by Paul V. Arnold

While the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals wants to enter the certification arena, it has no plans of developing a "me too" program.

"We've always prided ourselves as representing the best and brightest in the industry," says SMRP executive director Larry Fleischman.  "We are designing a certification to meet the needs of those people."

The organization is obtaining information and feedback about its project, tentatively titled the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) program.  SMRP hopes to give it the go-ahead in late October and accept enrollment sometime in 2000.  It would be open to SMRP members and non-members. 

Fleischman and certification project director Brad Peterson foresee a program heavy on leadership, management and business skills. 

"Perhaps in the past, if you had certain technical skills, certain management skills, you could succeed," says Peterson.  "But times change.  We're looking at skills such as creating a maintenance strategy; implementing work management processes and systems; being able to motivate and lead people; and to understand core manufacturing and business practices.  We're looking for a person who has a broad skill set as opposed to a narrow, simply technical, skill set."

Specifically, the CMRP would revolve around five skill categories: 
- basic manufacturing processes
- work management 
- reliability management 
- people management, and
- business and leadership. 

"We are purely a maintenance organization," says Fleischman.  "That would be a distinction between our program and a program like AFE's (the Association for Facilities Engineering). This will be a program maintenance professionals can call their own."

(For more information on certification, view "Are you certified?")

This article appeared in the August/September 1999 issue of MRO Today magazine.  Copyright, 1999.

Back to top

Back to Maintenance excellence archives