OK, a little rant and maybe some insite for future techs. I don't consider myself an OLD tech but have been wrenching on machines for a little over 20 years. My summer job has had me working with a guy in his mid 50's who came from a company that ran mostly older 627's, D8,D9, and older excavators. Great guy but is not very informed of late model equipment (electronic controls). I have also been working with a young guy ( i call him a kid because he is 22) who knows very little about manual controls and seems to think if the computer can't tell him whats going on it cant be fixed. After about a week of working with both of them i got to thinking "whats going to happen when the old guy retires and the kid cant fix it? Or what happens if the kid gets injured or finds a different job and the old guy cant fix the machine? The simple solution was to call me and I will fix it but that is not practical since my main job takes a lot of my time. What are some of the best solutions for these problems? Team them together might work but then you are paying 2 guys for a job that should take one. Have 1 mentor the other for a week then switch back and forth until they get a grasp of both old and new technology? Hire a trainer to come in a couple times a year to help educate both old and new technology? I can see this being a problem in the next few years with older guys retiring and companies still running older machines, Who is going to be their to fix them? What are some of your thoughts?
It is all in the attitude I think. If the old guy could learn to troubleshoot electronics like when he was learning on the old stuff he could be ok. However if the kid is relying on the computer I don't think he is going to go far like that. In my experience the computer tells you precious little about the actual problem and often it is lying to you or misleading.
Yes. And if kid ain't up to snuff on troubleshooting, he should not be earning full pay either. So with reduced overhead, Kid might be able to "ride along with" old guy as helper.
They will learn....it will take time. Training solves a multitude of problems.:drinkup
I'll agree with the above, it is all about attitude. The 'kid' has to learn about the older stuff, while the older guy has to be willing to learn about the electronics. If the two work together, and teach each other, they'll both be better mechanics for it. But that takes the right attitude on both their parts.
The job is the job. Either they can do it or not so either they will get to keep the job or learn what they don't know on the next one. I have had to deal with techs who want to know where in the computer they can go to reset the valves on the engine. Haven't seen many older wrenches who wouldn't learn the electronic diagnostics if given the chance.
There are two kinds of mechanics (and plenty in between). 1) The guy with the photographic memory. Anything he reads in a manual he knows forever. He remembers step one, step two and step three and so on. This kind of mind generally does well with electronic gadgets. 2) The logical guy. He can figure out most things just by tracing out hoses and wires and using logic and common sense to figure it out, even if he has never seen a machine like it before. Few are so lucky as to have both of these attributes. When I wrenched, I was #2 all the way and none of the attributes of #1. In the age of electronics, #2 is unable to figure out problems because tracing things out is severely hindered by electronics. The only and very rare exception is the electronics guy who grinds open sealed modules and tests each capacitor, diode etc.. #1 can fix anything as long as he has fixed it before. #1 belongs at a dealership and #2 belongs at a construction company running older equipment. The main purpose of electronics and other complexities is planned in obsolesence, IMO. There is no one man who can fix an Apollo spacecraft so we can't expect to find many mechanics who can fix anything on every newer machine. That is the price of complexity.
Sounds about right. Being able to understand how systems work, whether by studying the actual system or through information provided by the manufacturer has always been the key. The problem with the electronics is so many systems are essentially black boxes with no information made available, and they're too complex to begin to work out all the functions and interactions from merely studying and testing. If you don't understand how the system is supposed to operate, you can't properly interpret the information that lovely laptop is giving you. My question has been for at least two decades now... what will CAT and other makers do when these electronic machines hit the secondary market that expects to keep them running out to thirty and forty years of service, will the wire harnesses, sensors, and computer modules still be available? At what cost? And who will work on them?
There seem to be a few companies getting into the electronic module repair or replacement business. Last month I had a bad brain module on a Lincoln engine drive welder and I found several companies willing to repair them. If the machine is worth enough then hopefully there will be somebody who can figure out how to keep modules supplied. I have also come up with some plans for replacing some computer brains that are a bit too smart for their own good with generic modules but so far it has not been necessary. If it were necessary, it would be expensive.
By making endless minute changes in the modules, not only by year and model, but changes midyear identified only by serial number, it simply costs the aftermarket companies too much to do research and development on modules to competitively manufacture them. Pretty soon everything we buy will self-destruct the minute the loan is payed off.
I've not seen a financial situation that ever stopped a black box from finding the most inopportune time to fail. I think the limit is going to be hours of operation as well as chronological age. It seems 15,000 hours and eight to twelve years is what you going to have to expect. Original cost and government regulation against parts and labor is going to be the decision point for rebuilding.
I checked out a dodg minivan from the company motor pool last fall to drive To another location with 3 engineers, about 100 miles away. I had been there before, but they suggested another route. Just before we set off, I grabbed my socket set from under my vehicles seat, and tossed it in the van....they looked at me as odd. 30 miles in, the right rear disc brake is glowing... so as one (older) engineer Jacked up and removed the tire for me, 2 of the younger ones were scowwering the internet on how to repair. I had the caliper off in about 30 seconds,the smoking hot pads tossed aside, and put the now dead caliper back on. They were still trying to decide which u-toob video to watch, when I fired it up and yelled "get in".... As we continued on the road, I mentioned that this direction appears to take more time, and will bring us out about 5 miles away from where my trip would have taken. These young engineers had been directing me by using their phones , and they lost internet access, and were then helpless. I had a pretty good idea where we were at, and even with never having been on this road, Yup, we came out just where I thought we would ( across from the international wax refinery)...with another 5 miles to go.
aint technology great??? LOL phone drones at their greatest!!!