Another successful conference for MESNZ, held at Fraser High School in Hamilton.

The exhibition area had a number of companies showing their wares. Keynote speaker Joel Leonard from North Carolina put forward some thoughts, not just on the importance of maintenance in keeping business and the world turning, but some ideas on how the maintenance community here can promote the career to get more people involved so we get the needed next generation of skilled technicians that are needed.

A point that many may miss is that as manufacturing becomes more automated the number of production staff will decrease but the number of maintenance staff will increase as all the automated systems require maintaining (and are more complex to maintain).

One opportunity he highlighted was working with local Maker Space organisations, which draw in people interested in making stuff, they can help foster hands on experience around tool use, 3D printing etc, get some interested students involved in these activities. He also highlighted meeting with Government leaders and politicians – maybe in an open forum to help reduce the level of ignorance and apathy around the manufacturing and maintenance sectors.

We will leave you with a couple of lines of Joel’s “Maintenance Crisis Song”

“Maintenance technicians are about to retire, Company Executives have no one to hire

How safe does it make you feel? How safe does it make you feel?”

You can listen to the full song here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJ_zFvAS1M