Master Class program

The Master Class program Young WCM has been designed as the natural successor of the WCM Summer School, in which young professionals are getting challenged on state-of-the-art maintenance topics and work on one real-life maintenance innovation case in an intensive week.

The aim of the Young WCM program – which is spread out over several months – is to further develop the skills and professional network needed for maintenance innovation, such that the young maintenance professionals will be more successful at achieving innovation in their own organizations. Therefore, all participants can bring in their own maintenance innovation case in the Young WCM program and will be coached on their case in a series of three 2-day master classes on maintenance innovation management.

Learning goals of the Maintenance innovation management program of Young WCM
1. Make the participants aware of the value of their (knowledge) network in developing maintenance improvements
2. Let the participants develop innovation management skills and domain knowledge
3. Familiarize the participants with other Young WCM participants and the wider WCM innovation network
4. Aid the participants with developing and managing their own maintenance innovations and associated maintenance innovation plans

Expectations of participants
The participants are expected to give and take. Of course, the participants aim to gain knowledge and skills during the program. But participants are also expected to contribute to the group. Participants can bring, for example, specific knowledge and insights into how things are run in their organization, or invite others to visit their organization. In addition, all participants are expected to be engaged with one or multiple innovations, both during the program and afterward.

Innovation means an innovative approach or working method for the organization; it does not have to be completely new, as long as it is new for their organization.

Also, the maintenance innovation does not have to be realized within the duration of the program; it is okay if an innovation project is still at an early stage. However, it is important that the participant has an active role in realizing this innovation, and it is important that the innovation can be discussed with the coaches and other participants – only then can we support in managing the innovation.

And finally, an innovation does not necessarily have a large footprint in the use of resources, also personal smaller innovations are welcome to work on. We wish to work on some different innovations together.

Smart Maintenance
For the innovations, we inspire the participants to think for example about the smart maintenance themes which have been identified by WCM. We distinguish here three main types of maintenance innovation:

• People & Organisation: This group contains those innovations which are
primarily related to the culture of an organization and the behavior of the
people.
• Process: Innovation under this group deals with changes to organizational
processes and routines which are used to efficiently and effectively achieve
maintenance and business objectives.
• Technology: The technology group consists of the systems and integration
for those systems which support those innovations which have been
identified under process and people and organization.

Application
Application and selection for the program start annually after the WCM Summer School. The core of the selection process consists of 1-2 intake interviews. During the intake, we discuss with the participant what he/she wants to get out of the program, what he/she wants to bring, what innovation case he/she will work with during the program, and what innovation needs his/her organization has.

If you’re interested, you can apply here: Application form.

Program design
The core of the program consists of e master classes. During these sessions, we get to work with multiple innovation themes and with each of the participants’ innovation cases. In addition, during each session, we introduce the participants to an innovation network and to a WCM project, with the aim of connecting the participants to the existing projects.

Locations
The Young WCM program will be organized from the army base in Stroe and or the Fletcher Hotel in Stroe.

Days
The dates for the Young WCM 2022 masterclasses are: 6-7 December 2022, 20-21 December 2022, and 24-25 January 2023.