What is more efficient, having a bunch specialists in each skill or a smaller number of tradesmen that can do each and every one of the needed crafts? With specialists in each skill there is always the problem of “one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing”. Then there is the “jack of all master of none” syndrome. Is it possible to find anyone proficient in all the needed skills any more?

Ok, I could go with my pros and cons, but what are your top concerns for supporting one or the other?

There is another trend nowadays i.e. managerial career path vs technical career path. So I guess you could have a separate career path, depending the individual preference. Managers will deal with lots of people and thus need a lot of soft skills while technical specialists will deal many technical problems and focus on sharpening their technical know-how.

Craft specialist or multi-craft? It’s an old question. I’ve worked both and prefer the specialist position. I suppose size of the plant makes the most difference as to which benefits the company more. That is, smaller plants can get more usable man-hours out of multi-craft technicians. Larger plants usually have enough work to keep right sized specialized departments busy. I suppose it also depends on the maintenance strategy. Fire fighting can probably be done with multi-craft technicians.

However, OSHA and the NFPA are really starting to demand more training and formal qualification for electrical techs. It’s getting harder to expect non-electrical techs to cross over to do electrical work. Instrumentation usually requires strong background and training to do it right. Some outfits don’t care so much about extreme accuracy of their instruments.

There are a lot of benefits to having good craft mechanics who have the inclination to make machines better, maintain them better, or to get a machine by in a pinch that electrical and instrument techs usually don’t have. A skilled machinist is good to have on site as is someone strong in HVAC.

I suppose that taking advantage of natural tendencies is a good idea if multi-craft is decided upon. Electrical, Instrumentation and Automation have the most in common; Mechanical and Machinist likewise; HVAC crosses the boundaries somewhat but leans towards mechanical.

I’ve worked both and enjoy the specialized position more. It felt like I lost some of my edge working multi-craft; I did gain in other skill sets to balance my maintenance knowledge. Long term though, it felt good to get back to what I know and enjoy doing. The larger and more technical the plant, the more the craftsman needs to be specialized.

I agree with Wally. Larger maintenance organization can benefit more from specialization. Smaller organization doesn't have that luxury.

Another aspect is how the technicians are organizaed. Some of our crews are organized by craft (for example all electricians and an electrician supervisor). Other crews have a mixture (two electricians, two instrument guys, two mechanics... reporting to a single supervisor). Those crews do more of the jump-up unplanned work. For some reason, the people in those crews also tend to get more crossover work since they are working very closely with other crafts in the same crew.