Compressed air systems are historically overlooked and under-monitored in industrial plant settings. In fact, many plants don’t start paying attention to compressed air use until a problem arises that interferes with production or operations.
In-plant training is a valuable tool many plants are missing from their belts – it equips plant personnel with the knowledge and skills they need to troubleshoot, service, and maintain their specific compressed air system – not a theoretical plant with theoretical equipment.
The resulting savings on capital expense following in-plant training is often hundreds of thousands of dollars; sometimes more.
Read on for the top 8 reasons industrial in-plant training beats generic training.
1. No sales angle
How can you trust a trainer that has a quote in their other hand?
At many trainings, someone will try to sell you their product (directly or indirectly). At Industrial Compressor Solutions, we believe you should invest in real training – not “free” training on what you should buy next.
2. Training that actually applies to your plant
In-plant training is different from standard training in one very important way: what you learn is specific to the equipment and technology your plant uses.
When we hold standardized compressed air training, we have to talk broadly about multiple types of equipment, technologies, and scenarios. That tends to leave out anything that actually 1) applies to the logistics of your plant, 2) factors in your day-to-day operations, or 3) accounts for the process variables that are unique to every industrial setting.
With in-plant training, we dial into your facility’s specifics.
3. New perspectives
In-plant training can increase employee morale and retention, which pays dividends far beyond the financial. Teaching plant personnel new ways to conceptualize their compressed air systems and encouraging them to question and even challenge what they've been taught previously can be an inspiring and perspective-shifting experience. As with any field, best practices change as a function of time. Taking employees on that evolving journey creates valuable opportunities for them to learn new skills and empowers them to grow within their roles.
4. Scenario-based teaching
Having the ability to evaluate the what ifs of an industrial environment is important. We want plants to be able to ask and answer questions like:
What happens when…
Water is introduced to your plant?
A dryer breaks down?
The plant pressure drops?
Who’s the first person to notice?
How do they notice?
Does an alarm go off?
Does production stop?
What are the ways we accidentally band-aid our plants, instead of addressing the root issues?
Our training examines each of these concerns through the lenses of quality, temperature, pressure, and flow.
5. Whole-team collaboration
Our training program teaches employees at every level to be comfortable with compressed air service, maintenance, and troubleshooting. We prioritize creating a strong team atmosphere where everyone works together towards a common goal. That’s why we focus not just on education, but also on bridging gaps between managers, technicians, engineers, and everyone else involved with the operation's compressed air system.
6. Hands-on training (and some theory!)
To ensure that our training is as comprehensive as possible for each individual involved in maintaining an industrial compressor system, we provide hands-on demonstrations and field simulations to bring theories and principles to life. We also include case studies that reinforce key points regarding the design, service, maintenance, troubleshooting, and installation processes. But we don't skimp on theory. Practical application is only half of the lesson; theoretical knowledge and analytical skills are important, too.
7. Learning from a compressed air expert
Our principal trainer, Josh Wamser, has been working in compressed air for over 20 years, and has worked with every type of equipment you can imagine. He’s OSHA-30 certified and licensed as a NASCLA-Certified General Contractor, Pressure & Process Piping Mechanical Engineer, and Commercial Plumber. He’s also a Certified Construction Manager, Project Manager, and 608 Universal Refrigeration Technician.
8. The ability to analyze efficiency and reliability
Efficiency and reliability are both important metrics for plant management – and you don’t want to have one without the other.
A quantitative analysis (e.g. from monitoring) of your compressed air system can reveal a lot about its efficiency. Analytics and measurements can also show you how reliable it is.
Take cars, for example. Having a car with low emissions and great mileage is fuel-efficient, and that makes gas less expensive. That’s a good thing.
But we would all be hard-pressed to say that better mileage is more important to us than our car’s ability to turn on and off, or get us from point A to B without breaking down.
This training forces us to consider the question: how many times are we willing to be stranded on the side of the road before we decide that having a running vehicle is more important to us than having an efficient one?
That’s the difference between reliability and efficiency. Without reliability, efficiency isn’t helpful – or relevant. And when efficiency is deemed the primary goal, it will, at some point, come at the cost of reliability.
Objectively, securing system reliability does increase cost on the front end (backups, auto-backups, monitoring, etc.). But if you’re not willing to gamble your plant’s productivity, it’s worth it. Here’s why:
A system that is heavy on efficiency but light on reliability will inevitably see loss of production, increased scrap, plant shutdowns, and other expensive waste. And that will actually cost about 10x more than it takes to make a system reliable.
Once your system has reliability, you absolutely want it to have efficiency, too.
Industrial Compressor Solutions’ training can help your plant maximize both.
The ROI speaks for itself
Our comprehensive approach takes into account both theoretical knowledge and practical application to ensure each individual involved with the operation's compressed air system learns from our program, understands how to make compressed air more reliable and less expensive, and can use all of that to prevent plant shutdowns – or avoid them altogether.
It pays to stay teachable.
Contact us today to learn more about the training we can build for your plant.
