'Coach' Breckenridge guides his team by Paul V. Arnold Dan Breckenridge is a technician, a pencil pusher, a process engineer, a backup operator.   But perhaps no task gives him more pride than his work as a teacher. As the troubleshooting coordinator on the strut line at Tenneco Automotive's plant in Paragould, Ark., one of Breckenridge's responsibilities is to provide maintenance training and assistance to new and existing employees in his area. "Troubleshooting used to be repair and breakdowns," says Breckenridge, MRO Today magazine's "MRO Pro" for April/May 1999.  "Since the operators maintain the machines here, my job involves everything to keep the line going.   I consider myself a coach for the 35 members of this line." Coaching means getting the most out of your players. "A lot of people have handicraft skills outside of work," he says.   "You try to bring out the skills they have or the skills that they've never used." For novices, Breckenridge teaches the basics of machine lubrication and then moves into the areas of troubleshooting and repair. "You see individuals blossom," he says.  "We have a creative nature to all of us.  If you can give them the skills and confidence, it means a lot when you see them marvel in their successes, when they say, 'I can fix that.'" Breckenridge says the key to success is to never stop learning. "I learn things from the operators," he says.  "There are methods and shortcuts that they teach me." This article appeared in the April/May 1999 issue of MRO Today magazine.  Copyright, 1999. Back to top Back to MRO Pro archives