Industrial Apprenticeships

Introduction
Apprenticeships have been used to improve the skills of novices in many fields for many centuries. Many craftsmen have shared knowledge with young trainees who later became skilled craftsmen in their own right. Over most of history this was the only way for skilled people in such crafts as masonry, carpentry, and many others to learn their craft. There were no formal schools that taught these skills.
Today most organizations, especially non-union companies, are looking for multi-craft people for maintenance work. Unlike years ago today’s maintenance technician must have skills in such fields as hydraulics, pneumatics, mechanical systems, welding and fabrication, tool and die, electrical power distribution, electronics, computer systems, digital electronics, and refrigeration. Colleges normally focus on the technical fields and vocational schools tend to concentrate on individual crafts. Some schools offer industrial technology courses but in a two-year school no student gets more than a basic exposure to only some of these fields.
In modern industry the various technical crafts that keep factories running are very important. Colleges and vocational schools can teach the theory and technical fundamentals and even provide a small bit of hands-on training. No new graduate has the skills to replace the technician who has been doing his job for fifteen or more years. Every modern industrial business has a set of processes and procedures that produce its products. Usually these are very specific to the product being made. In addition to these unique needs of each factory there are modern management tools and methods that influence all aspects of a company’s operations. Management approaches designed to reduce manufacturing costs can create a focus on the short term costs of apprenticeships. This short term view promotes the elimination of these programs. In spite of the apparent short term costs, apprenticeship programs are the most effective way to assure excellent technical support for a company’s operations. A long term view of the benefits of an apprenticeship program can improve a manufacturing company’s overall success.
Machine tools are very expensive long-term investments for companies. As long as a piece of equipment continues to effectively produce it will remain in use. Because of this, most manufacturing organizations have older equipment working alongside more modern equipment. It is often this older equipment that most needs the technician’s attention. Colleges and technical schools try to keep abreast of and teach the newer technologies. A recent graduate will have no training or experience with fifteen-year-old control systems. This new technician will get up to speed on the older systems much quicker if some one can show him how it operates.
There are two common objections to using apprenticeship programs. The first and most often voiced objection is the cost. One Canadian steel company reports a cost of $200,000 over a 4-year period to bring a trainee up to the needed proficiency level. (Waxer, 2006) This is a significant expense that can be very hard to justify, especially when the benefits are not easily quantified. The second common objection is the often expressed belief that people are being trained only to leave for greener pastures as they gain experience. While this is a very real concern, there are some ways to reduce the likelihood of trainees leaving.
As in any group of employees a certain number of apprentices will move on to other employers. In order to keep more of these valuable people companies can promote pride in the organization and show appreciation for the efforts and accomplishments of trainees. People develop loyalty when they feel loyalty is deserved. If a company is willing to invest money in training a person the extra incentives of respect and appreciation will help keep that person. The trainee will usually respond with loyalty to “his” company.
Another way to keep these trainees is to teach them only the particular skills they need to master for the company’s specific processes and equipment. With fewer “generic” skills, a trainee will not find so many interested employers and will have less incentive to leave. By limiting the level of education given to apprentices the company can get them fully incorporated into the work force much quicker. This approach does reduce the technical flexibility of the technician to adapt to changes in the processes.
Introducing Lean Manufacturing
As competition in the market place makes reducing the costs of products vital to the survival of businesses many new and innovative management styles have evolved. One of the most popular in recent years is “Lean Manufacturing”. This concept was originated by Toyota and has grown to be taught in management schools worldwide. In short, Lean Manufacturing seeks to streamline the flow of work through plant processes and to eliminate any forms of “waste” from the processes. (PQA, 2006) In their efforts to eliminate waste in manufacturing, “Lean” managers often see maintenance functions as simple overhead with high cost and no productivity. This makes maintenance departments high visibility targets for cost cutting. Maintenance personnel are expensive and eliminating them makes for considerable short term cost cutting rewards. Trainees have the brightest targets on their backs and are the first to get the axe. This elimination of apprenticeship programs is costing industry more in hidden costs than it is saving in staff reductions. The short term savings do not offset the long term costs. Industry managers need to return to apprenticeship programs and take a long term view of the values of such programs instead of the short term costs.
Hero or scapegoat?
There can be a hero-scapegoat cycle developing in many industries as a result of Lean Manufacturing and a short term focus on costs. A manager, in his push to cut costs, achieves a major cost reduction by drastically reducing staff in a maintenance department. After all, these people are simply expensive overhead. He is the company’s current hero and receives the reward of promotion. Some poor soul has to take over a decimated maintenance department. As the equipment failures and associated costs begin to increase due to lack of proper attention, the ill fated maintenance manager has to suffer the blame. He does what he has to do to get the equipment back to its previous productivity.
Eventually, after fighting for staff increases and suffering the hidden costs of hiring new people and bringing them to adequate proficiency levels, his department gets the operation back to the needed production level. The extra people now look like simple expenses. The manager is forced to leave because he is costing the company too much. His replacement sees an easy way to cut short term costs. A drastic staff cut makes him the hero of the day and the cycle repeats. The frequency of the cycle depends on the turnover rate of the maintenance staff, the work load on the equipment, and how effectively the lean manufacturing principles are employed. Lean Manufacturing is not the culprit here. It is a very effective tool. The problem lies in the way these principles are applied. Maintenance managers need to consider the long term as well as the short term costs and make adjustments to the system that eliminate the hero-scapegoat cycle. Short term costs of apprenticeships can be offset by long term gains if the long view is taken.
Hidden costs of hiring experienced people
The most common way to replace a technician who retires or leaves for some reason is to hire a skilled person from another industry. There are some potential problems that go with this plan. Falsified resumes, alcohol or drug problems, or personality problems can go undetected until an employee has been on the job. In some situations it can be hard to eliminate such a problem employee once he is hired.
