Introduction to Maintenance Management Training: Building a Skilled Workforce

Maintenance management is vital to functioning machines, equipment, and infrastructure in diverse sectors. Organizations need skilled workers with expertise and experience to manage maintenance work. That’s the reason why implementing a maintenance training program is important. 

In this article, we explore the world of management training for maintenance and look at how it can assist in building a skilled workforce.

What Exactly is Maintenance Management?

Management of maintenance is the practice of maintaining your resources and assets. The main purpose of it is to reduce maintenance costs and ensure everything is running. By using maintenance management software, you can avoid wasting funds and time. 

Maintenance management was an ongoing process of written notes. Today, combining CMMS software, the best methods, and a trained staff to maintain your asset functioning is possible. 

There is no universal solution that works for everyone. Your maintenance program must be tailored to the type of maintenance you use at the plant you work. Regardless of whether you use an approach to maintenance based on time. Preventive maintenance or a situation-based method that includes predictive maintenance.

The Most Basic Procedures for Establishing a Maintenance Management Training Program

For many companies, it is the case that the first push to start the training program is from maintenance management experts in the firm. Whatever the case, the method of making the maintenance management training program remains the same.

1. Argumentatively Support the Program

Training programs are an important project requiring much of the company’s funds. To make it a success, all employees, from the top management to maintenance and plant management, must take part and agree with the plan.

To make this take place, it is first necessary to know the current capability of technicians who are in charge of maintenance. These assessments’ results are a good argument to convince top management to accept the assessment. Maintenance professionals can present many ways to increase the efficiency of their business. 

2. Make a Plan for a Structured Curriculum

After you’ve received the approval from the upper management, now is the time to design an appropriate outline for the training program. The content will depend on the information obtained from the assessment conducted in the first phase.

There is a myriad of sources for maintenance management training syllabi out there:

• OSHA and HAZWOPER regulations
• Vendor recommended specs
• A respected industry association standards
• Special Training created by institutions

At this point, you need to decide on the structure of your instruction. The best approach is to design a balanced approach, using both class and workshop types. Make sure everything is documented to guarantee reproducibility.

3. Design and Lead the Training

Select and identify the employees or technicians to undergo training in maintenance. Often, you cannot let the entire maintenance staff undergo training. Breaking them into groups is the easiest way for the plant not to stop. Make sure you rank those roles that would receive the greatest enjoyment, such as education.

The most effective training programs emphasize learning. Sometimes it may be learned at work over several months or even weeks. It could also involve periodic workshops and classes all through all times of the year.

4. Test the Effectiveness of Maintenance Training

The exact ROI calculation for the investment in maintenance management training. Various variables can influence each metric and KPI for maintenance. Identifying the cause of the drop in unplanned breakdowns can be difficult. Better replacement parts? More efficient working conditions? What is the result of training? Is it a matter of luck?

Maintenance management training should be able to impact the number of metrics. This will affect MTTR and the number of accidents and breakdowns due to human mistakes. The metrics that are used are different from one company to another. A major reason for establishing maintenance MTP is the lack of performance in particular areas.

Check the results against the base (from the pre-training period) and see the extent of gains in performance. For longer-term training, it will be a continuous procedure.

The data can be utilized to identify how to improve and strengthen the performance of the software. Because CMMS assists you in defining and monitoring various metrics, this information can be used to change the structure of the next training sessions.

5. Are you Prepared for The Post-Training Stage?

Effective training programs consider the human component, including the desires and goals of employees participating in the classes. Develop a reward or incentive system for employees participating in these training programs. 

What’s the Goal of Maintaining Training Management?

The primary goals of maintenance management remain similar regardless of the kind of facility you oversee. These include:

• Extending the usefulness of your investments
• Lowering the possibility of failures to assets and downtime
• The scheduling of maintenance and the allocation of your resources 
• Controlling your costs
• Compliance with the rules for your business
• Affording that your workers are safe
• Improving practices and procedures

What are the Various Types of Management for Maintenance?

Four main methods of managing maintenance can be employed in combination or on their own. The best maintenance management strategy for your company is based on the equipment. You depend on its age, the condition of its repairs and maintenance history, and how crucial they can be to your business.

• Run-to-failure (Reactive Maintenance)

Utilizing one of your assets until it is damaged and fixed. It is an acceptable approach to managing the maintenance of assets, with no security risks and minimal effect on production. This method means that you don’t have to ask technicians to do any work until a malfunction happens. If it occurs, keeping the spare parts and techs to fix the damaged parts is essential.

This method can allow you to maximize the value of specific assets for the least costs possible. But, it is important to use this strategy on only the best assets. Otherwise, you may end up dealing with many downtimes that are not scheduled and costly repair costs.

• Preventive maintenance (Proactive)

This preventive maintenance approach relies on the principle that “prevention is better than the cure.” When you schedule inspections for your property and execute regular maintenance. You can handle the lesser chores, like adjustments and cleaning to ensure that your asset is in operating condition. This will reduce the chance of unexpected time-consuming downtime.

At first, planning maintenance according to your manufacturer’s recommendations may make sense. As your equipment becomes older. Your technicians become aware of typical issues and the changes they must make to make them perform at peak performance.

One of the primary benefits of using a preventive maintenance plan is its effectiveness. All the work is planned, so you can expect what the maintenance team will do for a specific day and what they’ll need. 

The downside is the possibility that you do more maintenance than needed, which could lead to extra loss and risks.

• Predictive maintenance (Condition-Based)

You use monitoring software to identify when the condition of your assets determines the ideal time to take care of your equipment. The goal is to be alert to detect signs of an issue and act before it turns serious. If they are, remove the device from service to inspect and fix it if needed.

A benefit of predictive maintenance is that sensors can check the machine while it’s operating and only notify you in the event of a malfunction. This allows you to cut down on the frequency of maintenance inspections and be sure only to carry out maintenance work when necessary. 

Conclusion

Many companies choose not to maintain an internal maintenance management training program to avoid using their resources. This is understandable. However, it’s not taking into account the bigger view.

In the long run, considering the industry’s workforce issues in general, the advantages of maintenance management training are greater than the cost of training.