The Impact of War on the U.S. Oil and Gas Labor Market
A new war in the Middle East once again has millions of people around the world asking the question famously posed in the protest song “War” popularized in the early 1970s: “War…What is it good for?” Many answer with the song’s cry of “absolutely nothin’!” However, we know by now that there certainly are plenty of people who benefit and profit from another new war.
All those naval ships, Air Force planes, and ballistic missiles must come from somewhere. In the U.S., it’s no secret that the military-industrial complex benefits to the tune of billions of dollars every time a prolonged international conflict breaks out. But who else profits from war?
When that war happens to be in the Middle East and it cuts into the global oil supply, sending prices skyrocketing, then oil and gas companies around the world stand to make billions more as they receive north of $100 per barrel of oil that was only recently selling for $70 per barrel or less.
With all that extra money flowing in and global supply suffering a major setback, will U.S. oil and gas companies seek to expand supply? According to a Marketplace article by Mitchell Hartman, that certainly seems to be a good possibility.
Hartman notes that Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil, believes “there’s an incentive to increase production,” since “[t]he sharp rise in oil and gas prices has been a boon for the energy sector.” Kloza anticipates that “we’ll see the labor force ramp up a little bit. When you’re drilling for oil in the Permian Basin, it’s very labor-intensive.”
This is good news, because Hartman points out that “[t]he workforce has actually been declining for more than a decade.” Kloza notes that “break-even numbers” for projects in the Permian Basin and Gulf of Mexico can now be met thanks to recent price increases, making these projects now promising when they weren’t just before the war.
Unfortunately, the ongoing industrial skills gap issue means that new oil and gas workers with advanced skills will likely be in short supply. This creates a challenge for oil and gas companies hoping to seize the day to ramp up production quickly. How do these companies and schools train the next generation of professionals with the oil and gas skills they need to succeed?
A thorough review of training systems is a great place to start. Do employees and students have access to hands-on training with actual components they’ll encounter on the job? If not, partnering with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time will help ensure a competent workforce. Be sure to check out DAC Worldwide’s variety of hands-on oil and gas training systems that feature the real-world components workers will encounter in the field!
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Preventable Injuries Put Focus Back on Workplace Safety
What’s your typical workday like? What’s the biggest worry you have at work on a day-to-day basis? The answers to these questions can vary wildly depending upon what type of job you have and what industry you work in.
If you have a typical office job, your biggest daily concerns are probably related to assignment deadlines and keeping up with the endless stream of emails and phone calls. Threats to your health and safety are likely few and far between.
Sadly, that’s not the case for many people, especially those who work in particularly dangerous industries like agriculture, mining, oil and gas, transportation, warehousing, and construction. For workers in these and similar industries, threats to life and limb are real.
Despite all the progress we’ve made over the past century, workplace accidents, injuries, and even deaths remain an ongoing concern in many industries. Recent statistics reveal that workplace deaths have declined in recent years. However, experts believe workplace injury and fatality rates remain too high, because so many are preventable.
For example, a recent EHS Today article notes that, “[w]hile the overall job fatality rate decreased to 3.3 per 100,000 workers” last year, “[w]orkplace hazards still kill approximately 140,000 workers each year in the United States—including 5,070 from traumatic injuries in 2024 and an estimated 135,000 from occupational diseases each year.”
The AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, recently “released its annual report on worker injuries, ‘Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.’” The report sounds the alarm regarding actions of the current Trump administration, concluding that “[n]ational progress over the decades has undoubtedly made workplaces safer and saved lives. But that progress is under attack—now more than ever.”
Here are a few of the most interesting findings outlined in the AFL-CIO report:
- “The overall job fatality rate decreased to 3.3 per 100,000 workers.”
- “Employers reported nearly 3.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses, a decrease from the previous year.”
- “Underreporting of all workplace injuries and illnesses is widespread—the true toll of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated to be 5.0 million to 7.5 million each year in private industry.”
While “[t]he cost of job injuries and illnesses is enormous, estimated at $177 billion to $354 billion a year,” these figures represent “an undercount of the real impact on society, families and communities.” It’s hard to accurately capture the true cost of workplace injuries and fatalities. It’s even harder to accept those costs, given that so many of them are preventable.
Unfortunately, some of the guardrails intended to curb workplace injuries and fatalities are actively being undermined by the current Trump administration. For example, “[f]ederal OSHA has the lowest number of inspectors in the history of the agency—only enough to now inspect workplaces once every 191 years.”
The EHS Today article points out that “[t]here are 1,651 inspectors (618 federal and 1,033 state) to inspect the 12 million workplaces under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s jurisdiction, covering 155 million workers—a workforce that keeps growing while OSHA staff numbers do not.”
In addition to undermining OSHA’s ability to inspect workplaces, the AFL-CIO report “notes that the current administration has…[p]roposed twice to eliminate worker safety and health training grants, even though Congress has rejected these cuts so far.”
These attempts to reduce money for effective safety training could seriously undermine workplace safety efforts, since it’s clear that safety training remains one of the most important tools in any employer’s toolbox when it comes to reducing workplace injuries and fatalities.
