Month: July 2020

The maintenance technician shortage is neither new nor a problem that is easy to solve. Over the last few decades, a variety of challenges have hindered the industry’s ability to hire and retain skilled maintenance staff. While the gap between demand and supply of qualified technicians continues to grow, there are practical steps organizations can take to address the issue. In this article, we explore why the technician shortage exists and what you can do about it.

The State of the Maintenance Technician Workforce

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the general maintenance and repair worker job market is expected to increase by 4% over the next 10 years, with an estimated 159,800 openings per year. The largest employers for these positions are concentrated in property maintenance, as well as industries such as:

• Real estate
• Government and public administration
• Manufacturing
• Healthcare facilities maintenance
• Educational services

Skilled maintenance technicians are needed to maintain, improve, and renovate buildings and structures – especially older ones with more complex, frequent, and costly repairs. Although the BLS projects modest growth in maintenance jobs, the number of available skilled technicians has not kept pace with industry demand. Understanding the technician shortage requires a closer look at forces influencing today’s workforce.

Why Maintenance Technicians Are in Short Supply

The maintenance technician shortage didn’t happen overnight.  Industry warnings about a potential gap in skilled labor have surfaced periodically over the last two decades, but the issue became more noticeable as Baby Boomers started retiring in the 2010s.

This wave of retirements, combined with other generational, societal, and economic factors, has made it more difficult for organizations to attract and retain qualified maintenance staff. The following sections explore the main causes of today’s technician shortage.

Retiring Technicians Outnumber New Hires

One major reason for the maintenance technician shortage is that more seasoned veterans are retiring than there are new, entry-level workers entering the labor market. As noted by the BLS, many openings are “expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.”

According to its 2024 Transportation Technician Supply & Demand Report, TechForce Foundation, a national non-profit committed to workforce development for professional technicians, found that nearly 1,000,000 new-entry level technicians will be needed over the next 5 years. Further, it states that in some sectors, “replacement needs outpace workforce growth at a rate of more than 4-to-1.”

While some skilled technicians change careers, the TechForce findings and BLS projections indicate that the surge in retirements among Baby Boomers is a key driver of today’s maintenance technician shortage. These experienced workers are leaving faster than they can be replaced, taking years of knowledge and experience with them.

Fewer Younger Workers Choosing Maintenance Careers

The post-World War II era in the United States was a period of rapid economic growth, rising white-collar employment, and expanded access to higher education. As automation began to change manufacturing and skilled labor jobs, many families came to view a 4-year college degree as offering better lifetime earnings and greater job stability than trade careers. These perceptions were passed on to the next generation and continue to influence career choices today.

Over time, these cultural attitudes also shaped the education system. Schools placed more emphasis on college preparedness than on hands-on career and technical education (CTE). A Modern Machine Shop article suggests the No Child Left Behind Act contributed to the disappearance of shop classes from many schools in the 2000s and 2010s. As a result, many students are unaware of potential careers in the trades and the talent pipeline has shrunk.

Industry experts also note other contributors to low interest in maintenance careers, including inadequate support or incentives for training programs, limited apprenticeship opportunities, outdated work environments, and skills gaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skills Gap Among New Technicians

As the older generation leaves the workforce, they take with them years of experience and specialized skills that are not easily replaced by new technicians. Much maintenance work also relies on undocumented tribal knowledge that can only be gained through hands-on experience with an organization’s assets over time.

Rapidly changing technology, including automation, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), predictive maintenance, and artificial intelligence (AI), requires today’s technicians to possess a diversified skill set beyond traditional manual maintenance skills. Combined with limited training opportunities and the fast pace of new technologies, many new technicians lack the hands-on experience or technical knowledge needed to be efficient and productive.

A 2022 Advanced Technology Services report found that 32% of organizations surveyed outsource maintenance labor because skilled individuals are hard to find.

Tight Budgets Limiting Hiring and Retention

Budget constraints are a significant factor contributing to the maintenance technician shortage. Many maintenance roles offer lower wages compared to other technical or skilled positions, making it difficult to attract and retain top talent. Even when organizations recognize the need for more qualified maintenance staff, tight budgets can force them to delay hiring, leave positions unfilled, or hire fewer employees than needed.

Financial pressures also affect training and career development opportunities. Limited funding for onboarding, certifications, apprenticeships, and other professional development can make maintenance careers less appealing, especially for younger workers.

