Workforce Planning & Action for Milking Machine Technicians
![](https://harrisparkgroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Proj-DA-WFPA-MMT-farmer-survey-2012.jpg)
Above: Farmers were surveyed to better understand how they service their milking machines and access technicians
Fast Facts
Client: Dairy Australia
Location: National, coordinated from Melbourne
When: 2012-2014
Responsibilities: To establish a mechanism for workforce development planning for milking machine technicians, and set required training opportunities in place through the NCDEA
Project description
The need: Milking machines work every day of the year. It is therefore essential that the equipment is regularly serviced and issues are quickly found and fixed, a function carried out by professional milking machine technicians. With the numbers of milking machine technicians halving between 2000 and 2010, there was concern that farm productivity and profitability would be adversely affected if the decline continued.
What we did: The Harris Park Group worked with a Milk Harvesting expert (Professor Graeme Mein) and Workforce Planning consultant (Kim Windsor) to assess the workforce issues relating to milking machine technicians and recommend a path forward. Understanding of the situation faced by those in this sector was built from interviews with senior management of all five Original Equipment Manufacturers, the principals of 12 dealerships, and online surveys of the milking machine technicians and 15 farmers in regions with low density of farms (‘thin markets’). Preliminary recommendations were refined at an industry workshop.
Further Reading
Client report is not in the public domain
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