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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE To Train, or Not to Train? IT SHOULDN’T EVEN BE A QUESTION. Paul J. Magno | Contributing Author


In my years of experience as an aircraft maintenance instructor, I’ve determined that there are two groups


with differing philosophies regarding maintenance training. The first group seeks out training, believing it is valuable and beneficial. The second group believes that training is a waste of time and money and attempts to avoid it. From my experience, those in the “waste of time and


money” camp are the majority. Mechanics and supervisors usually fall into the first group but, unfortunately, often work for a member of the second group.


The Costs of Training Training costs are directly measurable. For example, sending a technician to a training course has a tuition cost and possibly a training materials cost. In addition, there are typically travel expenses (airfare, hotel, car, meals, etc.). Don’t forget the technician’s wages while attending the course and possibly overtime costs incurred as other technicians work extra hours to cover missing personnel. Beyond the monetary costs, there’s also the problem of


productivity loss and loss of aircraft use while people are out for training. There’s no question that training can be expensive.


However, the cost can be reduced with proper planning and budgeting. Depending on the operation, it might even be a tax deductible expense or might be offset with reduced insurance premiums.


The Benefits of Training Unfortunately, the benefits of training are not so easily computed or realized quickly. For the most part, the benefits are intangible and unpredictable. You can’t measure improvements in employee morale, self-confidence, teamwork, communication, sense of importance, etc. You cannot predict the savings due to increased productivity (i.e., less wasted time), reduced aircraft down time (faster repair turnaround), reduced rework, reduced unnecessary equipment exchanges, purchases and repairs. Over a period of time, perhaps several years, the savings you


couldn’t predict can become measurable if you know where to look. Large or small, the savings eventually can become huge. Unfortunately the lack of patience required to wait for the results usually wins out.


Excuses for Avoiding Training I’ve heard all the typical excuses for avoiding training. Here are some samples along with commentary that might serve as a guide to where to find savings.


22 HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com October | November 2015 “It’s too expensive.” This excuse is used by some operators


with multiple aircraft (fixed-wing and helicopter) fleets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the value of hangars, offices, equipment and salaries. Those who use this excuse seem to have no issue wasting tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars shotgunning problems by replacing multiple high-cost components that aren’t the cause. Ironically, they have a big problem paying a small fraction of that on training that very well could have resulted in the technician finding and fixing the problem faster and with less (or no) waste. I’ve frequently seen different operators replace the same


LRUs three or more times only to find out the problem was a bad ground, a broken wire or they were replacing the wrong box! Thankfully, most large corporate operators support training. “We don’t have time.”This reminds me of the frantic panic


calls from technicians late on Friday afternoons. The boss wants the aircraft but it’s AOG. The tech (who usually has no training on the system) is out of ideas or has no idea how to troubleshoot the problem. What makes it worse is that the problem surfaced the previous Monday. This made my job as a customer support rep much more difficult and time consuming because I would have to teach the technician along the way so that he or she could understand what needed to be done so that I could solve the problem over the phone. The technicians with relevant training were able to understand and follow my verbal instructions — resulting in faster aircraft return to service. I’ve had operators decline free training because they simply could not, or would not, take a technician off the line to attend a course that would have covered that same failure. The next excuse is closely related. “We can’t afford to take someone off the floor for that


long.” I guess it’s okay to let someone keep doing what they’re doing, wasting hours (or days in some cases) doing something beyond their skill set. Then, when something goes wrong, calling someone in or taking the aircraft somewhere to have corrective rework performed and, oh, by the way, incurring even more expense and down time. “Why do we need training when I can just call my


tech rep?” Let me tell you a dirty little secret. While some operators believe that training produces no measurable return, some manufacturers (airframe, engine, avionics, etc.) believe that training their customer support personnel produces no measurable return either. Don’t believe me? As an operator, ask yourself this simple question: has your customer support gotten better or worse since the 1980s?


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