For employers looking to improve safety training, it can help to partner with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time. For example, DAC Worldwide offers two safety training systems specifically designed to give employees the hands-on experience they need to master lock-out/tag-out skills:
- DAC Worldwide Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
- DAC Worldwide Electrical Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
Be sure to check out these training systems and contact a DAC Worldwide representative to learn how you can improve your training today!
- Published in News
Proposed Wisconsin Facility Could Turn Trees into Jet Fuel
If the world has learned anything from the ongoing war in Iran, it’s that countries must continue to seek to develop sources of fuel that don’t depend upon transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s effective closure of this critical shipping lane in response to bombing by the United States and Israel has caused inflationary ripples around the world affecting everything from the price of fuel to the availability of a wide range of products like fertilizer and pharmaceuticals.
For years now, the go-to sources of so-called alternative energy have been wind and solar power, neither of which need to be transported via tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. But are these the only options? Not if a new German company and a small town in Wisconsin have anything to say about it.
In a recent Wisconsin Public Radio article, author Robin Washington reports that German company Synthec Fuels is partnering with Wisconsin company Johnson Timbers on a project that could turn biomass, including “timber and forest byproducts,” into sustainable jet fuel.
Wisconsin legislators recently “passed an incentive package called the Forestry Revitalization Bill” that would provide $120 million in tax credits to build a new facility in the small town of Hayward. According to Bill Johnson from Johnson Timbers, the new plant “would convert woody biomass into sustainable aviation fuel” using a “100-year-old technology known as gasification and Fischer–Tropsch.”
According to ScienceDirect, “Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis is defined as a method for producing liquid hydrocarbons from syngas, primarily converting biomass or coal into high-quality diesel oil and other hydrocarbons. The FT process operates under specific temperature and pressure conditions, yielding products similar to petrodiesel, with applications in both fuel and chemical production.”
The FT process involves three steps: “(1) biomass gasification leading to syngas generation; (2) FT reaction for the conversion of syngas to higher hydrocarbons; and (3) product separation and refining to produce useful products.” Johnson notes that his company has experience with this process already, having “worked with this technology in the past during both the Bush and Obama administrations and [having] built a pilot plant utilizing similar technologies down in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, using biomass from Wisconsin.”
Of course, getting such an operation off the ground will take many highly skilled workers with not only oil and gas experience, but also skills related to advanced automation and the latest process control and instrumentation technologies.
Unfortunately, these workers may be difficult to find, given the ongoing skilled labor shortage that has plagued manufacturers for decades now. Synthec Fuels and Johnson Timbers will need to work closely with local industry and educational institutions to ensure a steady stream of talent for its new plant.
When it comes to training the next generation of workers, educators and industry partners alike would do well to partner with experts in technical training, such as DAC Worldwide. For example, Synthec Fuels and Johnson Timbers could benefit from DAC Worldwide’s Smart Process Plant Training System (603-SP), a fully-functional, industrial-quality fluid process system that provides hands-on training in the measurement and control of five of the most common process variables: level, pressure, temperature, flow, and pH.
The system groups these process control elements into one complete piping system, which allows it to teach multiple configurations of flow loops, controls, and communications. The system incorporates both new and legacy technologies so that users are prepared for anything they might encounter on the job. These technologies work together to form a 3-level communication architecture:
- Device Level: Smart sensors monitor Level, Flow, Temperature, Pressure, and pH. They are connected via either IO-Link and Ethernet communication or HART communication.
- Control Level: A DCS and various PLCs and PIDs allow for operation and control of the system’s components.
- Enterprise Level: The DCS software provides Supervisory Control with data analytics for monitoring smart production, smart maintenance, etc.
The Smart Process Plant uses a Distributed Control System (DCS) that features Supervisory Control software. This software is Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx, and it acts as the backbone of the system. It gathers and organizes data and creates dashboards that represent the real-time status of the processes being carried out by the system.
The Smart Process Plant Training System features a wide variety of common, industrial-quality components and instruments to provide learners with a realistic training experience that will build skills that translate easily to the workplace. The Smart Process Plant also includes multiple experiments, which simulate both continuous and batch process control loops that are widely used in many process industries. These experiments include:
- Basic and Advanced Bioreactor Applications
- Clean-In-Place (CIP) Skid Application
- Boiler Drum Level Application
- Wastewater Treatment Application
With these experiments, learners will explore a wide variety of fundamental process control topics, including: temperature, level, flow, pressure, and pH ratio control; agitation; sequence control; continuous control; 3-element control; feed forward/cascade control; and pump lead/lag demand. The Smart Process Plant Training System is only one of DAC Worldwide’s many process control and instrumentation training systems. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its many other training systems, as well as advanced chemical engineering training systems from its partner, Pignat SAS!
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Blue Collar v. White Collar and the Impact of AI
What would you do if you stumbled upon a fountain of youth? What three wishes would you make if you found a genie in a bottle? Would you seize the opportunity to return to your youth? For those of us with several decades of life under our belts, it’s tempting to think about returning to a simpler time.
If you could go back to a time before the Internet existed, would you do it? What if you could be 17 again, but only if you stayed in 2026? That might change things for many people. How about you?
Combine a new war in the Middle East with increasing inflation, skyrocketing prices on everything from food to gas, unaffordable healthcare premiums, and any number of other issues, and you find yourself in a present time that’s particularly bleak for the youth of America.
