With the COVID-19 pandemic stunning the world, maintaining safety is more important than ever. Both employees and employers are tasked with the responsibility to check individual and company-wide practices to help build a skilled workforce that drives the maintenance and reliability industry forward.
Mastering the latest tools and processes used in the maintenance and reliability community is essential to industrial workforce development. Once an individual is trained, upgrading the skills of the maintenance team also plays an important part in your reliability roadmap. Interpersonal training can help maintenance technicians interact better with equipment operators and production personnel.
Vlad Bacalu, Board Member, Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals
When it comes to promoting workforce development, there are various ways to train and retain maintenance and reliability professionals, such as certification programs through the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT) and Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) exams.
The CMRP and CMRT certifications are based on a robust body of knowledge developed by practitioners in the field of maintenance and reliability, providing candidates with real viewpoints from those already in the field. Each certification covers all areas of responsibilities that a maintenance and reliability leader or engineer needs to know. Additionally, the CMRP is the only certification program of its kind accredited by ANSI, which follows the globally recognized ISO standards for its accreditation purposes.
Training and study resources are offered without the perception that one must take the training to pass each exam. A psychometric analysis is performed on each question in the exam, subjecting each question to various analyses aimed at determining the quality of the question. There are formal job task analyses performed regularly to ensure the body of knowledge is updated to reflect any changes in technology, safety or work processes. The new questions are reviewed by an expert exam team and then introduced as beta questions on exam forms to validate the quality of these new questions before making them active on the official exam.
To continuously sharpen the skillsets of candidates, CMRP and CMRT certificants must also meet recertification requirements during the three-year certification cycle to retain certified status throughout each subsequent three-year cycle. When held to a higher standard, individuals are not only trained with the best knowledge, but the industry also rises above and retains the investment in talent.
Developing a skilled workforce is critical to driving the maintenance, reliability and physical asset management profession forward. As it stands currently, there are neither adequate funds provided to high schools, trade schools and colleges to produce the resources to replace an aging workforce, nor enough incentives to assist companies and local governments with collaborative training for the future workforce.
When individuals are held to a higher standard, the industry retains the investment in talent.
Nearly every industry sector requires the services of maintenance, reliability and physical asset management personnel, including energy, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, automotive, government and military, petrochemical, education and commercial. Maintenance, reliability and physical asset management practitioners specialize in achieving improved efficiency and profitability across many industries around the world. Responsible for applying best practices and proactively managing operations, equipment and people, these practitioners must continue to expand their knowledge and skills in the increasingly competitive workforce.
Vlad Bacalu is senior vice president of technology strategy and activities for AECOM's Commercial Facilities Operations & Maintenance business. He has over 25 years of maintenance and reliability experience in the manufacturing and process industry. He serves as a board member of the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals.
For more information, visit www.smrp.org or email info@smrp.org.
