Profiling your plant engineering staff

James Patrick, Ameren; Robert Oldani, DTE Energy; and Daryl Von Behren, Kansas City Power & Light and EUCG Inc., Fossil Productivity Committee

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The well-received coal-fired plant operator staffing benchmarking study published in POWER in September 2004 by the EUCG was recently joined by two additional studies: one of plant-level engineering and technical staff and the other of central engineering staffs. This article summarizes the results of the former. A future article will summarize the central engineering staffing study.

Most plant technical staffs represent a diverse mix of experience and capabilities. Some new hires are awarded the title "engineer" on the basis of their education, but they only really earn it under fire. Those suited to the power profession learn how to thrive in the high-pressure cauldron of plant operations; others leave to find employment more tailored to their tastes. But all learn that completing college means your education is just beginning.

Still others become engineers and technicians by starting at the bottom (often as a "rover" on the midnight shift) and rising through the ranks by doing their job well. By way of proof that experience is indeed the best teacher, engineers who have graduated from the school of hard knocks are highly valued because they have seen it all.

Those of you familiar with plant operations are likely to draw the following overall conclusion from the top-level study results presented here: Staffs featuring a mix of engineering and technical (E&T) pedigrees have become a fact of life at most plants. Without question, determining the roles that education, experience, and personalities play in that mix is one of the most important long-term decisions that any plant manager must make.

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