Some years ago, the plant maintenance department acquired a thermographic camera. The primary use has been to detect poor connections in electrical panels. Every year, a couple dozen would be found and subsequently fixed.
This year, Bob was climbing a ladder while holding the camera (safety violation!) and dropped it. Right in front of an oncoming lift truck. Crunch! End of camera.
Rather than buy a new camera to find a couple dozen loose connections, the plant engineer added thermographic inspection to the list of things the electrical testing firm would do in its annual testing program. Their report identified 1,694 suspect connections since the last inspection 10 months ago. What could have caused this?
The most likely cause is nobody employed by the plant had been properly trained on how to use the camera. The result of their inspections only identified the really bad connections that stood out. Remember that this is the same plant where an electrician was carrying something up a ladder, so safety training is also lax.
One solution is to buy another camera and send someone to training to learn how to use it. But a better solution may be to expand the program for that electrical testing firm and see what other training deficiencies they expose. Then prioritize the training needs and obtain the most important training first.
