Service Competence

This post will offer a glimpse into the subject of “competency of service personnel”.

A couple of weeks ago, my sweetheart and I were sitting with a salesman in a security and audio systems store deciding which system we might want to build into our new home. High tech stuff like cameras with internet access live, high pitch audible alarms, strobe lights, motion detectors, real time monitoring. A complex world of electronics and high tech gadgetry meant to protect us, to keep us safe and out of harm’s grasp.

As we neared the end of the discussion and began talk about installation, I asked our salesman about his Service Technicians. He began a well-rehearsed spiel around the superiority of his guys in the field. “We have a workforce with over 10 years of experience.” “Many have been with us well over 10 years.” He stated, “You know I used to be a Tech and was promoted to salesman.”

I listened quietly until he was finished and asked: How do you know they are doing it right? What qualifies your guys to do the work? I got exactly the answer I expected:

“Well, when they start they work with a more experienced Tech as a helper. Then they are given more and more work to do on their own until the experienced Tech is confident he can do it right.”

I pressed him further: Yes, but how do you know he is competent outside of just experience? How do you know he wasn’t trained by a “bubba” that had virtually no theoretical understanding of the system? How do you qualify your people? These questions went right over his head. He looked confused so I elaborated:  

I came from an industry that for many years have grappled with assuring consistent competency of people. Even as I departed after 43 years, our industry continued to seek effective ways to assure service Tech competence. It has been a long and twisting journey.

In the end, the salesman could only offer two pieces of evidence to my question: Experience and Customer complaints. Time on the job and failures associated the work, neither formal. The latter was unacceptable.

He offered no thoughts on formal Vocational Training Certifications or formal assessments. No written or verbal theory or procedural installation training and assessments. No records could be offered outside of employment records showing length of time with the company. The conversation reconfirmed a belief as to how prevalent this is in the US & for that matter, in the world. Memories began to flood back into my consciousness, memories of tasks that went terribly wrong with both injury and death. 

• a fatality due to a failure to check for pressure before pulling a special tool. 
• a drill rig crew releasing the wrong mechanism on our equipment causing the release of a string of drill pipe into the derrick as the well blew out. 
• an opened valve at the wrong time with dire results down stream of the valve.  
• the fatality of an independent service company tech sent in to check a locking device - then incorrectly releasing the mechanism under pressure. 

All of these incidents happened because of a lack of knowledge, skills and ability. There were other memories…many more memories.

Lack of theoretical knowledge, skills and proven ability at a minimum, add costs to consumers and a decrease in profits for business. Worse case – a lack of competence contributes to or causes severe injury and death and suffering. Some incidents have been considered criminal as profits were placed in front of people.

As we progress with the building of this house, I will be asking even more questions about the capability of the people building and installing it’s systems. If my confidence is low, I will hire an inspector to double check their work. The same practice that happens frequently in the oil industry as oil companies bring in outside inspectors to double check their vendors work even in the middle of the manufacturing and proofing process.  

The real question in my mind is what will it take to change the service industry for the better? I don’t have that answer at my fingertips. I suspect it won't get better by itself. The free market will naturally drive toward reductions in cost which prohibit formal competency systems. As much as I dislike regulation, I suspect we will continue to see public demands for more regulation when things go really really bad. 

Incidents like Macondo and the Deep Water Horizon. 

We all should take time to ask service providers: What do you do to assure your people are competent? How do you train them? How do you assess them before failures occur? Experience alone is not good enough.

Best Regards To All

Tom

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Additional reading and viewing if you wish:

Following are links to two public videos with live Federal depositions of personnel who worked on the Deep Water Horizon the night of the Macondo blow out. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. It’s not totally accurate by any stretch. But it does do a pretty good job of depicting what it’s like on a rig where all precautions have failed.

Watch the first 6 minutes of the video link below. Watch more if you have time. https://www.c-span.org/video/?295172-3/deepwater-horizon-joint-investigation-mark-hay-testimony-part-1

Then open the following link and drag the ball on the bar to the 21 minute point and listen for three or four minutes.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?295172-102/deepwater-horizon-joint-investigation-mark-hay-testimony-part-2&start=1303

Then read the following from the Oil and Gas Journal.

“In agreeing to plead guilty, Transocean Deepwater admitted members of its crew onboard the Deepwater Horizon, acting at the direction of BP representatives, were negligent in failing to investigate clear indications that the Macondo well was not secure and that oil and gas were flowing into the well, DOJ said.”

http://www.ogj.com/articles/2013/01/transocean-to-pay-14-billion-in-fines-for-macondo-blowout-spill.html

Cameron, the manufacturer of the BOP’s settled with BP as described in this article:

 http://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/12/cameron-to-pay-bp-250-million-for-macondo-blowout-oil-spill.html