Imagine you are a manager at a manufacturing unit. And, you have been bestowed with the responsibility of improving work-relevant knowledge and skills of the workers. You have to prepare well so that they can perform well and meet a huge target in the next quarter.

There are a lot of topics to cover and very little time. You need to ensure that:

• They are perfect with all the products’ information

• They are capable of running perfect quality checks on the products

• They are well aware of all the safety and health guidelines

• They know how to follow the SOPs perfectly

• They are able to use all the tools and machinery properly

In order to make them perfect in all these areas, you need to do a little more than just conducting one or two-day training sessions. You need to provide regular learning opportunities to the workers and motivate them to learn frequently by themselves.

Wondering how to do this?

Gamification of learning is the best way to get there. In order to gamify learning, you need to conduct some learning contests. These contests provide a fun, entertaining, and motivating environment for your works to learn and thrive.

In this blog, we have designed 5 amazing learning contests that can be used by manufacturing units pertaining to any industry to develop their workforce. Check them out:

1.The Product Whiz

Goal: To encourage your manufacturing workers to consistently learn and improve their product knowledge.

Frequency: Every day

Contest Details: Run this contest every day to ensure that your workers are up-to-date with the latest product information. Pick one product each day and conduct a quiz test on it. Make sure that you do not overwhelm your participants with too many questions. Limit the number of questions to not more than 5 in each quiz.

At the end of the month, add up the scores of each worker from all the quizzes he has taken throughout the month. Then, reward the top 3 workers who have the highest score.

Benefit: This contest makes your workers learn some important information related to the products like:

• The features of the product that are crucial for it to function properly

• Types of industries or customers who use the product

• Different use cases of the product etc

Having this information in mind helps the workers a great deal in manufacturing good quality products.

Winners: Top 3 workers with the highest score by the end of the month.

Prize: Award different tiers of cash prizes to the winners who come in first, second, and third places. Also, present a t-shirt that says “Product Whiz” to all the three winners. The t-shirt should also have a picture of the winner printed on it.

2. The QC Specialist

Goal: To equip your workers with the right knowledge to run perfect quality checks on the products.

Frequency: Twice a week. Increase this frequency when you are going to have a quality audit.

Contest Details: Run this contest twice every week. Have the participants take quiz tests on quality assurance/ quality control. Pick one product for each quiz and focus the questions around running quality checks on that product.

At the end of the month, add up the scores of each worker from all the quizzes he has taken throughout the month. Then, select the top 3 workers who have the highest score as the winners.

Benefit: Quality control is the most essential process in any manufacturing unit. It helps to ensure that your customers receive products that are free from defects and meet their requirements.

When QC is done in the wrong way, it puts the manufacturers at risk. It causes a great deal of loss of money, loss of time, and loss of brand reputation. So, it’s crucial to ensure that your workers know how to perfectly run quality checks on the products.

This contest ensures just that. It helps your workers to understand:

• What a good quality checking process looks like

• And, what are some best practices to run thorough quality checks

Winners: The top 3 workers who have the highest score at the end of the month.

Prize: Award different tiers of cash prizes to the winners who come in first, second, and third places. Also, present a t-shirt that says “Product Whiz” to all the three winners. The t-shirt should also have a picture of the winner printed on it.

3.The Silver Shield Contest

Goal: To ensure that your workers are well aware of the safety and health guidelines that they should follow in the manufacturing plant.

Frequency: Conduct this contest once every 15 days. Increase the frequency when you are about to have a safety audit.

Contest Details: Run this contest once every 15 days. Assign quizzes on health and safety guidelines to the workers. Have about 10-20 questions in each quiz. Here are some topics to cover in the quizzes:

• How to identify unsafe work conditions?

• How to wear safety gear?

• Locations where the emergency exits are present

• How to avoid fire hazards?

• Measures to take during a fire accident

• How to identify hazardous materials and how to handle them?

• How to lift heavy objects and prevent them from falling?

Once the quiz is done, display the scores of the participants on a live leaderboard. Then, select the top 10 high scorers and reward them with cash bonuses or some other exciting prizes.

Benefit: A manufacturing unit functions efficiently at its full capacity when everyone working there are safe and sound. So, it becomes the responsibility of every worker and manager to follow the safety and health guidelines religiously. Any sort of non-compliance with these guidelines can cause some serious accidents. So, it is a good idea to regularly reinforce safety practices to your workers.

This contest helps you to do that. It regularly reinforces safety and health guidelines information to the workers and increases their awareness. This, in turn, allows the workers follow these guidelines properly and contribute towards keeping the work environment safe.

Winners: Top 10 workers with the highest score in the quiz

Prize: Cash bonus

4. SOP Super Star Contest

Goal: The goal here is to improve your workers’ knowledge of SOP’s

Frequency: Once every 15 days. You can increase this frequency to build fluent SOP knowledge when you have to speed up the production.

Contest Details: Run this contest once every 15 days. Have your workers take quiz tests that focus on:

• SOP process

• Best Practices of adhering to SOP

• Benefits of operating in compliance with the SOPs

• Consequences of non-compliance with SOPs

Have 10-20 questions in each quiz. Once the quiz test is done, display the scores of the participants on a live leaderboard. Declare the top 10 workers who scored the highest in the quiz as winners and reward them with the cash bonus.

Benefit: A standard operating procedure (SOP) is an integral part of any manufacturing plant. It helps in efficiently carrying out manufacturing activities and avoiding any chaos. Compliance with manufacturing SOPs helps in:

• Achieving higher work efficiency

• Preventing loss of quality

• And, retaining the brand reputation

So, it’s extremely crucial to ensure that your workers have a good knowledge of the SOPs related to their job role. And, this contest helps in improving their knowledge of various standard operating procedures.

Winner: Top 10 workers who have the highest score in the quiz

Prize: Cash bonus

5.“How Equipped are you?” Contest

Goal: To encourage the workers’ to know more about the tools, machines, and equipment that they use every day to do their job

Frequency: Once a week

Contest Details: Run this contest once a week. The quizzes should focus on improving the workers’ knowledge of tools, machines, and equipment that are used in the manufacturing unit. Here are some topics to cover in the quizzes:

• Identifying various parts of a machine

• How to use various tools, machines, and equipment properly?

• How to wear safety gear properly?

• Identifying hazardous tools

• When to use hazardous tools and how to use them safely?

Give about 10-20 questions in each quiz. Once a quiz test is completed, display the scores of the participants on a live leaderboard. Declare the top 5 workers who got the highest score in the quiz as the winners and reward them with the cash bonus.

Benefit: You might be having the most advanced tools and machinery at your manufacturing unit. But, what is the use of them if your workers do not understand how to use those tools and machines efficiently? This contest serves this exact purpose. It helps the workers to better understand the tools, machines, and equipment that they use every day. It makes them skillful at using those tools to full potential.

Winners: Top 5 workers with the highest score in the quiz

Prize: Cash bonus

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