After reading Senior Editor Matt Jaster’s article this issue (“Advancing Technology for MRO,” p. 18), I have visions of the maintenance engineer of tomorrow. He’s not wearing a hard hat and steel-toe boots. No, he’s wearing ripped jeans and a ball cap (backwards), and he’s holding a game controller, because he’s operating the drone system your company is using to do visual and thermal inspection of your equipment, saving you enormous time and effort in your predictive maintenance routine.

Okay, maybe he still needs the hard hat and boots, because eventually he’ll have to go out in the field and fix something, but my point is that the skills required of this very old-school profession are definitely changing. It’s critical that your organization changes, too—by investing in this type of technology, training people to understand and use it, and bringing on a new generation of employees who might already be comfortable with the technologies you need to implement.

And it’s not just drones we’re talking about. It’s smart components with more and more sensors every year, hooked up to smarter and smarter systems with algorithms to spot problem areas and optimize processes and operations to speed production, reduce energy consumption and more. It’s digital twins that can test and optimize solutions at a fraction of the cost. Artificial intelligence will have applications in every industry. MRO is no exception.

If you find yourself intimidated by all this change, I urge you to give it a chance. Don’t be the guy who refuses to change because you’ve done your job just fine for the last 30 years. Don’t resist it out of fear that the powers-that-be are trying to replace you. Embrace the change and figure out how these new technologies can help you do your job better and more productively. Go out of your way to learn about these things.

One of the best ways you can do so is by seeing the technology and the people who develop it in person. It’s trade show season, after all, and there are a few good shows coming up that will definitely have some of these cutting-edge components and systems on display. Here are some good choices:

• Pack Expo, September 11–13 in Las Vegas (packexpolasvegas.com).
• Turbomachinery & Pump Symposium, September 26–28 in Houston. See our show preview article on p. 14, or better yet, come visit us in person at Booth #1501.
• Motion+Power Technology Expo, October 17–19 in Detroit (motionpowerexpo.com). See the show advertisement on p. 23. This is AGMA’s show, so we’ll be there, in Booth #3132, with our popular live version of “Ask the Expert” in Booth #3136.

Technology is definitely not standing still, and you shouldn’t either. It’s time to up your game. So come out to one of these shows and talk to the suppliers and learn about what’s new. Bonus points if you show up in ripped jeans and a reverse ball cap.