Efficient Plant October 2021 - 6

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Reliability
Engineers in
Short Supply
Dr. Klaus M. Blache
Univ. of Tennessee Reliability
and Maintainability Center
(RMC)
R
ELIABILITY ENGINEERS
and managers have always
been difficult to find/recruit
and it won't get any easier. Recently, a
medium-sized Florida city listed more
than 100 open reliability positions.
LinkedIn indicated more than 147,000
site reliability engineering jobs available,
and ZipRecruiter showed more
than 235,000 openings.
Future reliability engineers will need
to know more about how to integrate
reliability and maintenance processes
into Manufacturing 4.0. That means
knowing more about sensors, 3-D
printing, data collection and analytics,
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT),
machine learning, artificial intelligence,
mobile devices, wearable technology,
more-intelligent and mobile robotics,
augmented reality, and digital twins.
The workforce will primarily be millennials
who are looking for a different
type of employment than in the past.
These " digital natives " are comfortable
with technology and consider it to be an
The future of labor depends on millennials.
Work now to create a team of veteran employees
sharing skills and insights with, and learning
from, the younger generation of professionals.
integral and necessary part of their lives.
" Millennials view the workplace through
the same lens of new technology as any
other aspect of their lives: instant, open,
and limitless. The era they have grown
up in has shown them that nothing is a
guarantee. Instability and rapid change
are the norm. To millennials, time no
longer equals money. It is a limited
resource to be spent wisely and actively
managed, " (3 things millennials want
in a career (hint: it's not more money),
Fortune magazine).
Most don't see themselves working at
a company 30 to 40 years and retiring.
What they can achieve today will be
much more attractive than long-term
6 | EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
benefits because the industry dynamic is
changing too quickly to offer stability. It's
about flexible work hours, a " teach me
now " mindset (so I can be ready for my
next opportunity/challenge) and, " Am I
working on something that matters? "
I don't suggest that millennials don't
put in the required time. According
to TeamStage (16+ Millennials in the
Workplace Statistics for 2021), " Despite
stereotypes endorsed by older generations,
millennials are one of the hardest
working generations. Over a quarter
of them work two or more jobs. The
number of weekly working hours is also
astonishing for this generation, with 73%
working more than 40 hours per week,
and almost 25% working more than 50
hours. "
A reliability engineer will still be
responsible for a range of functions
including improving and maintaining
assets; minimizing risk; managing the
change to a " proactive maintenance "
mindset; developing partnership with
operations, engineering, and maintenance;
and using condition-monitoring
methodologies and tools. To be successful,
what you do/offer to recruit and
retain the future workforce must be
different from today. The best reliability
team should be made up of baby
boomers sharing their experiences and
millennials integrating technologies and
offering new ideas. EP
Based in Knoxville, Dr. Klaus M.
Blache is director of the Reliability &
Maintainability Center at the Univ. of
Tennessee, and a research professor
in the College of Engineering.
Contact him at kblache@utk.edu.
OCTOBER 2021
http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
Efficient Plant October 2021

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