| Manufacturing operations are continually pressed for higher levels of efficiency in order to meet increasing global competition. Manufacturing production systems are comprised of five major input variables that determine output. Materials, methods, machines, manpower and environment are these major inputs. Traditionally, significant effort has been directed toward most of these elements to control consistency and quality. The manpower input has been an under-optimized area. Although human input has been recognized to have a significant impact on the system, optimization of human input has not had much academic attention or significant attention in industry.1,2;This study examines the case for including operator assessment during the hiring process by using pre-employment assessment testing. It presents the methodology behind the science of human performance predictors and connects this science of psychometric testing with current pragmatic assessment testing service offerings that are steadily growing internationally. The current state of the assessment testing industry and market are presented along with trends seen in the industry. Examples of psychometric test types are presented for background and references. The differences between ipsative and normative tests are presented along with their preferred applications. Recommendations of how to proceed with introducing psychometric testing to production operators is presented along with areas of caution. Finally, a hypothetical example is described to illustrate these concepts by observing how a company moves from the current state of hiring practices and accepting the low percentage of subjectively predicting optimum job performance to one of having a significantly higher probability of bringing in a new operator that will quickly learn the job and begin delivering job performance within the upper tier of incumbent operators. |
