Job shop personnel want specific education

A job shop is a company that sells its technical ability, labor and equipment usage on a contract basis. It may have a product or a product line but each product is made per customer order. Job shop personnel have specific educational needs, and the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) has designed a series of courses for them.

CIRAS, part of Iowa State University Extension, offers the job shop management series to managers and employees. The series covers ISO 9000 quality assurance, strategic planning, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance, finances, cost accounting, quoting, and managing human resources, purchasing and constraints to the business. The series was developed with input from several job shop managers and owners and the CIRAS advisory council.

Margaret Wilson, president of Paragon International and past president of the CIRAS advisory council, leads a council discussion on the development of the CIRAS job shop management series at the ISU Industry Outreach Center in Cedar Falls, where the series was first presented.

"All the courses in the series are available as individual courses also -- scheduled by field staff based on need," according to Mike Willet, CIRAS senior project manager.

Job shops emphasize selling what they can do, rather than selling a particular product. As much as possible, the classes are taught in terms of jobs or orders instead of products or product lines.

"A high percentage of the owners and managers of these job shops see the value in education if it is geared to a specific problem they are experiencing," Willett said.

Ron Luders, production supervisor at Wayne Engineering, Cedar Falls, took the OSHA compliance course. "We updated our safety manual after the class. We didn't have a lot to change," he said, but he was able to clarify language and individual responsibilities. "It's best to keep up rather than get behind," he added.

Jeanne Bird, senior accountant with GMT Corp., Waverly, took the cost accounting and quoting course along with a divisional manager and a production scheduler from the company. The greatest benefit from the course was the opportunity for them to learn together how costing works, she said. They went back to GMT Corp. with a common language. The course "gave us a lot of good ideas," she said.

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