PLC courses for Maintenance people

Fresh thinking on PLC courses for Maintenance people - you don't need to do everything.

Many people in industry are now challenging the content & learning objectives of PLC courses on the market.  PLC manufacturers are often keen to want to tell users why their particular piece of kit is better, cheaper, faster & easier to use than the competition.  Of course they cover basic skills but do they really come at the subject from the perspective of the Maintenance person in industry?  More & more we find the considered view from many is that this is not the case.

The manufacturers understand the specifics of their piece of kit but have they lost touch with what typical users REALLY NEED to know?  INTACS have developed an innovative approach which tackles the THREE PROBLEMS that do exist on typical sites across the country.

FIRST
To be able to Maintain & Troubleshoot a particular PLC system effectively, the user does not have to be shown everything.  Rather than time being spent looking into every dark corner, focus the time on the key things people will NEED TO KNOW & provide PLENTY OF PRACTICAL.  It’s common knowledge, if you show or tell people too much & they don’t put it into practice very soon, it’s gone – they forget!

INTACS innovative First-line Practical Skills (FLPS) courses have been developed to cut out a lot of the NICE TO KNOW & concentrate on the NEED TO KNOW.  This means that those attending courses will have less to store away & try to remember but they will have been given much more meaningful practical experience based around the use of realistic plant simulation Training Models – the more practice, the better the chance of remembering!

It is true that some PLC systems are more user-friendly than others.  The less user-friendly are often called “more powerful”.  Regardless, many machine builders & software people do not follow the “Keep It Simple Stupid” philosophy & when writing the PLC software, do not seem to consider the person who will have to work on or fault-find (i.e. understand) the system & the program code can become complex.  However, the key difference is that where a higher level of understanding (or training) is required, the course is not put together just to be tougher but that again it does set out to tackle typical higher level issues that people NEED TO KNOW.

SECOND
INTACS is unusual again in that as well as integrating the use Practical Training Models into their courses they have a different range of Training Model available for purchase.  Whilst the Training Models do not come with PLC hardware (INTACS can provide the PLC hardware if required), a choice of Learning Support Packs (LSPs) have been developed with PLC software & a range of practical exercises to build COMPETENCE through CONFIDENCE.

Companies who provide appropriate training & then a structured facility back on-site to put the learning into practice not only motivate learners but get a far greater return on their investment with a competent & enthusiastic team.

THIRD
And finally, also unusually, where a company has someone who has attended training but for various reasons has not had the opportunity to “get stuck in” & master the skills, rather than perhaps sending the person to re-attend the original course again, INTACS have a solution.  INTACS “Practical Fault-finding” courses provide the opportunity for those attending to tackle a series of practical fault-finding exercises where they get help as required.  Delegate numbers per course have been reduced to a maximum of 4 people so that individuals can get maximum contact time with the Instructor & in response to customer demand, the duration of the Practical Fault-finding courses has generally been reduced to only 3 days.

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