Future Profession (Predictive maintenance manager)
In the article Chief Engineer and TORO Automation, we said that the department of the chief mechanic (OGM) is usually responsible for carrying out scheduled preventive maintenance at the enterprise. This practice was developed many years ago and was quite effective. But modern technologies are developing very rapidly, including technologies that ensure the reliability of equipment operation. Fixed assets are transferred to predictive maintenance (PdM), enterprises implement EAM systems (enterprise asset management, fixed assets management) and RCM II systems (RCM2, RCM 2, RCM2, reliability centered maintenance, maintenance services to ensure equipment reliability). ). In the future, as the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is implemented, the transition to active service is expected. The introduction of new technologies is impossible without equipping the equipment with numerous sensors (in the future – “smart sensors”), data transmission from them will be carried out mainly via wireless networks, processing – using Big Data technologies.
The competencies of the staff of OGM, despite their experience, may not be enough to master new methods of service. Therefore, in some enterprises, additional services are being created and new posts are being introduced, such as, for example, the “equipment reliability manager”. This position in the enterprise is occupied by “an expert who performs the functions of planning, organizing and operatively controlling production processes and maintenance and repair work to control equipment reliability and ensure the continuity of the production cycle.” (It should be emphasized that we are talking about the reliability of the equipment, because the company can operate other reliability services designed “for methodical and organizational management of all measures to improve the reliability of manufactured products.”
Certification schemes for equipment reliability managers in the CIS countries appeared quite recently, in 2016. The terminology has not yet been settled, so the vacancy may be called “equipment reliability manager”, “equipment maintenance specialist”, “equipment reliability engineer” and even “technical maintenance manager / maintenance manager”.
Since the increase in equipment reliability is a global trend, and there are still few young specialists trained to work in this area, training courses are held for managers of repair and maintenance services and leading technical specialists responsible for the reliability of industrial equipment.
How interesting is this job for young professionals? Should not the very young leading specialists finish the courses? The answer to this question largely depends on what remuneration for such work (in general, quite nervous and with a high degree of responsibility) can be expected by a specialist.
In the US, where the transition to advanced technology equipment maintenance began much earlier. The average salary per year of a reliability manager (reliability manager) is $ 99,610, the range is from $ 44,000 to $ 177,000, and the number of vacancies is in the thousands. The market is experiencing a shortage of such specialists. Job titles can be different: Maintenance Reliability Manager, Maintenance manager, Reliability Manager, Manager of Maintenance and Reliability, etc.
For comparison: the average salary of chief engineer in the United States is $ 63,439; general engineer – $ 91,060. The names of both posts can be translated as “chief engineer”; there is a difference between them, but for now something else is important: the average annual salary of a reliability manager may be higher than that of a chief engineer. Of course, in Ukraine and other CIS countries, the current wage level is much lower than in the US, but the trend is obvious: since the use of modern service technologies results in significant cost savings and significantly increases the production parameters of equipment, highly qualified specialists who are able to introduce such technologies will receive remuneration, which fully corresponds to their contribution to the results obtained.
