20 Apr On the road to training success: Technical 3D animations deliver high impact results for Gray & Adams
When Gray & Adams wanted to produce training for drivers in how to safely operate its range of trailers, it began working with Mintra to create engaging content that would increase safety and drive their customers’ operational efficiency.
The expertise involved in driving a heavy goods vehicle doesn’t stop with manoeuvring, maintenance and learning the rules of the road: it is essential that drivers also understand how to safely operate and load the trailers that store the goods they are transporting.
Gray & Adams places a high level of importance on duty of care to customers, and training in the safe operation of its products is another cornerstone of its offering. When the business decided to move away from solely providing one-to-one training on site with customers, it looked to work with experts in eLearning, Mintra, to develop high-quality and engaging learning experiences.
Ian Smith, Group Engineering Manager, explained
“We are best-in-class for what we do and are known in the industry for providing the Rolls Royce of trailers. That means that products such as our double deck trailers, which have lifting floors, can be complex to operate. Drivers need to ensure they get the loading just right.
“We wanted to reduce the number of breakdowns that our customers were experiencing as a result of operational error, but more than that, we recognise that we have obligations and duty of care to the industry to ensure no one is injured while using our products. We started to look at how we were training people and felt we could make improvements.
“Traditionally, we were sending our own team out to visit customers and to carry out one-to-one training, physically showing people how to operate the trailers. That wasn’t ideal, not least because it involved a lot of resource, but also because we knew that people may forget things after that one training session.
“We wanted to try something different and were interested in developing a filmed training course that could be used by our customers on demand. We were aware of Mintra’s excellent work in developing safety training for the oil and gas industry and we knew from looking at those examples they could create exactly what we were looking for.”
Mintra’s content development team visited our Aberdeenshire headquarters to scope out the project and get a better understanding of the product range. A number of different options were discussed before it was decided to produce an animated 3D training that could be delivered electronically to thousands of drivers.
Ian then tells us,
“We knew very quickly that we made the right decision with the 3D animation. We sent out the generic version of the course to our customers and almost immediately one came back to say how great the training was and to ask if it was possible to have a version with their bespoke trailer. The advice we got from Mintra meant that we could immediately say ‘yes’.
We think the finished video is absolutely fantastic – Mintra has transformed something that could have been very run of the mill and created something way off-piste – the feedback we have from our customers’ training staff has been overwhelmingly positive. It is now so much easier for us to fulfil our obligation to provide training, whether that be for a new driver or refresher training, to ensure safe operations.”
Mintra and Gray & Adams will build this partnership further and continue to collaborate, with future plans to create a suite of induction and instructional videos tailored to each of its four UK sites.