My understanding of KPI is Key Performance Indicator.
A measure of performance based on statistics, many companies now rely on these as a way to measure various items.
Hence the phrase "chasing the kpi's"
A way of completing a task while attaining the maximun kpi score
Not alway the best way to do the job, but makes your stats look great

I think Bert ment K.P.I. Key point indicators.

Nero

what does "kip obsessed" mean?

Being micro managed and having kip obsessed managers has very little appeal to people these days

I think a lot of the problem is due to the shortage of engineers and the trade picking up, young guys and apprentices are getting put on PMs as soon as they're good enough and not being trained any further than that. We have nowhere near enough engineers so the experienced guys are working flat out on breakdowns and more technical jobs while the newer guys are on services to get the work done quicker. The company gets the desired result, however when everyone is getting paid the same, it won't last forever.

I'm 26 and have been in the trade 10 years now, got made redundant after my apprenticeship with a main dealer and luckily a manager at a local independent took me on to help with servicing and then started with breakdowns and faults from there. Unfortunately there's not many managers like that about at the main dealers!

The big problem in the UK isn't just young people not wanting to come into the industry. It's the constant crap you have to put up with from supervisors field service managers etc concentrating on stupid things and not the important things like are our customers actually happy with the service we supply. I got totally fed up with getting calls complaining that my live time working on my pad awasnt good enough, why did it take me over an hour to get to site etc( any ex barlows engineers will know what i mean Lol). After over 30 years in the field I'd had enough and went to an end user. Then there is the training engineers now are trained to use the laptop look up the fault code and what the laptop says is gospel. We ended up having to ask jungheinrich not to send certain engineers to site as we ended up having to tell them how to fix the trucks one hadn't even heard of an earth fault on a cd motor. Unfortunately if things don't change in the UK in about 15 years time the industry is completely screwed.

Seems to be the same problem here in the US. I'm in my early 40s, and I'm one of the younger talented techs in my branch. The younger guys have a high turnover rate, and very few seem to have any ambition to progress beyond being PM techs. I don't get it honestly, I was rebuilding motorcycle engines when I was a teenager, and when I landed in this career in my mid twenties I never turned down a hard job, and viewed them all as an opportunity to learn skills that that would eventually earn me more money. It took longer than I would have liked, but that strategy paid off when switched employers. As hard and dirty as this job is, I've had far worse jobs that paid less. At this point I'm making more than many college grads stuck in the cubical jungle, I never had a student loan to pay off, and I know more about motor control systems than some of the people who design them. I don't know what it will take to get to get more talented young guys In the business. I think it will only get worse as time goes on.

In short, the shortage is here now, hopefully we can make it pay soon.

The youngsters just don't want to train to repair forklifts, far to dirty & heavy work for them.

As the older guys start to retire then there will be a shortage here in the UK.

I doubt to many engineers will swop company's, its looking like being a forklift engineer will become more rewarding in the wage packet not to far in the distant future.