Aging Workforce Concerns Dominate Honeywell Users Group in Land Down Under

(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck.  Eddie)

After a grueling 36-hour commute via Moscow (yes, via Moscow) and Singapore, I made it to Perth, Australia mid-afternoon Saturday.  It’s in the middle of winter here down under, and the sunny and cool (60 Deg F) weather in Perth was much appreciated coming from the hot and humid (98 Deg F and 90% humidity) Houston. The four-mile run before dinner did magic in helping overcome the flight fatigue – at least temporarily. 

Catching up with old friends from Worsley, Alcoa, LyondellBassell, Honeywell and others was great.  Lots of comments from various customers on the value they get out of our DOC3000 and DOC4000 products.  One mining company client mentioned that nowadays it’s not just the control/DCS engineers who rely on DOC4000 to get their daily tasks done but that their operators also use it to understand control strategies and the logic in their control systems. 

 

The conference is well attended and high energy, unassuming and fun – very Australian, of course.  The presentations are also high quality.  The one topic that keeps coming up in almost every presentation and every session is the aging workforce, which incidentally happened to be the topic of my presentation as well as a major topic at our own PAS Users Conference later in September.  In fact, I must humbly report that my session was standing room only and ended up moving to the hallway afterwards with lots of comments, questions and concerns.  Just like in the US, the Aussies can’t seem to get enough skilled workers to fulfill their healthy appetite either.    

The discussion on the aging workforce was fast-paced and interactive.  We discussed the magnitude and the root causes of the problem.  We also highlighted the importance of the role of the console operator knowledge worker, what’s in automation systems (from process chemistry know-how to complex control strategies and safe operating limits and alarms), the valuation of these systems, how to manage and protect the configuration in them and more…

 

There were specific recommendations beyond the obvious in recruiting best practices including:

•        Develop a plan, obtain executive sponsorship and communicate to stakeholders

•        Retain the talent you have

•        Recognize and reward good performance

•        Provide intellectual challenge

•        Make it a fun place to work and provide competitive compensation

•        Re-engage talented retirees

•        Implement DOC4000 (Integrity) to capture the knowledge in your Automation Assets and to create a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration

 

Several existing DOC4000 users chimed in with the value they are getting from their application and how it practically contains and exposes in a simple format all the knowledge associated with process operations and controls. 

 

And here is what an ops manager who was seeing a demo of DOC4000 for the first time had to say about the application: “I think it (DOC4000) is going to make a radical change in how we manage our business…once we show this to our operators, they will gain a totally new perspective into their process operations and control.”

 

Meanwhile, our young DOC4000 Jedi Dan D. has been busy in the demo area…his has been the busiest booth at the show.  He definitely deserves a bit of R&R after this week.

So what do you think about this aging workforce issue?  Is it a problem at your company, in your industry or geography?  Drop me a note. Let me know.

 

Cheers Mates! 

 

PS - the only regret about being down here this week is that I missed the twins’ first day back to school as well as celebrating my grandson MD’s first week anniversary.)