With more than 21,000 employees and 56 plants in 25 countries, Danfoss is a leader in the development and production of mechanical and electronic products
The Business Challenge
In keeping with its global leadership status in the manufacture of modern utility products, the Danfoss drives division decided to adopt a blended learning solution to replace its traditional training methodology. Danfoss envisioned that this integrated knowledge solution would engage its learners during the training sessions and provide them with a better understanding of the functional and technical aspects of its wide range of products. This learning initiative included assembly/disassembly procedures, testing, and troubleshooting. The learning modality needed to enable Danfoss service technicians at different levels to maintain high productivity and technical competence in addition to capturing critical skills, thereby fulfilling an aggressive new performance management initiative.
The Emantras Solution
In collaboration with their long term learning partner, Danfoss designed and delivered the solution combining innovative content and technology tools that was a part of workflow.
Emantras' comprehensive e-Learning program for Danfoss drives division has dramatically increased the confidence of service technicians at various skill levels in handling different ranges of drives. Emantras was very keen on maintaining the balance between traditional instructor-led training and contemporary customized e-Learning content. Therefore, it used the best of both methodologies and incorporated them into a singular training solution for Danfoss.
The Emantras Experience
Emantras' worked with SME's who analyzed the product information and that was available to them in text and multi-media formats. As part of the visual study, photographs were taken at various steps of the assembly and disassembly of the drives. After initial analysis, Emantras' ID experts got into the task of developing the story board for the entire course. The user-experience team worked with all the responsible teams to design the UI's and along with the graphics team set the standards for the learning graphics and media.
Engaging the Learners
The service training program was divided into three sections. Section 1 provided a dynamic introduction to the series of drives that were covered in the training engagement. This provided an opportunity for learners to explore and understand the technical specifications, features, and general details about the products in the series. This section enabled service technicians with fundamental knowledge to be cognizant of the basic information equipping them for the next segment of learning.
The next section, "The Guided Practice", enabled the service technicians to understand the various assembly,disassembly, and testing procedures. The learners had the option of exploring the drives through a step by step procedure with a help tool kit and guided voice over. Every individual learner enjoyed the real time experience of working with the drive at his/her own pace through this module.
Empowering the Learner
The evaluation section, "Test Yourself", introduced various practice sessions that gave learners the opportunity self- learning. Components and the tools were made available for learners to test themselves. In addition, all the procedures were available in crisp summaries for future reference.
All the learning objects were mapped to specific functionality and tagged so that they were available easily for future reference.
In addition to delivering custom content print options for various procedures were made available, which has proved to be an effective job aid and for performance support.
The Collaborative Outcome
This e-Learning initiative by Danfoss along with Emantras' expertise in delivering digital learning has delivered considerable value to the service group at Danfoss. Proficiency level has had considerable improvement. Service technicians have been able to access and use specific learning objects for continued learning and or to be able to propagate information to their distribution channel. The print option for service instructions has been effectively used for "context aware" environments (in the field).
Danfoss Testimonial
As the target group for service training at Danfoss Drives is spread around the world, training service technicians and service channels requires a well established training organization and effective learning strategies. Furthermore we need to reach our "students" at disparate locations so e-Learning or digital education makes the most sense.
Digital content poses a unique set of challenges as we try to capture the attention of our audience – in this regard the highly engaging environment of this module was a winner. Our service channels comprise of people who communicate visually and like to take away information so it can be available when they need the information. Combining a sound search and discover strategy for the learning objects so we could continually make learning pieces available not only in the current online module but later in mobile devices (if necessary), was a great way to design the course. The printable summaries were also very effective in enabling knowledge take-away’s.
Emantras Comment
The synergy between Danfoss and Emantras over the last five years has helped to transform problems associated with training into comprehensive digital learning solutions. Catakam Kumar, VP - GBD
