Book Review: Maintenance Strategy Series Volume 5 – Training Programs for Maintenance Organizations
Overview
We’ve finally reached the final published book in the Maintenance Strategy Series, and I have to say this one was my favorite.
The series begins with preventive maintenance as the foundation. Once an effective program has been established, as evidenced by 80% planned work, the focus shifts to inventory and stores.
Once stores has been improved to the point that service levels are 95-97%, the organization is ready to improve and standardize work processes.
Then, a significant amount of data should be generated, which will require a CMMS/EAM to manage effectively.
Once a computer system has been selected, implemented, and is being successfully used to drive further improvements, the series turns to training programs. And what a topic it is!
The Perfect Storm
Like in previous books in the series, it begins with the case for addressing the topic at hand. For training programs, the triple threat to industrial success is:
- an workforce aging
- a compromised public education
- a disintegrating “first rung” on the skilled trades career ladder (apprenticeships)
With 78 million baby boomers beginning to retire in 2010, valuable knowledge and skills are leaving the workplace, yet companies have no plans to deal with it.
In itself, this situation would be recoverable if it were not for the reduced quality of general education. Literacy is in decline in the United States. Vocational education is being cut due to liability issues and expenses.
And for those students who are not college bound (or the roughly half of college students who don’t earn a degree), there are few paths in between professional careers and unskilled labor.
Despite labor shortages in skilled trades, young people see them as dead ends or poor prospects. They are taught by parents, teachers, and counselors that the only path worthy of a bright student is college. Therefore, even when well-paying opportunities for trades arise, they are rejected.
In light of a failed education system and lack of apprenticeships, the skill gap between younger workers will cost businesses dearly. For some businesses, it may be an existential crisis.
Since changing the massive education bureaucracy is unlikely, progressive businesses will have to grab the bull by the horns and take on the responsibility for training workers themselves.
Training Objectives
Training is expensive, in time and money, so some companies turn to On-the-Job training. But if the training is not structured, not documented, and not based on any long-term plan, it can be only a transfer of the senior employee’s bad habits to the junior employee.
On-the-Job training can be done, but without structure and objectives for each training session, the effort is wasted.
Well-defined objectives are the starting point for any training unit, no matter how small. Whether the training is in the classroom or on the job, the trainer should know exactly what the trainee is supposed to learn.
The book goes into great detail on preparing instructional objectives because those objectives will guide all that comes after in terms of instruction and activities.
Key Points
- Training objectives are crucial, as stated above.
- The different generational cohorts have different expectations of the workplace and different attitudes towards work. Baby boomers differ from Gen X and Gen Y in competitiveness, patience, and expectations. Rather than criticize and attack each other, Baby Boomers should recognize the creative and independent spirit of younger workers and work harder to retain them correctly. Meanwhile, younger workers should recognize the accumulated wisdom and skills of the boomers. The generations are interdependent, not special interest groups lobbying for special privileges at the expense of each other.
- Learning and training styles differ. Trainers should learn and understand those differences, and understand how to deal with difficult trainees.
- Knowledge management is essential. Without a structured way of transferring knowledge, the business will incur the cost of re-learning it. [Unfortunately, many older workers see their special knowledge as job security.]
- Training is only a solution to a problem in select situations. If there is a large performance discrepancy, the job plan is clear, proper resources are planned and provided, poor behaviors are not rewarded (perverse incentives), the job is properly supervised, a genuine skill deficiency exists, the job can not be simplified, and the person is capable of being trained, only then is development and implementation of training “the answer.”
Useful Features
- A detailed task description for mechanics is included in Appendix A, which could serve as a template for starting a training program.
- Differentiation between objectives and methods are illustrated through the book.
- As always, a chapter is dedicated to metrics to indicate how effective the training program is.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Volume 5
Overview of The Maintenance Strategy Series
Chapter 1: The Current Condition of Technical Skills in Maintenance Organizations
Chapter 2: The Training Development Process
Chapter 3: Duty – Task – Needs Analysis
Chapter 4: Learning and Training Styles
Chapter 5: Preparing Instructional Objectives
Chapter 6: Identifying and Developing Training Materials
Chapter 7: Training the Trainers
Chapter 8: Effective Classroom Conditions
Chapter 9: On-the-Job Training
Chapter 10: Measuring the Results
Chapter 11: Continuous Improvement in Training
Chapter 12: Managing the Next Generation of Technical Employees
Chapter 13: Knowledge Management
Appendix A: Mechanical Task Descriptions
Appendix B: Suggested Reading List
Index
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