competency-based learning

Maintenance Skills Training for industry is a hot subject right now. In many areas of the country, companies are competing for skilled maintenance personnel.

Tammy Bodack with Charlotte's Central Piedmont Community College states that the city's total unemployment rate is less than 2% and the skilled unemployment rate is lower than that.

The skill level of the maintenance personnel in most companies is well below what industry would say is acceptable.

During the current time globalization and the forces of competition are causing many of the worlds industries to change frequently in order to either remain in the game, or to try to gain advantage in some manner. Organizational structures are becoming transient things used as a tool to facilitate change. For example people often are required to do project work for short periods in order to maintain the continuous improvement focus that an organization may wish to achieve.

As a result here are many and regular changes occurring within the fields of maintenance as well. A CMMS system may be implemented, maintenance strategy review undertaken, business processes reviewed or even the regular addition of root cause analysis projects. TPM and lean maintenance programs have also now entered the landscape as part of the changes open to maintenance departments.

All of these forces can cause the organizational culture to shift somewhat. The organisation of the early twenty first century finds itself in the situation where it is always breaking paradigms and accepting new ones only to break them again as their advancement continues.
However much if the continual change within some organizations is due to the lack of success of previous programs. The Program of the Month phenomena. I feel that there is somewhat of a misunderstanding of this issue. Mindsets such as these are often attributed to the fact that management are not fully behind the concept, or a coping mechanism for a workforce that has reached a saturation point in terms of the continual changes that they need to endure.

By Cynthia Rishko, National Technology Transfer, Inc.

Training Pays

Employee training programs cost money that employers might be reluctant to spend-especially in tough economic times. Often times giving serious consideration to an employee training program is delayed until an incident occurs that highlights the need for a change in the status quo. The truth is that money spent on training employees well can benefit a company in many ways for years. The benefits come in the form of increased efficiency and productivity; less downtime or complete breakdown of systems; less reliance on high priced outside consultants to resolve issues, as well a decrease in insurance liabilities due to accidents on the job, along with their potential for OSHA penalties.

By Chuck Kooistra Sr. Vice President, General Physics Corporation

The most pressing issue in North American manufacturing does not involve competition from overseas. The critical issue involves the short supply of qualified technical labor available to get the work done.