Limited budgets often mean maintenance departments can’t improve working conditions or offer competitive incentives. Outdated equipment, safety hazards, long shifts, and minimal professional development opportunities can discourage skilled technicians from joining or staying with the organization.

Organizational Barriers

The maintenance technician shortage is not just about incoming hires – it is also influenced by how organizational dynamics affect current workers in the field. Because the maintenance department is traditionally viewed as a cost center, maintenance managers and technicians commonly feel overlooked or undervalued by executive leadership, which can hurt employee morale, retention, and overall productivity.

When executives do not fully appreciate the critical role maintenance plays in asset reliability, decisions about staffing, budgets, and training may not align with real maintenance needs. Organizations may cut back on preventive or proactive maintenance, leading to more reactive work orders, unexpected equipment failures, and deferred maintenance. These conditions increase stress on the maintenance team, reduce job satisfaction, and can contribute to higher turnover.

Addressing the Maintenance Technician Shortage

Just as the maintenance technician shortage didn’t appear overnight, it cannot be quickly solved either. By understanding the underlying causes for the lack of qualified maintenance employees, organizations can work to proactively address the issue on multiple fronts. Some solutions require long-term investments or thinking outside the box, others can produce short-term results.

By combining both immediate and strategic approaches, organizations can strengthen their maintenance workforce, improve retention, and reduce the impact of the technician shortage over time. Below are several strategies to consider.

Attracting and Hiring New Maintenance Technicians

Despite the shortage of maintenance technicians, they are still in great demand. Consider the following strategies to identify and recruit qualified candidates.

Expand Talent Pipelines

To overcome the technician shortage, organizations must look beyond traditional hiring practices and tap into a broader range of talent sources. Expanding the pipeline ensures that both new and experienced workers have opportunities to enter the field and contribute their skills.

Establishing a relationship with local schools and vocational programs can help build your employee pipeline, ensuring that there is a steady flow of candidates. Investing in students early brings awareness to careers in maintenance and can help bridge the skills gap before entering the workforce. Talk to your organization about offering internships or apprenticeships to students.

Another way to expand your pipeline is by engaging retirees. Senior technicians often hold decades of practical knowledge about equipment and processes. Interviewing them before they leave, or offering part-time or consulting roles, helps capture this knowledge and allows it to be passed on to newer hires.

Organizations can also look to veterans as a valuable talent pool. Many veterans possess strong technical skills and experience with structured maintenance practices gained during their military service. Recruiting from this group not only strengthens your workforce but also supports individuals transitioning into civilian careers.

Many organizations also utilize outsourced and on-demand maintenance labor to temporarily fill vacant positions or for maintenance work that requires specialized skills.

Use Modern Maintenance Technology

A workplace that uses modern technology can be a strong motivator for tech-savvy candidates. Younger generations entering the workforce grew up in the digital age and are naturally more comfortable using software, apps, and connected devices. They expect the tools they use on the job to reflect the same level of efficiency and usability they experience in their everyday lives. Organizations that still rely on paper or spreadsheets for maintenance tracking may risk appearing outdated to this group.

Implementing a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) not only improves productivity and efficiency for your team, but also demonstrates a commitment to giving employees the right tools to succeed.

Provide Competitive Work Environment

Younger workers may look for workplaces where they can learn new skills, collaborate with others, and feel a sense of purpose in their work. Demonstrating a modern, well-organized maintenance culture can help set your organization apart in a competitive labor market and make your open positions more attractive to top candidates.

While factors like compensation and benefits may be out of your hands, you can still foster a supportive, engaging environment where employees feel valued, mentored, and connected to the work they do.

Leverage Skills-based Recruiting

Given the challenges of attracting new talent, organizations need to look beyond traditional hiring practices. While past experience is valuable, today’s candidates do not have the same practical experience as generations past.

Skills-based recruiting focuses on a candidate’s attention to detail, judgment, problem-solving skills, digital literacy, and other essential skills, rather than past experience. Evaluating candidates this way helps organizations reach a more diverse set of employees who are ready to contribute, even if they lack practical, hands-on experience.

Training Your Team

Developing a skilled maintenance workforce requires meaningful investment in your employees. Providing opportunities for training, professional development, and mentorship not only improves technical capabilities but also strengthens retention and job satisfaction. Below are several ways organizations can support and grow their maintenance teams.

