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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Streimer Sheet Metal Works Facing Key Employees Retiring

With the help of: Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership

About

When Daniel Streimer returned home to Portland from WWII, he was ready to set out on his own. A trained sheet metal mechanic, skilled craftsman, and natural leader, Daniel had a knack for problem solving and the tenacity to tackle difficult projects. Always up for hard work and a challenge, Daniel and his wife, Betty, founded Streimer Sheet Metal Works in 1946. Their mission was simple: treat customers like royalty, be honest, solve problems, be dependable, and charge a fair price. Customers responded. By 1958, Streimer Sheet Metal Works was booming, and we opened a brand-new facility on North Knott Street in North Portland. Today, Streimer employs about 350 people.

The Challenge

With several key employees in the Fabricated Products Department preparing to retire, Streimer faced an extraordinary knowledge and skill gap. The company knew it needed to capture intellectual knowledge, processes, and other information to train new employees as well as create reference material for ongoing training and development. Streimer also wanted to clearly define development and promotional paths. By making this information transparent to employees would enable staff to be proactive in their development. Streimer turned to OMEP, part of the MEP National Network™, for help.
The process mapping and competency models helped Streimer with a transitional time within a department and have been very valuable ongoing with employee coaching and promotion.
— Mark Van Sickle, VP of Manufacturing

MEP's Role

First, comprehensive job descriptions were developed for target positions within the Fabricated Products Department. Competency models were created to define meet/exceed expectations for the roles, with development paths created to provide a structured approach to employee growth and advancement.

Next came training materials to support employee development, proficiency assessments to verify learnings, and leadership training on OMEP’s Smart Talent tools and processes. In addition, process flows were created for 12 separate processes to capture intellectual knowledge and define desired skills, knowledge, and behaviors.

Then, on the eve of those key retirements, Streimer performed a process mapping activity. This captured critical information and memorialized it for the onboarding and training of the next individual to assume the new role, ensuring specific and important knowledge was not lost. In fact, the project mapping was so successful that Streimer repeated the activity with an individual technical contributor.

Created August 6, 2024