BEYOND BREAKDOWN - CHAPTER 3: Building A Resilient Workforce - Skills, Culture, And Change Readiness

Welcome to The Reliable Edge, where we guide leaders in transforming maintenance into a competitive edge—one proven idea at a time.

This is part of the series from the eBook: Beyond Breakdown — a practical guide packed with field-tested strategies, essential tools, and leadership insights to help maintenance and reliability professionals accelerate performance in today’s fast-evolving manufacturing landscape.

In this chapter, we focus on your most valuable asset: your people. With skilled labor shortages rising, this gives you actionable ways to upskill, retain, and empower your team—while building a culture that adapts and grows with change.

Let’s explore what real workforce resilience looks like.

Introduction

In every plant visit, conference conversation, or leadership meeting I’ve been part of recently, one concern keeps coming up: people.

Not just the shortage of them — but the urgent need for skilled, motivated, and change-ready people in maintenance and reliability. You can have the best predictive tech and lean processes in the world, but if you don’t have the right people — or a culture that brings out their best — operational excellence will stall.

 The Skilled Labor Crisis: A Perfect Storm

The workforce challenge is no longer emerging — it’s here. And it’s deep.

What’s Driving It?

• Retiring expertise: A large percentage of skilled technicians are approaching or past retirement age, taking decades of tribal knowledge with them.

• Talent pipeline issues: Younger workers often overlook manufacturing, seeing it as outdated or lacking opportunity.

• STEM & vocational training gaps: Schools aren’t producing enough candidates with technical aptitude or experience.

•  Shifting expectations: New generations want flexibility, purpose, and development — not just a paycheck.

What’s the Impact?

• Missed PMs and slower response times

• Decline in equipment uptime

• Increased training and overtime costs

• Resistance to tech adoption

•  Quality issues and operator turnover

Strategies to Build and Sustain a Resilient Workforce

Now more than ever, leaders must shift from simply “managing headcount” to strategically developing human capability.

Here’s how:

1. Invest in Upskilling — Continuously

Don't wait for people to leave before you worry about skills.

· Create internal academies or partner with local training centers

· Use microlearning and mobile-friendly modules for on-the-job learning

· Offer certifications for electrical, hydraulics, reliability basics, CMMS usage, etc.

Consultant Tip:

 2. Rebuild the Talent Pipeline with Partnerships

•  Collaborate with technical schools, trade programs, and STEM nonprofits

•  Offer internships, plant tours, or hands-on labs to attract young talent

•  Support apprenticeships and on-the-job learning for entry-level hires

Stat: Plants with robust apprenticeship programs see 20–30% higher retention in skilled trades.

 3. Engage Frontline Workers in Improvement Efforts

No one knows your equipment better than the people who work on it daily.

• Include technicians in root cause analysis, design improvements, and pilot tests

•  Set up feedback loops that are fast, visible, and acted upon

•  Celebrate implemented ideas publicly — recognition drives ownership

Real-world example: One food processor created a “Technician-Led Kaizen” team that improved mean time to repair (MTTR) by 18% within six months.

4. Create a Culture That Supports Change, Not Fears It

Change is a constant — but how people experience change is a leadership responsibility.

Common sources of resistance:

•  Fear of job loss

• Lack of understanding

•  Previous failed initiatives

•  Poor communication

Ways to counter resistance:

•  Communicate early and often: Be transparent about the “why” behind any new system, tool, or process

• Show, don’t just tell: Use pilots and early adopters to demonstrate wins

• Create change champions: Empower respected technicians to lead change from the inside

•  Reward adaptability: Celebrate not just outcomes, but learning and effort

Leadership insight:

 5. Leverage Technology to Enable, Not Replace

Today’s technicians need digital literacy, not just mechanical skills.

• Train staff on IoT dashboards, digital inspections, and predictive alerts

• Simplify user interfaces in CMMS and other tools

• Position tech as an enabler that reduces manual effort and frustration

Example: One plant reduced PM completion time by 20% by issuing tablets with pre-loaded checklists and asset histories.

 Practical Tip: Knowledge Capture = Risk Reduction

Create simple systems to capture tribal knowledge:

• Record “day-in-the-life” videos with senior techs

• Build visual job aids and standardized work instructions

Embed checklists into your CMMS tied to specific asset conditions

Chapter Takeaways

• The workforce is your most strategic lever — and your most at-risk asset.

• Upskilling, engagement, and frontline involvement are non-negotiables.

• Resilience means building both technical capacity and cultural readiness for change.

• Leadership must champion both the human and technical side of operational excellence.

 Actionable Call to Action (CTA):

Run a Workforce Resilience Health Check

1. How many skilled technicians are within 5 years of retirement?

2. What % of your team has had formal training in the last 6 months?

3. How often do you ask frontline staff for input on improvements — and act on it?

4. Do your people see change as a threat or an opportunity?

Use the answers to build your next training, retention, or engagement strategy — and share it with your leadership team.

P.S.

If you found this helpful, share it with your team—or anyone else working to build reliability from the ground up.

Got thoughts, questions, or a challenge you’d like covered in a future issue? Just comment or reply—we’d love to hear from you. Your insight could help shape the next conversation.

About the Author:

Albien Leyco is a technical consultant and digital transformation advocate, a seasoned engineering and maintenance professional with over 26 years of rich and progressive experience in manufacturing industry. He has led cross functional teams across multiple plants, driving initiatives in maintenance reliability, utilities optimization, sustainable operations, and capital project execution.

Known for bridging practical execution with forward-thinking strategy, Albien helps organizations break free from reactive firefighting and shift toward proactive, data-driven maintenance—without unnecessary complexity. His approach blends deep technical know-how with real-world insight, making transformation both achievable and sustainable.