The ERS 6th Man
The machine stopped. The person who knows it is not here.
You call because a machine stopped on the shift, and the technician who knows it is on vacation, out sick, retired, or already gone. The PLC program is not where the crew can find it. The print does not match the panel. The fault is past what this crew can finish, and production is waiting.
The 6th Man is the relationship before that call. Weekly or monthly, whichever the plant prefers, ERS technicians work with your people and learn the equipment, the procedures, and who to call in production, maintenance, engineering, and the other departments. When the in-house crew, a temp, or a contractor is not the fit, ERS Has Your 6. It is help for the people you already have, not a replacement for them. Union plants use it the same way. Management and the people on the floor both have someone backing up the personnel and the skill set.
In-house specialists know the systems. They are a fixed cost for expertise the plant needs only part of the time. A temp does not know the system well enough for the automation on the floor. A contractor is usually limited to one machine, one brand, or one trade. The 6th Man knows the employees and the factory’s systems, and can start from that familiarity.
Backups, prints, and the people who run the area.
The visit keeps those records current. Program backups get checked. Spares get ordered. Prints get updated when the machine has changed. The visit also takes in the plant’s safety requirements, the purchasing procedure, the badges, codes, and passwords the task needs, and a non-disclosure when the plant requires one. The checklist changes as the plant changes, and a task or a project gets done on the visit.
The same arrangement covers the week the crew is short or the job got bigger. A breakdown. A customer change that is more work than the regular staff can finish in the time they have. Vacation, illness, retirement, or someone who left without handing the machine off. New equipment, or a new work area. The 6th Man does that work with your maintenance, your engineers, your contractors, and the people who manage the plant. A later change to the controller, or to the safety, starts from the programs, the prints, and the people already known.
After company ABC closed a plant and moved the production to its other factories, it found the equipment had been sabotaged. ABC called the 6th Man. ERS worked on site for weeks, repaired the machines, and used its vendor network for what the equipment needed. The machines were returned to operational status.
An electrical equipment manufacturer needed market research done without competitors finding out. The company quietly retained the 6th Man to procure equipment, document the sales channels, negotiate price points from prospective vendors, research the actual lead times, and more. ERS had already built equipment and had used that manufacturer’s products. The manufacturer knew ERS from that work. The calls did not raise a flag.