{"id":23987,"date":"2023-08-24T13:30:57","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T18:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelitek.com\/?p=23987"},"modified":"2024-04-08T16:37:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T21:37:46","slug":"heres-what-community-colleges-must-do-to-prepare-students-effectively-for-manufacturing-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging2.intelitek.com\/2023\/08\/24\/heres-what-community-colleges-must-do-to-prepare-students-effectively-for-manufacturing-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s What Community Colleges Must Do to Prepare Students Effectively for Manufacturing Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
Community colleges have a long history of innovation. They\u2019re used to pivoting quickly and creating new programs or adapting the ones they already have to meet the rapidly changing needs of employers.<\/p>
The impact of Industry 4.0 technologies and methodologies on advanced manufacturing presents another such inflection point. As manufacturing undergoes significant transformation, colleges need to adjust their traditional approach of teaching discrete skills independently of each other.<\/p>
No more silos<\/strong><\/p> Not that long ago, most factory processes ran separately. There were workers who handled the electrical components, a different set of workers who operated and maintained the mechanical equipment, and a third set of employees who programmed the computers and machines.<\/p> In modern manufacturing, everything is interconnected and co-dependent. The automated robots on today\u2019s factory floors interact with the machines in a combination involving electrical, mechanical, and digital components, and the technicians who maintain them must be skilled in each of these areas.<\/p> What\u2019s more, factory processes are all interrelated, with smart machines communicating with each other at every step of the manufacturing process. A robot never works in isolation; it\u2019s connected to other devices and processes. In a logistics environment, for instance, a robot might be programmed to move things.<\/p> But to do so, the robot controller must communicate with the programmable logic controller (PLC) that is collecting information from smart sensors to inform the robot when there is something to move and identify the component using RFID or barcodes. The PLC also interacts with the inventory management system to tell the manager that the robot has collected and moved the part from storage to shipping.<\/p> The employees who oversee these processes must understand how they all work together. There is no such thing as a technician who only does one job anymore.<\/p> How colleges must adapt<\/strong><\/p> So, what do these changes mean for community colleges? While students might learn about the various aspects of advanced manufacturing in separate classes, they need opportunities to apply these skills within a hands-on, integrated environment, so they can see how these skills work together in an authentic context.<\/p> Multidisciplinary projects that replicate the challenges and scenarios found in modern manufacturing provide an opportunity for students to learn how cross-functional systems operate. Intelitek<\/a> offers multidisciplinary \u201ccapstone\u201d projects that bring together all of the different skills and technologies that students need to learn within a single, integrated manufacturing setting.<\/p>