7.2 Education, Training & Development

In 2017, the LINK Automated People Mover (APM) at Toronto Pearson International Airport transported an average of 24,000 passengers per day — a 20% increase in passenger traffic from 2015, according to a 2017 report by the GTAA. To increase operational service levels, preventative maintenance optimization (PMO) initiatives were undertaken in 2015 and 2016 in co-ordination with the APM owner, manufacturer, and O&M service provider. The initiatives were designed to increase the overall day-to-day operational run-time of the LINK system while maintaining existing levels of safety and reliability. In this workshop, we’ll use the LINK APM system as a case study to discuss the requirements for successful PMO implementation, which include interorganizational communication and co-operation, RCM strategies, and due diligence as it relates to safety-related subsystems and processes. We’ll also offer a blueprint for similar optimization strategies.

Reliability engineers in industry are often thrown into the position with very little knowledge about what they’re supposed to do. Or, sometimes, the organization isn’t set up to take advantage of what a reliability engineer can do. Sometimes these engineers have the theoretical knowledge from college but never learned what will be used in the real world. This presentation will address all the basics a new reliability engineer must know. We’ll focus on managing existing equipment and provide an overview of the reliability engineer’s role in new equipment procurement and design. We’ve found that the role of a reliability engineer is not often clear; in fact, many reliability engineers end up doing a lot of work not always related to what they should do.

The tenets of reliability can be fun and messy. In this workshop, we’ll help you better understand these concepts and where the confusion creeps in. This session will be great for those studying for an exam or for those who want to geek out. You’ll leave with new knowledge, interesting facts, and explainable models that you can take back to your facility. We’ll look at turbo implementations; the criticality of criticality (both of them); the P-F interval; the funky failure curves of RCM; why root cause analysis is a lie; and why predictive tools can’t predict. Bring your own confusions and a willingness to participate in the dialogue as we break each of these down and toss out a few lies.

Based on real-world experience this invaluable guide and reference tells the whole story of maintenance planning from beginning to end in a concise and easy-to-follow manner. Written by well-known professionals this new edition focuses specifically on the preparatory tasks that lead to effective utilization and application of maintenance resources in the interest of the reliability essential to business objectives. It comprehensively examines the job preparation process from job scoping and planning, to determination of material requirements, estimation of labor requirements and job duration, coordination of all involved parties, and job scheduling. And it includes essential metrics for measuring performance of all contributing functions. It is a vital training document for planners, an educational document for those to whom planners are responsible, and a valuable guide for those who interface with the planning and scheduling function and are dependent upon the many contributions of planning and scheduling operational excellence.This is the text book for MMP Module 6.  It is available for purchase through PEMAC, by contacting; pd@pemac.org 

From the book cover. A carefully planned shutdown will improve your plant's safety and efficiency, while one that "just happens" can be disastrous. Developed from the author's highly successful seminars, this book takes you step by step through successfully managing production shutdowns. Identify what must be done, schedule equipment and staff, use project-management software, and save both dollars and downtime.  Reference Book for Module 6 of the MMP Program 

Often people who are good at their jobs at the operations level are promoted to supervisory positions without much thought about how to equip them for success in the new role. The mentality of “sink or swim” has been proven contrary to how people actually learn on the job. So what can you do to up skill your supervisors? What can you do to assist supervisors with transitioning from hourly, operational thinking to salaried leadership thinking? The key lies in knowing how to develop leadership using on-the-job coaching, training and mentorship. When approached strategically and thoughtfully, organizations can effectively equip supervisors to see themselves as part of the management team, develop the skills and confidence to take charge and lead their teams effectively. Presented at MainTrain 2017 

In his book ‘Good to Great’ Jim Collins tells us that the secret to success is to have the right people in the right seats on the right bus. How many of our organizations actually achieve that? What are some of the reasons we don’t succeed? During this presentation we will see that perhaps the biggest reason we don’t succeed is simply we don’t really know what the ‘right people’ look like. We will look at how we normally determine if the people are right based on what we expect them to do as it compares to their skill sets. For example – why is it that so many College Quarter Backs or Junior A hockey players fail to make the big time and play in the NFL or NHL?Getting closer to home we will look at why many people who are put in the role of maintenance and reliability leaders continue to struggle even though they seem well suited for the job and turn out to be the wrong people in the right seats. As we look at the reasons that this happens we will look at what it is exactly that these leaders need to do, know and understand in order to succeed. We can assure you that what you’ll learn from this presentation will change how you approach filling the vacancies within your organization! We promise you that you will listen, learn and laugh!Presented at MainTrain 2017 

Sustaining asset performance while managing quality of production with reduced production costs is like keeping your balance while walking on a high-wire. When the market sets the sales price and the shareholders sets the net profit expectations, the only choice left is decreasing production costs. Labor-cost appears to many managers as an easy target when cutting costs. On the contrary, investing in improving the labor qualifications can result in higher efficiency and by default lower costs. The market is pushing organizations who are looking for sustaining or improving profits in this direction, including the steel industry that also faces this challenge. How do organizations select optimum production levels, minimum manpower numbers in order to sustain their productivity and profitability while maintaining a flexibility in following the market demands? The short answer is "do more for less". However, it is not an easy task. The Target is to demonstrate this situation and the analysis that has been done at Rajhisteel, where  the results are promising so far. Planning to upgrade the QMS to ISO 9001:2015 will help the organization improve and shift the focus to sustainability and effectiveness.

Most front line lead hands or supervisors are appointed to their positions because they are good at their jobs. But how often do they get management training to work effectively with people and build their teams? This presentation highlights five companies who invested in front line supervisor in-person leadership training to work effectively with diverse workforces. It describes their struggles, successes and explains what works to transform "good workers" into "inspired, confident team leaders".

Identifying and hiring talented technical employees in the manufacturing industry is not an easy task for Maintenance, Operations and HR leaders. In today's manufacturing economy, automation and computerization have taken over vast sections of the industry leaving technical employees to hold greater control over assembly assets and making more decisions about how to deploy, manage, and maintain equipment.   Manufacturers need to hire talented technical employees that have multi skills abilities to do many jobs and that have the capability to adjust, repair and troubleshoot various type of equipment. Relying on a good CV, past experience and a good academic background is no longer adequate. In order to solve this issue, innovative maintenance, operation and HR executives are now turning into "hands on" and troubleshooting simulation mechanical and electrical assessments prior to hire to get talented technical employees.In this presentation, you will see and learn:- How leaders includes mechanical and electrical simulator assessments in their hiring process to get the data they needs for making smart hiring decisions.- The accuracy and validation testing factors of the simulator technology based on scientific researches.- How to save costs by delegating more maintenance responsibilities to your employees- Case studies, results, returns and gains made at specific manufacturing companies