Training courses for panel builders: what, where?

Do you know a lot of existing trainings dedicated to panel builders?
Heard about a “panel builder university” somewhere worldwide?

I don’t !!

Read below the point of view and experience of Denis LAUDREN, who has been involved in panel building for many years, and who develops and animates today some training courses dedicated to panel builders.
DAN

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DAN:  ” so Denis LAUDREN, please tell us about your experience around training for panel builders ”

Denis LAUDREN:

” I’ve been working around panel building activity for more than 20 years, as manager of this type of activity, or as creator and animator of training sessions recently.

It is a very exciting job, but also very complex and generating some risks. Every customer is specific, and every request is different. Each project is for us a kind of adventure, a specific case.

Panel building activity is also rich and exciting due to the diversity of knowledge & competences it is necessary to master if you want to be « efficient », and thus profitable:

– Understand properly what the customer needs
– Prepare a technical & commercial offer in line with customer needs
– Negotiate the contract terms
– Design & build projects in line with customer requirements and with your objectives (margin …)

Furthermore, competences and knowledge required are constantly evolving:

– Design offices are more and more losing their expertise to advise on LV system / switchboard design, so panel builders (and/or contractors) have to help the end users or design offices to define their switchboards.
– New customer values are emerging (like energy efficiency …), panel builders should be able to push and propose solutions to match these expectations. Adaptation of panel builders to this world in permanent mutation can only be done through regular and pro-active training of the people to be sure they have the right skills to match the new challenges.

But who should be trained? And on which subjects?

Though training is probably the most profitable investment a company can do, you cannot afford to spend all the time of your resources on training, as daily business tasks need to be done.

So, in order to establish a well balanced training program, it’s better to first do what I call a “quality diagnostic” of your company.

It will highlight your strong points, and also the ones where improvement could be done.

I developed such a “diagnostic tool”, in 2007, which I use at the beginning of a training I developed at that time for Schneider Electric: it makes it possible for each participant to visualise where they are today and what are their main improvement routes. This tool is looking at the different competence areas of a panel builder:

– Quality system
– Organisation
– Request for tender / customer relationship
– Technical and commercial offer
– order registration
– Technical studies / design
– Manufacturing
– Quality inspection
– Project management

This type of diagnosis is obviously one of the possible sources for you to define your training plan priorities.

At the same time, to my experience, existing training offers dedicated to panel building skills & activities are very “rare” on the market:
the ”traditional” educational system, in most countries, is pretty well adapted to prepare on technical competencies needed for the job (electro-technical knowledge, assembly, wiring …), but does not prepare properly skilled people on 2 essential required competences:

– Management of tendering, to win orders
– Management of projects, to ensure customer satisfaction and profitability

In France, several training institutes, like Cegos and Demos, propose training modules dedicated to this type of needs: though they are not specifically targeted at panel building activity, they can be, from my experience in animating such sessions, a perfect basis to train your people on project management skills.

More specific training modules, dedicated to panel builders, have sometimes been developed by specialized training companies such as mine, or sometimes by large manufacturers (like the ones I developed for Schneider Electric) wanting to help their panel builder “partners” to be the best on the market.

Without training, whether you organise it with your internal resources or with the help of external people, your company has little chances to improve its efficiency and thus survive in a more and more demanding and competitive world.

My suggestion, to conclude: is that you should take the time to formalize your ambition (where I want to be tomorrow?), to evaluate your existing competences, and from that point to build your training plan for the coming years. The solutions exist; it’s up to you to decide how to use them for your best benefit. ”

Denis LAUDREN
LDR Conseil et Formation

22 Comments

  • I agree fully with Denis, and would add that my experience is that panelbuilders tend to focus on the technical aspects of their business, which are critical. Unfortunately they do not focus on the commercial elements of their business whuch are equally important. It is very important to know that your business is making a profit from the activity of building quality switchboards. Any training around this topic would be beneficial to the industry in general.

  • I fully agree as well with what have been said , more over we have encountered many situations where the training and the usage of professional training rules had saved money for the end users and on some other cases , have created more profitability for the panel builders him self and in some other cases build trust with the consultant body and created more opportunities in the market for the panel builder and also put him in a very healthy competition levels
    for examples when some one is trained on Cascading and discrimination principles he can professionally optimize the cost of his solution ,on the same time when he knows the principles of testing ,quality procedures he can easily prove his design to any consultant body ,more over he can convince his customers with other principles that might not be taken into consideration when evaluating other competitors solutions
    however I think that such trainings cant be taken alone without practice therefore it is highly recommended to follow up some of the LV switch gear manufacturing training programs where practice and quality procedures are already proven in order to prevent loses or bad quality solutions in the early stages of the panel builder history

  • Dear,
    Currently I am working as electrical engineer in UAE. I would like to start panel building company in Tamilnadu or in Pondicherry. I am new to business. I need the complete details. Kindly requested for you guidance.
    Thanks and regards
    Sukumar

    • Trainimg is very important if you want to manufacture high quality, compliant switchboards. My company carry’s out training for consultants, switchboard builders, and end users in the standard (IEC 61439) for low voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies.

