U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Definition

This series covers two-grade interval positions that supervise, lead, or perform administrative work that involves collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and developing specialized information about equipment.  Work also involves providing advisory services to those who design, test, produce, procure, supply, operate, repair, or dispose of equipment.  Work may also involve developing or revising equipment maintenance programs.  The work requires applying an intensive and practical knowledge of the characteristics, properties, and uses of equipment.  Knowledge is of the type gained from technical training, education, and experience in functions such as repairing, overhauling, maintaining, constructing, or inspecting equipment.

Titling

General Occupational Information

As an occupation, the Equipment Services Series, GS-1670, encompasses the broad equipment phases of preproduction, production, usage, and disposal.  Within these stages, equipment specialists perform a wide variety of services.  They obtain, provide, and base recommendations on equipment information such as:

• manufacturing processes;
• materials;
• maintenance requirements;
• associated equipment and conditions needed to operate and repair it;
• equipment composition, sometimes down to the smallest part; and
• how each part interrelates with the other and with adjacent parts, components, or within the larger overall system.

They also consider equipment uses; design and operating characteristics and limitations; operating instructions; reliable and unreliable manufacturers; operating and repair capabilities of different organizational levels; and disposal procedures.

Preproduction Phase

Equipment specialists participate in basic concept and feasibility studies, and in designing, developing, and testing new or modified equipment prior to its release for production to assure that every effort is made to achieve goals such as:

• mechanical reliability;
• simplified technical skills necessary to maintain equipment;
• standardized parts, tools, and test equipment;
• interchangeable parts and components;
• accessibility of parts and components for adjustment and repair;
• reduction in frequency of repair and repair time;
• speed in fault isolation; and
• simplicity and safety of operation.

Equipment specialists:

• determine or recommend the requirements for the appropriate spare parts, tools, and operating instructions to support equipment during tests;
• maintain liaison with agencies and contractors developing the equipment for the purpose of effecting solutions to problems;
• review layouts, engineering and production drawings, specifications and test reports; and
• compare equipment offered by contractors to specifications contained in bid invitations.

Production Phase

As the equipment process evolves toward the production stage, equipment specialists:

• chair or attend meetings with contractors, suppliers, users, and repairers to develop overall equipment support plans;
• advise on standardization of parts, tools, and components, and the extent of their interchangeability;
• compute quantitative repair parts requirements for field support, source code them, and define which are to be purchased at a later date;
• compile, maintain, and revise allowance lists, provisioning documents, or other designations of tools, parts, and components necessary for the efficient operation and repair of equipment systems and vessels;
• determine unit package quantities for efficient and effective distribution to users;
• develop or provide the technical data necessary to develop procurement descriptions;
• advise and assist in developing production procedures and techniques where intensive knowledge of the equipment is a consideration; and
• conduct studies to establish standardized maintenance procedures, shop layouts, and repair operations.

Usage Phase

During field usage, equipment specialists utilize their intensive knowledge of the particular equipment involved in reevaluating previously selected repair parts and tools to reduce unnecessary or unexpected duplication and variety.  They:

• investigate reports of abnormal consumption of material and recommend corrective measures;
• prepare, revise, or review purchase description standards or specifications that form a part of commercial contracts for repair work or new procurement;
• review, analyze, and evaluate deficiency and failure reports;
• recommend equipment modifications;
• request and evaluate laboratory tests and trial installation of modified equipment;
• consider significance of failures in regard to safety hazards, cost of repair, loss or down time of equipment resulting from such deficiencies as lack of available parts and distribution facilities;
• prepare changes for update or revise technical manuals, maintenance service letters, technical bulletins, and a variety of supplementary documents such as supply catalogs;
• identify, interchange, substitute, and cannibalize parts and components;
• review equipment performance against standards and rated capacity and maintenance history;
• provide on-site maintenance assistance on newly developed or issued equipment;
• investigate unprecedented major equipment deficiencies; and
• provide assistance to suppliers, users, and repairers.

Disposal Phase

Equipment specialists participate in declaring items that are no longer economically repairable as excess to the system and recommend their disposal.  Using their intensive knowledge of the equipment concerned, they are often required to develop commercial descriptions suggesting alternate commercial uses of equipment and, in some instances, recommend equipment modifications to facilitate commercial use.  On high-value items offered for sale, equipment specialists may be called upon to decide whether the bid offered is reasonable and acceptable or too low.  Equipment specialists recommend equipment disposal but are not involved in the disposal of the equipment.

The work performed in the preproduction, production, usage, and disposal phases within the equipment specialist occupation apply to modified as well as new equipment.  Major conversion programs include many problems similar to those presented by the introduction of a new item, component, or system.

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