March 14, 2023—In response to numerous industry requests, CCO has announced plans to develop a new certification program for those serving as Assembly/Disassembly Directors (A/D Directors) and seeks subject matter experts to assist in exam development.
This new certification is anticipated to alleviate some of the considerable confusion over the role of an A/D Director and help ensure that those who are CCO-certified as such are capable of safely managing the assembly and disassembly of cranes on jobsites.
ASME B30 and OSHA both outline requirements for those serving as A/D Directors. Under OSHA, the A/D Director needs to be both qualified and competent. This means that they must both have the knowledge of what the issues are as well as the ability to resolve them, and certification will ensure that certified A/D Directors can responsibly manage the complete assembly/disassembly process and all of the required personnel.
OSHA rightly recognized that often “qualified and competent” does not exist in one single person and therefore allowed that if there was more than one person performing this role, it would be a competent person who is assisted by one or more qualified persons (OSHA 1926.1404(a)). An example would be a large crawler crane where the supervisor of the assembly crew would typically be the competent person assisted by a manufacturer representative, soils engineer, mat engineer, etc. In this case, certification of the competent person serving as A/D Director will help ensure that a single person performing all of the required tasks is indeed qualified to perform the role.
Volunteers for the task force that will develop the new CCO A/D Director certification program are currently being sought, with a view to program development beginning this fall. Subject matter experts from all aspects of the industry, including users, manufacturers, consultants, labor, government/regulatory, insurance, owners, and associations, are invited to apply for a seat on the task force. Those who would like to participate on the task force are encouraged to complete and submit an application form.
Experts in their respective fields will staff the Task Force and will be guided by CCO’s psychometricians and exam developers. Other experts will serve as item writers to develop the actual exam questions. As with the current CCO certification programs, a professional job task analysis will be conducted to serve as the foundation for exam development activities.
CCO Director of Certification Bob Mahlman stated that development of the new certification program would begin in the third quarter of 2023 and continue through the second quarter of 2024. “We are developing a schedule where the development of the program could be complete within 12 months of our first meeting,” he said.
Like all other certification programs that CCO has developed, this new A/D Director program will rely on three major resources. “The new program will draw on industry support, subject matter expertise, and psychometric guidance,” said Mahlman. “All elements of the new program will be developed according to the same strict psychometric standards that are a hallmark of all of CCO’s certification programs. The resulting certification process will be fair, valid, reliable, and legally defensible.”
CCO’s expertise in the development of certification programs in the load handling industry and the widespread adoption of its programs make it the ideal organization to develop such a certification program. CCO was formed by industry in 1995 as an independent, non-profit organization to develop and administer a nationwide program for the certification of load handling equipment operators and related personnel. Over the past 28 years CCO has become known as the gold standard for operator and related certifications. CCO has administered over 1.5 million written and practical examinations and issued more than 726,000 ANSI-accredited and OSHA-compliant certifications; it currently offers more than two dozen certification designations across 14 certification programs.