An In-depth Look at Schleuniger’s S. University eLearning Platform
Marc Lussier is Head of Group Technical Services at Schleuniger, Inc. Marc has been with the company for 24 years and was the driving force in the creation of S.University, Schleuniger’s new online training platform. WHN chatted with Marc just prior to last months EWPT Expo in Milwaukee to tell us more about S. University.
Wiring Harness News: Tell us about your involvement in the creation of S. University.
Marc: I came up with the concept in January 2013 realizing that we needed to train people all over the world on more than 125 products as well as many topics in wire processing. We started the university with online training in-house back in 2014, but the program did not have a distinct identity.
Our industry has seen significant increases in technology and complexity requiring training for everyone. While live training is always best, travel and trainer costs make live training logistically and financially challenging. So my thoughts went toward eLearning (self-paced online courses) and web training (live web training with an instructor) using an online university platform.
WHN: Why do you think Schleuniger is poised to bring this particular training to market?
Marc: Schleuniger has the largest breadth of products in the industry and we deal with thousands of applications. Many of our technical staff have been in the industry for 20-30 years and are truly wire processing experts, so the challenge was to get their experience into course material.
We started by creating material to train our global employees, then expanded it to our distributors and partners and now we have launched S.University for everyone (launchedat EWPT). Since it’s creation we have created a new department in NH to add content. The manager has 20+ years in wire processing and then we hired eLearning course creation experts.
S.University resides in a LMS (Learning Management System) and therefore is a true on-line university system. We can track users, achievements and provide certifications. Eventually we hope the industry will use S.University to on-board their new employees as well as train their existing employees. We have 2 courses specifically designed to certify people in the basics of wire processing. One course on wire and cable basics that has 2 modules and one course on wire processing basics that has 6 modules. Together they cover all the main topics of our industry at a basic level. Terminology, equipment, processes, concepts and definitions. At the end is an optional test and if the user passes, they will receive a certification. Employers can use this course to ensure their employees have a base level understanding of wire processing.
The wire processing basic training isn’t going to take someone off the street and make an expert out of them in a day. But there’s a huge need for folks to get a general understanding of the terminology, materials, and the process in general. They shouldn’t be learning the basics from the operator standing next to them, because that’s just going to lead to scrap, confusion, and inefficiency.
WHN: Can you tell us more about the platform and how it works?
Marc: S.University is much more as well. We can arrange a private, live web training in 2 hour blocks on a variety of topics. We cover cutting, stripping, crimping, crimp quality, crimp force monitoring (CFM), Cut, Strip & Terminate (CST) processing, software programming, pre- and post-processing, and more. We will also arrange custom sessions specific to the needs of a customer and can web train an individual or a conference room full of employees including live Q&A with our experts. As always, we can visit your facility or you can come to ours if you prefer in-person.
S. University Dashboard
WHN: Can you tell us specifically what you announced in Milwaukee at EWPT Expo?
Marc: What we announced in Milwaukee is our S.University Store (www.schleunigeruniversity.com). It’s on a Shopify platform, but the look and feel is all Schleuniger. We now have a catalog of our training options: eLearning, Live online or even factory/field training and seminars. For a limited time we are offering Wire and Cable Foundations (eLearning, 2 modules) for free so that people can try it out. The site and eLearning courses are initially in English, but this is a global tool and additional language courses and storefronts are being developed. We will initially offer some sessions with our colleagues from USA, Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, China and Japan. We can also work with our many global partners to arrange training in a variety of languages.
WHN: What else about S. University would you like to share with our readers?
Marc: When I started, most machines were knob adjusted. There were numerical controls, but not a lot of programming. Now you are talking about wirelist processing and smart detect options, so the complexity of even a small benchtop has stepped up several levels in the last 20 years. Add to that the thousands and thousands of applications in our industry, and the timing couldn’t be better.
Bottom line, after using S.University to train our global team and with the significant increase in training requests, we are now offering our expertise to anyone that wants to learn the complexities of our industry. Our customers have asked about reducing scrap, keeping up with crimp quality standards, reducing employee impacts with software controls, and more. All of these points require training and we are offering training to cover any questions.
I believe that eLearning will change our industry training platform. Our next eLearning courses will cover several of our programming options including S.On, our Cut & Strip programming, Cayman, our more powerful Cut & Strip external software, and EASY, our CST software. After that we will create courses on many of the topics listed on the S.University Store that are currently available as ‘Live, Online’.I have spoken to some industry leaders and they are very excited about the future of training on S.University. Visit SchleunigerUniversity.com for more information.
