New skills in process manufacturing

This study of the changing nature of work in the process manufacturing industry was undertaken with the close co-operation of Manufacturing Learning Australia, the national industry training advisory body (ITAB) which covers industries in the Australian and New Zealand standard industry classification (ANZSIC) subdivisions 25, Petroleum, coal, chemical and associated product manufacturing, and 26, Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing. The main purpose of the study is to examine how the nature of work has changed in these industries, how these changes have affected operative-level workers and how the vocational education and training (VET) system has and should respond to these changes.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 1998), these industries were among the most technologically innovative in their survey of technological change in the period 1994-97. While the survey did not focus on the issue of skills related to these technological changes, it did find that, for those programs of technological innovation that were abandoned, more than a third of these failures were attributable to a lack of suitably skilled workers.

This report examines the changing political philosophies and especially the enterprise-based industrial relations system that has enabled much of the job redesign examined in the study to occur. It also considers some of the recent social theory on the nature of work that might have influenced the way changes have been implemented.

Methodology

Structured interviews were conducted with training or human resource managers in 16 of the 17 firms invited by Manufacturing Learning Australia to participate in the study. A total of 17 workers selected from these firms were also interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The firms represented a cross-section of large, medium and small enterprises across four States, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Findings

The study found that 12 of the 16 firms had introduced major workplace changes within the last five years. The most common motivation for these changes was an increasingly competitive business environment. In most firms these workplace changes involved some form of multiskilling of operative-level workers, greater levels of responsibility and decision-making, and mastering of additional skills. Having greater responsibility and undertaking increased decision-making were roles acquired by many workers as a result of the elimination of supervisory positions and, in some instances, the change to a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week roster.

While the level of innovation in job design was substantial, it was noteworthy that the firms studied did not display other characteristics of the changing labour market. In particular, most employment was male, full-time and permanent, mirroring the traditional manufacturing model. Outsourcing of some functions had however occurred, particularly in the maintenance area. Contract and part-time work was rare, and very few females were in the operative jobs most affected by the job redesigns. Although the ABS (1998) study found that technological innovations led to employment increases in about half of the firms introducing new technologies, the findings from the sample of firms in this study found an overall reduction of about 1500 positions within the last five years.

The job changes, especially multiskilling, had increased the requirement for underpinning knowledge in most of the firms visited. Operators were generally responsible for a wider range of functions and, as noted, often did not have immediate access to a line supervisor. As a result, in many instances they were required to solve operational problems and to anticipate difficulties. These changes meant that many operators were required to have a much greater level of understanding of the broad processes they were controlling. Rather than simply knowing that pushing a particular button achieved a particular outcome, they now needed to understand both why this outcome occurred and how that process related to the broader production process. In some sectors this change implied that workers needed a better fundamental understanding of the chemistry and physics of the processes they were controlling.

Another important change to many operators' jobs was the elimination of line supervisors and, in some cases, their replacement by work teams. Where work teams had been established, workers and managers generally believed that additional skills in communication, team working and, in some cases, conflict resolution were needed. Many operators had undertaken further training associated with their job redesign, especially through one of the training packages relevant to the industry. Most employers and workers made favourable comments on the relevance of the training packages and had found them sufficiently flexible to accommodate the needs of specific enterprises.

The wide range of types of production encompassed within process manufacturing means that generalisations about the implications for the training system are hazardous. The oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and plastic moulders, along with four other firms that fit into none of these categories, exhibited to some extent, the job redesign features described in this report. It was however, also apparent that the changes in the plastics area had been generally less dramatic than in the other areas.

There are clearly some consistent developments in the firms that have implemented job redesign. Most operator jobs have become more multiskilled and a range of common underpinning and soft skills has emerged as being more important.

New skill requirements

It seems therefore, that training programs for operator-level jobs in this sector should address both these emerging soft skill demands and underpinning skills in the basic sciences of physics and chemistry. Specific soft skills would include:

• the development of enhanced oral and written communication skills
• team working and conflict resolution skills
• skills in adjusting to workplace change
• problem-solving skills

These skills, combined with the basic underpinning knowledge of physics and chemistry, are industry- rather than enterprise-specific skills. While the preferred mode of delivery has been on the job, it seems likely that there will be growing demand for these skills to be regarded as entry-level skills for operators. Given that the current workforce in these industries is ageing, it also seems likely that there will be a wave of new demand for operators in process manufacturing over the next five to ten years.

One question raised by this study is whether training provision in the process manufacturing sector should continue to be dominated by on-the-job, enterprise-focussed national certificates delivered mainly under the new apprenticeships program. One alternative would be the provision of more broadly based courses, providing greater labour mobility, made available through public provision to those not already employed in the industry.