Maintworld Magazine 3/2021

TRAINING AND EDUCATION
use their technical/engineering knowledge
and digital organizational tools to
improve maintenance tasks and plan
efficiency in terms of availability and
reliability.
What skills do the engineers
and technicians in the
maintenance domain require
in the future?
It has traditionally been thought that
the competence profile of people
performing maintenance activities
includes, for example, maintenance
and reliability engineering, standards,
maintenance management skills and
skills necessary for operating maintenance
information systems. In addition,
the understanding of the financial issues,
contracting and health and safety
assurance is regarded as necessary. Digitalisation,
IoT and many other technological
advancements, increasing value
of data in decision making, networking
and transformation towards holistic
approaches as asset management pose
novel competence requirements. It is
also evident that maintenance is not an
isolated function in the company, but
a business area that cooperates, and is
coordinated with several internal and
external partners. Maintenance personnel
are expected to use their traditional
skills and apply an increasing number of
digital tools in an increasingly complex
business and operational environment.
This also requires interpersonal and
interaction skills.
The required competencies and
skills in the era of Industry 4.0 go beyond
those defined e.g. in the standard
EN15628:2014. An extended curriculum
for educational programs as well as for
continuing professional education and
training is therefore proposed, with following
topical content:
Maintenance professionals need the
traditional core competence and knowledge
on technical and engineering topics,
and in addition, the skills to make
use of modern digital technologies and
tools to improve maintenance tasks and
plan efficiency in terms of availability
and reliability. In this domain, there is a
need for continuing education and training
for those already in the profession.
Asset management emphasises management
skills, economic assessment
methods and asset life cycle thinking.
Education should go beyond the worldwide
initiative CDIO and also incorporate
economics, sustainability, and circular
economy.
Data collection, analysis and refining
calls for cognitive capabilities and competence
to apply commercial tools in the
prevailing operational and business environment,
such as analytic reasoning and
problem solving.
Networking, outsourcing and partnering
requires not only capabilities in
formulation of common goals, KPIs and
contracts but good communication, cooperation
and interaction skills. The experienced
professionals would also benefit
from continuing education.
Increasingly complex systems call for
system thinking, and the ability to build up
a holistic view of the positive impacts and
negative consequences of decisions. This is
tightly connected with engineering ethics.
REFERENCES
[1] Stich, V., Schmitz, S. & Zeller, V. (2017) Relevant Capabilities for Information Management to Achieve Industry4.0 Maturity.18th Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises (PROVE), Vicenza,
Italy. pp. 28-38.
[2] Khan, M., Wu, X., Xu, X. & Dou, W. (2017) Big Data Challenges and Opportunities in the Hype of Industry 4.0. IEEE ICC 2017 SAC Symposium Big Data Networking Track.
[3] Kortelainen, H. & Hanski, J. (in press) Asset life cycle management for Smart Grids: Challenges and implications. International Journal of Engineering Asset Management.
[4] Kans, M., Campos, J. and Håkasson, L. (2020) A remote laboratory for Maintenance 4.0 training and education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2020.11.016
50 maintworld 3/2021