Today’s parents of teens know the struggle is real. What career advice do you give a teenager in a world full of uncertainty and an economy on the verge of a recession? With artificial intelligence (AI) growing by leaps and bounds, what kind of modern career still offers the “American dream”?
Should you push your children toward a university degree and a white-collar job? Or would they be better served by pursuing a blue-collar job in the trades after an apprenticeship, certification program, or technical training at a community college?
Recent news reports signal a trend that may put blue-collar careers on a more solid footing than white-collar counterparts in the age of AI. In a recent article in The New York Times, author Sydney Ember notes that “[t]his is the worst spring for young degree holders since the depths of the pandemic.”
Diving into the statistics, it’s clear that those finishing college soon face an uphill battle. Ember cites a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis that finds “[t]he unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 soared to 5.6 percent at the end of last year…up sharply over the past three years and outstripping the overall rate of 4.2 percent at the time.”
Perhaps more importantly, of those who did have jobs, “more than 40 percent held jobs that do not typically require college degrees, the highest level since 2020.” While there are many factors at play in the current employment market, some are pointing the finger at the increasing prominence of AI.
For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has predicted that AI “could obliterate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.” Is that realistic? Only time will tell. However, a Stanford Digital Economy Lab report recently found that there have been “‘substantial declines in employment for early-career workers’ in fields that were most vulnerable to A.I., such as software development.”
In stark contrast to the apparent effect of AI on white-collar jobs, author Caroline Colvin notes in a recent HR Dive article that “AI is spurring demand for skilled trade workers — not displacing them.” She cites a recent Randstad report that indicates that “[h]iring for skilled trades has increased to keep up with the rate of artificial intelligence infrastructure growth.”
For example, Colvin notes that “[s]ince late 2022 when generative AI entered the mainstream, demand for robotics technicians has spiked 107%, with demand for HVAC engineers up 67% and construction roles up 30%.”
Before jumping on the trades bandwagon, though, it’s important to realize that “AI-driven expansion is reshaping what it means to be a skilled trade worker.” It appears that the days of viewing blue-collar jobs as low skill are long gone.
Randstad’s report notes that new blue-collar jobs “are increasingly highly specialized, digital-first positions. From electricians to robot technicians, digital fluency is now a prerequisite. The skilled trades are moving closer to traditional knowledge work, requiring a global re-rating of these career tracks and a shift toward continuous education and training opportunities.”
So, what can educators and companies do to increase the number of highly skilled workers needed for today’s job market? Partnering with a proven expert to train current and prospective workers with the hands-on skills necessary to succeed on the job is a great place to start.
Partnering with a training solutions provider with a proven track record can help any manufacturer or educational institution train workers with the hands-on skills they’ll need to hit the ground running in the workplace. For example, DAC Worldwide offers a wide variety of training systems that teach basic to advanced skills in a wide variety of areas relevant to manufacturing. From basic electrical and mechanical to advanced process control and HVACR, DAC Worldwide offers training solutions that work. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its many training systems!
- Published in News
Power Transformer Manufacturer Expands Operations
Is there an artificial intelligence (AI) data center headed to a community near you sometime soon? At the rate AI data centers are popping up across the country and around the globe, there’s a better than average chance you’re already familiar with the heated debates new data center announcements bring with them.
While local and state governments often welcome new data centers with open arms—and big tax breaks—the residents in nearby communities frequently raise concerns about the natural resources these facilities consume, as well as the impact they have on the environment and utility rates.
The proliferation of AI data centers in recent years has made it somewhat common knowledge that these cutting-edge computing facilities consume enormous amounts of water and electricity. After all, all that computing power working 24/7 generates a lot of heat and components must be kept cool to work at peak efficiency.
Unfortunately, aging electrical grids and shortages of advanced power generation equipment have left many areas struggling to accommodate the demands of new data centers. That’s why manufacturers of such equipment are expanding operations, increasing the need for highly skilled workers with advanced electrical skills.
According to an AL.com article by William Thornton, Hyundai Power Transformers USA recently “announced a $200 million expansion of its Montgomery [Alabama] manufacturing operations,” a move that “will create about 200 jobs and significantly increas[e] the factory’s domestic production capacity for large power transformers.”
In addition to boosting production capacity, the new facility “will be able to manufacture even larger transformer units in the United States. This comes at a particularly crucial time, the company says, as about 70% of the nation’s large power transformers are currently in need of replacement.”
Hyundai Power Transformers USA’s expansion plan underscores the ongoing need for more skilled workers with basic to advanced electrical skills. Unfortunately, the ongoing industrial skills gap issue means that workers with advanced electrical skills remain in high demand with supply lagging behind.
This creates a challenge for industries across the country and around the world. How do companies and schools train the next generation of professionals with the electrical skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace?Top of FormBottom of Form
A thorough review of training systems is a great place to start. Do employees and students have access to hands-on training with actual components they’ll encounter on the job? If not, partnering with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time will help ensure a competent workforce.
