How do you train and onboard new team members on the PLM tool you use?

Assessment is crucial to determine whether the team member is new solely to the PLM tool or to the broader PLM domain. For those unfamiliar only with the tool, focus will be on key terms such as BOM, Change Management, Access Control, and Utilities in context to business practices. This approach aids understanding. If new to PLM entirely, the next step involves a review of available documents to provide a comprehensive overview and ask to shadow me on some tasks. This supports to have Hands-on.

My perspective acknowledges that fully accommodating each individual's needs and expectations might not always be feasible. Thus, I propose commencing with a thorough orientation session, acquainting them with the PLM tool's interface, features, and its organizational role. Essential is hands-on practice aligned with day-to-day tasks, fostering confidence and proficiency in utilizing the PLM tool for daily operations.

I fully agree with this. It is also important, especially when you have to train several employees, to divide them into different levels. If you don't do this, the "weaker" ones will either be left behind or the more advanced ones will quickly lose interest.

Focus on PLM and Engineering talent and competency framework is needed. Such framework should be able to map existing talent as-is skills, identify future skills required from the business side and then bridge the gap with relevant trainings or certifications. Unfortunately engineering talent trainings and certification is yet to be industrialized like other IT/cloud/tech trainings. Hence developing org specific content is the best option.

There need to be right balance in the classroom/theory training and practical or on the job trainings. Depending on the criticality of role and skill of the talent being trained the balance can be adjusted to suit the best training mode. From a tech perspective, in class training works best. However post covid virtual mode is also preferred. Now a days there is a trend of training engineers in metaverse or virtual environment. That is also an option in my view.

I agree, everyone learns differently. Mostly PLM users are technical so like to "have a go" It is essential to provide a training environment to avoid mistakes in the love system

All PLM tool has little bit similar work But if we provide practical based knowledge to then, they can able to understand Products and it's BOM easily and changes in BOM

I have had very good experiences with online trainings and small groups with no more than 10 participants. This way, if a user falls behind or has a problem, the issue can be resolved by screen sharing, and everyone can benefit from it. These online trainings were also recorded, so everyone could review individual sessions at their own pace.

I agree that training is not a one time thing and there needs to be continued assistance, as most of us learn by doing and won't know what we don't know until we are in it. In my previous roles, PLM was usually just a one day/1.5hr training and then just 'ok go do it now!'. Granted once you learn one PLM, you can learn another, but instant performance is not realistic. One previous client wouldn't re-hire me for a FL gig because they switched to a new PLM and instead of just teaching it to me, only wanted those who already knew that specific niche one! So I missed out on an opportunity to learn/make money and they spent months looking for a freelancer. Investment in training will always give more, in the long run, to all involved.

We used a teams chat group for users to ask questions. Often other users answered questions before the SMEs had chance to reply

First give a brief introduction about PLM tool and Create a short eLearning course that they can complete at their own pace. Let them explore the new PLM system and become familiar with it by themselves by using test environment. The length of your onboarding course is as important as the content.

The adoption of new PLM tool is a significant change for a user community hence it is imperative to understand the nuances and stages of the human learning process and accordingly design the on-boarding .Broadly the stages of the learning process and best practices are: A) Motivation : Articulate “why” adopting the new PLM tool is important and how it adds value to the users. B) Acquisition : The learning event should be planned considering a flexible schedule and with least usage of jargon. C) Application : Simulate real like personas and scenarios in the new tool. E) Evaluation : Test knowledge of user community through simple tests. D) Reflection and Improvement : Enable wiki and communities to share and percolate best practices.

Allow trainees to go through e-learning to know and have basic understanding of the tool. Give them the training required to process specific jobs based on project requirements. Train them on do's and don't.