maintanence contrcting

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solaeros

solaeros

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I have a utillity transformer manufacturer that asked me to work for them as their plant electrician. After thinking about it, I started to wonder if I would'nt be better off trying to get a maintanence contract with them. I have my contractors license and allready do facillity maintanence for a local cabinet shop aside from my full time job and it's fairly profitable and easy. Looking for opinions as well as some ways to approach them about the idea that would make it seem like a better alternative than an in house employee.
 
Hey.... all they can do is say, "no thanks". You owe it to yourself to try. Make an "ask" of yourself, as I am fond of telling guys when I encourage them to ask a tough question. :grin:
 
Good deal, I am in the same boat. I work contract work for facilities around the US. I am tired of traveling. I don't want in house because of the politics, and construction is well not my cup of tea. I would go for it. What other types of maintenance would you be doing? I think it's the NFPA 70b is a good book on maintenance.
 
This plant is short handed on all aspects of their maintanence but what they wanted me for is mostly electrical 3 phase overhead cranes, milling, welding, machining equipment, boiler and AC controls, a few VFD's and minor PLC stuff.
How do I make it sound better to them over hiring in house?
 
They might be looking at it in the down time. Where I?m at to shut down the plant for a fire alarm is a 10,000 just to get it all up and running (I think that?s what they figured). Then you?re looking at the down time that we were not there running production.
 
solaeros said:
This plant is short handed on all aspects of their maintanence but what they wanted me for is mostly electrical 3 phase overhead cranes, milling, welding, machining equipment, boiler and AC controls, a few VFD's and minor PLC stuff.
How do I make it sound better to them over hiring in house?
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Tell them they will not have to put you on their payroll and everything else that goes with the payroll.
Also tell them that your insurance will cover the work performed by your company.
Tell them you will provide your own training. And whatever else comes to mind.
 
solaeros said:
This plant is short handed on all aspects of their maintanence but what they wanted me for is mostly electrical 3 phase overhead cranes, milling, welding, machining equipment, boiler and AC controls, a few VFD's and minor PLC stuff.
How do I make it sound better to them over hiring in house?
Click to expand...

You can't make it sound better. Don't know what your hourly rate is, but I can bet that it's way higher than what they are willing to pay you, including any benifits they offer. It's cheaper for them to have you sitting around doing nothing at $20 an hour on call and ready to go, than have you come in and charge them $80 an hour two days later because you're busy somewhere else.

P.S. I wouldn't count on $20 an hour either, maybe, but I wouldn't count on it.
 
There are benefits to both sides to having you as an employee, and there are negatives. The same applies if they contract you instead of hiring you.

Many plants cannot tolerate downtime. it just costs too much. They generally prefer to have someone standing around twiddling their thumb, but available in an instant when needed. but if they already have that person available, they might contract you to do the overflow work, which is often a full time endeavor by itself.

If you do not like troubleshooting, don't go into plant work. You could spend most of your working moments on it. Also, you will find that your work day is not as predictable. When the machine is down, it is your problem to get it back up. If you have to work an extra 5 or 6 hours to get it done, that is just the way it is.

And often, work is scheduled for maintenance people during holiday shutdowns and weekends so critical work can get done without affecting production. Just part of the deal.

Many places you will make as much OT being a maintenance electrician as you get straight time, but you tend to earn it. It is not that uncommon for electricians in many plants to make low six figure incomes. But you work for it.
 
Hiring an outside contractor to do general day to day maintenance probably doesn?t make alot of sense, however hiring an outside contractor to perform regular PM work makes alot of sense. This prevents the plant from having to overstaff for these peak times which helps the maintenance department by not having to always work OT to get the job done and looks good to the accounting types as well because of cost savings. Most plants have regular equipment PM?s that have to be done weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly in addition to the major shut-down work which is typically in July and December. I think it would be your best approach to go for this type of work rather than the daily maintenance associated with keeping the plant operational.
 
license

license

Do you need a license if you operate a business for Maintenance? Testing, repair, installations, consulting?

What about hiring guys, Do they need to be licensed? I know they have to be qualified.

I know WV you need to pass a business and law exam to be a EC along with your electrical master exam.
 
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