Be sure to check out DAC Worldwide’s variety of hands-on electrical training systems that feature the real-world components workers will encounter in the field. For example, companies in the power generation space could benefit from DAC Worldwide trainers focused on the skills their employees need, such as:
- Transformer Wiring Training System (408-000): a realistic training device that replicates the conditions and circumstances that an electrical worker encounters when making common power transformer connections in the field and industry. This self-contained, tabletop training system provides a safe, inexpensive, yet realistic alternative to paper-based learning without the danger of full-voltage field experience.
- Transformer Connections Training System (491-000): replicates the conditions and circumstances that a utility worker encounters when making common transformer connections in the field. Using this trainer, learners will explore the skills that an operator must master to confidently operate modern generating equipment, such as the paralleling of generators and connecting to a larger power grid.
- Electrical Generation Fundamentals Training System (490-000): represents a true simulator depicting multiple power plants on a grid. The unit basically acts as the control center for a generating station and simulates four separate generating units. The system demonstrates the principles of generator operation and represents the relationships that an operator must master to confidently operate generators.
- Published in News
Workplace Fatalities Fall for Second Year in a Row
Do you fear for your life each day when you head to work? No, this isn’t a joke with Monday or your boss as the punch line. Thousands of people die each year due to injuries suffered on the job. Do you have the type of job with inherent safety risks?
Some jobs obviously tend to be more dangerous than others. Lion tamers and offshore oil rig workers jump to mind. However, the millions of people who work in modern manufacturing facilities can also find themselves surrounded by equipment that can kill if not handled properly.
For example, workers maintaining equipment can be seriously injured from the unexpected energization of, release of stored energy from, or startup of equipment. That’s why mandatory safety training, such as those related to lock-out/tag-out procedures, is so critical.
Lock-out/tag-out rules establish standards for the shutdown of equipment, so that energy sources can be isolated to prevent the release of potentially hazardous energy during routine maintenance activities. Following proper lock-out/tag-out procedures helps workers to avoid preventable workplace accidents and injuries.
Fortunately, it appears that a focus on safety training nationwide is working. A recent EHS Today article reports that “[t]he U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ [BLS] 2024 fatal occupational injuries data showed 5,070 worker deaths – a second consecutive year of decline.”
NSC CEO Lorraine Martin claims that “[t]his progress shows that when employers focus on serious injury and fatality risks, invest in prevention and build strong safety cultures, lives are protected.” However, she believes that “5,070 deaths in a single year is still 5,070 too many. We must accelerate proven strategies that address the highest-risk exposures and ensure every worker gets home safe.”
To put these statistics in perspective, BLS data shows:
- “The fatal work injury rate was 3.3 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers in 2024, a decrease from a rate of 3.5 in 2023.”
- “A worker died every 104 minutes from a work-related injury in 2024 compared to 99 minutes in 2023.”
- “Workers in transportation and material moving occupations represented the occupational group with the most fatalities with 1,391 fatal work injuries in 2024, though this was a 7% decrease from 2023 (1,495).”
How can manufacturers get the total of workplace fatalities down to zero? There’s simply no substitute for thorough, effective safety training for every worker before setting foot on the shop floor. For manufacturers without significant experience setting up a safety training program, it can help to partner with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time.
For example, DAC Worldwide offers two safety training systems specifically designed to give employees the hands-on experience they need to master lock-out/tag-out skills:
- DAC Worldwide Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
- DAC Worldwide Electrical Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
Be sure to check out these training systems and contact a DAC Worldwide representative to learn how you can improve your training today!
- Published in News
Electrical Outages Costing Manufacturers Time and Money
This winter, a series of storms has battered states from coast to coast, dumping feet of snow and ice and generally wreaking havoc in a variety of ways. Were you impacted by any of the storms? When the forecast calls for snow and ice, what do you worry about most?
For some, it’s the potential impact on their daily commute that leads to sleepless nights. Others, though, might worry more about how they’ll survive an extended power outage if snow and ice cause a widespread power outage.
While it’s natural for individuals to worry about the personal impact of severe weather, many people don’t realize how these storms affect businesses. While it’s much rarer for a business to close than it is for a school, for example, it’s clear that significant power outages are costing manufacturers across the country both time and money.
According to a Manufacturing.net article by Chris Daly, “[e]lectricity interruptions are on the rise across the United States…In fact…electricity customers throughout the U.S. witnessed 11 hours of power outages on average during 2024.”
Is this significant? It certainly is when you consider that “there were around four hours of electricity interruptions per year on average between 2014 and 2023. As a result, last year saw almost twice as many power outages as the average recorded each year for the past decade.”
While an electrical outage might interrupt your favorite Netflix show for a few hours, the ramifications are more serious for manufacturers. As Daly notes, “[a] single electricity interruption runs the risk of powering down operations and causing production line processes to fall out of sync, resulting in a loss of material and profits.”
How much loss? Donna McGinnis, Director of Marketing at Briggs & Stratton Energy Solutions, estimates that “up to $1 million of manufacturing losses can be recorded during each hour that production is disrupted by a power outage.”
What are manufacturers to do? It seems like severe weather conditions are occurring with increasing frequency each year. When you add the strain of new artificial intelligence (AI) data centers popping up across the country, further burdening electrical grids, it’s clear that things could get worse before they get better.
