Claimed · STATE 1 OF 3
Completion is not competence.
Authorise deployment against observed work, maintenance tasks and escalation judgement. Paper completion alone leaves floor readiness untested.
- Month
- 6
- Need
- 15
- Have
- 16.6
- Gap
- 0.0
17 NEW STARTERS / 14.2 UNCOVERED PERSON-MONTHSIllustrative default, not a measurement
GFT instruments / Workforce readiness
Train before
the line needs it.
Supervisor and technician pipeline planner. Turn an editable line ramp into training starts, confirmed cohorts and a monthly staffing gap. All starting assumptions are illustrative.
Operate the instrumentProcedural visualisation. Schematic, not a facility.
An instrument for the decision
How many supervisors and technicians must be trained, and when?
Plan training starts against the production ramp. Keep an unfilled post visible until a qualified person can enter service.
ILLUSTRATIVE / USER-SET MODELChange the inputs. Read the result. Keep the assumptions visible.
New people to start training
supervisors technicians
Peak uncoveredexpected people
Uncovered workloadperson-months
The last expected shortfall is in month 4
Launch needs 2 supervisors trained from month -3 and 1 technician trained from month -4. These pre-launch starts are recommendations, not included in the new intake plan. The last expected shortfall is in month 4; later months are covered within this horizon. Check each role separately before authorising a line.
No confirmed incoming people are included.
STACKED ENVELOPE · CURRENT B (6-LINE RAMP) OVER BASELINE A (5-LINE RAMP)
A / B decision record
Keep a baseline while the ramp changes.
Pre-seeded with a 5-line slower ramp as baseline A (14 starts) against the 6-line default B (17 starts). Save A at any time to lock your own baseline.
- New starts, B minus baseline
- baseline 14 · current 17
- Peak uncovered, B minus baseline
- baseline 3.1 · current 6.1
- Person-months, B minus baseline
- baseline 11.1 · current 14.2
Active diff: B adds +3 training starts and +3.0 uncovered person-months over the 5-line baseline.
| Measure | A | B | Change |
|---|
Warp demand into weft cohorts
Seventeen training starts weave eight cohorts across twelve months.
Each vertical warp column is a month of line demand. Each horizontal weft bar is a cohort in training that turns into service when its course finishes.
new starters
Hover any warp month or weft thread: month 3 graduates cohort S1 (+5 supervisors) to lift the first ramp step.
Threads descend directly into the cohort swimlanes ↓Intake → training → service
Cohorts enter the floor when the course finishes.
One monthly balance, two distinct roles
Reconcile the people before releasing the line.
MONTHLY GAP HEAT STRIP · CLICK OR HOVER A CELL TO LOCK MONTHOchre = shortfall · Sage = surplus
Month 4 · required 8 · available 8.9 · gap 0.0 · supervisors
| Month | Lines | Required | Graduates | Exits | Available | Gap | Surplus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| M1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0.02 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| M2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0.02 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 |
| M3 | 3 | 6 | +5 | 0.02 | 6.9 | 0.0 | 0.9 |
| M4 | 4 | 8 | +2 | 0.1 | 8.9 | 0.0 | 0.9 |
| M5 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0.1 | 8.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| M6 | 5 | 10 | +2 | 0.1 | 10.7 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| M7 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0.1 | 10.6 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| M8 | 6 | 12 | +2 | 0.1 | 12.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| M9 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 0.1 | 12.4 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| M10 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 0.1 | 12.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| M11 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 0.1 | 12.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
How the ledger rounds
The ledger follows the role selected here or in the planner. Required positions are whole people. Available staff, exits, gaps and surpluses are expected values, normally shown to one decimal place. Small non-zero values retain significant digits so they remain visible. A small expected deficit remains a deficit; the next intake rounds up to whole trainees. The CSV retains the calculation precision.
Use and limits
A filled post still needs demonstrated competence.
