The RV Industry Association’s Standards department is its greatest member benefit. With its team of professional, full-time inspectors, the Standards department promotes the enhancement of safety by monitoring adherence to the standards adopted by the Board of Directors for the construction of RVs and Park Model RVs. The team conducts more than 2,000 inspections of member company RV manufacturing plants annually.

To help the Association’s manufacturer member companies successfully comply with safety codes and regulations, the Standards team offers educational resources and hands-on training.

Presented by Standards department inspectors, these trainings cover the National Fire Protection Association 1192 and the National Electric Code. The training often takes place in person at the member’s location; in addition, virtual training has also recently become an option. The intended audiences for these training courses include production line workers, quality control, plant managers, and group leaders. Through August of 2023, the Standards team has held 13 training modules at seven facilities with approximately 85 attendees.

“We would like to get as much training as possible out to the member companies and their employees so products are built to meet the standard,” says Standards Inspector Nick Holobaugh. He emphasizes that the training presentations, in an effort to be as clear as possible, often incorporate plenty of photos from the field and closely follow the accompanying handbook.

“We want everybody who attends the training to become more familiar with these standards, and they can also research it more in the handbook if they need to,” adds fellow Standards Inspector Nate Tressler.

The Standards team has designed the presentations to give member employees a better understanding of the bigger picture when assembling RV components. “These presentations can help line workers gain a more in-depth understanding of why it’s important to assemble the product in a certain way or perform a specific procedure,” comments Nick. “The manufacturer members can use our presentation as a training aid.”

Nick emphasizes that the training presentations are intended to cover the same information that inspectors would cover in the field if they noticed a deviation: “However, this way, the correct information reaches more people.”

Each presented section lasts around 45-60 minutes, although some sections—like heating and fuel systems— can last longer. The training’s exact schedule can vary, depending on the member’s schedule and availability: “Sometimes we present each section one at a time over the course of a couple of days and sometimes we present all of it in a single day,” says Nate.