by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Aug 16, 2021 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
Manufacturing in America is a global force to reckon with. Our technology, machinery, facilities, and transportation systems are powerful and robust. The challenge we had prior to the advent of COVID-19, was availability of a sustainable and skilled workforce in many...
by Heinz Bloch, P.E., Editor | Aug 15, 2021 | Asset Management, The Bloch Files, Workforce Issues
Some of today’s top RAM professionals take exception to the notion that technical books dealing with reliability, availability, and maintenance (“RAM”), and/or equipment-asset management can become outdated over time. They rightly dispute that...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Aug 9, 2021 | Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
According to Monster’s “The Future of Work 2021: Global Hiring Outlook” report, the skills gap is widening. The top hurdle that hiring managers expect to face in 2021 remains the skills gap and its impact on finding qualified candidates. A third of U.S. employers say...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Aug 2, 2021 | Planning & Scheduling, Workforce Issues
I’ve shared this story elsewhere over the years, in print and in presentations. That doesn’t matter. The lessons learned from it are worth repeating. As I have often mentioned, motorsports racing, and pit-crew methods can provide invaluable insights for...
by Ken Bannister, MEch (UK), CMRP, MLE, Editor | Jul 26, 2021 | Maintenance Management, Workforce Issues
It’s been said before, “The times they are a’ changin’.” When it comes to today’s RAM arena, that statement is so very true. Industry’s need for quality maintenance-skilled trades has never been more acute. This difficult situation is due, largely,...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jul 3, 2021 | Plant Operations, Workforce Issues
Maintenance best-practices alone do not make a reliability-improvement strategy. Partnering with your plant’s work groups to aggressively pursue reliability excellence will pay off all the way around. High-performing, low-cost, competitive operations depend on...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | Jun 4, 2021 | Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
Permit me to do some recapping here: In my May 31, 2021, newsletter column for The RAM Review (see link below), I brought up a report issued by the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Task Force on Work of the Future in the fall of 2020. It discussed the...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 31, 2021 | Newsletter Column, Workforce Issues
The dilemma around workforce training persists today, as it has for decades. Same challenge, different situation. “If we train them, they’ll leave for a better job at another company, maybe even our competitor’s!” The other side of the dilemma: “If we don’t train...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 23, 2021 | Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
My recent series of discussions in The RAM Review (see links below) have focused on the topic of workforce-development strategies and planning. As I’ve mentioned before, workforce development is not merely training. In this article, I discuss how competency building...
by Bob Williamson, CMRP, CPMM, MIAM, Editor | May 15, 2021 | Training & Qualification, Workforce Issues
This article is the third in a series of discussions (see links below) on workforce development in the post-pandemic era. Some key points from the previous two installments include the fact that, going forward, industrial operations will need to include a focus on the...
