Plant & Maintenance - Maintenance

This is a very specialized career in the engineering portfolio. In the past, this is considered to be very much the mainline engineering career. This was because industry was not very well established in the country at that time. In today’s environment, engineers have a much more variety of choices, and as such, plant and maintenance is now a specialized field.

In general, engineers who decide to embark upon this area as a career path will normally pick it as a life long career. Of course, some may choose it as an entry-level job with the hope of getting to different fields when opportunities arise.

However, the majority will stay on in this category and progress to become managers or consultants in their own companies or working for others.

As the name implies, the fundamental responsibility of this job is to keep plant and machinery operating in an optimized fashion. When I say “plant and machinery” I do not only mean factories. For example, maintainingg a feel of aircraft, within a ship, a construction site etc. will also fit here. This is a very important point. Plant and machinery normally consume a very large portion of a business’s invested capital, and to get an attractive return on this capital, it will be expected that these assets be kept running for as long as possible between shutdowns.

In order to achieve this objective, the engineer will need to apply a lot of hands on experience about the specific machinery they are trained to maintain. To be a great plant and maintenance engineer require as many years of apprenticeship as formal education. By apprenticeship I mean under studying more experienced seniors for many years to gain exposure to the various aspects and “tricks” of the trade. There is also the added complexity of regulatory requirements that the engineer must ensure that company complies with. For example, safety regulations must be complied with. Also, in many cases, the engineer will need to obtain further certification in order to be able to maintain certain critical equipment such as switch gear, boilers etc.

Like all other engineers, as the career progresses, there will be need to lead lower level technical staff such as technicians, workmen etc. The maintenance engineer’s job here will require a different leadership skills compared to their other counterparts. In the maintenance environment, the subordinates are generally more “field” orientated and are used to heavy and harsh environments. These tend to be “tougher” people and will require appropriate behavior to effectively manage. Just imagine the challenges of managing a team of people on a construction site, and oilrig or at a shipyard and you will understand the difference.

In general, engineers in this career path will aspire to be consultants. In a growing economy, there will be no shortage of opportunities here. It is a very specialized field with lots of knowledge of regulatory requirements that only the well-apprenticed engineer can do.

Here are some successful characteristics for a plant and maintenance engineer:

• A high degree of interest in hands on work. Normally can do the work as well as subordinates.
• Passion to get further regulatory certifications in order to be allowed to work in specialize areas. (e.g. High-tension certification etc).
• Ability to schedule maintenance work in a way that cost is optimized without compromising equipment integrity and operational life.
• Ability to work well with external regulatory bodies.
• Able to lead a wide spectrum of people behaviors.
• Able to negotiate contracts well and follow up to ensure project quality and timeliness.