Lenzing

What challenges did Lenzing face with documentation and training?

We are in the chemical industry, so there are a lot of regulations and requirements for safety training and ISO certifications. We needed to store and document all that information in an easy-to-find way. Also for the onboarding of employees.

Some of our departments had good quality Excel sheets, some bad, and in some departments, there was nothing at all.

What did Lenzing look for in new software?

When we started to look into software we made a list of requirements. We wanted to be able to input data from our HR system SAP SuccessFactors, and AG5 popped up.

SAP SuccessFactors is excellent for our office staff but not for our blue-collar production workers. Because the requirements and processes are different. For the white collar, we review their development once a year. Competencies like presentation skills don’t change super fast, and there are no legal or safety requirements in the office area.

But the requirements in the production areas are very different. For example, because safety training for a workstation will expire after a year and we need to make sure we stay within the time frame. In some departments, if you haven’t updated your safety trainings, sometimes your card to access the building will even be blocked.

Some of the blue-collar colleagues are supercritical. If you give them a tool that is hard to work with and is not well thought through until the end, they will never use it. So one of our top requirements for a new system was usability.

How many safety trainings are actually happening? How many should be happening? Are our people trained? Before AG5, it was hard to gather the data from different departments and sites.

How did AG5 make training easier and help with ISO certifications?

Creating a matrix in AG5 is easy and in training, our shift managers are able to add results super fast. Ten minutes into a training they already know all the basics, like adding the results of a safety training.

AG5 has made sure the essential parts for the daily work are user-friendly. Our people are able to do this without thinking or putting a lot of effort into it. And if they want to do something special like planning or look into expirations, the system also makes that pretty straightforward.

There were 2 big requirements from our production colleagues: the system needs to be user-friendly and we want to see all the data in one place without having to jump from system to system. In AG5 we now see all the information relevant for the training and development of our employees. We use eFront for e-learning to update safety training, and AG5 integrates this information into our skill matrix.

That’s important for ISO certification and audits, but also from a management point of view. They need insight: how many safety trainings are actually happening? How many should be happening? Are our people trained? Before AG5, it was hard to gather the data from different departments and sites.

How has AG5 affected employee development?

Our employees now see where they should develop, where they are standing, and what the requirements are the company is making for them. Our managers get the overview. Our top managers look at the skills dashboard: Where is my department standing? Are there any big issues? Is there anything we should focus on, to ensure that we are developing people also in the future?

We have always put a lot of time and effort into maintaining and improving our machines all the time. A lot of money is going to fixing parts of machines or building new machines. We didn’t do that so much with our blue-collar workers. But with AG5, we are able to help our workers to improve and develop their skills.