Maintenance Jobs 10 Key Skills For Industrial Manufacturing
These Skills Will Improve Your Earning Capacity
Maintenance jobs are in high demand in industrial manufacturing. Without skilled maintenance engineers, manufacturing companies risk their operations grinding to a halt. Therefore, if you are a skilled mechanical maintenance engineer, your services will be highly valued by manufacturing companies.
According to salary.com, the average mechanical maintenance engineer salary in the United States is around $48,000 (January 2020). The highest-skilled maintenance mechanics can earn more, with upper earnings in excess of $68,000. Here are 10 key skills that will help you land the best maintenance jobs in industrial manufacturing.
Preventative Maintenance Skills
This includes preventative maintenance on engines, conveyor systems and production machines. You’ll need to demonstrate that you can follow diagrams, decipher complex operational manuals, and troubleshoot malfunction.
Inspection Skills
The ability to determine changes in operational functionality, either by sight or sound, in order to locate the source of malfunction or potential malfunction, and the skill to use precision tools to confirm or deny your suspicions.
Removal and Replacement of Faulty Parts
The skill to remove, replace and adjust faulty parts on a variety of machines. You may need to show that you have used equipment such as hoists, cranes and power tools. When adjusting machinery, you’ll need to demonstrate that you can use a range of tools and machine-specific devices.
Control of Downtime
Managing workflows of colleagues and production staff by effectively communicating timetables of monitoring and preventative maintenance.
Ability to Fabricate Parts
Either for cost or scarcity, replacement parts may be difficult to source. Therefore, the ability to fabricate replacement parts using shop equipment is a sought-after skill.
Stock Management
Most manufacturers will maintain an inventory of parts. The ability to monitor and maintain this inventory is crucial, and has a direct impact of downtime. You should have a good working knowledge of how to determine inventory level, and how to anticipate needs when measured against the age, condition and use of manufacturing machines and equipment. Your duties may include placing orders, verifying receipts, and accelerating supply.
Maintenance Reports and Needs Analysis
You will be expected to prepare maintenance reports. This involves collecting and analyzing maintenance data, and answering questions around that data. You should also be able to assess the future maintenance needs based upon such factors, ensuring that you feed this into your assessments to maintain the correct levels of repair equipment stock.
Health and Safety
The health and safety of you and other workers is paramount in the industrial manufacturing environment. You will be expected to have a good working knowledge of the various laws, rules and regulations applied, and be able to translate them in the context of operational efficiency in busy manufacturing environments.
Continuing Professional Development
Maintenance jobs evolve as technology and working practices advance. Good maintenance engineers ensure that they keep up to date with these advances, learning new skills and practices that are relevant to their work through continuous professional development. Employers want to see that you are keen to learn, and so would expect to see a history of training and development on your CV. This may include attending workshops, home study, training courses, subscription to relevant trade publications, and by way of your personal network.
Communication Skills
You’ll be expected to give and receive instructions, articulate mechanical and equipment issues, and liaise with other employees, external contractors, suppliers and management. Written and verbal communication skills – including the ability to use modern communication methods – is critical to performing well in maintenance engineer jobs.
Industrial Manufacturing Skills Summary
Industrial manufacturing plants rely on their working machinery and equipment. Therefore, the role of maintenance engineer jobs within the manufacturing environment is critical. The best maintenance engineers, with a combination of the above skills, will help to ensure that downtime is kept to a minimum – the impact on profits is very real.
If you are a maintenance engineer and you feel ready for your next challenge in the industrial manufacturing sector, contact MAC Incorporated today. We have many clients searching for talented engineers like you.
Hence, get more referrals, and place more talent.
