This is about the value of the maintainer who can also be a trainer. Let us coin the word “maintainer-trainer” to describe such an individual.
I have been a maintainer-trainer both in India and abroad.
There are certain basic ingredients in any maintenance organization. First is the skilled individual. A skilled individual who is an expert in maintaining an equipment is quite capable of repairing other similar equipment. New equipment always comes with detailed workshop and overhaul manuals, if it is contracted for professionally. These manuals enable a maintainer-trainer to learn and teach the maintenance of new equipment of the same class..
The second issue is that any organization whether in India or abroad will have its own complement of human resources. A skilled maintainer-trainer can then go into such a location and create more maintainers. Here it becomes important that the newly trained maintainers are tested and certified by an industry accepted certifying agency.. This makes the newly trained maintainers acceptable in the industry. They also become more valuable for the organization in which they are working.
Next we must have the test equipment and the special maintenance tools and also the normal maintenance tools. These are not difficult to come by because they are generally available easily and the maintainer-trainer will be able to advise the organization to get the correct items.
Also we have to get the correct spare parts for the equipment. This is challenging as it is expensive to get the spares. Normally what can be done is that if the equipment has been sourced from certain OEMs then the equipment owning organization allocates funds and creates its own organization for procurement of the spares. Thus relieving the maintainer from the major and important task of negotiating the price and rates with the OEMs.
The payments for the spares is usually done through an escrow account once the spares are shipped by the OEM.
There is obviously the aspect of delay and for that reason some items can be stocked in advance but largely more expensive items can be shipped. This is a matter of detail which the organization can go into based on their own assessment.
Finally, spares which are of a generic nature are usually available locally and they can be procured on a need basis. Expendables and oils and lubricants can also be stocked in a similar manner.
In India we have a very large number of maintainers who have worked in various Indian organizations. For example, the defence services, the aviation sector, the railways,the shipping sector, the transport sector and the industrial plant and machinery sector.
There is, therefore, opportunity for Indian businesses and OEMs to create a process by which these maintainers can be deployed productively. It can be a win-win situation both for the industry and the person who they are deploying. The receiving organization will also benefit as they get pre-trained personnel.
This is food for thought for anybody who’s interested in facilitating such a deployment of skilled Indian manpower in various places.
The IT industry is an excellent example where our HR has proven to be world class.
Another indicator of the quality of our HR is that multinationals are setting up their research and development facilities in India.
We all know that for a very long time Indian engineers have been working in multinationals abroad in their design centers.
This is an opportunity which needs to be harnessed. Thus creating highly skilled employment opportunities for our people.