A thread can hold on paper and still part when the work tests it. Check the post against observed work before you count it as covered.
- Claimed, course complete
- of 6 posts
- Observed doing the work
- of 6 posts
Claimed 6 of 6 posts
Course complete, nothing tested yet. Illustrative example of six filled posts, not GFT data.
Move the handle or scroll: a claim, the test against observed work, then the thread tied again.
Tested · STATE 2 OF 3
Roles do not substitute.
Keep role-specific gaps visible. The combined gap in the headline is a workload signal and does not make the two occupations interchangeable. Supervisor coverage cannot cover a technician gap.
Re-tied · STATE 3 OF 3
The model leaves things out.
It excludes leave, absence, overtime, cross-training, recruitment lead time, training costs, instructor headcount, assessment failures and productivity during supervised practice.
Method / explicit arithmetic
Training is scheduled against the graduation date.
Illustrative ramp2 × 40 = 80 operators at launch; 6 × 40 = 240 by month 11
Worked example: 25 per supervisor, not the default 20ceil(lines × 40 ÷ 25)
Illustrative default, supervisorsstart = graduation − 3 months
Illustrative default, supervisorsAvailable[t] = Available[t−1] × (1 − 1 %) + Graduates[t]
In every month and roleAvailable + Gap − Surplus = Required
Step 1 of 5 · Active lines
Start from the active lines.
Launch is month 0. For each month the model takes the number of active lines you entered and multiplies it by operators per line and technicians per line. The ramp is yours to edit, one whole number per month.
Active lines, illustrative ramp. 2 lines × 40 operators = 80 at launch; 6 × 40 = 240 by month 11.
Step 2 of 5 · Whole posts
Round every post up to a whole person.
Divide the operator total by the entered operators per supervisor and round upward. Technical demand is active lines multiplied by technicians per line, also rounded upward. This is pooled demand across the entered operating boundary: it does not guarantee a supervisor or technician on each separate line, building or shift.
Worked example: 25 operators per supervisor. Not the default of 20. Dotted: raw. Solid: whole people. Ochre: the round-up.
If those boundaries cannot share staff, calculate them independently.Supervisors required = ceil(lines × operators per line ÷ operators per supervisor)Technicians required = ceil(lines × technicians per line)
Step 3 of 5 · Graduation date
Train against the graduation date.
At each possible start month, the planner looks forward by the course duration and projects existing staff and booked cohorts to that graduation date, including attrition. The missing people are rounded up into an intake, limited by remaining shared seats. The selected priority receives seats first.
Supervisor intakes, default 3-month course. Each start is chosen so graduation lands when the post is needed.
A later start cannot retroactively repair an earlier gap. Pre-launch recommendations cover the launch shortfall only; they are displayed separately and do not alter the main plan until entered as confirmed incoming cohorts.
Step 4 of 5 · Attrition
Let attrition shrink the qualified stock.
Opening staff enter month 0 without an attrition deduction; confirmed completions due at launch join them. Each later month, exits reduce the previous qualified stock before that month’s graduates join. Attrition is a monthly rate applied only in service. It is not a training failure rate.
Qualified supervisors in service. Ochre: exits at 1% a month, drawn ten times larger. Rings: graduates.
It is neither an annual rate divided by a hidden factor nor a training failure rate. No losses are assumed during a course; enter expected successful completions for incoming cohorts.Available[t] = Available[t−1] × (1 − monthly attrition ÷ 100) + Graduates[t]
Step 5 of 5 · The gap
Read the gap, then reconcile it.
What remains after the schedule is the gap, or a surplus where the ramp falls. This is a deterministic just-in-time heuristic, not a global optimisation: it does not pre-train for later peaks. Intakes completing after month 11 are outside the model.
Required, available and the gap. Available + gap − surplus = required, in every month and role.
