Welcome to TechStar Training
The Industrial Revolution has brought changes to our society as monumental as any in human history. But as equipment and facilities have grown in complexity, they have become too complex for one individual to master.
The starting point for the operation of an industrial facility is adequate design and construction. However, even the most complex, robust industrial site is, by itself, just a combination of steel, concrete, and other materials. It is the people, the team, that brings the plant to life.
The successful operation of a complex industrial facility ultimately falls to skilled, alert humans, working as a team, systematically controlling the equipment they are charged with operating.
With the advent of the industrial society, we have also sadly experienced industrial accidents. In many cases, the human impact is confined to the organization and facilities. In other cases, the result has had widespread consequences to society at large.
TechStar operates on the premise that there are simple, fundamental operating team traits that are required for the safe and reliable operation of an industrial facility. We call these traits Vital Operating Skills. TechStar has found that, when looking at industrial failures, there are underlying factors in almost all cases that involve failing to apply one or more of the vital skills.
TechStar has developed a series of tools to aid in successful facility operation, starting with a series of publications including the benchmark text The Industrial Operator’s Handbook. Along with the Handbook and other publications, TechStar has developed seminars that take the mystery out of operational success by leveraging real-life case studies from the Handbook so your team can learn from mistakes of the past.
Both text and seminar engage the reader/participant in an interesting analysis of what causes accidents to occur and how most can be avoided through the systematic use of the vital operating skills on a consistent basis, stopping mistakes that cost time, money, and sometimes lives.
The Industrial Operator's Handbook
The 20th century saw commercial and industrial disasters ranging from the sinking of Titanic sinking in 1912 to Challenger explosion and Chernobyl in 1986. In 1989 the Exxon-Valdez grounded in Prince William Sound, spilling 256,000 barrels of oil, and in the same year a high-density polyethylene plant exploded, killing 23.
Accidents seem unavoidable. But did you know that more than five people had ample opportunity to prevent the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? Each could have taken a different, simple action, any one of which would have been sufficient to break the chain of events to make that accident impossible.
The Industrial Operator's Handbook demonstrates through real-life case studies how most accidents, whether Chernobyl, a commuter plane crash, or a utility crew electrocution accident, all share strikingly similar causal components. And almost never is only one factor sufficient to cause disaster.
Trustworthy Leaders
Trustworthy Leaders analyzes examples of leadership situations to determine effective and ineffective leadership techniques. Fundamental leadership principles, traits and skills are presented with real-world applications. The three-day course includes TechStar's Temperament Questionnaire© and personality analysis.
Maintenance and the Safety Envelope
Since first publication of The Industrial Operator's Handbook in 1995, we have been overwhelmed by the response of industry to the concepts presented in that work. Thousands of readers have consulted that text for application in their industries and thousands more (operators, maintenance technicians, laboratory analysts, engineers, and managers at all levels) have participated in the seminars we have presented.