Situation
This semiconductor OEM is the global leader in providing manufacturing solutions for the semiconductor, flat panel display, and solar photovoltaic industries. Their technologies help to make innovations like smart phones, flat screen TVs, and solar panels more affordable and accessible to consumers and businesses worldwide. Their Global Technical Training organization provides learning solutions to both internal and external engineering clientele. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, this organization has a global presence in 89 locations in 19 different countries with over 13,000 employees.
Tasked to increase instructional capacity rapidly while minimizing internal resource requirements and maintaining low, long-term engagement costs.
Challenge
The organization sought to find a suitable training partner to provide technical instruction, program management, and outsourced curriculum development services to augment the needs of their internal team. The challenge was high volatility and rapidly changing demand/level of services required by the ever-evolving nature of the semiconductor industry. GP Strategies® was selected by the Global Technical Training group to increase instructional capacity rapidly while minimizing their internal resource requirements and still maintaining low, long-term engagement costs.
Solution
GP Strategies was able to meet the staffing demands by combining the use of available internal resources and strategic hires. GP Strategies worked to develop an instructor screening, qualification, and certification process that allowed for increased instructional capacity in desired areas of expertise very quickly. Conversely, when demand decreased, GP Strategies was able to maintain much of this valued expertise/experience in-house by placing these resources onto other opportunities within GP Strategies’ diverse customer base while still providing the organization with a ready team at the first sign of the next ramp-up in training demand.
GP Strategies placed a project team on-site to work directly with the client’s management team to carefully plan workforce requirements and provide the value-added services of managing all elements of the instructors’ performance and development. This approach enabled the client to maintain a stable manning level at the first-line supervisor level, again minimizing long-term costs. GP Strategies assembled a team of on-site program managers, developers, and desktop-publishing professionals to meet the curriculum development needs for the group. This team was augmented during ramps in workload by GP Strategies’ wide array of technical developers. The ability to call on GP Strategies’ flexible resource pool was key to meeting the varying demand levels.
During the same period, GP Strategies established a formal partnership relationship outsourcing the curriculum development requirements. GP Strategies worked with the client’s staff to develop custom, traditional, classroom-based curriculum and web-based solutions.
The Training Model
Technical Training and Documentation
- Delivered courses for semiconductor wafer fabrication tools to customer engineers worldwide.
- Developed and conducted semiconductorrelated courses.
- Developed system documentation for semiconductor wafer fabrication tools including startup, maintenance, schematics, and functional descriptions.
- Provided technical trainer for Workmanship Essentials course.
Staff Augmentation – Training Business Process Outsource (BPO)
- Provided additional technical instruction staffing capacity while managing instructor performance and development.
- Developed an instructor screening, qualification, and certification process that allowed for increased instructional capacity in desired areas of expertise very rapidly.
- Conversely, when demand decreased rapidly, the client maintained much of this valued expertise/experience in-house by placing these resources onto other opportunities within GP Strategies’ diverse customer base.
- Provided the client with a ready team at the first sign an increase in training demand.
- Developed custom, traditional, instructorled and web-based training, and program management solutions.
Business Impact
During GP Strategies’ continued relationship with the client, which has now spanned over 15 years, the demand for services has gone from an all-time high to varying demand levels over the years. GP Strategies continues to provide training and documentation staff augmentation services today.
