What is your company doing to address the skills gap?
Across the board in our industry and in the industries we serve, transferring institutional knowledge and addressing the skills gap is a persistent challenge. The strategy for meeting this challenge requires not only developing skills in the new generation of workers, but also acknowledging that the needs and expectations of the workforce itself have changed as the demographics of our talent base has shifted. This translates into changing the way we approach training and on-the-job resources. We need to move away from a paper-based culture and put a greater emphasis on materials that are digital, interactive and image or animation intensive.
The new generation of workers is also less likely to stay in a position long-term, increasing the importance of cross-training and a clear path for professional development within the company. Parallel to developing the individual, we've seen the value in creating an easily accessible and searchable repository of essential knowledge to reduce the risk of lost capability due to employee attrition.
Christen Mancini, Marketing Team Lead
What industry trends are you seeing as we go into 2024?
Anticipated trends in the pump industry and industrial equipment users point towards a heightened focus on condition monitoring, emphasizing real-time data assessment. There continues to be added emphasis for those servicing equipment or providing engineering services to interpret the data, to facilitate the collection of the right data and to manage access effectively and securely. By embracing strategies and tools related to condition monitoring, end users will continue on the path of leveraging data for more informed decision making aimed at preventing catastrophic failures, unplanned downtime and emergency work.
Data-driven decision-making in equipment servicing will converge with the broader industry goal of achieving more with fewer resources through strategic tool utilization. As companies increasingly adopting sustainable practices, not just as a corporate responsibility but also as a strategic business imperative, success in this evolving landscape will depend on adeptly navigating these intertwined trends.
Ares Panagoulias, Director of Condition Monitoring and Test Lab
What's on your mind/what are you most concerned about?
The challenge of having sufficient human capital has been going on for the past 20 years, and unfortunately, it is getting more concerning every year. The rotating equipment repair industry is forecasted to grow by 5% per year for the next five years, placing an additional strain on human capital resources and increasing the concern of where will we get the people? The high level of retirements as compared to new entrants into our industry is most notable in skilled craftsmen (machinists and mechanics) and to a lesser degree in junior engineers. In a number of companies I have surveyed in the rotating equipment space, all have the same issue, and most are very challenged to balance the ratio of outgoing to incoming craftspeople and young engineers now and in the future.
So what can be done to improve the situation? Part of the solution is to mitigate the effects of the accelerated retirements (brain drain) and the loss of countless years’ experience. Every company should have a defined strategy for mitigation and a longer term strategy of having their human capital needs met in the future.
Bob Bluse, Vice President of Business Development
How do you expect automation and AI to affect the industry in the next five years?
In the next five years, the pump industry is poised for a transformative shift driven by automation and AI technologies. IoT solutions for pumps are expected to revolutionize how pumps operate and are maintained.
Automation, fueled by these technologies, is likely to optimize pump performance, enabling real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. The ability to collect and analyze data from various sensors will enhance decision-making processes, resulting in increased reliability and efficiency. Additionally, AI-powered software will bring a new level of intelligence to pump operations, facilitating adaptive and proactive responses to changing conditions.
Overall, the industry can expect increased operational efficiency, reduced downtime and improved sustainability through the convergence of IoT solutions and innovative AI-powered software in the pump sector over the next five years.
Shafi Yusuff, Chief Information Officer
What are you most looking forward to in 2024?
As the rate of technological innovation accelerates, it seems like every year we see a step change in the capabilities of our digital and analytical resources. We’ve also seen increasing commitments to adopt sustainable practices and a greater emphasis on achieving operational excellence of our customers’ assets.
Where the development of these initiatives has sometimes been siloed, we are moving towards a greater integration of “smart” technologies with decarbonization and optimization efforts. I’m looking forward to seeing how these two areas continue to intertwine and help us develop an elegant solution that supports our customers in reaching their sustainability goals while simultaneously increasing their competitive position in their own markets.
Christen Mancini, Marketing Team Lead