Daly believes that “[b]usinesses throughout the U.S. need to realize the prospect of experiencing more power outages. This point was emphasized by the Department of Energy, when it recently warned that blackouts may increase by 100x by the year 2030 if reliable power sources continue to be shuttered and extra firm capacity fails to be added to the nation’s energy array.”
Daly recommends that manufacturers investigate the use of onsite generators and portable power banks to minimize the impact of power outages. However, it’s clear that larger solutions targeted at strengthening electrical grids will also be necessary.
All of this underscores the ongoing need for more skilled workers with basic to advanced electrical skills. Unfortunately, the ongoing industrial skills gap issue means that workers with advanced electrical skills remain in high demand with supply lagging behind.
This creates a challenge for industries across the country and around the world. How do companies and schools train the next generation of professionals with the electrical skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace? A thorough review of training systems is a great place to start.
Do employees and students have access to hands-on training with actual components they’ll encounter on the job? If not, partnering with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time will help ensure a competent workforce. Be sure to check out DAC Worldwide’s variety of hands-on electrical training systems that feature the real-world components workers will encounter in the field!
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International Chain Manufacturer Will Build New Plant in U.S.
What are the most important components or technologies in the modern industrial workplace? If you had to make a list of the top ten, what would your list include? We suspect your list might include things like programmable logic controllers (PLCs), robots, electric motors, and other types of advanced automation technologies.
There’s one critical industrial component that probably didn’t make your list, though: the humble chain. When we think of chains, our minds might travel to medieval dungeons or childhood bicycle races. Indeed, chains have been around a long time, so they probably don’t seem “cutting edge” to most people thinking about industrial technologies.
Nevertheless, chains remain a key part of the industrial workplace. Their unique characteristics make them particularly suitable for a wide variety of industrial applications, from lifting and pulling to transferring power in many different types of machines.
In fact, chains are still in high demand throughout industry and soon they will be manufactured at a new facility in Alabama. According to a recent WRBL article by Jazmine Mills, “German-based chain manufacturing company, KettenWulf, is set to open a new operation in Auburn…[and] plans to invest approximately $34 million and create an estimated 70 new jobs.”
The family-owned company “specializes in engineering conveyor chains, drive chains and sprockets that serve a wide variety of industrial products.” Mills notes that “KettenWulf’s products provide solutions for mining, steelmaking, bulk-material handling, manufacturing and other specialty industries.”
The new KettenWulf chain manufacturing facility in Alabama will require highly skilled workers who know everything there is to know about chains and sprockets, as well as their operation and maintenance. This type of knowledge is also valuable in many types of positions throughout a wide variety of industries.
For example, a wide variety of different types of chains are used throughout industry. It’s important for industrial maintenance technicians to learn how to operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair multiple types of chains.
That’s why DAC Worldwide offers training tools designed to help industrial maintenance technicians become familiar with chains, chain drives, and sprockets:
- DAC Worldwide’s Chain Drive Training System Plus (223-PAC) provides in-depth training in industrial chain drives, heavy/silent chains, and sprocket set usage. Using a welded aluminum driver and actual industrial hardware, learners receive a complete introduction to chain nomenclature, assembly, disassembly, alignment, and maintenance. Industrial-grade components include several chain types, connecting links, attachment chain samples, sprockets, bushings, and applicable tools.
- DAC Worldwide’s Chain Sample Board (838-PAC) is an introductory hands-on teaching aid, designed to supplement courses in chain selection and maintenance. It includes samples of eight industrial-quality chains for users to learn to identify.
Be sure to check out DAC Worldwide’s other mechanical training tools and contact a DAC Worldwide representative to learn how you can improve your training today!
- Published in News
Troubleshooting with X-Ray Vision
Have you heard the news? Industrial maintenance technicians are in short supply. As industry continues to grow and new technologies transform the factory floor, industrial employers find themselves needing more highly skilled maintenance technicians than ever before.
Unfortunately, the number of new highly skilled maintenance technicians isn’t keeping up with demand. A skills gap exists that results in thousands upon thousands of positions going unfilled every year. And the effect on productivity and efficiency cannot be overstated.
Maintenance is Critical
Why is this such a big deal? It’s because of how important industrial maintenance is to the success of modern businesses. In an article for Manufacturing Automation, Steve Krar urges manufacturers to move from a reactive maintenance mindset (“fail and fix”) to a proactive maintenance mindset (“predict and prevent”), because “maintenance may be considered the heath care of our manufacturing machines and equipment.”
Proper maintenance improves machine efficiency and safety. Preventative maintenance extends the lifespan of critical machines and keeps them running at peak efficiency. It also ensures machinery is running properly and safely, minimizing the risk of injuries to workers or damage to other equipment.
Focusing on maintenance also saves time and money. Being proactive allows technicians to plan routine maintenance, which always takes less time and money than emergency repairs. Krar notes that “the actual cost for a breakdown [is] between four to fifteen times the [cost of routine] maintenance.”
Wanted: Troubleshooting Skills
Employers looking for maintenance technicians with the proper set of skills would do well to focus on one key competency: troubleshooting. Maintenance technicians that can quickly and accurately identify a problem and fashion a solution are worth their weight in gold.
Becoming an expert troubleshooter is not an easy task, however. Today’s industrial facilities are comprised of a wide variety of advanced technologies, requiring maintenance technicians to be a sort of “jack of all trades.”
