Unique Reliability Engineering & Predictive Maintenance Site Offers Free Trial

 Springfield, MA, February 5, 2010 -  Next Up Careers. has just launched the first career portal and staffing business dedicated to serving the needs of reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals.

 Michael Vann, Managing Director of Next Up Careers, LLC has led a two year development effort to build the jobsite and related business capabilities leveraging years of experience in the space.

 “Our team has been working with companies in the reliability and predictive maintenance industry for ten years” Vann said, “and over that time we’ve seen professionals and employers struggle with finding information about career opportunities and the right employment fit. NextUpCareers.com will provide significant value for everyone who uses it, and regardless of the economic environment, we see a tremendous need for a dedicated and trusted career resource.”

 In addition to the NextUpCareers.com employment portal, the company is launching both a permanent recruiting and contract staffing business.

 “Next Up Services will now offer the three legs of the staffing stool”, Vann continued, “With the talent portal, the recruitment service and our newly added temporary staffing division, we now offer full service talent sourcing capabilities for our clients.  We could not be more excited at the value we can now add for employers and employees alike”

 “We have been very happy with the services we have received from Next Up Recruiting Solutions,” says Mike Hogan, President of IVC Technologies,  “and the new website will add tremendous value to our company’s ability to attract talent.”

 The content rich site is already loaded with valuable information and job postings that the Reliability and PdM talent community will find appealing and helpful in advancing their careers.

 For employers, as part of the launch, NextUpCareers is offering FREE postings for the first thirty days. 

 About Next Up Careers, LLC:

Next Up Careers, LLC is the premiere staffing resource focused solely on providing comprehensive career information, employment opportunities and both permanent and contract job placement services to companies and professionals dedicated to the maintenance industries. 

Contact:  Kristin Thornton at kthornton@nextupcareers.com or (413) 543-2944

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Afarin Bellisario from Principal Transtrategy Inc. reports on Industry Week that the 21^st Century will be the age of glassy metals. These glassy metals are being referred to as “miracle metals.” Amorphous metal alloys (glassy metals) have several unusual properties such as: the highest strengths of any known metallic material; exceptional magnetism; wear/corrosion resistance; and a large ability to store elastic energy. The ease of manufacturing these metals is what is so extraordinary. They soften gradually when heated and don’t shrink during solidification like other metals. This allows for shaping and molding into very intricate designs. The article entitled, Miracle Metal: How Glassy Metals Will Define Manufacturing in the 21^st Century, also discusses the wide range of applications of glassy metals. A few of those applications are aerospace structures, gold clubs, and medical devices.

With the possibility of glassy metals transforming the manufacturing industry, reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals should pay extra attention to the applications of these metals. With glassy metals being used more frequently in manufacturing settings, people in the reliability and predictive maintenance industries should also know the properties of glassy metals, for they react differently than steel. This goes back to the importance of continuous learning, you will never know everything about your field, so you have to roll with the punches and learn and adapt to new technologies or methods with in the reliability and predictive maintenance fields.

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The article entitled, Expatriate Hiring Stalls, by Jonathan Katz, reports that the number one reason for hiring outside the United States is operations functions. Forty-five percent of the 99 respondents to the survey, across various industries, said they are keeping their foreign workforce levels the same despite the economic downfall. Another 35% of the respondents say they will decrease their number of expatriates. The manufacturing industry is the largest industry response group (accounting for 29% of the respondents) in the survey. So if manufacturing companies are sending work overseas, what does that mean for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals? It means that there will be less manufacturing in the country, and therefore less potential work for people in reliability and predictive maintenance. The more manufacturing jobs that are sent overseas, the less of a need there will be for predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers in the United States.

People in the reliability industry and predictive maintenance industry should pay close attention to the number of expatriates being used in the manufacturing industry. The survey done by Sibson Consulting shows that organizations expected to increase their use of expatriates is 25%; 54% are not expecting any change; while 21% are expecting to decrease their number of expatriates

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Mark Galley’s article, 3 Steps and 3 Tools that Organize and Improve your Problem Solving Capability, posted on Reliability Web, lists our the three steps to problem solving and some tools for predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers to improve their ways.  The three investigation steps to approaching a problem are:

1. What’s the Problem?
2. Why did it happen?
3. What should be done?

These are the three basic steps/questions that every reliability engineer and predictive maintenance professional ask themselves when they are faced with a problem. Step one is where the problem becomes defined, step two is the analysis of the problem, and step three is the brainstorming of solutions. To effectively solve problems, Mark says it is important for predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers to organize the investigation. He provides tools to do this:

1. Capture the Timeline – keep a log in chronological order of occurrences (date, time, description), this will help with the “why questions”. It will not give cause-and-effect – therefore a cause-effect-analysis will need to be done to correspond with the timeline.
2. Use Diagrams, Drawing, and Photos – visual tools can provide everyone with a common view of the issue and usually provide more contextual detail.
3. Review the Process – identify the processes that were in place before the failure occurred, this is important in order to prevent the incident from occurring again.

The three questions and tools should be implemented while the investigation process is underway. People in the predictive maintenance and reliability fields should refine their organizational skills, because by following these steps and documenting the investigation consistently will make for a quicker, clearer, more organized, and more effective investigation.

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Industry Week discusses innovation and manufacturing technologies in a recent article. The article talks about how over the pas 20 years manufacturing has gone through many changes including advances in materials, controls, communications, electronics and software. All of these changes have helped launch manufacturing into the future. The product now makes it to the market faster than before, there is less chance for human error due to the machinery used, and the improvements to machines have allowed for flexibility in operations. Not only has the manufacturing technology improved, but the way we service machines has also changed for the better. Machines have become more complex and more important to maintain and this is why we now have reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals. Manufacturing companies have realized that in order to keep their companies afloat and moving towards the future, that predictive maintenance and reliability engineering jobs are essential. By having well cared for machines, companies are able to keep up and running. And as innovation plays a bigger role in manufacturing technology, the job of predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers will also have to evolve over time because new technologies lead to new maintenance procedures/techniques and new problems to solve.

