Culture Club
Quick Start helps Micro Craft’s international teams come together
Almost every day brings a new change to the Quitman, Ga., employees of Micro Craft, a company that produces automotive components such as electronic window controls and cruise control modules. There are new charts at every workstation and the production floor is being revamped.
New ownership of a company nearly always means new ideas and new challenges for jobholders. When a small, family-owned American business is purchased by an international corporation with different business practices and traditions, the ensuing changes can sometimes seem overwhelming.
In one small South Georgia town, that transition is being eased with the help of Quick Start training.
Almost a decade ago, Quick Start, along with Valdosta Technical College, formed a relationship with Micro Craft’s facility in Quitman. Recently, the Michigan-based company was purchased by the Niles USA Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. About 300 new positions are expected to be added over the next two years.
With so many changes afoot, company officials turned to their time-tested relationship with Quick Start.
“We knew how great Quick Start was — that you can’t beat the training,” says Megan Smith, Human Resources Development manager for Micro Craft. “The classes are at such a high professional level and so informative, the training has been very effective.”
“They like our training,” says Bob Lytle, Quick Start training coordinator for the partnership. “It has helped them improve their production levels.”
In addition to the training for new employees, Niles USA has turned to Quick Start for help in the area of cross-cultural understanding.
In classes like “Working with the Japanese for U.S. Americans” and its counterpart, “Working with U.S. Americans for Japanese,” students learn about the customs and practices of their current and future co-workers while getting a review of economic and cultural ties between the countries, and learning communication skills that will help them on and off the job.
In addition to cultural differences, many business practices that are common in Japan were new to Quitman. From introducing the ILU skills matrices, to lean manufacturing, a practice aimed increasing efficiency, Quick Start is helping Micro Craft adapt to its new needs. Among other training, Quick Start is developing a one-hour training course on implementing the ILU philosophy.
In addition to the ILU course, in just over a year, Quick Start has taught over 30 different training courses to 165 Micro Craft employees. The wide variety of training offered in this partnership has been one of its strengths, according to Marla Lowe, Quick Start’s executive director of economic development programs. “Quick Start’s role in providing not only job-specific training but also training that helps employees develop skills to facilitate the merging of the two cultures has been an important aspect of the Micro Craft project.”
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