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Dow is the world’s second largest science and technology company with annual sales of $30 billion, customers in more than 170 countries and a range of markets. Dow trains employees, contractors and customers on a wide variety of topics ranging from manufacturing processes and regulatory compliance to policies and procedures for internal systems and product training for the entire supply channel. After a lengthy qualification process, Pinneast was chosen as a preferred vendor for its ability to execute and deliver Best Value custom e-Learning solutions. Pinneast worked with Dow to create the infrastructure and operating discipline for managing the enterprise-wide implementation of Learn@Dow and the translation of courseware into more than a dozen languages. In addition to creating hundreds of hours of custom courseware using Dow’s selected content management system, Pinneast was awarded the outsource contract to manage many of the administrative components of the Learn@Dow system, thereby relieving Dow HR of the day-to-day technical responsibilities.
Results exceeded all expectations. In the calendar year ending 2001, employees at Dow completed over 315,000 courses or roughly 7,000 course completions per week. This represents a doubling of usage of the platform from 2000 to 2001. According to an independent by its accounting firm, Dow achieved savings of over $45 million in 2002 alone. This number was e4xceed in 2003. Learn@Dow, partnered with Pinneast, has delivered the highest ROI of any information technology initiative in Dow’s history and was recognized the CTO Magazine as the top enterprise initiative in the U.S.
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Pinneast’s content development for Michelin Tire, North America is a study in identifying developing a training solution to address corporate performance. The specific problem they faced had multiple dimensions—an aging workforce, unavailability of training materials, or even operators’ manuals diagrams or CAD drawings of the M88R tire assembly equipment; and reliance on “shadowing” and on-the-job training that was causing both higher costs and defect rates. Pinneast suggested a three-step approach. The desired outcome was to be a “tell, show, do” approach to helping employees become proficient in their job before stepping on the shop floor. A value-added outcome was to be the documentation of task steps and standards to standardize performance and reduce defects.
The first step of the process was to analyze and document performance steps and standards. This involved working with client industrial engineers, shop floor employees, and in-house trainers to capture procedures and safety requirements. Videotaping of the entire process was closely supervised.
The second step was to produce detailed design documents that outlined of how to correctly assemble a tire using the M88R machine. The third step was to convert the outline into storyboards that organized the performance steps into course lessons representing the stages of production. The next
step was to develop 3-dimensional Flash animations that allowed learners to interact with a “model” of the machinery. And then finally, the last step was to assemble the text, video, and Flash animations into an e-Learning program of approximately 1? hours in length.
The final course provided learners with an overview of tire assembly using the M88R machine (tell); allowed them to see the individual steps, performance standards and safety (show); then let them practice by interacting with the Flash object (do). Learners were allowed multiple opportunities, allowed to ask for “help,” and then graded on performance. The result is a solution that has both reduced actual training costs and increased plant productivity.
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Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. is the largest food retailer with 1,188 stores in 14 southwestern and southeastern states and in the Bahama Islands. The company operates a chain of retail self-service food stores, which sell groceries, meats, seafood, fresh produce, deli/bakery, pharmaceuticals and general merchandise items. It also operates a network of distribution centers, processing and manufacturing plants and a fleet of trucks, providing a comprehensive support system.
Winn-Dixie’s Human Resources Team was faced with the task of putting together a first class training university to roll out to its retail associates encompassing a blended solution of e-Learning and Instructor Led Training delivered by a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Learning Content Management System (LCMS). Winn-Dixie partnered with Pinneast to provide expertise in the selection of their LMS/LCMS moving forward. After a thorough reference affirmation, Winn-Dixie chose Pinneast to assist with the purchase and implementation of their system. Pinneast followed a deliberate methodology to document the infrastructure, content, and services requirements, prepare documentation and make a vendor selection that enabled Winn-Dixie to acquire an LMS that met their unique requirements.
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Delta Airlines needed to ensure aircraft ground crews were properly trained in the procedures for fueling the different aircraft in its fleet. It was important that the training include specific instruction on using proper procedures for load balancing and using the complex panels that controlled fueling for each of 10 aircraft. Because the planes were from multiple manufacturers including Boeing, McDonald Douglass and Lockheed Martin, and were of varying ages, the procedures and panels, as well as safety procedures were slightly different for each one. Pinneast worked with Delta subject matter experts to create a 6-hour highly interactive program that replicated each control panel and allowed learners to interact virtually with the various control panels, perform exercises that required them to choose the proper settings and be scored on the results. The resulting program built in AuthorWare is used at numerous locations and has helped Delta meet the stringent FAA requirements for ensuring proper aircraft ground procedures and training.
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Rational Software is a technology company with many complex products and services. In order to better equip their sales force and channel partners for positioning and selling Rational products, the company launched an aggressive e-learning initiative using Docent’s Enterprise learning management system. With overburdened internal resources and limited expertise on the Docent e-learning platform, Rational needed to outsource the heavy lifting for program development, hosting, implementation and support.
Pinneast was engaged to provide an end-to-end service model which included a customized look and feel and batch registration of all Rational users. Pinneast also provided a hosted environment that included separate LMS and Content Delivery System installations to maximize performance. The database selected by Rational for the installation was Oracle 8i, which necessitated additional server configuration. Rational also wanted to employ a blended learning solution involving both self-paced and live e-learning. To meet this need Pinneast integrated Docent Enterprise and Centra Software’s Symposium virtual classroom application. With the Centra server located outside Boston, MA and the LMS server hosted in Columbia, SC, both machines needed to be configured to allow access to one another. This was accomplished as a joint effort between Rational's IT department and Pinneast.
Rational’s e-learning system exceeded all operational requirements and met all system performance expectations. Pinneast continued to support Rational as they increased utilization and functionality. The bottom line is that Pinneast enabled Rational to go from a “dead start” to a fully functioning enterprise-level Learning Management System in only 3 months. |
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