Year of the 'grease monkey'
20 Jan 2011
Starting into a New year, it’s interesting to note that for all the impressive and continuing advances in many areas of technology, success, and indeed survival, in the process industries still comes back to the quality of people employed within organisations.
The point is well illustrated in the Jan/Feb issue of Process Engineering, in which we take a look at motor maintenance issues (see PE feature).
Continuing development and adoption of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, as well as advances in the design and construction of motors themselves over recent years, would suggest that motor breakdowns should now be an increasingly rare occurrence at process facilities - rather like the reliability of the modern family car compared to its equivalent of 20 years ago.
In a typical counter-intuitive twist, however, it appears that many motors are still showing up in repair shops after just a few years of operation.
As explained by Mike Brook of ERIKS, this is in part linked to the disappearance of the humble ’grease monkey’ amid all the recent organisational downsizing, plus the consequent over-reliance on automated technologies intended to keep equipment running with minimal supervision.
A different, though not unrelated, people issue is highlighted in our News Analysis report on the need for new strategies concerning the recruitment and retention of older workers.
Government moves to increase the retirement age, combined with the UK’s ageing population, are likely to push this issue right up the agenda throughout the process industries this year.
And, as Warwick Chemicals’ National Training Awards success (see PE report) indicates, in 2011 the winning companies will again be those that most value their people, including that guy patrolling the shopfloor, oil can at the ready.
