | ink kitchen shade matching | cylinder or plate mounting.
Convert columns: solventless laminator | slitter-rewinder | autoplaten die cutter | folder-gluer | window patcher | pouch and bag maker | paper cup former.
Form columns: corrugator wet end | corrugator dry end | injection mould change | stretch blow | thermoformer and trim press | blown film restart.
Finish and yard columns: rewind inspection table | hand pasting | sack stitching | palletiser and shrink hood | forklift | truck loading.
Level key: 0 untrained. 1 learning, only beside a cleared trainer. 2 runs with a senior within call. 3 runs alone for a whole shift, make-ready included. 4 runs alone and is cleared to teach.
Tab 3, Cover check: for each machine and shift, count heads at level 3 or 4. One head is red. Two heads, with one on leave that month, is amber.
Tab 4, Sign-off log: date | person | machine | old level | new level | assessor | order number watched | what was seen.
Footer: last read by the production head on ____ . Next cover check due ____ .

A matrix is worthless the day a supervisor hands a friend a 3. The cure is one line describing level 3 for each column, written by the most experienced hand on that machine. It must be something an assessor can watch on a live order.

• Slitter-rewinder: sets razor or shear knives to a fresh slit plan, threads the web, sets tension and swaps cores without help.
• Paper cup former: loads sidewall blanks and bottom reel, sets heaters, knurling and rim curl, and clears a jam without damaging the turret.
• Injection mould change: swaps the tool with the hoist, connects water lines, purges and holds first-off parts within weight.
• Corrugator wet end: prepares a reel, makes a clean splice at speed and rethreads after a web break safely.
• Ink kitchen: builds a customer shade from the recipe card, corrects it on a drawdown and gets it signed.
• Sack stitching: sets thread tension and stitch length on the bag closer, folds the mouth evenly and keeps pace with the loom output.

1. 1

   Shift in-charge nominates

   Only after watching someone run the next level on a few orders. A nomination with no orders behind it goes back.

2. 2

   Senior hand assesses

   The assessor is the most experienced person on that machine, not the candidate's own supervisor. The order number goes in the log.

3. 3

   Production head countersigns

   That second name keeps levels from creeping upward and holds one standard across day and night.

4. 4

   HR updates the master

   Tab 2 changes, Tab 4 gains a line, and the printed floor copy is swapped the same week.

5. 5

   Joiners and leavers in the same week

   A new helper appears at level 0 on day one. A leaver's row is greyed out on the last day, and the cover check runs again.

6. 6

   Monthly cover check, quarterly walk

   Read Tab 3 in the first working week. Each quarter, walk every row with the shift heads and set it beside grades and pay.

Red cells are why the sheet exists. A red cell is a machine that halts on that shift if one person falls ill, takes leave or resigns. Give each red cell a learner's name and a month. Book the learning in slack weeks, never in the run-up to Diwali when every senior hand is tied to a machine.

Amber cells call for a glance at the leave calendar. Weddings, harvest leave and long trips home bunch into certain months. A cell that looks fine in February may be red by November.

A matrix that never moves anyone's grade turns into a chore. Publish which levels, on which machines, lead to each grade from helper to assistant to operator to lead hand. Then price every grade against nearby plants with compensation benchmarking. Writing the grades is role design work, and the matrix is the evidence behind each step.

• Levels awarded for years served instead of tasks watched.
• A sheet filled in once, for an audit, then abandoned.
• The only copy on an HR laptop that no shift head ever opens.
• Contract and casual hands missing, though they run the bag makers and pasting tables.
• Dozens of columns for machines that never hold up an order.
• No sign-off log, so nobody can say how or when a level was earned.

Begin with machines that can stop a customer order, not the whole floor. Fill Tab 2 with the shift heads in one sitting, then test each level 3 against its written line over the following month. Building a skill matrix on any shop floor goes through a first build in more detail. Small label crews can see the back-up planning that follows on competency planning for label units. Crews, peaks and helper ladders across the group are covered under packaging plant HR. If you would like the sheet built and tied to your grades, send your requirements.