Train Humans for Plant Maintenance and Operation

Train the mechanic, operator for maintenance at the automated HMA plant

Throughout 2025, AsphaltPro Magazine has included a set of how-to plant maintenance articles from Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service, Louisville, Kentucky, in the February, March/April, June and August issues. These checklist-heavy pieces are designed to help your plant personnel plan for optimum uptime during the paving season by performing routine and intentional maintenance on plant componentry on a schedule.

While a number of plant-related original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) mention their training opportunities in this year’s Training Directory, let’s focus on the Hotmix University (HU) offered by Stansteel as a wrap-up to those plant maintenance training pieces. Specifically, let’s dive into the philosophy behind offering training to your plant operators when so many automated systems are available in the marketplace.

“It is vital for hot mix producers/plant owners to send their plant operations and management personnel (both new and experienced) to training courses and peer networking events—to better hone their craft with input and direction from trusted specialists, industry veterans, and their peers.”—Lennie Loesch

First, the HU sessions offered in Louisville every January and February are split into two. One is for asphalt plant managers and superintendents. Two identical sessions are for plant operators.

The instructors boast decades of experience working on multiple plant brands and types, and the company offered brief bios on a few of them. Gregg Gilpin, the director of electronic controls, has 37 years in the industry. Rick Rees, who authored the articles included this year, is a product developer who has visited, consulted on and upgraded 1,000 plants and has 40-plus years in the industry. Randy Ficklin is a market development manager for the Mountain West region with 40-plus years in the industry after flying C-130s in the United States Air Force. Steve Elam is the director of Hotmix Parts & Service and started running asphalt plants during college 43 years ago. Rick Bloodworth is a project engineer, a CMI Triple Drum specialist and a key developer of the company’s RAP Eater, with 45 years in the industry. Bill Winkers is a service manager, former plant operator/foreman and has 45 years in the industry. These men, and others, offer real-world experience to the students attending the sessions.

As mentioned above, many companies, including Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service, offer automation and controls systems to help producers augment the less-skilled workforce plaguing the industry today. With these new systems available, a producer may be tempted to forego training, leaving a warm body in the control house while the intelligent systems do all the work. Lennie Loesch, owner of Stansteel Hotmix Parts & Service, shared the growing philosophy among OEMs, whether or not they offer robust controls packages to “fool-proof” maintenance schedules, blending and loadout.

“Regarding the question of whether A.I. technology has advanced to the capability of safely running an asphalt plant entirely on its own, let’s first consider commercial airplane pilots,” Loesch began. “While some phases of airplane flight are controlled via autopilot, there are still several strong reasons why human pilots are essential. For example, humans are still better at making complex, real-time decisions in unpredictable situations such as sudden weather changes, irrational passenger behavior or system malfunctions.”

“Specifically for asphalt plant operations, placing a human operator in the lead is still the wise and essential choice.”—Lennie Loesch

Anyone who’s operated an asphalt plant for a day can see the parallel he’s drawing here.

“Plus, human pilots provide an additional layer of redundancy to ensure passenger safety, especially for when electronic systems fail or become exposed to software bugs or cyberattacks,” he continued. “In other words, it’s not just about flying the plane—it’s about everything else that human pilots do through intuition, which AI cannot reliably replace.”

Now let’s apply this to asphalt plant operation.

“Specifically for asphalt plant operations, placing a human operator in the lead is still the wise and essential choice. While AI systems can control mix production, monitor temperatures and even adjust ingredient flow, asphalt plants are not pristine, fully standard, precisely controlled environments. There are unexpected equipment issues, material inconsistencies and other human factors on the ground (truck drivers, loaders) that can introduce safety threats. A human operator can adapt in real-time, troubleshoot and quickly ‘save the day,’ while AI systems could only report an error message under similar circumstances.

“Furthermore, human plant operators do not just ‘run machines by pushing buttons.’ They manage dynamic plant systems with moving parts, volatile materials and human factors. Humans watch for unsafe conditions, respond to alerts, coordinate with ground crews and keep an eye on everything using their sight, hearing, smell and their irreplicable human intuition.

“So, while we can consider AI-based systems to be super assistants, they cannot fully replace human operators; they can help a good operator become an excellent one. While AI can help, it cannot care, adapt or intervene like a human. It is still the human operator and superintendent who should make the final calls toward asphalt plant operation.”

With human beings still essential for safe plant operation, human beings need to understand the ins and outs of safe plant operation and maintenance.

“That’s why it is vital for hot mix producers/plant owners to send their plant operations and management personnel (both new and experienced) to training courses and peer networking events—to better hone their craft with input and direction from trusted specialists, industry veterans, and their peers,” Loesch concluded.

No matter which training program you find most convenient for your set of plant personnel to attend, the fact remains that training is vital for safe and efficient operation and for optimum uptime next construction season.