Even hiring a well qualified technician from another industry does not ensure the new person is fully competent with the employer’s equipment and processes. A learning period is always necessary and this learning can be expensive. In spite of a very good knowledge of the technology involved, the specific application of that technology is what a technician must know to be effective in his job. Very few machine tools are simply off-the-shelf units. When a business manager spends millions of dollars on a piece of equipment, he expects that machine to do exactly what he needs. A hundred thousand dollars additional expense to customize the machine is not unusual. This customization is what makes each machine different and what demands a learning period for any newly hired technician.
Apprentices learn about equipment from technicians who have already learned many of the machine specifics. The overlap helps eliminate the self-learning that any newly hired technician must experience. When a technician makes a mistake on a machine the consequence can be comical such as causing the operator display to change to a different language but it can just as easily be disastrous and cause thousands of dollars in damage to the machine. (maintenanceresources.com, 2006) This is only one of the hidden costs of not using apprentices. An apprentice can learn not to do the things that can be disastrous without actually doing them.
A newly hired technician with experience in another application may try to use a technique that worked for him on another machine, only to discover that on this machine that technique has a totally different result. A competent but newly hired technician is not likely to make an expensive mistake but he will be much slower to do anything. He should know enough to realize that all machines are different and he will take extra time to be sure of how a machine will respond before trying anything. He will scan the documentation available and look over the schematics before pushing any buttons. This hesitation is a safety mechanism but it can add hours to repair times. This results in another of the hidden costs of not using apprentices: increased equipment downtime.
There is another hidden cost connected with under-experienced workers. When a person is unfamiliar with a process some of the fine points of that operation can be overlooked. This can result in quality situations that add extra time to later operations or even impact customer quality concerns. Once a technician is fully familiar with the overall process, the fine points of an operation and the effect these have on quality are a normal part of his job. Apprentices can learn operations and processes without the negative impacts that come with inexperience.
The sum of these hidden costs is hard to determine. It is not part of the management calculations that indicate the lack of return on investment in apprentices. Since the costs of not using apprentices are rarely used to offset the costs of apprentices, apprenticeship programs appear to be wasted money and are easily eliminated.
Benefits of apprenticeship
There are some obvious benefits of apprenticeship programs. The main purpose of an apprenticeship is to train workers to meet an individual business’s needs. This means training the person about the specific equipment and processes in use by that business. This specific experience is the type of training that colleges or vocational schools cannot provide. A graduate from any school may understand the technology behind machine tool control systems, but there are literally hundreds of machine tool builders and each one adapts the technology to his product in a specific way. This is true even when a relatively standard off-the-shelf control is used. Many machine builders produce their own brand of control. Vocational schools can not teach a student to be competent in all these various control types.
Once on the job a novice technician will be confronted with applications of his learned technology that were not adequately covered by his school work, if they were covered at all. He will not have the practical experience that only comes with time and effort in the real world. If he gets the opportunity to work closely with other skilled technicians he can use the technicians’ experience to enhance and complete what he learned in school. He will reach the proficiency level of a valuable technician much quicker than if he had to learn on his own – mostly by trial-and-error. (Little, 2006)
Another benefit that is often overlooked is the “try-before-you-buy” concept. (Waxer, 2006) This means that an employer has the opportunity to observe a worker’s potential without a full hiring commitment. Sometimes certain individuals are not good fits into a group. During an apprenticeship, these problems can be dealt with. Such things as specific training or counseling can bring a promising candidate to a point where he is a good fit. In the worst case, it is often easier to remove an apprentice than to eliminate a hired technician.
Some companies also use apprentices as “cheap labor”. Using apprentices to perform basic tasks such as preventive maintenance on equipment has some extra value. Working on the equipment in this way adds to the trainee’s knowledge of the equipment and frees up the skilled technician for more technical functions. In a large organization, this could actually reduce the number of expensive technicians needed on staff.
Technological advances
Computer technology has evolved rapidly over the last twenty years. This evolution has not missed the machine tool business. Modern industrial machine control systems make use of the best technology available. Unlike the personal computer world where there are basically only a few “standard” types of systems (PC, MAC…etc), the machine tool world follows no set standard. Each control system is unique and experience with one system does not readily translate to another system without a learning curve. The technician cannot customize a control system to match his experience; his experience must grow to match the system. This is another reason why apprenticeship is a good idea. The trainee learns a company’s unique controls system and does not have to “unlearn” another system.
Government managed apprenticeship programs
For many years, Germany has had a government mandated program to train young workers. It has been widely acknowledged as successful. One reason for the success of the program has been the required involvement of businesses in the training of these young people. Britain has tried to copy parts of the German plan with very limited success. The lack of success of the British plans has been blamed on the limited voluntary involvement of business and on the attitude of youth. British companies balked at government involvement in their business and did not invest the resources needed to make the plan work. (Vickers, 1994) Some companies claimed that young people were not interested in learning the skills that could make them valuable employees (Smith, 2004). Relying on government to provide worker training is not likely to be successful in the United States for the same reasons it is failing in Britain. American companies will not accept outside interference in their businesses.
Each industrial entity will need to manage its own training program or continue paying the costs of under-skilled workers. A truly effective apprenticeship program must be well thought out, organized, and documented. The goals of the program should be clear to the company and to the prospective trainees.
Conclusion
There are few objections to apprenticeship programs other than the cost. Managers who focus on the immediate or short term cost do not give adequate weight to the long term cost of not using apprentices. If the long term benefits of apprenticeship programs are not considered when making maintenance staff decisions the immediate cost of apprentices will make eliminating them look very attractive. Managers must find ways to justify the cost in order to reap the benefits that apprenticeship programs can provide. If the hidden benefits such as reduced equipment downtime, more effective and focused training, more consistent quality and even employee satisfaction are considered, apprenticeship programs become much more attractive. With the right management approach and a long term point of view, lean manufacturing principles and apprenticeship programs are not mutually antagonistic. Modern industry can gain much by revisiting the apprenticeship programs that served them well in the past.