Indeed, today’s technicians must have a working understanding of a vast number of components across a wide swath of disciplines, including electrical, electronics, pneumatics, hydraulics, HVACR, mechanical, process control, instrumentation, and more.
Not only must they be familiar with many different types of components, including all manner of switches, buttons, relays, valves, pumps, compressors, drives, instruments, and gauges, but they also must know these things inside and out.
In fact, one might say a good troubleshooter needs X-ray vision. Many, if not most, problems can’t be diagnosed from what’s observable on the surface. The problem often lies within, and that’s where specialized knowledge comes in handy.
For example, in writing about electronic component troubleshooting, author Mark Persons writes in a Radio World article: “Guessing is a bad troubleshooting technique. It’s best to visualize what the circuit should be doing and determine likely reasons it is not performing as expected…Electronic components can look perfectly good on the outside and be bad on the inside.”
But how do you teach maintenance technicians X-ray vision? While true X-ray vision is just wishful thinking, it is possible to train maintenance technicians to fully understand the components they work with most frequently—both inside and out.
Cutaways Teach Key Troubleshooting Skills
If you want to ensure your maintenance technicians have the skills to effectively troubleshoot the industrial components they work with frequently, DAC Worldwide’s wide variety of industrial cutaways provide valuable training in the internal configuration of hundreds of popular industrial components.
DAC Worldwide believes that successful training must match real-world conditions as much as possible. Its line of industrial cutaways are real-world industrial components that have been restored, cut away, and refinished using durable urethane coatings. Each of these industrial components has been professionally sectioned to expose each device’s primary components.
On many of DAC Worldwide’s cutaways, functionality has been retained and a hand wheel provided to demonstrate low speed manual operation. Each cutaway is mounted on a modular, heavy-gauge steel baseplate and support assembly. For industrial training relevance, common models by well-known manufacturers are chosen.
For example, DAC Worldwide’s valve cutaways use actual industrial valves that have been carefully sectioned and color-coded to expose and showcase the complete internal configuration of the valve. Seal features and hardware locations are retained, allowing for “hands-on” training in maintenance.
DAC Worldwide offers more than 200 cutaway training tools across a wide variety of industrial disciplines, including electrical; electronics; fluid power; heat transfer and steam; HVACR; mechanical drives; oil production; process control and instrumentation; and pumps, compressors, and valves. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its selection of industrial cutaways and other training tools!
- Published in News
Regional Differences Cloud Future of Energy Transition
Fossil fuels are finite. They will run out one day. This inescapable scientific conclusion nevertheless doesn’t prompt the same reactions and priorities across the population, either here in the United States or around the world. While some people and regions see transitioning to alternative energy as imperative, others acknowledge the need for alternatives without making their development or implementation a priority.
Recent decades have seen enormous growth in awareness of the need for cleaner energy. A focus on carbon output and the rapid expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) industry are just two examples of the strides alternative energy proponents have made. Climate-focused activists once believed a rapid shift to alternative energy sources was inevitable. However, recent history shows that the path to that goal remains fraught with challenges, many of which depend upon where you live.
In this article, we’ll examine the future of the worldwide energy transition and how regional differences are affecting the timeline. We’ll also discuss how all these factors point to a future in which workers with electrical skills will remain in high demand, regardless of the source of that electricity.
According to a BloombergNEF article by Albert Cheung, “[t]he emergence of a lower-carbon global economy, at the core of which is the energy transition, encountered many challenges last year…[but] energy transition will continue to progress, in spite of ongoing challenges.” Cheung notes that those challenges are the result of regions with “[d]ifferent priorities…leading to fragmentation.”
For example, “[i]n the US, the race for clean energy leadership has been subjugated to the race for AI dominance, a competition in which the US still leads. This is super-charging demand for both clean and fossil energy to power an explosion of data centers.”
Meanwhile, in China, “energy security and clean energy leadership continue to coincide as both strategic priorities and economic growth drivers…The country’s success in EVs means domestic oil demand has already hit a peak, helping to limit its exposure to fuel imports. The might of its renewable energy sector, meanwhile, suggests a peak in coal (and therefore emissions) may be at hand.”
In between the two, Europe “retains its role as a global climate leader…In a more uncertain world, clean energy and electrification continue to offer the EU and UK a path to greater energy security and reduced exposure to international oil and gas markets. The greater challenge facing Europe is how to increase its economic competitiveness in a world dominated by Chinese-made products and American information technology.”
Cheung notes that “[e]ach of these major economies faces different strategic considerations, and climate mitigation is no longer the shared priority it once was.” However, he is confident that “[c]lean energy will keep making progress” for a variety of reasons.
For example, Cheung predicts that renewable energy installations (both solar and wind) will continue to grow, because “the economics of renewable power are just too good to ignore.” Plus, “the acceleration in power demand from AI data centers and electric vehicles will undoubtedly support further deployment of wind, solar and storage, even in the face of changing tariff regimes.”
Likewise, Cheung points out that “[f]alling battery prices, and better electric vehicles, continue to drive electrification in transport. EV sales are now over a quarter of global car sales – an unthinkable milestone just a few years ago…China is the runaway leader, with EV share of over 50% today, and Europe’s share is above 25%, while other markets sit below the global average.”
