Reality in the Transformation in the Industrial Training and Knowledge Transfer, With a Power Plant, Why not You?

I have discussed at length the transition of our workforce and that it is not just going to a new generation ( 42% of the workforce by 2020) but it is the dynamic culture of this workforce ( tenure ship less that 2.4 years in the role by 2020) that poses one of the biggest challenges to the industrial operational/ automation workplace.

At a dinner in Florida I was sitting next to a gentlemen in charge of "change management" at a counties power facilities major power stations. A major part of the focus is on training, and knowledge transfer. The conversation initially focused on the challenge of "baby boomer" retiring over the next 5 to 8 years and the knowledge, experience "walking out" the door. It was interesting to understand how stable his  automation and operational work force has been for the last 20 to 30 years. They are a premier employer in the area, and most of the current work force has come from trainee and full careers there, many were there when the power plants were commissioned, growing up with the plants.

Reminding me of a saying by a colleague "that when he joined the workforce on plants, the average age was his age eg 20, now that he is in his late 50s the average age of the workforce on a plant he visits is still his age ( late 50s)." As we had dinner this, saying was ringing in my head as the stories from the power plants came out.

As the dinner progressed the other challengers came out that they were building new gas powered plants, shutting down some of the older power units, and the new workforce was aged less that 35 years old, (most younger) and little to no experience. The shorter tenure ship in a role he had not seen yet, but when discussing he had noticed a trend to rotating roles, and want to progress, new challenges, and with the new gas plants with new technology and learning he saw the challenge not far off.

So he has embarked on a significant Operator Training Simulation Program. Work on three fronts:

1/ power unit operations

2/ power unit maintenance and start up, shut down

3/ environmental / energy management

These are 3 different communities of the workforce, the third being a specialized one which is becoming critical due to government regulations and the heavy fines, so understanding how to seal with different situations including weather and load is key.

The first step is to really structure the training knowledge capture from the “baby boomers" capturing their experience in operations reacting to situations, and performing maintenance. Action and knowledge they take for granted now caught in the simulation models and built in as training scenarios that can play over and over again.

His learnings are also supported in the diagram below:

He also talked about not just simulations, but his learning has been the other training tools, measurements within the OTS tools that he did not initially appreciate (or use until recently) that allow the training to evolve, and improve as well develop the team.

The big walk away I had from this dinner discussion was that he could not see how they would go through this workforce transition, and plant transition, and maintain the current operational levels in efficiency and safety without automated, simulation tools.

His whole story was micro example of what I am seeing across the world, but so many are not acting, he had been implementing a "change management" plan based around simulation learning for the last 4 years, and he was still evolving, but seeing significant returns.

On the new plants, they will have simulation as part of the plant design and operator training simulation from the outset.

Yet a week later across the other side of the world in mining, (where an even more dynamic workforce transition is happening,  with combination significant workforce rotation and retirement) the shift to simulated online training is seen as a "nice to have".

Key as we look forward there are 3 big areas that need to align, Operational performance Asset utilization / efficiency Operational workforce effectiveness. They are all equal and dependent on  each other, and the leading companies will be the ones that master the balance across the three as the dynamics in all three increases.

Next week I will expand on knowledge dissemination, learning transformation that is and will have to happen in the industrial space. 

Impact of the Gen Y on Automation/ Operational Systems!

The last 3 weeks I have been travelling North America and Australia supporting the upcoming 2012 R2 software releases from Invensys, and as I write this I am on a plane to China. Discussions with  end users, and engineering houses across many industries, and there are a number of discussion points that I will make topics over the next couple of weeks.

One is around theimpact of  incoming operational workers/ process engineers from the “Gen Y” generation that is people born 1980s to early 2000s, sometimes referred to as the “Millennial Generation”. Usually the conversation starts by people talking about the aging work force and the retiring “baby boomer” generation (born Post WW2 and before 1960, evolving to discussion on the  transitions from Baby Bommer to Gen Y, missing the majority of the Gen X (born 1960s and 1970s), who have gone into other professions away from the industrial world.  The story of the retiring of the workforce and impact has been around for 10 years, but the realization in many of the conversations is that Gen Y are not the same, and the bigger issue will be “RETENTION” of Gen Y.

I saw an article on the fact that one career for a life time has gone, to me that started to go in the Gen X world, when I even look at myself. Starting from an electrical engineer in a steel works, moving into control software, development and product management, across a long list of countries, not one role or location for a career. Gen Y will take this to a new level, as they handle problems, learning and tasks totally differently.
Do we go on training for being Facebook users? NO. So why do we need to have training on Operatinal HMIs on the plant, the system must lead the user, thetraining is expected to be in the system, not in a class room.
One person said do you remember:

·          Sitting in libraries and researching:  YES

·          Using a phone book to look a phone number :  Yes

Now ask would a Gen Y person remember or even consider this with the internet to search enabling access, and information and   filtering at their finger tips, and this ability to filter is huge. Phone numbers are in contact lists on phones, or face book. Example for our products ther are online manuals, Gen Y will not read them; they will expect short Youtubes (of no more than 7 minutes) on a subject, and wiki approach to support material.

The question of Gen Y retention is a monumental one, in the industrial, manufacturing space, when looking  at the operational experiences we designed they were for the Baby Boomer/ early Gen X. The products are also in many cases the same experience vintage, even if we have added many new capabilities. Is it exciting enough for GenY? Can they access information to make decisions in a form and experience aligned with experience they in personal life on internet, smart phones, and social community?  As industrial environment moves slowly we are behind, but the change is picking up, but my feeling and feedback from many people this operational experience will have to jump  in the next 5 years.

Many companies have not evolved the experience, why because they added new capability, but their thinking the actor / user is a Baby Boomer/ early Gen X ( these generations where more aligned)  not the  Gen Y which is paradigm shift. The real revolution in operational experience has happened in the commercial since 2000, due to Apple, Facebook, Twiiter, Wiki etc. During this time, many companies have being executing the integration between systems, ERP systems, plant floor, evolving the control, improving the supply chain. Not many have evolved the User Interfaces or Operational control rooms; if they have they have upgraded the technology, maybe gone from control rooms to line side kiosks and unified operational experiences over multiple control systems. Not seriously addressing a new level operational experience required to be agile and responsive in today’s world, and enable the Gen Y to perform at most effective.

In some of the new Operational Centers we seeing shift with the introduction of collberation (but in many applications), and common knowledge systems, but really the need for situational awareness, rapid learning, intuitive systems (faster time to performance) are key. The whole method, filtering, discovering of Gen Y is totally different to “Baby Boomer” , expect frustration if they can not satisfy the hunger for rapid information, and decision the work in their personnel lives.  

So in these discussions people eyes open, with realization, that both products that they build automation and operations solutions on as well, as well as the design of the Operational experience will need to fundamentally change. This is why I talk about this as the “Perfect Storm” as the operational experience and the way people have to work as a team, access and make decisions for:

·          Addressing the global agility required today and future

·          Sustain the working practices of Gen Y generation

·          Address the changing Operational practices of the flexible operational team

Many people ask me why we are spending  so much investment in time and energy in the new operational experiences, but when you consider just discussion there is no choice, and the time has being coming, will you be ready?