Anyone using a skills-based structure in manufacturing?

We run four plants in northern Illinois and Indiana with a traditional grade structure for hourly production roles: six grades, single rates and shift premiums. Plant leadership wants to move to pay-for-skills so that operators who cross-train on a second or third line are paid for it.

I have heard this described at conferences, but rarely by anyone who has kept it running for more than a couple of years. If you have skill blocks in a plant, how many do you have, who signs off a skill, and what happened to your labour cost? One of our sites is unionised, which complicates things.