Cross training

Knowledge and skills (lack of or inadequate training, cross-training goals, excessive training, all impact a person s knowledge and skill level)... 

Increasingly, fire departments are finding themselves called on as the lead responders to and planners for natural and manmade disasters. In the post-9/11 world, the fire service frequently finds itself on the front line in homeland defense. What this means is that each firefighter has to be trained and cross-trained to work with agencies in adjacent communities and with federal and state agencies to fulfill these new tasks. 

Outside resources can provide valuable assistance in the education and training of brigade members. Local fire departments and state fire schools are usually enthusiastic partners in such efforts. Often they are the key to securing adequate resources at a reasonable cost. In industrialized communities, mutual aid agreements may include cooperative training provisions with other chemical facilities, which provide opportunities for even more effective use of available resources. All mutual aid agreements should require cross-training in special hazards at the other facilities. 

Immediate availability of material for entry or reinforcement training from various work locations Immediate retrieval of specified information Visual representation of procedures and operations Consistency of instruction Personalized learning rate Practice by performing simulated operations A more conducive environment for cross-training. 

The Marine Corps Marine Expeditionary Units (Special Operations Capable) (MEU(SOC)s) have an enhanced internal capability, in terms of NBC threats, to support operations from ships in the littorals. The enhanced capability consists of 19 personnel who are trained in the requisite occupational fields and receive an additional level of expertise that is supervised by CBIRF during workups at the home base. This capability should be exploited for cross-training with the Navy during deployment aboard amphibious ships at sea. 

A CST is a federally funded National Guard unit established under Presidential Decision Directive 39.9 Under current plans, each state will have at least one CST more than half of these teams have been certified to date. The mission of a CST is to augment local and regional responders to terrorism attacks in events known or suspected to involve weapons of mass destruction when the local and regional responders need the added and/or specialized skills of the CST. Each CST has about 23 members, all of whom are individually selected and highly cross-trained in multiple specialties. CST capabilities include these ... 

Maintenance activities at a site are usually considered "crafts," and it can be a new experience for a facihty to ask its maintenance personnel to write and use written procedures. Maintenance procedures require special consideration depending upon the type of maintenance force your site maintains. If your site uses cross-trained maintenance personnel, your fecihty may need maintenance procedures that are written to a very high level of detail. The increased use of contract maintenance personnel at fadhties presents a similar problem. 

Each member of an environmental team has a very specific mission. The success of the project depends on the overall coordination of the individual elements. Communication and cross-training are critical for the effective and efficient accomplishment of the EPA mission. Unfortunately, the demand for trained and experienced environmental professionals far outweighs the current availability. 

Nuclear weapons can rapidly destroy unwarned and unprepared battalion sized units. Medical units are often co-located with other combat service support units. This proximity may cause medical personnel to be in the nuclear target area. Decentralization, cross-training, moving often, adding redundant capabilities, and conducting split-based operations are all mechanisms. A balance must be made between ... 

Cross-training of students among interdisciplinary areas is lagging far behind need. 

Continuing education should be available to expand analyst and operator skills and provide opportunity for advancement. Cross-training for other laboratory positions permits flexibility in work assignments. Attention to new methods and improved instrumentation assists the laboratory in maintaining a state-of-the-art program. 

In designing jobs for teams, one assigns a task or set of tasks to a group of workers rather than to an individual. The team is then considered to be the primary unit of performance. Objectives and rewards focus on team, rather than individual, behavior. Team members may be performing the same tasks simultaneously or they may break tasks into subtasks to be performed by different team members. Subtasks may be assigned on the basis of expertise or interest, or team members may rotate from one subtask to another to provide variety and cross-train members to increase their breadth of skills and flexibility (Campion et al. 1994). 

Group members learn from one another Possibility of greater workforce flexibility with cross-training... 

Is cross-training desired Would breadth of skills and work force flexibility be essential to the organization ... 

In job rotation, people rotate jobs periodictilly during the shift. The concept is working rest—a specific part of the body rests while another part is working. Job rotation requires cross-trained workers (able to do more than one job), which allows more flexible scheduling there is perceived faimess because everyone shares good and bad jobs. 

Under time stress, people make errors. Start earlier so there is more mtugin between the start time and the due time. Another technique to reduce time/person by putting more people on the task this flexibility requires cross-trained people. 

As pointed out above in (3), it is possible to have more than one machine/operator—this is double tooling. For example, use two sets of load/unload fixtures on an indexing fixture to reduce idle time while waiting for the machine to cut. Or one person can service two machines (i.e., 1 operator/2 machines or 0.5 operator/machine). It is also possible to have 0.67 or 0.75 operators/ machine. Do this by assigning 2 people/3 machines or 3/4, that is, having the workers work as a team, not as individuals. This will require cross-trained operators, which is very useful when someone is absent. 

The multiple-products-for-multiple-projects approach has the opposite advantages and disadvantages of the previous approach. It always allows for the selection of the most appropriate tool for the application. This approach is essential for consulting firms offering simulation services to diverse companies. A broad range of products and abilities is necessary to meet the diverse needs of clients. The disadvantage to this approach is a dilution of simulation personnel. If people must be trained on a number of products, then specialization in any one tool is sacrificed. As more people are cross-trained on various products, training costs increase. However, more flexibility and diversification is achieved. 

Cross-docking, 778 Cross-training, 934 Crowds (privacy service), 268-269 CRP (capacity requirement planning), 2042 CRT screens, see Cathode ray tube screens Cryptographic systems (cryptosystems), 733 CSCW, see Computer-supported collaborative work... 

One could easily make the same argument as Cech does here so eloquently in reverse, that cross-training in the sciences produces better humanists. 

---