Why is China leading the way in EV adoption? Cheung believes it’s because China is “the only major market where upfront purchase prices of EVs have fallen below the price of an internal combustion engine vehicle.” In the U.S., there’s still an EV premium and, at least for the time being, “US federal policy makers seem to have made peace with ceding the global EV market to China.”
Cheung concludes, “[w]e are in a fragmented, multi-speed transition. Progress will continue, but different regions are placing different levels of priority on clean energy development, and different technologies are scaling at different speeds.” What is clear, though, is that—whether the source is fossil fuels or an alternative like solar or wind—the world will continue to need workers with electrical skills more than ever.
Unfortunately, the ongoing industrial skills gap issue means that workers with advanced electrical skills remain in high demand with supply lagging behind. This creates a challenge for industries across the country and around the world. How do companies and schools train the next generation of professionals with the electrical skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace?
A thorough review of training systems is a great place to start. Do employees and students have access to hands-on training with actual components they’ll encounter on the job? If not, partnering with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time will help ensure a competent workforce. Be sure to check out DAC Worldwide’s variety of hands-on electrical training systems that feature the real-world components workers will encounter in the field!
- Published in News
Pharmaceutical Giant Announces Plans for New Manufacturing Plant
Could you stand to lose a few pounds? Sorry! Yes, that’s a personal question, but it’s one that an overwhelming majority of people would probably answer in the affirmative. As processed foods overwhelm grocery store shelves and free time dwindles, forcing many to choose between exercise and mindless entertainment, the battle of the bulge has become a fight that many Americans wage daily.
Lately, though, scientific advancements have seemingly given many people an answer to prayer: an easy, almost magical weight loss tool in the form of a monthly shot. Have you noticed the number of celebrities sporting thinner bodies? These new weight loss drugs, prohibitively costly for many, are easily available to the well-to-do.
This new wave of weight loss drugs certainly appears to be the next big thing in the ongoing fight against obesity. Over time, more drugs are likely to become available, and the current medicines will hopefully become affordable to all. Perhaps they’ll even invent a version that doesn’t require shots.
Or have they already? Recent reports indicate that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has a weight loss pill in trials that may soon be manufactured at a new $6 billion manufacturing plant in Alabama. In a recent Manufacturing Dive article, author Nathan Owens reports that “Eli Lilly announced plans to invest more than $6 billion to build a manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, focused on weight loss medications and other pharmaceutical ingredients.”
According to Owens, “[t]he site will manufacture orforglipron, Lilly’s first oral, small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, which the company expects to submit to regulatory agencies by the end of this year.” The plant would represent “the third of four planned U.S. manufacturing sites the pharmaceutical giant has unveiled this year, set to bring 450 factory jobs to the Huntsville area.”
Those jobs would include “engineers, scientists, operations personnel and lab technicians.” Lilly officials have indicated that the Huntsville site was chosen, in part, “due to its proximity to the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a campus that supports workforce training and research.”
Skilled workers will be in high demand, since Lilly plans to “leverage ‘state-of-the-art’ technologies at the plant, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics and digital automation, to ‘streamline’ operations and ensure a safe supply of medicines.”
Unfortunately, these workers may be difficult to find, given the ongoing skilled labor shortage that has plagued manufacturers for decades now. Lilly will need to work closely with local industry and educational institutions to ensure a steady stream of talent for its advanced manufacturing facility.
When it comes to training the next generation of advanced manufacturing workers, educators and industry partners alike would do well to partner with experts in technical training, such as DAC Worldwide.
For example, pharmaceutical manufacturers like Lilly could benefit from DAC Worldwide’s Smart Process Plant Training System (603-SP), a fully-functional, industrial-quality fluid process system that provides hands-on training in the measurement and control of five of the most common process variables: level, pressure, temperature, flow, and pH.
The system groups these process control elements into one complete piping system, which allows it to teach multiple configurations of flow loops, controls, and communications. The system incorporates both new and legacy technologies so that users are prepared for anything they might encounter on the job. These technologies work together to form a 3-level communication architecture:
- Device Level: Smart sensors monitor Level, Flow, Temperature, Pressure, and pH. They are connected via either IO-Link and Ethernet communication or HART communication.
- Control Level: A DCS and various PLCs and PIDs allow for operation and control of the system’s components.
- Enterprise Level: The DCS software provides Supervisory Control with data analytics for monitoring smart production, smart maintenance, etc.
The Smart Process Plant uses a Distributed Control System (DCS) that features Supervisory Control software. This software is Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx, and it acts as the backbone of the system. It gathers and organizes data and creates dashboards that represent the real-time status of the processes being carried out by the system.
The Smart Process Plant Training System features a wide variety of common, industrial-quality components and instruments to provide learners with a realistic training experience that will build skills that translate easily to the workplace. The Smart Process Plant also includes multiple experiments, which simulate both continuous and batch process control loops that are widely used in many process industries. These experiments include:
- Basic and Advanced Bioreactor Applications
- Clean-In-Place (CIP) Skid Application
- Boiler Drum Level Application
- Wastewater Treatment Application
With these experiments, learners will explore a wide variety of fundamental process control topics, including: temperature, level, flow, pressure, and pH ratio control; agitation; sequence control; continuous control; 3-element control; feed forward/cascade control; and pump lead/lag demand. The Smart Process Plant Training System is only one of DAC Worldwide’s many process control and instrumentation training systems. Visit DAC Worldwide online to learn more about its many other training systems, as well as advanced chemical engineering training systems from its partner, Pignat SAS!
