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Posted On: 05/08/2008

Parlez-vous “Brain Drain?”

PlantServices.com

By Joel Leonard, contributing editor

On April 8 in Brussels, Belgium, I had the wonderful opportunity to provide the opening remarks for the EuroMaintenance Conference. They asked me to explain what we mean by maintenance crisis, then six executives discussed my remarks and added their perspectives in front of an audience estimated at more than 1,200 engineers from 51 countries.
 
I started by stating that since I am from a country with more than 759,000 licensed attorneys, I felt compelled to first provide a disclaimer: The purpose of this session is to offend, challenge, inspire and entertain.

• Offend your sense of normalcy or status quo
• Challenge you to strive to develop new approaches
• Inspire you to have the conviction to fight the resistors and to elevate your business to higher levels of performance
• Entertain you and have fun, yet offer meaningful insight on how to advance your career.

The first disclaimer protected me so if anyone was offended I could tell the organizers that it was my intent. Then I carefully explained the elements of the maintenance crisis: installation of very sophisticated new equipment that requires a high level of care and attention, aging of the current equipment and infrastructure so it requires more maintenance, exodus of the “geezer bust” generation, resistance of future generations to pick up a skilled trade, and chronic levels of deferred maintenance because companies are focusing on short-term stock-market results.

This all took place the same week that the FAA grounded more than 300 American Airlines jets due to concerns about improper maintenance.

Joel Leonard, Maintenance Evangelist and founder of SkillTV.net talks with Max Bataille, vice president of manufacturing, Europe, Baxter; Volker Knabe, corporate director of engineering and maintenance, BASF Worldwide; Patrick De Groote, CEO, Koramic Industries and president of Belgian maintenance association Bemas; and moderator Alex Puissant, Belgian TV commentator and personality. Other debate participants included Wijnand Moonen, general manager, asset management EMEA, Lloyd's Register; Dan Bradley, president, SKF Reliability Services and Jan Bruggenthijs, president, Stork Industry Services.

Naturally, it was a little nerve-racking to perform before a diverse audience of that size. However, once I heard them respond to some of my points with laughter, I knew that the message was connecting. This was especially true when I presented this slide (to a collective groan of agreement on line three):

Maintenance: When it all goes well, nobody acknowledges its existence.
When it all goes badly, they say, “We don’t have maintenance.”
When money is involved, they say it's not necessary.
But, when it does not exist, everybody agrees that it should.

Participants agreed that maintenance is not a cost but an investment that enhances the growth and effectiveness of their businesses. My only wish is that more executives shared their views.
 
The discussion was moderated by Alex Puissant, a Belgian TV commentator and personality. Alex is Belgium’s equivalent to the United States’ Charlie Rose and kept the audience engaged by asking very interesting questions. For instance, Alex said that he just recently interviewed Bill Gates. I responded by telling him that I was glad that I was the one who helped him lower the bar.

I have been in this industry for more than 22 years and have attended literally hundreds of conferences, but this event is now my benchmark. Wim Vancauwenberghe, executive director of BEMAS and the organizer of the event, deserves lots of praise for developing this outstanding event. And now that the world is aware of the severity of the maintenance crisis, more efforts to resolve this serious challenge will be exerted.

Conference statistics include 120 speakers, 859 conference attendees and 5,519 exhibit hall attendees from 51 countries. Stay tuned to SkillTV.net for video coverage of this session and other conference interviews. The next EuroMaintenance Conference will be held in May 2010 in Verona, Italy.