BridgeableGaps: Training / Education

Oncethe technology gap is bridged and the plant processes are optimized as Martinrecommends in the previous blog, the easy part is training new operators,retraining existing operators, and planning ahead for future generation ofengineers and operators.

Althoughthe educational gaps are quite huge between the Greatest Generation and Gen Y,they can be bridged. The Greatest Gen grew up with a great sense ofnationalism, a focus on local community, and an appreciation for hard work. GenY grew up in a world economy and Internet age. The Greatest Gen learned frombooks, family, and communal history. Especially in the 1960s, publicschools changed dramatically and affect the skills Baby Boomers, Gen Xers andGen Yers take with us to the plant site today.

However, we can bridge educational gaps in our universities,colleges, technical schools, and other programs to help to bridge the skills andexperience gap in industrial automation.

SomeSkills Gap Solutions include:

• EngineeringRecruiting
• Mentoring
• Education/Training
• Use of Simulation for Training
• Requirements for Operator Training Management

Recruitingand Mentoring

• Apprenticeships
• Co-optPrograms

Placement ofValue on Mentoring

• Designating Time
• Mentor Assignments
• Scholarships

Changing Approach to Education and Training

• University Majors / Programs
• Online Training, E-Learning
• Vendor Training
• On site
• Classroom

OperatorTraining Manager

• Toolto develop structured operator training systems
• User-configurablescenarios, malfunctions, training events
• Integratedsession scoring and student evaluation

• IncludingSimulation as part of entire lifecycle
• Trainingas part of entire lifecycle
• Trainingoperators before startup of new units
• Re-trainingand qualifying operators on existing operations

Industrial Innovation is going to be the key to overcomingthe energy crisis, the skills gap crisis, and any economic woes. Just crying"We can't! We can't!" any time we develop new innovations andtechnologies for developing new supply lines of oil, gas, and alternative energy is silly. The big whining we hear these days is"It will take too long, so it's not a 'viable' solution." We said this20 years ago with nuclear power and refineries, and 12 years ago with offshoredrilling.

This generation has to step up and not be a generation of whiners,but innovators and doers, like Edison. I know we can be successful in all theseendeavors as long as the government, politicians, special interests, andlawsuits don't stop us from progressing with real solutions.

P.S. Lowering thespeed limit to 55 is not a "real solution."

I am writing a blog series now on "IndustrialInnovation"

MYNAH, developers of MiMiC "green" technology forindustrial plants

http://www.mynah.com

Visit the Web Development / Internet Marketing Forum:

http://www.mynah.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=18

There are hundreds of reason why Mozilla Firefox is better.In fact, developers and others in the know won’t even use IE6 or 7 for someobvious reasons. It won’t do the job well for web development and otherdevelopment. It surpasses IE in speed, functionality, and usability. It hasfeatures far above IE. I figured this out just recently. The other guys here acted surprisedI was using IE. When I switched, it was like a bright light switch going on withthe increased speed and usability.

Now, you can continue to use IE and still install the Alexa Toolbar:

http://www.alexa.com/site/download?show=ie

Use the tool that works best for what you do; I suspect ifyou try Mozilla for a few weeks, you will see why it is better. You can haveboth browsers installed and use them interchangeably. I do. You can just use MozillaFirefox and the Alexa toolbar on it to help us out now and then when you do infact browse our site and use our forum. If you install it as your main browser with MYNAH as yourhome page, this will help our site ranking a lot over time.

Microsoft CRM needs to be loaded on IE, by the way. Microsoft's CRM is junk though. That CRM application is as clunky as can be, but Microsoft must “preserve” its branding. Just use both browsers for different purposes. Iuse Mozilla 90% of the time now. It is faster by far.

I only use IE when I have too; I don't want to be slowed down and have to reboot my machine all the time.

Alexa'ssite says, "Keep your computer safe from spyware and adware. The Alexa Toolbar contains noadvertising and does not profile or target you. More information about theAlexa Toolbar and how to keep your computer safe from spyware and adware. More..."

Makinga better Internet

Alexa could not exist without the participation of the Alexa Toolbarcommunity. Each member of the community, in addition to getting a useful tool,is giving back. Simply by using the Firefox and IE toolbars each membercontributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what isimportant and what is not. This information is returned to the community asRelated Links, Traffic Rankings and more.

Downloadthe Alexa Toolbar