Publicizing The Maintenance Crisis

The United States is on the verge of what is being termed a "maintenance crisis". As the baby boomer generation is aging, waves of maintenance technicians are retiring and taking their history and knowledge of maintenance with them. Some industry segments have predicted that up to 35% of thier maintenance force will be retiring by 2015. Coupled with natural attrition rates, this means their will be a huge demand for new, young maintenance technicians.

But the problem goes well beyond the masses of maintenance professionals leaving. The industry must also contest with the fact that 1) documentation of maintenance processes and procedures is unfortunately poor in many companies, especially those outside the manufacturing sector. 2) there is a skilled trades crisis in general looming for the US, so maintenance will be competing with other industries such as construction for skilled workers. 3) It may be difficult to convince the new generation of workforce to try to build a career in something that they consider to be manual labor. 4) Many of our plants and facilities in the US have fallen into disrepair and the need for maintenance work at these facilities are increasing.

Any one of the given problems is bad, but when you roll them all up, you don't have to be a professional strategist to understand that a crisis is coming and it's very real.

So how do we help solve the problem? The first step is publicizing the problem and getting the word out so that we are properly preparing for the oncoming crisis. Joel Leonard, the self-procalimed "Maintenance Evangelist" is helping lead the charge. Joel is a dynamic individual that brings a level of enthusiasm and excitement to the maintenance crisis reserved typcially fonly or nutty sports fans. You think I'm kidding about comparing his zeal to that of a sports fan? How many other people do you know that have written songs about the maintenance crisis and have launched a YouTube channel (Skill TV) dedicated to the maintenance crisis? His maintenance song appeared on National Public Radio and has had over 25,000 downloads. This guy is practically a rock star! Check it out at the following link along with som pretty incredible pictures to go with the song. http://www.mpactlearning.com/maintenance_crisis_song/Maintenance%20Crisis%20Song.pps
In addition to his music and TV related propaganda, Joel also works hard at more traditional methods of spreading the word having written multiple articles, given conference talks and working through congress as an appointed person on the Council of Competitiveness. Joel also teaches a course "How to Deal with an Aging Workforce" for American Trainco www.americantrainco.com in which he helps facility and plant managers understand the crisis and how to get a jump on finding new talent. So big props to Joel for taking the lead.

While Joel is reaching a lot facility managers and human resource managers, getting to the new workforce is a little more difficult. The biggest problem here is simply overcoming the perceptions of what a maintenance technician is and what rewards go along with the job. For many, the image of a maintenance technician is a guy running around with a screw driver in his back pocket, grease under his fingernails and getting paid just above minimum wage. While the job of course requires manual labor that can be a little dirty at times, other parts of the job are challenging and can be very rewarding financially, with some specialized technicians or maintenance managers making well into six figure incomes. As facility and plant equipment become more and more dependant on computers, the maintenance technician's role has become increasingly more high tech. Infrared cameras, lasers and acoustic tools are just some of the equipment that maintenance technicians might be using. A CMMS or Computerized Maintenance Management System is the heart of many facilities for planning maintenance activities and work orders. What we need to do is bring this realization to the new workforce; maintenance technician careers can be cool, high tech, challenging and well paying.

The auto industry figured it out years ago. Think of the images of auto mechanics back in the 70's compared to today. Similar to the maintenance technician, an auto mechanic used to a guy in grubby jeans with a greased stained shirt smoking a cigar. Fast forward to today's commercials and the automechanic is wearing stylish safety glasses working on computerized equipment doing analysis on your car. The maintenance industry needs to appeal to younger workers and in today's world, image is everything.

Solving the maintence worker gap will take more than just publicizing it and changing images of maintenance technicians, but it's a critical first step in the process. The more we can make company mangers, government agencies and the new workforce aware of the situation, the better our chances of getting on the right track towards solutions.