Maintenance Training Academy Goes Paperless:
Saves $20,000 Annually
By David Castaneda and Gary Vansuch
May 13, 2013
Update: August 29, 2014
The process improvement project that allowed the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Maintenance Training Academy go paperless is featured on page 23 of the August 2014 report entitled: "Pits and Peeves 2.0, Progress in Motion Report -- Cutting Red Tape in Government: “Making government more efficient, effective and elegant”, which is available here: https://docs.google.com/a/state.co.us/file/d/0B8bNvcf083ydRDRiUE5NQUlYWHVYZU9ETnU1TWtZRDdiRDRv/edit
More details are available below.
CDOT’s Maintenance Training Academy (“The Academy”) has recently “stepped it up” with information technology and has eliminated the printing of training binders. David Castaneda, Manager of the Academy, notes that this improvement saves nearly $20,000 each year. This green initiative is another step towards providing our CDOT maintenance employees with an exceptional learning experience that includes the opportunity to work closely with technology.
Maintenance Training Academy class
This improvement has enabled the Academy to maximize the use of technology and expand the learning capability of our maintenance employees. Additionally, this initiative also increases the effectiveness of the current maintenance training programs conducted at the Academy.
In prior years, material for the Academy’s week-long maintenance training curriculum was provided to each employee in the form of a binder, which was also used as a reference upon returning to their respective region. These binders were printed by CDOT Print Shop, which cost the Academy nearly $20,000 annually.
Since implementing this improvement, all curriculum and training programs are provided to our employees via the Academy’s SharePoint collaboration site. As they navigate through the classes during their training week, employees can familiarize themselves with the content. And, this also helps employees understand the use of the SharePoint collaboration site.
There are additional benefits, too. When maintenance employees complete their training and return to their maintenance patrols, they can easily access and use the training material through the SharePoint collaboration site from any location with access to a computer. This also helps supports CDOT’s ongoing efforts to create a culture of continuous learning.