References:
Cappelli, P. (1996). The British experience with youth apprenticeships. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(10), 679. Retrieved Tuesday, October 10, 2006 from the MasterFILE Premier database.
Fisher, A. (2006). Retain Your Brains. Fortune, 154(2), 49-50. Retrieved Monday, October 09, 2006 from the MasterFILE Premier database.
Little, P. (2006). The High Cost of Under-Skilled Labor. Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, 67(6), 10-10. Retrieved Sunday, October 29, 2006 from the Business Source Premier database.
Maintenance resources.com. Shaft alignments suffer from lack of apprenticeship programs. Retrieved Sunday October 8, 2006 from:http://www.maintenanceresources.com/ReferenceLibrary/ezine/shaftalign.html
Process Quality Associates Inc. (2006) What is Lean Manufacturing? Retrieved Sunday October 29, 2006 from: http://www.pqa.net/ProdServices/leanmfg/lean.html#What%20is%20Lean%20Manufacturing
Reynolds, M. (2005). The benefits of apprenticeships. Electronics Weekly, Retrieved Monday, October 09, 2006 from the Business Source Premier database.
Smith, E. (2004). Teenage employability. Youth Studies Australia, 23(4), 47-53. Retrieved Sunday, November 12, 2006 from the Academic Search Premier database.
von Brachel, J. (1994). What price apprenticeships?. Across the Board, 31(1), 32. Retrieved Tuesday, October 10, 2006 from the Business Source Premier database.
Waxer, C. (2006). Steelmaker revives apprentice program to address graying workforce, forge next leaders. Workforce Management, 85(2), 40-42. Retrieved Monday, October 09, 2006 from the Business Source Elite database.

In modern manufacturing plants the automation of processes requires networking of the various components. These networks pass data between the machines, robots, and data acquisition systems. Some common networking protocols are: Devicenet, Profibus, Modbus+, and others. Which protocol is most popular and what is the most advanced networking method? What do you work with now and what do you see approaching? Bluetooth or some other wireless technology?

I believe Ethernet is becomming the most popular connection method for new installations. What do you think?

Welcome to the Industrial Technology Explorer

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