Plant Services - June 2008 - (Page 17)

CRISIS CORNER ‘Les Misérables’ de maintenance Aversion to skilled labor is not just for Americans A main concern is that maintenance jobs are statistically, isery loves company: The United States is not in our country, the most dangerous ones. According a suralone in the fight against the maintenance crisis. vey carried out by the French National Institute on Research Other countries are struggling with these issues, for Safety (INRS), in 2002, 44% of the fatalities recorded too. Let me share a letter from a gentleman who helped in French industry were related to maintenance operations. translate the original maintenance crisis song from English Maintenance workers have to work during their careers on to French for the Euromaintenance Conference in Belgium machinery that compels them to be in unusual positions and (www.euromaintenance.org). in the vicinity of energy (electricity, heat, pressure, moving Dear Mr. Leonard, parts, chemicals, etc.). This also is why young people preAccording to the Web site of AFIM, a French maintefer to spend their working lives comfortably seated behind nance association (www.afim.asso.fr), on the issue of an emkeyboards in air-conditioned environments, ployment barometer, or barometre de l’emploi, rather than repairing in the cold rain a bullevery month, between three to five job offers More and dozer that is stuck in the mud. for one job demand are to be seen. Last summore boys are We have to acknowledge that if employers remer, this ratio reached its peak of 11. ally need more maintenance workers, they have From 1999 to 2005, I was a member of the addicted to to make this job sexier, i.e., to provide workers French National Pedagogic Committee for video games. with more adequate tools, improved safety and the 26 Departments of Maintenance and Inbetter working conditions, and to have more dustrial Engineering (GIM) of our Technolpossibilities for promotion in the future. But this costs more, ogy University Institutes (IUT), and I had to oversee the and the main target of decision-makers, who are no longer inevaluation of such departments. dustrialists, but short-term-oriented financial people, is a perWe despairingly tried to attract young students to these manent cost-cutting policy in maintenance expenditures. departments. The lack of applicants compelled us to close In French industries, the average direct cost of maintedown one department, in spite of the overwhelming needs nance in 1987 was 4.5% of their turnover. In 2006, this figof French industry. ure was down to 2.8%. From 1996 to 2006, the direct costs I’m reminded of a conversation I had with the teachers of of maintenance were reduced by 10%, but the number of the GIM of an IUT. They told me: industrial injuries in maintenance increased by 50%, with • There’s only one applicant for jobs involving manual 50% of injuries occurring to the 20% youngest members of work compared with 10 applicants for computer work. the maintenance staff. • More and more boys are addicted to video games. This is The findings of AFIM’s surveys on maintenance safety the reason why they’re attracted to computer jobs (but they led to the improvement of the teaching of safety in the quickly discover that computer programming isn’t as easy as French technical schools and universities (safety regulaplaying video games!). tions, risk assessment, work permit procedures, use of proThe effect of such a situation is that boys live in a “virtual” tective equipment, etc.). world, without any relation to the real one. They have no Gerard Neyret, vice president of AFIM idea what screwdrivers or monkey wrenches are, let alone what they are used for. Please continue to share your thoughts on the mainteThis is the reason why the first portion of the tuition denance crisis, and visit www.skilltv.net to find videos, podlivered by this department is used to give a workbench to casts and articles on this topic. each student, fitted with hand tools, steel or wood products. The purpose is to enable them to make a device that can give them the pride of having built with their own hands E-mail Contributing Editor Joel Leonard at something that works. leonard.joel@mpactlearning.com. June 2008 www.PLANTSERVICES.com 17 M http://www.euromaintenance.org http://www.afim.asso.fr http://www.skilltv.net http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

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Plant Services - June 2008

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