How can we keep engineers between projects?

A controls firm hands over a large packing line in March. For the next six weeks, three of its engineers have little to do. They tidy laptops, answer the odd service call and watch the owner's door. Nobody tells them that two quotations are close to orders. In the fifth week one of them takes a call from a rival integrator. He resigns, telling colleagues the firm has run out of work. The order arrives in the seventh week.

Gaps between jobs are built into this trade. Orders come from a few anchor customers, and work bunches around their machine dates. The gap rarely drives people out on its own. A gap with no plan and no information does.

Plan useful bench work before the gap opens, and share the order pipeline openly so people know what is coming. Bench work should improve the next job: reusable code, better drawings, a working practice rig, sharper quotations. Pipeline talk should tell each engineer what the next job needs and whether they are pencilled in for it. The industrial automation and robotics overview counts the swing between rush and idle among the sector's main patterns.

• Fear. An empty diary looks like a shortage of orders, even when the pipeline is healthy.
• Fading skills. A robot programmer who has not touched a teach pendant for two months is slower on the next cell.
• Recruiter timing. Rivals watch handovers too. Their calls come right after a big job is signed off.
• Make-work. Sweeping the stores or retyping old files tells engineers their time is worthless.
• Lost billing. Engineers idle now are often overbooked in eight weeks, so the next project starts tired.

Keep a running list of bench jobs all year. Add to it whenever someone says the firm should fix something one day. When a project closes, the list is waiting. Each item names its outcome and who checks it.

Function block library: clean, comment and test blocks for motors, valves and analogue scaling.
Template projects: a standard HMI layout, alarm list and tag naming scheme for new jobs.
Practice rig: extend it with the drive or robot controller the next quoted order uses.
Drawing backlog: finish as-built drawings and backup registers for closed projects.
Pre-sales: site surveys, demo cells and scope reviews on open quotations.
Service: maintenance visits, retrofit studies for obsolete controllers, spares lists.
Second brand: structured practice on a PLC or robot brand the engineer does not yet know.
Internal tools: tag generators, report templates and test script libraries.
For each item: owner, outcome, checked by, target date.

Hold a short pipeline meeting once a month with every engineer, not just the project managers. Walk through enquiries, quotations out, likely orders and expected dates. Say who is pencilled in for each job and what it will need, such as a vision station or a safety PLC. Be honest about doubtful orders. Engineers cope well with uncertainty they can see. Silence is what they cope with badly. The workforce planning notes for industrial automation companies shows how to match headcount to that same pipeline.

1. 1

   Record the bench start

   The day the engineer's last project task closes. Count bench time from then, not from whenever someone noticed.

2. 2

   Pick two or three bench items

   Chosen from the list, matched to the next likely job and to the engineer's own growth.

3. 3

   Set one learning goal

   A concrete skill, such as running a full FAT script on the second brand, checked by a senior who knows that brand.

4. 4

   Pencil in the next project

   Even if it is uncertain. Say so, and update it at the monthly pipeline meeting.

5. 5

   Check in after two weeks

   Ten minutes with the engineering head: what got done, what comes next and any change in the pipeline.

Do not cut salary or claw back pay in a way that makes the bench feel like a penalty. Count bench work in appraisals. A library block that saved a week on the next job deserves the same mention as a smooth commissioning. Show finished bench items at the monthly meeting, so others see them used. Retention and attrition work in this sector often starts by reading when engineers resign. Resignations tend to cluster in the weeks after a large handover.

• How much bench is too much? Track bench days per engineer each month. Long gaps after every handover point to a planning problem, not a people problem.
• Can we lend engineers to a partner firm? Sometimes, with the engineer's agreement and clear terms on who directs the work. Get the arrangement checked first.
• What if the pipeline really is empty? Say so early. People who hear the truth plan with you. People left guessing make plans of their own.
• How do we stop bench work turning into make-work? Every item has an outcome and a checker. If nobody would miss it, strike it off.

Open the bench list this week, before the next handover. Ask each engineer for two items they wish existed. Put a monthly pipeline meeting in the calendar. Track bench days with whatever HR reporting and analytics you already have, even a simple sheet. Our post on utilisation swinging between rush and idle covers the planning side. To talk through your own gaps, share your requirements.