You can read more about innovations in manufacturing technologies by reading the article on Industry Week.

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As the demand for employment rapidly increases, employers in certain fields are finding themselves searching for qualified individuals to fill positions. According to Manpower Inc.’s “Annual 10 Hardest Jobs to fill”, employers have trouble filling the following positions:

1. Engineers
2. Machinists/Machine Operators
3. Skilled Trades
4. Technicians
5. Sales Representatives
6. Accounting & Finance Staff
7. Mechanics
8. Laborers
9. IT Staff
10. Production Operators

These findings are part of Manpower’s 2008 global study of 32 countries and territories involving approximately 42,500 employees. It suggests that individuals are looking at the wrong positions and in the wrong places. Some individuals are aware of these positions yet ignore them due to the training or education required. However, the time it takes to acquire the skills are outweighed by the benefits of the jobs.  For example, jobs in predictive maintenance require training and reliability engineering requires education, but they both provide stability, a complete benefits package, good pay, and the option to travel. However, finding positions for these jobs could be an issue, if job seekers are looking in the wrong places. For those seeking employment in predictive maintenance or reliability engineering, Next Up Careers is a great tool. Next Up devotes its job board to reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals, making it a lot easier for individuals to find jobs in these careers. The general job boards, just don’t cut it in an economy where there are thousands of people out of work.

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When you think of Italy, the last thing that comes to mind is machinery. Even though Italy may not be known for their machinery sector, it is starting to emerge as one of the fastest growing industries in the country. With Italy’s machine industry growing, this might provide an opportunity for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals. Italy is currently 2^nd to Germany in machinery produced in Europe. This is a great opportunity for reliability and predictive maintenance companies to tap into a new and developing market. Although Italy’s manufacturing has taken a hard hit with the economy, they have still put up impressive numbers both inside and outside of the European Union. The impact of reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals could be astronomical in Italy. In Italy, the average number of employees at a company in the equipment and machinery sector is 13.7. With over 41,000 companies Italy has more than twice the amount of companies in this sector as Germany. A concern of the Italian way is that the businesses are so family oriented that it will be hard for machinery and equipment businesses to face the challenges of the global market. This is where the reliability and predictive maintenance industries could assist. By keeping these smaller companies going, Italy will be able to continue growing and competing with other European countries.

 The full article on Italy’s growing presence in the equipment and machinery industry can be read at Industry Week.

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Every organization will be faced with the same problem in the upcoming years, and that problem is leadership. Many companies have had the same managers and/or supervisors for many years now, and unfortunately those managers are inching closer to retirement. Just the other day we were talking to a reliability company that is already being faced with this dilemma. This company has had the same managers of the reliability and predictive maintenance technicians for the past 25 years, and now some of them are already retiring, and the company has no one ready to take their place. That is why it is important for companies to start identifying the next generation of leaders. Here are Ten Traits of good leaders.

1. Communication skills
2. Visionary
3. Inspirational
4. Charismatic
5. Passionate
6. Risk Taker
7. Differentiation
8. Know your flaws
9. Generate Trust
10. Retain position

Identifying leaders may seem like an easy thing to do, but more people have difficulty doing it than you would think. For reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals, it is important to identify potential leaders early on. That way they company can make sure that they are receiving any additional training they might want their managers/supervisors to have. Good leadership is essential for a company to continue down the path of success.

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Sometimes, I think that someday I will awake in utopia where the economy is perfect and there is free health care and jobs for every one. Then I realize that perfect worlds do not exist. The sun cannot come out to play everyday, money does not grow on trees and life is not a walk in the park. More and more people are spending their days searching for jobs, and trying to figure out how they will pay this months bills.

As I research the job market, I realize that there are hundreds of jobs I have never heard about, like Predictive Maintenance and Reliability Engineering. These jobs are long term careers that pay well and are always in demand. Up until a couple of months ago, I had never heard of the reliability field or the predictive maintenance industry. But then I realized that jobs are out there, if you know where to look. With the economy starting to rebound, manufacturing companies are starting to hire people. And with the manufacturing industry starting to produce goods again, the need for reliability and predictive maintenance professionals will also begin to increase. Companies can use Next Up Careers as a job board, so available candidates can see the job opening out there. Next Up also provides potential candidates the opportunity to post their resumes to the site, so that hiring companies are able to find the reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professionals they are looking for.

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If your currently a predictive maintenance professional or a reliability engineer out of work, don’t lose hope……Industry Week reports that the latest survey from the National Association of Business Economics (NABE) shows that the number of companies adding jobs has doubled since July. William Strauss of the Federal Reserve Bank says this increase “provides new evidence that the U.S. recovery is underway.”

So what does this mean? Even though the profit margins widened for the first time in seven quarters, we are not in the clear. The number of companies hiring that will add jobs is expected to keep rising over the next six months. Although it is not a sign of an immediate turnaround, it does provide hope for those out of work that they could soon be re-entering the workforce. The best thing for predictive maintenance professionals and reliability engineers to do is to stay up-to-date with new techniques that are being used, certifications, and/or new software the field is using. Also, update your resume and post it on NextUp Careers. NextUp is specifically designed to help people in the reliability and predictive maintenance fields find jobs. With more jobs being added everyday, don’t be the one to not have your resume out there!

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