      We carry out this training worldwide, it is based on a number of levels and is built to suit your needs, whether it is at a very high level overview, or the in depth level that is required before carrying out a testing program.

      Our details can be found at http://www.3phasedesign.com

      Also we will be exhibiting at the Middle East Electrical Exhibition on 9th ~ 11th Feb 2010 in Dubai, you are welcome to come to our stand to discuss this in more detail Stand 5B29

      I am also carrying out a seminar on 10th Feb at 13:30 on this subject, so please come along then too.

  • Trainimg is very important if you want to manufacture high quality, compliant switchboards. My company carry’s out training for consultants, switchboard builders, and end users in the standard (IEC 61439) for low voltage switchgear and controlgear assemblies.

    We carry out this training worldwide, it is based on a number of levels and is built to suit your needs, whether it is at a very high level overview, or the in depth level that is required before carrying out a testing program.

    Our details can be found at http://www.3phasedesign.com

    Also we will be exhibiting at the Middle East Electrical Exhibition on 9th ~ 11th Feb 2010 in Dubai, you are welcome to come to our stand to discuss this in more detail Stand 5B29

    I am also carrying out a seminar on 10th Feb at 13:30 on this subject, so please come along then too.

  • sir,
    My name is prakash kumar.I built a electrical panel in india.But i dont have good knowledge well how to make circuit so please guide me or any book of the circuit so tell me then i purchase for guide. And how i spread my business .

  • Sir
    I am a electronics engineer and i have a group of electrical, instrumentation and mechanical engineers and we are intrested to built a pannel board company in india. So i need your seiencer help . I want to know what are the insruments used to start a pannel board company and what is the aproximate minimum cost (in usa dolar) to start the company.And we are also intresed to take traning from a good institute because we are new in this field.
    Sir, please guide us to make our dream comes true.

  • Dear Sir,
    I Have some basic knowledge in LV Panel design(Electrical consideration for Design) But I need training to become master of in that.Pls if your conducting training program in bangalore pls inform me

    I want to learn the following things
    1.Making single line diagram
    2.switch gear/Cable selection
    3.Earthing Layout & it’s types etc..

    Krish
    Bangalore
    9902326006

  • Dear Sir,
    Am so excited to come across this website today. I have just started Engineering Company and want to specialize in panel building. our experience is low at the moment and so we engage the service of experts a lot of time to ensure customer satisfaction and comply with standard. But this is too expensive for us.
    Please, help us to improve, increase our skills and help us to be the best in Africa sub region.
    we need equipment and training materials.
    Our dream is to eradicate poverty in Nigeria through Technology!
    Please, come to our aid and the Lord bless you as you do so.
    Many thanks.

    John Bishop
    For: Dawsking Engineering Services Limited, Lagos – Nigeria.

    • John
      The hardest area for you, if you have little expereince will be complying with the standards. The switchboard standard the you need to comply with is IEC 61439-2, this was only introduced last year, so it is quite new and not many people have retested their equipment yet to this standard

      In the first instance I would suggest that you look at http://www.3phasedesign.com/training this will give yoou some initial details about the subject, you will also need to purchase the standard and read through it (you need to buy part 1 & part 2 of IEC 61439)

      After that you need to consider how you will move forward, but for this to be cost effective you need to know what you are doing, to ensure the best possible chances of passing the required tests.

  • We, Larsen & Toubro Limited, a leading Low Voltage Switchgear Manufacturing & Marketing Company in India, do offer a 4-days duration training programme on “Electrical Design of Switchgear Assembly (EDSA)” at our Switchgear Training Centres located at Pune, Lucknow & at Coonoor in India. In this programme we do cover all aspects of LV Panel Design such as Switchgear Selection, Fault Level Calculation, Calculation of Forces on Busbars, Spacing of Insulating Supports, etc. You may contact us at: “STC-COONOOR@LNTEBG.COM”. We will send you further details.

  • Its good to see that the are training opportunity available to get ourself trained in panel building, especially those who are interested in learning it. Thanks for posting.

  • Engineering of electrical course is great opportunity in your life career.
    Thanks for share great informative post…..:-)

  • Hi, I am an electronics engineer. I want to learn control panel designing that includes single line diagram, wiring diagram, etc.

  • i am an electrician from nigeria. i want to learn how to design and build electrical panel.
    obas.

  • After I initially left a comment I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments
    are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is
    added I receive four emails with the same comment.
    There has to be a means you can remove me from that service?
    Kudos!

  • Hello dear, I appreciated everything you said. They are all correct. Actually I so much love this aspect of electrical engineering profession and would want to develop a carrier in that area. Please I need your assistance. Kindly help me with the electronic software as the training.
    Thanks .

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