Towards the end of 2005, Terry O'Hanlon and I developed a study on the Skilled Workforce in the 21st Century. We held back release of the study until this August (long story) and it will be made available along with iPresentations, articles, etc.

To kick it all off, I spent July putting together a series of Podcasts that can be downloaded directly as MP3 files to play on your computer or burn to a CD Rom, or it is available on iTunes should you be able to get at your kid's iPod or MP3 player :-)

Here is the latest announcement of this study which is being made available for free, with no commercial attachments to anything and there is no catch(we self-funded the study) we just hope it is educational and eye-opening:

The Penrose Lecture Series™ Podcast

The Penrose Lecture Series™ is continuing as a Podcast available for audio downloads and iTunes. The series is starting with the coverage of the ‘Skilled Workforce of the 21st Century’ study and will continue with other subjects with installments each week.

This week we covered the conclusion of the Workforce study and will cover general discussions related to the R&M workforce through the next century, including where we see the future of the present maintenance evolution over the coming years.

A Podcast is set up to provide audio (in this case) or video that can be played with the standard audio software on most computers, on MP3 players, iTunes or burned to CD Rom to listen in your car or on your CD player.

Part 5 is 11 minutes and covers the conclusion of the study, a description of the future workforce, recommendations for management and the consequences of not recognizing and evolving with the changes. You can obtain all parts of the Podcast through one of the following:

iTunes link: http://phobos.apple.com/webobjects/mzstore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=164604364 once you have subscribed, each episode will be automatically downloaded to your computer or iPod (or other MP3 player) whenever you log in to iTunes.

Direct Download: http://penroselectureseries.blogspot.com

Enjoy. Copies of the Skilled Workforce study will be available for free within the next few weeks from SUCCESS by DESIGN and ReliabilityWeb.com.

Please forward any questions or comments to howard@motordoc.net and we will do our best to address them in the next two installments.

The "Skilled Workforce in the 21st Century" study developed by Howard W. Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP and Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP, is available for free download from http://www.motordoc.org.

Sincerely,
Howard

Is it true that the economics lies on skilled workforce but not cheap labour?

Josh

Actually, it is true that R&M is an area that has not been explored by most senior management as an area to control costs. And, I am not referring to just cutting costs to the maintenance group. Availability, throughput, JIT, etc. are all impacted by R&M. When it is performed correctly, the impact is tremendous, when it has fallen to completely reactive, it can bring down a company.

Howard

The "Skilled Workforce in the 21st Century" study by Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP and Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP has been made available for free download on ReliabilityWeb:

http://www.reliabilityweb.com/art06/skilled_worksforce.htm

We look forward to your comments.

Howard

Although I am a lay person, I will study your tretise with a critical eye for your logic and presentation.

Having just looked at the beginning of the print version, my first reaction is entirely favorable.

The prose is clear and free from gunk.

(that's not always or even often the case with academic essays).

Looks good! But oh! my!:
light bulb...two words.
(I will nit the thing for such errors; you want such scrutiny?)

Kind and cheerful regards,
Reid