- Published in News
Do You Know the Three Layers of Effective Safety Training?
It’s no secret that the U.S. manufacturing industry faces an ongoing “skills gap” issue that is leaving hundreds of thousands of jobs open because there are simply not enough skilled workers to fill them. As experts have sought to understand the factors causing the skills gap, they’ve learned that a persistent negative impression of manufacturing lingers amongst today’s youth.
Although many, if not most, modern manufacturing facilities are clean, comfortable marvels filled with advanced automation technologies, many younger people still think of “factory work” as uncomfortable, dirty, and potentially dangerous. Changing their minds has been at the forefront of efforts to combat the ongoing skills gap.
For sure, there are still factories out there that can be hot and uncomfortable. Some industries simply can’t maintain a clean appearance given the very nature of what they produce. And the potential for danger exists in any facility using large machinery powered by electricity, hydraulics, and pneumatics.
Safety concerns are certainly valid, and they can be relevant to a discussion of any potential industry job. To ease the minds of potential workers—not to mention current workers—today’s manufacturers can take positive steps to ensure that their workplaces are as safe as possible. Doing so not only improves recruiting and morale, but it insulates workers and the manufacturers themselves from the negative effects of workplace injuries.
In a recent EHS Today article, author Rick Tobin outlines “three layers of safety training—task performance, hazard awareness, and engineering solutions,” which he believes are “essential for comprehensive risk reduction.”
Tobin notes that “[r]eactive safety measures focus on treating injuries after they occur…[they] treat symptoms but fail to eliminate systemic hazards, leading to recurring issues.” Instead, he argues that “upstream strategies aim to eliminate hazards at their source…[by] focus[ing] on redesigning systems and processes to prevent accidents before they occur.”
According to Tobin, “[t]he first layer of safety training is the foundation—teaching workers how to perform the job itself with skill and consistency…When you train employees to perform a task correctly—whether it’s operating a forklift, wiring a panel, or handling a chemical—you remove confusion, improvisation, and guesswork.”
That’s why it’s crucial that manufacturers hire workers with the hands-on skills they need to succeed in the workplace. On-site training is also important to ensure that workers understand what is expected of them. Simply put, proper education and training pours a solid foundation that can be built upon to increase workplace safety.
That’s where layer two comes in: “[o]nce workers know how to perform their jobs, the next step is to teach them why it must be done safely—what hazards exist, and what standards govern their prevention. This second layer is about awareness and compliance: understanding the invisible forces that turn ordinary work into extraordinary risk.”
Tobin points out that “[h]azard recognition training transforms workers from task performers into observers and thinkers. They learn to spot the frayed wire before it arcs, the unstable stack before it falls, the fatigue in a coworker before it leads to a mistake. When safety training includes this second layer, employees begin to internalize a new habit of thinking: What could go wrong here, and what’s my role in preventing it?”
If employers can successfully implement this second layer, they’ll notice that “[t]hat mental shift is transformative. It turns safety from a set of rules into a shared mindset.” It also helps with compliance. “OSHA, PPE selection, lockout/tagout—these are some of the legal and procedural anchors of safe behavior. But compliance works best when people understand its logic. Instead of obeying out of fear of penalties, workers comply out of respect for the system that keeps them alive.”
Finally, the last layer is “training workers to think like engineers.” “If the first layer is about doing, and the second is about seeing, the third layer is about solving. This is where workers learn to think critically and design hazards out of existence.”
This might sound beyond the capabilities of many organizations, but Tobin argues that “it’s the single most powerful form of prevention. It moves safety from reaction to innovation.” And who better to suggest effective solutions than the people intimately involved in the very tasks at issue?
Tobin points out that the sequence of these layers of safety training is equally important: “First, teach the task. You can’t be safe doing something you don’t yet know how to do. Second, teach the hazards. Once the job is understood, risks become visible and relevant. Third, teach the solutions. Once workers see risks, empower them to redesign the work.”
According to Tobin, “when all three layers align—knowledge, awareness and innovation—the payoff compounds.” What are those compounding benefits? To name just a few, Tobin points out that employers can expect:
- Reduced Injuries and Illness
- Lower Workers’ Compensation Premiums
- Higher Productivity
- Operational Efficiency
For those wondering how to go about this approach from a practical perspective, Tobin points out that “[m]odern technology now makes it possible to integrate all three layers seamlessly. Online and mobile safety training platforms turn what used to be fragmented, time-consuming initiatives into connected systems of learning and measurement.”
It can also help to partner with established companies to provide industrial-quality training systems that will stand the test of time. For example, DAC Worldwide offers two safety training systems specifically designed to give employees the hands-on experience they need to master lock-out/tag-out skills:
- DAC Worldwide Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
- DAC Worldwide Electrical Lock-Out/Tag-Out Training System
Be sure to check out these training systems and contact a DAC Worldwide representative to learn how you can improve your training today!
- Published in News