Two conversations with manufacturers at the AHR Expo in Dallas this past Monday offer a glimpse at the changing face of facilities maintenance.

A manufacturer of large HVAC equipment described the control panel for his company's new product, pointing out that error messages now appear in plain English, not as error codes that an operator has to look up. I asked him if the codes also appear in Spanish.

Silence.

He was caught off guard, then seemed embarrassed that the designers hadn't thought of that feature. "It really wouldn't be that hard to do, either," he said.

As maintenance and engineering managers know too well, it is tougher by the day to find qualified, trained maintenance technicians. Most managers, if not all, have expanded their searched beyond traditional candidates. As a result, more Spanish-speaking technicians - as well as other non-English-speaking workers - are joining departments across the country.

The second conversation affirmed the basis of my question to the first manufacturer. While his company was going to remain focused on selling large pieces of equipment that have been its bread and butter for decades, he said that because the company senses a slowdown in sales in the next two years, the company also will expand its offerings of post-installation service and technician training.

And, yes, he made a point of saying, the training would be offered in both Spanish and English.

Given the changing population in all areas - and in small towns and big cities - its no surprise that maintenance and engineering departments feel the impact. How managers - and manufacturers - respond to this shift probably will go a long way in determining how successful their businesses will be.

One resource for bilingual training information is the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). The internet-based digital library of education research and information is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC provides access to bibliographic records of journal and non-journal literature indexed from 1966 to the present.