Keeping operator skills sharp
It goes without saying that buying construction equipment can be an expensive exercise. It can be a maddening fact that despite the risk to machinery and lives on busy construction sites, that many companies are still happy to take risks by not properly monitoring how the equipment in the field and on-site. In a region […]
Training is now delivered via manufacturers, dealers and contractors
It goes without saying that buying construction equipment can be an expensive exercise. It can be a maddening fact that despite the risk to machinery and lives on busy construction sites, that many companies are still happy to take risks by not properly monitoring how the equipment in the field and on-site.
In a region still heavily reliant on man-power to cover shortage, developing, improving or even ensuring that operators know what they are doing is often left by the wayside as companies seak to build as quickly as possible.
Fortunately there appears to be a gradual shift in understanding that training matters.
This is being driven by new interest in saving costs and lowering risks by government and the municipalities seeking to fight off high turnover on sites and make them as productive as possible.
The highest profile move was Dubai’s annoucement earlier this year that it will set up its own training centres in the home countries of the hundreds of thousands of workers drafted into the emirate.
The move is a deliberate attempt to control the flow of workers and raise the standards of skills they may or may not have before they even step foot on a construction site.
It is not yet clear whether this will mean a flow of ready made machine operators into the market however. Training on the job will remain, as it does elsewhere the principle method of giving the skills necessary.
Often training is arranged by those buying the machines but operators are not then always given the pre-requisite training necessary, risking the equipment and as some tragic cases have proved, their own lives.
Putzmeister’s regional director Jens Bawdimann gives an example.
“A guy buys a machine but he’s using some ‘operator’, a poor man from India who has just arrived last week, he asks him ‘can you use the machine?’, he says yes, I can’. And then it starts to cost more money because don’t how to use it properly.
He continues: “It’s like taking a Dubai taxi driver and put him in formula one car. Maybe he can drive it a bit, but it will break down.”
This gap in skills levels has created a vaccuum that has been quickly occupied by manufacturers and dealers in the region. Putzmeister is among many that are offering subsidised training to customers.
In such schemes, operators are taken off site and sat in a classroom and given technical training that may have lacked in the past.
“We have two options,” says Bawidamann. “In the Omani market we have begun to offer customer training. We have done six training sessions of theory and practical. We give training on power, hydraulics and troubleshooting.”
Putzmeister has its own academy in Germany and it’s there where most crucially not only dealers but also their customers, ie contractors, who can take adavantage of a range of training options. These run from basic to professional levels.
“I always recommend it, as it is training that goes on for a week from 9am to 6pm in the evening. This is the best. People can see how the machine is built, how they are tested and we have simulators. All the tools to go into the machine. This is something that you cannot do in Oman say.”
Jorg Muller of Liebherr cranes explains that his company always offers training for its machines. Dismayed by what he percieves as a dissapointing level of safety in crane erection in the region, training is particularly close to his heart.
“At the top management level, I think people understand why it is important but some are simply not aware about these issues,” he muses. “It is especially true with the crane operators. Some of them are simply not trained.
“We always offer training for crane operators because most of them don’t even know what the crane can do.”
Like Putzmeister, the crane company has training available overseas. Tellingly it has not proven popular, yet.
“We do for example training here for the customers and for technicians. But (in terms of operator training) we have not done anything here yet. We would if there was a request.”
“It’s important because you have good types of equipment and the operator should know what he can do with it.”
The supplier/dealer relationship as has been suggested (and as typified by Genie’s training day in the previous article) become an informal route to drip feed training through the system.
Muneer Chan Basha, Haulotte’s Middle East business development, says the company always offers training. “We always give training on new products,” he says. “But our products will stop if over-loaded…”
