Maintenance Technology May 2017 - 9

ON THE FLOOR

into their jobs if they can be shown
that the organization is interested
in keeping equipment working and
running at optimum production levels.

If you're interested in becoming
an MT Reader Panelist, email
jalexander@maintenancetechnology.com.

Reliability Specialist,
Power Sector, Midwest. . .

Our organization participates in job
fairs at the high school, trade school,
and university levels. We are active
members on curriculum boards at two
trade schools in the state. We assist
with training recommendations, and
provide tools and equipment to the
union-trades training facilities. Our
organization has an in-house apprenticeship training program, heavily
invested into continuous training of all
personnel to maintain a highly skilled
workforce and encourage training for
future positions using in-house training
and college tuition support. We also
participate in high school-throughcollege job shadowing programs and
internships.

Sr. Facilities Engineer,
Discrete Mfg, Southeast. . .

Our facility has become involved with
Junior Achievement. A variety of our
personnel spend predetermined time
at local schools leading classes that
focus on possible vocations, working as
part of a team, and other things to help
students understand more about what
work will be like. We also hire summer
interns, usually in some engineering
position. We've had chemical,
mechanical, and electrical majors.
This year we'll have an environmental
science student to help with some
environmental updating. This will be
good for us and offers good experience
for the intern. The position is paid.

Plant Engineer, Institutional
Facilities, Midwest. . .

We have a Civil Service System, and
tradesmen/women must meet all
the qualifications and experience
before being interviewed. The system
has drawbacks, but as a whole, our
hires are very qualified. It also allows
people to move to other positions by
attending classes or studying until they
MAY 2017

military personnel into industry jobs
has been varied. We've been bringing
in student interns to support our
engineering departments for several
years, and have hired one full-time.

Engineer, Process Mfg, Southeast. . .

meet the qualifications for a higher
position. Some employees who started
out as janitors later became laborers,
then stationary firemen/women, then
building engineers, even an assistant
chief engineer.

Technical Supervisor,
Public Utility, West. . .

This is a real problem for the hydro and
power-generation industry. We've not
had good luck "stealing" experienced
journey-level employees from other
utilities lately. We're part of a state
system, and drastic reductions in
various benefits over the past decade
have removed the incentive for such
personnel to "jump ship" and join our
organization.
We've developed detailed system
descriptions of our project, so if we
bring in personnel from the nonpower industry, they have a training
road map/program with lot of handson training.
Our experience with a somewhat
expensive service that puts former

Our plant is a founding member of
[a not-for-profit regional workforcedevelopment alliance]. The organization engages in activities to improve
the overall training and skill level
of [the region's] craft persons and
trade persons and promote consistent
application of skill standards in the
industrial and contractor workforce.
It also works to provide, develop,
and implement training programs to
ensure consistent skill-level designations for trade persons. Partnering
with educational institutions and
others, it provides information and
assistance with career and skills assessments, training programs, certification
standards, and accepted credentials
for skilled crafts persons and trades
persons. Coordinating with local
industry and employers, it assesses
present and future needs for skilled
workers and develops and implements
initiatives that alleviate shortages. MT

Go to maintenancetechnology.com to
read an expanded version of May's
"On the Floor."

Tip of the Month | MAY 2017

"Once you've tightened a bolt to the correct torque
rating, use colored nail polish to paint a straight
line across its head and onto the bolted equipment. If this straight line ever appears broken,
it's an indicator that the bolt has loosened. This
extremely inexpensive vibration-monitoring
technique provides an important visual cue that
operators can easily detect during daily checks
and, in turn, leads to fast maintenance response."

Tipster: Ken Bannister, MEch Eng (UK), CMRP, MLE
Contributing Editor

What about you?
Tips and tricks that you
use in your work could
be value-added news
to other reliability and
maintenance pros. Let us
help you share them.
Email your favorites
to MTTipster@
maintenancetechnology.
com. Who knows? Like
this month's featured
tipster, you might see
your submission(s)
highlighted in this space.
(Anyone can play. You
don't need to be an MT
Reader Panelist.)

MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM | 9

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology May 2017