I equate a naturally high level of mechanical aptitude to someone that can play music by ear or someone that can hand draw an amazing picture without formal training.

These natural “gifts” can be developed much easier than someone without these skills. If we can find applicants with natural mechanical skills, we’re ahead of the curve when training starts.

But let me ask this question: Do you test for it when filling maintenance and operator positions? If not, you might be missing out on a huge opportunity.

Over the years, I have seen a significant difference in the troubleshooting skills for those with high mechanical aptitude. The mind’s eye for these individuals “sees” elements of motion differently and breaks down the cause and effect which helps get to a hypothesis faster.

Not only that, but their mind’s ability to use visualization to simulate steps that can prove or test components to confirm or eliminate possibilities is an important tool.

When maintenance gets called by an operator to a machine that’s down or running poorly, the key to success revolves around quickly finding the problem, correcting it and putting the asset back into production.

Time is money, and today’s production equipment has never been more complex. Multiple voltages, pneumatics, gears, sprockets, linkages, hydraulics, belts, stroke, timing, position, processor issues, logic, servos, recipes, product variances and many other factors all need to be considered or ruled out.

Having operators with an above average level of mechanical aptitude can be a huge benefit to the maintenance department. Some companies even use this as a precursor for filling maintenance positions.

You can easily Google “Best Techniques for Effective Maintenance Troubleshooting,” but that will never give you the answer to the situational root cause. The key is stacking the deck in your favor by changing how you hire and how you develop employees.

Finally, don’t forget your incumbents. A few years ago, I performed a certified mechanical aptitude test on 20 mechanics at two bakeries. They were provided two weeks of focused training based on gaps highlighted from their test results. After training we retested using different mechanical aptitude scenarios and saw an overall improvement of 26% to 86% across all 20.

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Rowdy Brixey is founder and president of Brixey Engineering Inc.

You can connect with him on LinkedIn.