Invest in Technical Training

Ongoing technical training is critical because maintenance technology and equipment are constantly evolving. Organizations should offer programs for both new hires and existing staff to ensure their skills remain up to date. This can include onsite consulting and training services, as well as hands-on experience with CMMS software and other maintenance technology.

Training programs not only enhance efficiency and effectiveness but can also make maintenance careers more appealing to younger workers entering the field.

Explore best practices to increase CMMS user adoption

Provide Resources for Completing Certifications

Certifications help maintenance technicians validate and expand their expertise, making them more capable and marketable. Employers can support employee certification by offering paid training time, tuition assistance, and other resources. Common certification programs for maintenance professionals include:

• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT)
• Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP)
• Certified Facility Manager (CFM)
• Certified Plant Engineer (CPE)

Industry-specific programs, such as automotive service technician certifications offered through organizations like the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), can further enhance skills that are relevant to your industry or organization.

Use a CMMS for Skills Development

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) not only makes operations more efficient, but can also serve as a platform for computer skill development. By using the software to manage work orders, track inventory, and analyze maintenance data, new hires and experienced staff can develop essential technical and analytical skills.

Learning to navigate a CMMS can also make it easier to adopt other workplace technologies, such as digital tools for reporting, basic diagnostics, or simple condition-monitoring devices.

Leverage Retiree Knowledge Through Mentorship

Establishing mentorship programs with retirees or seasoned technicians allows them to share their expertise and transfer their knowledge to newer employees. This can include formal training sessions, shadowing opportunities, or even consulting arrangements where retirees provide guidance on complex equipment and processes.

Pairing experienced staff with new hires helps preserve knowledge, maintains continuity in maintenance practices, and quickly develops younger technicians as they acclimate to their roles.

Reducing Turnover

Keeping skilled maintenance technicians is just as important as attracting them. High turnover can exacerbate the technician shortage, reduce productivity, and increase operational risk. While maintenance leaders may not have total control over retention, they can advocate for their employees and help influence decisions that encourage staff to stay. Consider the following retention strategies.

Build a Strong Maintenance Culture

A positive maintenance culture ensures that technicians feel valued, supported, and engaged. When maintenance is recognized as a critical business function rather than a cost center, employees are more likely to stay.

Maintenance leadership can also do their part to encourage open communication, provide mentorship, collaborate across teams, and recognize contributions to reliability and operational success. This strong workplace culture helps build loyalty and reinforces the organization’s commitment to its maintenance workforce.

Offer Ongoing Professional Development

Providing opportunities for skill growth and career advancement keeps technicians motivated and engaged. This can include access to technical training programs, support for certifications, and cross-training in different systems or equipment. Ongoing development not only improves performance but also demonstrates that the organization is invested in employees’ long-term careers.

Streamline Work and Improve Job Satisfaction with a CMMS

When properly implemented, a CMMS can make technicians’ daily tasks more manageable and reduce operational frustrations. By providing a clear system for tracking maintenance, managing work orders, and locating spare parts, a CMMS helps staff stay organized and focus on their work. When technicians feel equipped with the right tools to do their job, it can improve morale, job satisfaction, and contribute to a more stable and committed workforce.

Address the Maintenance Technician Shortage with FTMaintenance Select

The maintenance technician shortage is causing headaches for many organizations, but there is hope. By understanding the underlying causes of the technician shortage and applying the strategies outlined in this article, organizations can take meaningful steps to strengthen their maintenance workforce.

Tools like FTMaintenance Select make it easier to implement these strategies by streamlining workflows, supporting professional development, and improving daily operations, helping teams attract, train, and retain skilled technicians in a challenging labor market. Request a demo of FTMaintenance Select today to see how you can address the technician shortage head-on while empowering your team to work smarter and more effectively.

Key Takeaways:

• MRO inventory is critical to maintenance operations, yet not managed as closely as other inventory, leading to direct and indirect maintenance costs
• MRO inventory management requires the identification, specification, location, procurement, and control of inventoried items
• Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software, like FTMaintenance, is designed to help you effectively manage your maintenance inventory

Maintenance teams depend on hundreds to thousands of different materials and supplies to keep assets running. This type of inventory, known as maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) inventory, includes spare parts, lubricants, tools, safety gear, and other consumables that do not make it into the final product (or service).

