Finding good help
One of the primary goals of the maintenance staffing study was to develop benchmarking targets for the split between in-house and contract labor. Respondents from 31 plants in the 45-plant sample said that, in addition to plant maintenance staff, they use some full-time contractors to perform plant maintenance; contractor job descriptions range from manager (14 plants) and supervisor (12) to laborer (8). The most popular craft positions included insulator (18), janitor/cleaner (18), electrician (12), and scaffold erector (11). About two-thirds of respondents noted that paying full-time craft contractors consumed 20% or less of their plant’s total nonplanned outage maintenance labor budget. Although contract maintenance represented more than 50% of the overall maintenance outlay at two plants, the average was 12%.
Many plants farm out specific maintenance chores, as opposed to retaining several contractors and having them share general maintenance duties. A number of plants reported spending more than 75% of their budget for a particular type of maintenance on hiring contractors. The top categories here were “fuel yard mobile equipment” (26 plants), “air compressors” (21), and “forced outage boiler tube repairs” (18).
To obtain more detailed information on contractor use, the survey asked, “How would you most likely staff a three-day forced outage caused by a boiler tube leak?” Just over half of responding plants (24) said the majority of that ad hoc staff would be in-house craft workers, supplemented by staffers from nearby plants (we should all be so lucky). Another 13 respondents said they would contract out that kind of repair work.
Notes added to survey forms provided the sought-for details. They included these: “Plant personnel get core work, then supplement with contractors,” and “Welding tube leaks is considered non-core work since our plant personnel aren’t certified welders.” One respondent noted that “All craft work outside the boiler will be ours, and work inside it would be contracted out due to a staff shortage of certified welders.”
If you’re interested in more benchmarking data specific to boiler tube repairs, I direct you to a two-part article on an earlier EUCG benchmarking survey that ran in the October 2005 and November/December 2005 issues of POWER.
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