Amongst Maximo’s many strengths, one is lesser known – it’s ability to help organizations preserve institutional knowledge.
Already a familiar challenge to many energy organizations, the exodus of long-term, experienced, employees into retirement – the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ phenomenon – has endowed it with added urgency.
The challenge of the great workforce exodus
McKinsey reports that, while demand for energy talent is growing, the energy sector is expecting to lose a substantial portion of its existing workforce; in the United States alone, as many as 400,000 employees in the sector are approaching retirement.
According to an analysis of U.S. Census data by the Urban Institute in 2000 there were 35 million Americans aged 65 and older. By 2030, this number will swell to 74 million.
From my day-to-day conversations with those on the ground in this sector, I know that the skilled professionals making their exit have long been the backbone of power plant operations. They handle everything from turbine maintenance to emergency diagnostics. As they leave the workforce en masse, the energy industry is waving goodbye to hard-won expertise.
What are the potential consequences? Workers scrambling to work out the answers to questions and resolve issues, unforeseen breakdowns and, potentially, quality and safety issues which are all significant risks to the long-term sustainability of an organization.
Tackling the tsunami with technology
These workforce challenges present us with another reason for pushing technology to the forefront of our industrial operations – that is, using it to help us preserve that knowledge when our experienced workers head for the door.
We now cannot afford not to make digital technologies a key component of any power plant 21st century ‘workforce’ (alongside, of course, strategies such as mentoring, recruitment programs and so on).
Platforms like IBM’s Maximo Application Suite (MAS) provide a repository for capturing critical institutional knowledge. They act as a central hub for collating best practice from your most valuable of assets – your highly experienced workers – and disseminating it to a new generation of workers in your maintenance, operations and technical teams.
Colleagues across all levels of your organization can access knowledge that only veteran workers once possessed, and it becomes embedded as part of your corporate know-how.
How Maximo can help you maintain knowledge
MAS’s “out-of-the-box” features enable you to capture and maintain ‘real time’ knowledge around core areas such as spare parts for improved inventory control and safety attributes and also to classify asset specifications using a logical approach. That way, your future workers can readily retrieve the information they need and not waste time looking for it.
Where contractors, or specific services are required for an asset, these details can be defined and explained within MAS so that future planners can quickly add the information.
For inspections too, the Application Suite can act as a core collaborative tool and ‘trainer’. Interview your experienced worker on their knowledge of equipment quirks, historical fixes, and safety nuances that newcomers may overlook.
Draw from them information on those subtle vibrations in turbines, or unpredictable shifts in boiler behavior that experienced workers recognize as early warning signs and respond to with confidence, preventing costly failures.
Captured within Maximo, this depth of experience can then be channelled into all future inspections instead of exiting the building with your experienced worker.
If you’d like more information on the invaluable role of Maximo in helping organizations to preserve institutional knowledge please contact Tyler.