Use the monthly gap and cohort register together to judge whether capacity should move earlier, and extend the planning process beyond this horizon before committing to a larger programme.Gap = max(0, Required − Available)Surplus = max(0, Available − Required)
- New starts
- ± 0
- Peak gap, people
- ± 0
- Person-months
- ± 0
Month 6 · baseline 12 · current 15 · diff +3
Assumption register
Every starting value is illustrative.
No sourced staffing ratio, training duration or attrition rate was provided for this instrument. The defaults demonstrate planning arithmetic. Select a tab and chip to test that assumption on the sticky chart.
Operator coverage
Illustrative pooled span of control; not a safety or industry standard.
Default 40 operators per line; 20 operators per supervisorYours
Technical coverage
Illustrative simultaneous maintenance coverage.
Default 1 technician per lineYours
Opening staff
Illustrative qualified opening balances.
Default 2 supervisors; 1 technicianYours
Training lead times
Illustrative complete-month courses; competence is not inferred.
Default 3 months for supervisors; 4 months for techniciansYours
In-service attrition
Illustrative constant monthly exit rate, applied after launch.
Default 1% each monthYours
Production ramp
Illustrative phased commissioning sequence.
Default 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6 active linesYours
Intake capacity
Illustrative combined monthly admissions, not concurrent classroom places.
Default 8 new starters each monthYours
Allocation priority
Illustrative rule for scarce seats.
Default Supervisors firstYours
Seed cohorts
Optional confirmed incoming completions. The downloadable example is illustrative.
Default None initiallyYours
Shared intake capacity counts new starters, not the total people in a classroom at once.
Use the result in its boundary
A course completion is the start of verification.
Use the cohort plan to reserve trainers, mentors and assessment time. A certificate does not establish independent competence on the actual line. Authorise deployment against observed work, maintenance tasks and escalation judgement.
Do not average away a missing role.
Supervisor coverage cannot substitute for a technician gap. Review the separate role ledgers, record the limits of each qualification, and delay a line if the team cannot run it safely.
Closing selvedge · warp and signal
Pull the twelve warp months and eight cohort threads into one verified line.
Related papers, methods and next instrument (hover or focus a card to inspect)
- wp09 · paperThe Supervisor GapExamines the supervisor and technician pipeline.
- wp02 · paperMeasure Before You ModelAddresses performance-management design.
- wp15 · paperUtilisation DecidesExamines production performance.
- Next instrumentThe OEE line instrumentSeparate production losses once the line is operating.
- MethodGFT’s measurement approachRead it when defining the operating boundary.
Twelve-month communications planner →
Method, sources and limits of this page
The model stays visible. Monthly demand is rounded up from operators per supervisor and technicians per active line. New intakes are planned for their graduation month, within shared monthly start capacity. Existing staff and confirmed cohorts lose the entered monthly attrition only after entering service. Available staff plus gap minus surplus equals required staff in every month. GFT planning arithmetic. Every workforce default is illustrative, with its basis recorded below. No external staffing benchmark is asserted. A planning aid. Not investment, legal or tax advice. Verify inputs and boundaries before an operational decision.
Before using a result operationally, confirm course content, assessment criteria, supervision during practice, mentor availability and maintenance escalation arrangements. Fractional expected retained staff are a statistical planning convention, never a roster. Workers remain employed when demand falls; surplus is reported rather than automatically removed.
There is no GFT programme defaults preset because none of these workforce inputs has a verified programme value. Replace them with approved staffing standards, measured retention, assessed course durations and your actual line plan. The steady-floor preset holds the initial line count constant. The constrained preset reduces admissions to expose a capacity bottleneck. The incoming preset uses the downloadable illustrative cohort file. None represents an operating factory or a promise of training availability. A file is read locally; the tool does not send the cohort data to a server. A shared URL contains the full scenario, including saved A, so review it before sharing.
These are related reading and tools, not evidence that any training method is proven. No external numerical benchmark is used on this page. The assumptions register is the source of the example; exported results are arithmetic from those entered inputs. Related papers are in preparation.