Knowledge transfer key to growth

HIS TURN: NEIT student and Swissline Precision Manufacturing intern Bill Johnson, left, works with Gerard Hester, a certified machine operator. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
HIS TURN: NEIT student and Swissline Precision Manufacturing intern Bill Johnson, left, works with Gerard Hester, a certified machine operator. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

In the middle of an internship at Swissline Precision Manufacturing Inc., Bill Johnson of Central Falls is learning not only about how to be a machinist, but how to pay attention to subtleties in the metals he works with there.
How tools interact with softer materials like copper and harder materials like steel is one type of knowledge Johnson, 38, is beginning to understand, he said, and it’s a form of institutional knowledge passed down by the employees he’s worked with that he says makes him feel more adept on the job.
“I’ve learned how to spot the small nuances about how the metal changes its appearance as the tool is starting to dull,” he said. “It’s intriguing. It’s a learning experience for sure. I’ve been enjoying the time learning how to properly measure parts and making sure I keep my eyes on multiple machines, making sure they stay running.”
Job shadowing with a team of workers allows interns like Johnson to absorb not only the skills associated with on-the-job training, but the kind of deeper, institutional knowledge that experienced workers can impart.
Dave Chenevert, president of the Cumberland-based manufacturing firm, cares deeply about passing on such knowledge. Twenty percent of his 60-person workforce is expected to retire in the next 10 years.
“People on the job 10 or 20 years know how tools react and that’s the type of institutional knowledge we need to transfer to interns,” Chenevert said. “It’s not something you’re going to read in a book.”
Johnson is reading books too, as part of the class and lab work he does through the Shipbuilding/Marine and Advanced Manufacturing Institute, or SAMI, program. The machinist course is 300 hours of classes and labs, while the concurrent internship is separate, said Fred Santaniello, account executive for the Center of Technology and Industry at the New England Institute of Technology. The SAMI program is administered and operated by NEIT but the participants are not enrolled as degree students at the college, said Santaniello, who oversees the program with coordinator Robert Palumbo.
The program was funded with a $2.5 million grant to NEIT from the U.S. Department of Labor called the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant. The Governor’s Workforce Board-funded work-immersion program supplies the interns, Santaniello added, but only once the students have demonstrated they are ready to go out and work on the job while still learning.
According to Chenevert and John Lombari, president of the R.I. Carbide Tool Co. in Smithfield, passing along institutional knowledge is something senior workers are eager to do. The challenge is in finding the job candidates, they say. And finding good interns is certainly a way to do that, they said.
Justin Palavra of Pawtucket has been hired full time at R.I. Carbide after working through the SAMI program and in the parallel internship, said Lombari.
“We’re looking to get people back into manufacturing and it’s not easy,” he said. “The [SAMI] program gave them a lot of basics. [Palavra] was focused and really conscientious. He had all the discipline and work ethic. … We’re willing to take our time with someone who seems like they care enough to learn.” •

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