Yet, while 94% of industry professionals view MRO inventory as being extremely or somewhat important, it is typically not managed as closely as production inventory. As one can imagine, poorly managed inventory is a real headache for the maintenance department. This article explains MRO inventory management and how it impacts the maintenance process – and ultimately an organization’s bottom line.

What is MRO Inventory Management?

MRO inventory management, or maintenance inventory management, is the process of procuring, storing, using, and replenishing the materials and supplies used for maintaining assets at the lowest possible cost. This process involves ensuring you have stock on hand while factoring in available storage space and budget. To put it simply, the goal of MRO inventory management is to have the right stock at the right time and place, and at the right cost.

Why MRO Inventory Management is Important

The importance of a properly managed maintenance inventory is fairly clear when you consider all the direct and indirect costs. Consider the following common scenarios:

Production Stoppages

If MRO inventory keeps assets running, what happens when materials and supplies run out? Production screeches to a halt! Meanwhile, you pay a premium for expedited shipping while operators and technicians are on standby, waiting for parts to arrive. This major increase in downtime makes the total repair cost skyrocket. If you simply cannot wait to restore assets, you must use risky stopgap measures that could endanger product quality or safety.

Overstock

Having too much inventory can also be a problem. Perhaps you attempt to avoid stockouts by ordering extra parts, only to find that they are seldom used. Alternatively, maybe you panic-purchased a part you knew you had, but just couldn’t find at the time you needed it. In either case, excess inventory sits on a shelf, further cluttering your stockroom. Even worse, you cannot reclaim the money spent.

Losses in Productivity

Finally, let’s not forget how poor MRO inventory management affects day-to-day operations. By some estimates, technicians spend as much as 25% of their time trying to secure parts. While this may only increase downtime a little bit each time, it quickly adds up. Not to mention, there’s also a fair amount of frustration that goes along with not being able to find a part you need.

To remedy this problem, some technicians create their own “private” inventories of materials in their toolboxes or in desk drawers. Though it may be convenient for the individual, this inventory is not available for other technicians when needed. Due to the inaccurate stock counts, the organization may face production stoppages, overstock, duplicated orders, and other bottlenecks in the maintenance process.

Components of MRO Inventory Management

The core components of MRO inventory management are identification, location, procurement, and inventory control, described below. As you read each section, think about how each resolves the problems stated above.

Identification

Swift, effective maintenance relies on knowing exactly what MRO items are kept in stock in your maintenance inventory. Maintenance teams are often judged based on response time, so being able to quickly identify the materials you need for a job is crucial.

Consider that manufacturers may use different parts in their designs, even for similar types of equipment. It is possible that no two machines may share the same parts or require the same supplies. This reality is even more visible when looking at a supplier’s parts catalog. For example, hardware supplier McMaster-Carr lists over 56,000 different types of fasteners!

Maintenance inventory management can be improved simply by identifying what items are stocked. To further assist with identification on an asset level, maintenance teams reference an equipment bill of materials.

Specification

Related to identification is specification. The specification provides the requirements of the spare parts or supplies to ensure an asset’s proper operation. For example, a standard screw has the following attributes, each of which is considered during an asset’s design:

• Thread size
• Length
• Diameter
• Head type (e.g., socket, rounded, flat, hex, etc.)
• Material (e.g., brass, lead, steel, zinc, etc.)
• Drive style (e.g., Phillips, square, slotted, etc.)

How does this affect maintenance? Part specifications define exactly what is needed for optimal asset performance and dictate the tools used to install or utilize the part. In the case of the screw, it’s more efficient for a technician to know which wrench or drill bit will be needed ahead of time. For items that require specialized tools, technicians benefit by ensuring they are available to be checked out ahead of time.

Specifications are also useful when alternative parts or supplies are needed. Tracking specification helps you identify similar, interchangeable parts. In terms of purchasing and reordering, specifications are used to identify vendors that carry the part.

A third way that specification affects maintenance is organization. A stockroom employee may arrange inventory items by their characteristics, such as size, weight, material, shape, and so on. As you’ll read in the next section, an organized stockroom makes MRO items easier to find for technicians.

