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Education Is Key to the Future of Maintenance

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Training General

How often have you heard that young people today are not interested in pursuing a career in the maintenance field? How many extremely experienced technicians have left the field in recent years, taking with them a database of knowledge that cannot be recaptured?

These situations leave those maintenance and reliability professionals still working in a position where they have to do more with less, sometimes without the needed knowledge to accomplish the organizations' goals. Education and training seem to be the keys to promoting the field and keeping a high satisfaction level among practitioners.

Opportunities for professional development occur on several levels. Training in various skill areas, such as vibration and infrared, can be accomplished via CD-ROM, video or online programs. Management tips can be addressed in seminars or short courses, while university courses can provide certification or a degree.

Industry-academia ties
But the link between industry and academia is one that needs to be nurtured and strengthened, in the opinion of many maintenance professionals. "Industry needs bright young engineering and business students who have some knowledge and experience in the area of maintenance and reliability. They should...see maintenance as an investment rather than a controllable cost", wrote Tom Byerley, academic liaison director for the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals. "Academia needs input and guidance as to what industry needs from the universities: what type of students, what type of courses, etc".

When this interaction takes place, both industry and academia profit. For example, Claussen Pickle Co., Woodstock, IL, partnered with its local community college that designed a maintenance mechanic program to help the company fill its ongoing labor needs. McHenry County College's Center for Commerce and Economic Development, Crystal Lake, IL, put together a pay-for-skills incentive-based program that enables employees to learn new skills that qualify them for higher-paying jobs in the company, the plant manager noted last year. State grant funds subsidized many of the costs for the 600 companies for which the college provided contract training, technology assistance, and consulting in 2000.

Jeffrey Copley, maintenance training manager with the Des Moines Area Community College's Business Resources department, Ankeny, IA, joined the college in 1997 after more than 20 years operating and maintaining nuclear propulsion plants. "I was hired to provide support to businesses and industry in the maintenance and reliability areas. I started with one training area and an annual budget of $50,000; now we have three training centers, three full time assistants, and an annual budget of about $300,000.

The bottom line
Stan Zielinkski of the membership services department of the Illinois Manufacturers Association was quoted in The Daily Herald last year: "The majority of manufacturers in Illinois that can grasp the concept that training is healthy and that it is necessary and that it is important are the ones who are going to succeed in a highly competitive marketplace. Those are the ones that you're going to see still standing in the future."

His sentiments echo a study by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) that showed the companies that ranked in the top quarter of average training expenditures per employee enjoyed a 24 percent higher profit margin than those companies in the bottom quarter. Researchers found that firms ranked in the top half based on how much they spent on training had a total shareholder return (change in stock price and any dividends) in the following year that was 86 percent higher than firms in the bottom half, and 45 percent higher than the market average.

And there is a lot of money being spent for training. Last year nearly $57 billion, including staff salaries, was spent on formal training activities, according to Training magazine's 2001 Industry Report. A state of the industry report done by ASTD noted that the average survey respondent company spent $677 per employee on training, but the top 10 percent of companies spent an average of $1665 per eligible employee.

In the maintenance and reliability field, several instructors confirmed the interest in employees' improving their skill sets as well as leadership skills. In fact, one noted that "in the past five years I have taught more management-level people about improvement methods than in the prior 20 years. There seems to be a heightened awareness that today's, and tomorrow's, maintenance management must do things differently than in the past," said Robert Williamson, adjunct instructor at the University of Dayton who has more than 30 years experience with the "people side" of manufacturing operations and maintenance improvement.

"Yesterday's approaches to maintenance and reliability cannot succeed in tomorrow's environment. The new maintenance and reliability leaders must find ways to do more with less—more preventive maintenance with fewer people and fewer dollars," he added.

Industry needs to alter the attitudes of those entering the workforce. "In maintenance, we're doing a poor job of encouraging faculty, parents, and students to look at the satisfaction that can be derived from
a career in maintenance. Nontechnical managers and executives in industry and government tend to regard journeymen as people who work with their hands rather than professionals who use their hands as extensions of their minds in performing highly complex technical work," said Ron Friedman, chairman of North American Business Services, Scottsdale, AZ, and a maintenance seminar leader.

"Typical" students
Who is seeking these learning experiences? Copley noted that his students cover a wide spectrum of skill levels, with the average having 3-5 years of experience. Friedman said about 70 percent of the participants in his seminars are seasoned veterans who average more than 20 years of maintenance experience. About 10 percent are seasoned managers who have been transferred to maintenance from another function such as operations, human resources, or purchasing.

Perhaps the most common reason course participants give as to why they are taking part in these educational opportunities is to improve their skills. But Friedman added that other reasons he has encountered include learning how to obtain top management support of maintenance, become world class in maintenance, reduce unplanned maintenance, design and implement formal and on-the-job training programs, control operating and project budgets, improve communication and management skills, and become better at planning and scheduling.

The classroom is still the leader in education options: Training magazine's study found that 77 percent of training took place in traditional classroom-based programs. Other popular avenues are videos, CDs, and online programs, as well as on-the-job training.

But Williamson said for maintenance management and leadership training, "the primary approach is classroom training or seminars and workshops. We have not yet seen instructionally sound an effective online skills development in the leadership areas."

"I believe a ‘media' approach to teaching maintenance and reliability leadership is ineffective because it misses the instructional dialogue that is essential. We not only learn from the teachers but also from each other in a facilitated learning environment, or when we are truly focusing on a common goal".

Many organizations turn to outside sources for this training, rather than maintaining a large staff of training specialists in-house. According to Training magazine's industry report, $19.3 billion in training expenditures last year went to outside suppliers. About 40 percent of all training that employees received was designed by outside sources and about 30 percent was delivered by outside sources, the report said. A survey the by the Denniston Consulting Group, Lisle, IL, found that "vendors with personal knowledge of a particular business and specific expertise are sought after over those who claim to be ‘everything to everyone'." Companies were interested in the suppliers' perceived expertise and their understanding of the corporate culture. They tended to use a variety of vendors, each addressing specific training niches.

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