Gas Detection Training with Otis Instruments
Ensuring your employees understand the gas detection systems in place, their abilities and maintenance, and warning signs of faulty equipment leads to improved device performance and sustainability.
In today’s work environment, new talent with experience in the field is difficult to attract and retain. This often leads to a reduction in employees and employee specialization; workers must take on greater, diverse responsibilities with little time to focus beyond immediate needs. The lack of training and resources available to enhance their industry and machinery knowledge has made the development of long-term proactive strategies extremely difficult. A lack of investment in employee training in regard to the equipment they utilize daily is the underlying source of increases in maintenance costs, unexpected downtime events, more rework, longer cycle time for solving failures, and other problems that are negatively affecting plant profitability.
The first step in developing a successful training program is ensuring that the material being presented is aligned with the daily job responsibilities of those being trained. Many training classes provided by OEMs are focused on the selection and application of their various products. While important for those who are purchasing new equipment, this does not address the many needs associated with operating, maintaining, and troubleshooting existing equipment.
Training should provide a foundation of knowledge directly associated with the skills they need in their role. For engineers, training should provide a base of knowledge to more effectively and efficiently perform their job function, and provide familiarity with internal and external resources available to supplement their own capabilities during troubleshooting and analysis. For maintenance professionals, training should focus on the form, fit, and function of components and best practices for inspection and maintenance of equipment.
Even when the material being presented is directly applicable to the trainee’s job function and includes hands-on instruction, material retention is still a pervasive problem. Studies have shown that, on average, only 10% of classroom material is retained a week after the training is concluded. With this in mind, what options are available to ensure that foundational training provides the intended benefit? Making training resources available for continuous reinforcement and just-in-time training will extend the benefit of classroom training and bolster material retention. Providing access to recordings of the training material and supplemental material for further enrichment will allow trainees to continue to engage with the material. It will also allow review of any relevant information as needed when problems arise.
To support a reduction in maintenance errors, a review of existing procedures should be undertaken in tandem with classroom training. This review will ensure that best practices taught in training are in alignment with site material. Upgrading existing procedures to include illustrations or animations of critical steps can also significantly improve work performance.
Otis Instruments offers a three-day, hands-on complete product technical in-person training course of all current purchasable, Gen I & Gen II products for the distributors and end users of Otis products. Training classes are held at the Corporate (Bryan) office on the last week of every month, Tuesday through Thursday, with four spots available per training course. Otis Instruments also offers resources to help our customers fully understand their products and other features when utilizing our instrumentation.
Otis Instruments offers a variety of Wired and WireFree easy-to-use, robust and configurable gas detectors. Made in the USA, our high-quality products are capable of detecting both toxic and non-toxic gases for diverse applications. If you would like more information about gas detection solutions for your application, training for your team, or have a question for us, contact our team today.