Location

Once you know what MRO inventory items you have in stock, you must be able to locate them. As mentioned earlier, poor organization leads to unnecessary costs related to expedited orders or losses in productivity. Knowing exactly where MRO inventory items are stored helps improve responsiveness and allows you to fulfill maintenance work orders more efficiently. Locating inventory comes down to creating an organization system and communicating that system with others.

Organization

Depending on the size of your organization, MRO inventory may be spread out across multiple stockrooms or contained within a single storage location. Within those locations, there may be multiple aisles, racks, shelves, and bins. Technicians may keep a personal stock of items in tool chests or service vehicles. Because there are so many places MRO inventory might be stored, you must have a system for organizing the items.

In a grocery store, for example, aisles are numbered, and related items are typically located together. Ask any store clerk about the location of an item, and they can surely tell you what section and aisle to look in. They may even be able to tell you a more precise location, such as “about halfway down, at eye level,” if not the exact shelf.

Similarly, stockrooms and storage locations ordinarily use a letter or number scheme to organize their aisles, racks, shelves, and bins. Like a grocery store, physical labels are affixed to the location, making inventory items easy to find.

Communication

Once items are organized, you must communicate the organization system to others. Appropriate stakeholders should know exactly how things are organized and understand how to interpret naming or numbering conventions. Locations can also be communicated through a maintenance inventory management system such as computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software.

Procurement

Procurement is the process of obtaining goods or services, such as MRO inventory items, in a cost-effective and time efficient manner. It includes all the activities that take place from the initial requisition to final payment and receipt of goods. In simple terms, the procurement process is how you acquire the MRO inventory items needed for maintenance jobs.

The level of authority given to the maintenance team to make purchases differs from organization to organization. In general, the procurement process will look similar to the following:

1. Identify MRO Inventory Items Needed: Determine what materials and supplies – and stocking levels – are needed for efficient maintenance activities.
2. Generate Purchase Requisition: Create a purchase requisition that includes details such as what items are needed, the recommended vendor, and the date the items are required. Submit the requisition to for approval.
3. Get Purchase Approval: Submit the requisition for review. The purchaser will assess the requisition for completeness and priority. Assuming that the requisition is approved, proceed with the purchase.
4. Select Vendor(s): Identify the best vendor to fulfill the order requirements. Vendor selection criteria may include price, quantity ordered, speed of delivery, customer service, and prior relationships.
5. Create and Issue Purchase Order: Create a purchase order (PO) and issue to the vendor.
6. Receive Order: When the shipment is received, review the delivery, record the items in the inventory tracking system, and stock the items in the appropriate location(s).

Inventory Control

Inventory control ensures the right amount of stock available to the organization so that maintenance can be performed efficiently. It involves knowing what you have, where it is located, and how much of it is on hand. When combined, this information helps those who manage MRO inventory avoid stockouts and ultimately, costly asset downtime.

On the surface, it may sound like inventory control simply means reordering supplies when quantities are low. However, this is only one aspect of inventory control. Proper inventory control also includes regularly counting stock, tracking usage and movement, and anticipating future demand. When it comes to replenishing stock, you must also think about when to place orders, delivery lead times, available storage space, and ways to minimize ordering costs.

MRO Inventory Management Tools

Due to the relatively lax requirements of managing maintenance inventory (compared to other inventory), MRO management tools are typically less robust. In fact, it is not unusual for small businesses to have administrative staff manually track MRO inventory in spreadsheets. Large organizations use enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, though the MRO inventory management capability is often lacking.

Effective maintenance teams benefit from using computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software for inventory management. With a CMMS, you can leverage functionality designed specifically to help you manage your maintenance inventory. A good CMMS provides the following:

• Comprehensive inventory records
• Automatic MRO inventory count updates
• Reorder point notifications
• Inventory cost tracking
• Vendor and supplier management
• Purchasing capability
• Inventory-focused maintenance reports

Read Cadeco Industries Case Study

Manage MRO Inventory with FTMaintenance

The disorganization of MRO inventory management means there’s ample opportunity for improvement. In fact, some organizations estimate that proper MRO inventory management reduced their inventory spending by as much as 25%!

With FTMaintenance, you can take advantage of these cost savings while increasing your asset’s availability. FTMaintenance CMMS software helps organizations improve their MRO inventory management processes and procedures. Learn more about FTMaintenance inventory management system software.