Education, Training, and “Street Smarts”
Your company benefits from educational/training programs. BFK Solutions provides you with plentiful educational opportunities; some of them are free. Such programs are a fast-track to solving immediate manufacturing problems; they also help you and your employees quickly address or even head off future problems. We are always pleased to hear people of both genders tell us that they want to be a 'cleaning lady' when they grow up, because it shows they understand the importance of critical product cleaning. Even if you don’t want to be a cleaning lady, you and your company will benefit from our educational activities, because an appreciation of critical cleaning is essential for quality, profitable product manufacturing. We are convinced that education is better than training. Training is one-way, static, and is predicated on the idea that workers must be told exactly what to do, no more no less. Sure, GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and process specs are essential. However, given the complexity of manufacturing, it is not enough to train employees, they also have to have enough street smarts to alert you to problems before they become product failures. We suggest you educate your employees and also educate yourself. Ed and Barbara Kanegsberg are good teachers; we train and educate employees; and we teach manufacturing “street smarts.” Public Workshops We conduct seminars for conferences, agencies, and educational institutions. We particularly like programs that are “live”, because it’s easier to communicate, to get to the nitty gritty of your issues if we can see your bright and shining faces. The workshops often include hand-outs designed for the course in question. The “Handbook for Critical Cleaning” is sometimes included in the course materials. In-house Programs Teaching Multiple Employees Where a number of employees need a program relating to critical cleaning, precision cleaning, surface preparation, general cleaning, contamination control, or regulatory issues, consider having us come to you. This approach avoids the lost time and travel-related expenses associated with transporting large groups of employees to a conference. Also, at your facility, we not only teach your employees, we can also see them in their working environment. This let us provide true on the job education and training. Sometimes, we can head-off small problems before they become unmanageable. “I have used your seminar (CD) numerous times since your seminar and found it very useful.” Education, Competition-sensitive Projects In-house programs have an advantage, and may be the only way to go, where companies need customized programs emphasizing specific topics, where competition-sensitive issues are involved, or where problems have to be hashed out. Audits, Failure Analysis, Trouble-Shooting Sometimes solving problems are the best time to learn about critical cleaning. Having an education program as part of a problem-solving expedition to your company can help to solve an immediate crisis in a more effective manner. The insight and education we give your employees helps avoid future emergencies - often, we can teach you how to fix problems yourself. Audits are a necessary part of process acceptance, validation and monitoring. BFK Solutions prefers the term ‘site visit' to 'audit,' because it keeps employees from running away in terror. If we find problems, a well-placed educational program can often get employees on the right track. Web programs, electronic communication Even within a company, web programs can be the most expeditious approach to resolving problems, especially where several sites are attempting to coordinate schedules and travel plans. We work with you to keep the communication and instruction clear, customized, and to the point. Ed and Barbara Kanegsberg provide technical articles and regulatory updates for the manufacturing community. We write regular columns for trade journals including “Controlled Environments Magazine” and “PFonline.com.” We also contribute columns to two subscription-based journals in Germany, “Galvanotechnik” and “PLUS.” Painless Education to Your In-Basket Clean Source, the enewsletter of BFK Solutions LLC, is a practical resource for our clients, colleagues and the manufacturing community. We teach cleaning basics; we give you a heads up about safety and environmental happenings that can impact your manufacturing processes. We also tell you about upcoming programs, conferences, and other educational resources. It’s published approximately every other month; we keep it fun and entertaining. The low, low price of this valuable resource is: free. Subscribe “Handbook for Critical Cleaning” The acclaimed handbook is now in its second edition. As with the first edition, we’re the editors; and we have written a number of the chapters. For details 
BFK Solutions regularly conducts educational seminars and workshops. Some of our programs for trade associations are free, or very low in cost. Check our website or newsletter for upcoming programs.
We provide customized workshops for individual companies. It can be more efficient and cost-effective to bring BFK Solutions to your facility.
We also prepare reports and white papers for individual companies. We don’t provide product endorsements; we do publish comparison studies. We also write about success stories of clients and colleagues, after obtaining their permission. Most of our information is readily available to the public; quite a bit can be obtained on-line. Go here for a list of publications.
Education, Training, and “Street Smarts”