By George Laughead, publisher
Over the past year the staff of this magazine has researched, studied and planned our response to a growing area of jobs and applications for electronic servicing. The one area that stands out is that which we label MRO (maintenance repair operations) industrial electronic servicing.
It is with pride and excitement that I can announce to you the start of a regular group of articles each month that apply to both the independent technician and service shop, and also to the industrial electronic serviceman. Forest Belt, a leader in coverage of electronics, servicing technology and techniques, is now a consulting/contributing author for Electronic Servicing who will work exclusively on writing and directing the editorial in the MRO industrial electronic servicing area.
Forest will enlist the aid of many well-known experts in the MRO field. This new section will measure up to Electronic Servicing's standards of editorial excellence in electronic technology.
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Occupation, title, job description of respondent
Source: Electronic Servicing Market Study Engineers 15.5%
Includes engineering duties in design, production, operations, industrial controls, calibration, quality control, and operation and/or maintenance and service of electrical/electronic instruments and equipment, and other engineering titles Technical Engineering Management 21.0% Includes plant service and/or maintenance managers, plant supervisors; department heads in service, repair, calibration, design, and quality control: installation supervisors; and line chiefs
Other 1.4 %
Technicians 62.1% Includes service and/or maintenance repairmen, line electricians, industrial controls repairmen, troubleshooters, installation and calibration electricians, and other technician titles
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In-house facility 86.5%
Independent outside facility 13.5%
Type of facility in which department is located
Source: Electronic Servicing Market Study
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Why MRO?
Because it is the responsibility of trade magazines like ES to guide their readers into new areas for their skills and techniques to be used-perhaps even more profitably--and because we have a large group of readers who are already working in the industrial sector of the electronic servicing field.
Last year ES completed a survey of our subscribers who classify themselves as MRO. The survey was closed after receiving a 31% return. This article features the first information on the survey to be released in the magazine.
The report revealed the type of equipment and knowledge required in the MRO industrial servicing field. For one, more than 92% of the respondents indicated that a working knowledge of solid-state circuitry is required for their jobs, and more than 84% report a working knowledge of digital circuitry is required. Additionally, approximately 40% indicate that knowledge of microprocessors and minicomputers is required. This illustrates that the level of technology implementation has risen to a new high.
Test equipment plays a major role in the MRO field. Indicative of the increasing sophistication of the field is that 47% of the respondents report that they use logic analyzers and probes as part of their working equipment. Other sophisticated de vices, including distortion analyzers, curve tracers, and spectrum analyzers, were listed by a substantial percentage.
The growth of the MRO field has only begun. Starting in this issue we touch only one area with an article on bio-medical electronic repair and techniques. In September, Forest's first article as part of this new thrust will appear. For those of you not involved in the industrial area, ES will continue to carry all the regular departments and articles that deal directly with the problems and concerns of the independent electronic technician.
Our expert in this area, Carl Babcoke, editor of ES, will continue to personally monitor, write and review. Between Forest and Carl, Electronic Servicing will now offer you the best of both areas.
Also see: Typical medical equipment repairs