In the late 1970s, when one of us started his internship as a millwright, all he needed to carry in his back pocket were some Channellock® pliers and a screwdriver. Back then the maintenance technician’s work was almost entirely mechanical. That’s no longer the case.
Today, laptops and other sophisticated diagnostic instruments are everyday fixtures on the shop floor. Programmable logic controllers (PLCs), robots and increasing levels of automation make it necessary for maintenance technicians to understand electronics, programming, and analytics in addition to mechanical and electrical system expertise.
Every major investment in new technology and equipment increases the skill-level requirements of your maintenance teams. Here are three considerations for assessing and developing a highly skilled and effective maintenance team.
Maintenance managers are constantly challenged to match the skillsets of their people with existing and emerging technology requirements. Reviewing current and future capabilities requirements is the first step in creating a knowledge development plan that will close any gaps. That first requires an understanding of current technology requirements and future investment plans.
Ideally, maintenance should be involved in the equipment design and procurement process, providing input and a real-world assessment of maintenance requirements for any new investments. Knowledge of current maintenance demands and workload should be used to provide input and improve future investments. At the least early involvement allows the maintenance team to begin to fill in any missing technical expertise, and to request the necessary training from equipment vendors.
Standardizing the types of technology and vendors and sticking to it – whether it’s controls or types of conveyors – can dramatically simplify training and knowledge requirements (as well as operating costs). That can be easier said than done because machine builders tend to stick with one type of PLC, and will try to charge more for any customization.
Past decisions can create years of extra work and headaches. For example, one of the plants that we used to oversee had four different types of PLCs. That was always a challenge to manage because some maintenance team members were only qualified to work on Allen Bradley or Siemens or the other PLCs, and not the other types, which reduced flexibility and responsiveness.
When putting together a knowledge development plan, maintenance managers should ask: What key skills do we need to keep in house? What skills should we develop and maintain? What maintenance work should we contract out?
The answers to these questions depend in large part on how critical the machinery and equipment are to productivity and production uptime. The maintenance of any proprietary production lines and equipment must be kept in house. You don’t want outsiders getting a close look at any technology that offers a real competitive advantage. This typically includes any custom-made machines that do one thing and do it very well.
On the other side of the in-house or outsource question is any facilities-related work, from grass mowing and landscaping to painting and HVAC systems. You want your maintenance people to be focused on critical production technology and not have to worry about these more mundane tasks, which are easy to outsource.
Consider outsourcing MRO inventory management as well. Advantages included better organization, lower purchasing costs, reduced maverick buying and fewer stockouts. Not only can the MRO inventory be managed better and more cost-effectively by vendors, it can often be held on site on a consignment basis, which means that it’s paid for only when it’s used.
On the issue of training, maintenance managers must determine if technicians will be sent outside for instruction or if setting up in-house training program makes more sense. We’ve always found that generic training is much less effective than targeted training on specific applications and types of equipment.
If outside contractors and corporate engineers set up the equipment and then just hand the keys over to the production and maintenance teams, that’s not a recipe for success. Thorough training of maintenance personnel must be part of the delivery contract.
In maintenance the best mechanics and technicians often get promoted to managers. How to delegate effectively and hold people accountable are entirely different skillsets that will need to be developed. Manufacturers need to define what management success requires in their organization, and deliberately develop those key skills in their maintenance managers.
Finally, you’re probably not going to hire a “data scientist” to be part of your maintenance team. But manufacturers will increasingly need to develop people with the skills to gather and download data from systems, and then execute some rudimentary analysis at the very least.
These are the key skill-related trends and challenges that manufacturing business leaders need to be aware of with the embrace of the industrial internet of things, greater equipment connectivity, and more automation. How prepared are your maintenance teams?
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