Increased sophistication of products is driving demand for training; so is the need for channel and sales partners to be in very close relationship with vendors.
At ABB Low Voltage Drives, for example, demand is growing, and attendees are asking for in-plant training. The ability of drives to provide end users ever more precise, sophisticated control of their motors also is fueling a corollary -- growing demand for the training needed to install, start up, and operate the equipment these motors control. Training is particularly helpful in illustrating the full array of features and capabilities built into each generation of drive products.
Here is a profile of how training is handled at the ABB facility.
Why Training at Headquarters?
Managers and operators of plants and facilities, along with service personnel, have more choices than ever before of how to receive training, including:
- web-based models
- computer-based training that utilizes CD packages
- remote training via videoconferencing
- regional-site or in-factory training.
"At this juncture beyond 9/11, we are seeing these end users feel safer about flying -- and they are signing up for in-factory training that lasts up to three days," said Dave Polka, a training manager for ABB Low Voltage Drives (LVD) and Controls. Such training affords attendees a host of benefits, he noted, including these 10:
1. Captive Attention: Away from their own offices, students are able to focus on the training programs, services, and demos that are at their disposal, when traveling to a vendor site; it's a "very focused timeout," notes Polka, "and that frees students to learn a lot; being freed from distractions and interruptions maximizes the experience."
2. Funded Support: Market Development Funds (MDF) are offered from LVD, in support of channel personnel who want to use their dollars to help defray travel and hotel expenses. All tuition fees and meals while in training are paid for by ABB.
3. Dedicated Facilities, Equipment: Particularly at headquarters, training facilities are dedicated to exactly that. The array of equipment, training tables, presentation equipment, demos, and serial communications networks is wide and deep; that provides students immediate access to a lot of variety of drive models and configurations, as they move from curriculum to hands-on training.
4. Subject Matter Experts: Training classes pull in subject matter experts from other areas of LVD, such as those from application engineering and serial communications.
5. Access to Personnel: In addition to the training staff, students are able to visit contacts, experts, and engineers throughout LVD, when they are on break, after classes end, and during social hospitality sessions. This is a unique opportunity to talk with factory personnel across the organization -- from technical support to the general manager.
6. Dyne and Testing Equipment: Beyond the drives and demos used for hands-on training, students visiting headquarters also see the dynamometer, lab, and testing equipment used for competitive evaluations of other drives in the market. Information from these evaluations is also available to students during training.
7. Full-plant Tours: Production cells, lines, concepts, and product finishing are ever changing in the factory. Students have the unique opportunity to see up close HOW the drives that they install, start up, and service every day are made and tailored for customers.
"The factory has been literally reinvented over the last 18 months," said Polka, "so students are surprised and very curious to see everything when we conduct tours as a complement to the classes."
8. Update Certification: Beyond completing basic training curriculum, students also have a chance to stay an extra half day and update their certification for drives startup. This benefits both students and drive purchasers. Students and the businesses they work for can charge for drives startups, and drives users who purchase their services receive a year's extension on the drive's warranty.
9. Technical Sales Assistance: Beyond just training, students receive sales training; this includes watching a mock sales call, and presentations on how to grow your business, and how to expand a market or market segment.
10. Add-on Training Courses: Web-Based Training (WBT) curriculum for ABB Low Voltage Drives distributors is showcased, too, for extended training beyond the classroom. Via a single click online from wherever users are, these courses on drive basics and drive products can be accessed and completed.
"Every course is built to respect that users may be very sophisticated in what they know about drives, or a user might just be sitting down to learn for the first time," said Randy Stevens, the E-learning specialist at ABB LVD who developed the initial coursework.