Archive for February, 2020

Prairie State College Starts Innovative Mobile Training Program

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

At the Made in America trade show last October, I stopped by the booth of Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, IL and met Craig Schmidt. V. P. of Community and Economic Development and Jim Kvedaras, Consultant. They were at the show to publicize the launch of their new Mobile Training Center (MTC) program that will provide innovative ways to train and retain workers and minimize workplace interruptions. Craig told me, “We recently received an Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to create the MTC.  We used that grant and matching college funds to build two mobile training centers that can be moved at will to bring hands-on training to a company site.”

Last week, I checked back with Craig and Jim to see how the program was going.  He said they have been identifying manufacturers that would benefit from the program and will start the program at Ford Motor Company’s Stamping plant the week of March 16.  They have additional companies lined up.

He explained, “By using the MTCs, employers save the time and expense of sending employees off site to locations for industrial skills training, and workers will not be inconvenienced by having to commute to a community college campus or other location for training. We’ve been offering training in manufacturing skills about 41 of the 60 years since the College opened in 1958. Today, manufacturers need new ways to address the skills gap and retain their workers to be competitive in the global economy. Mobile training can provide some of those ways, and our local manufacturers wanted the training to be brought to them.”

“We’re the first in the area to have these,” he said. “Larger companies that operate three shifts around the clock will be able to provide equal and training opportunities to employees.  It’s all focused on advanced manufacturing. The top priority is to upskill current employees.”

He explained, “The MTCs are two 53 ft. highway truck trailers that are temperature controlled, Wi-Fi enabled, and handicap accessible.  The MTCs can come on demand, so that training doesn’t have to be confined to whatever facilities an employer can make available without shutting down production lines. The MTCs can be moved to other plant locations, providing training opportunities for more employees, and then moved to other employers.  Employers can work with the college to design a training curriculum based on their goals, while minimizing production downtime while the training takes place.”

Craig provided me with a brochure that explained that one trailer is a welding unit and the other is a manufacturing unit.  The welding trailer is “equipped with eight multiprocess welding stations and two virtual reality/augmented Arc welding simulation.” Students will learn “welding setup, operation, and troubleshooting using Miller multiprocess welders.”

The manufacturing unit is described as being equipped with the following equipment:

  • “Emco machines
  • Haas simulators,
  • Manual mill/lathe Combo machining centers
  • ABB Robotic operations for operation and troubleshooting
  • 3D printing capabilities”

The students will learn “PLC and electronics operation and troubleshooting using Siemens and Allen Bradley components” and be trained on “all CNC industry controls that are common to the market.”

The brochure states that MTCs offer:

  • “On-site, hands-on training using current technology
  • Customizable curriculum, including classroom instruction and practical application
  • Training that can be applied toward a college degree or as professional development
  • Lab exercises designed to enhance employee competence and performance”

The benefits to employers are described as:

  • “Minimize loss of production time and travel expenses
  • Increase engagement, efficiency, and retention
  • Maintain a competitive edge
  • Increase safety performance by uniform adherence to industry standards
  • Reduce the manufacturing skills gap”

Craig said, “We are also seeking company sponsorships to assist in offsetting the College’s match of the grant.  The College intends to put a portion of the sponsorship back into the community to promote manufacturing jobs to youth and train individuals who may not have easy access to education.”

I thanked Craig and Jim for the information and said that I hoped to see them at this year’s Made in America trade show in Detroit.  To learn more about the Prairie State College Mobile Training Center program, visit https://prairiestate.edu/MTC, call (708) 709-7722, or email mtc@prairiestate.edu.

When I browsed the College website, I learned that it also has a Department of Corporate and Continuing Education, which offers customized programs that are delivered either to company facilities or on their campus. Besides the typical business topics of business ethics, business writing, customer service, Secrets of Selling, and time management, the College also offers training in computer software and employee development topics.  The latter includes such topics as coaching and mentoring, leadership, and team building.

I was particularly pleased that the College offers training in Lean on such subjects as 5S Workplace Organization, Continuous Improvement, Six Sigma, and Total Productive Maintenance because becoming a Lean enterprise is key to being competitive in the global marketplace. 

All across the country, Community Colleges are taking the lead in providing education and training in the skills needed by today’s manufacturers.  What is still needed is more high schools restoring hands-on skills training at the high school level.  Let’s restore the “shop classes,” such as wood shop and machine shop and start mentoring middle school age children on the importance of choosing STEM careers. STEM careers include manufacturing because nearly all manufacturing today is based on advanced technology.

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H.R. 5478 would Protect Inventors Rights

Tuesday, February 11th, 2020

On December 18, 2019, H.R. 5478 was introduced by introduced by Representatives Danny K. Davis (D-IL) and Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (R-AZ), and on January 28, 2020, it was referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. This Act that would restore patent protection for inventors and mitigate a generation of laws, regulations, and court decisions discouraging innovation by failing to secure to inventors the exclusive rights to their discoveries.

It is crucial that this Act be passed this year because our patent system is in crisis. The text of the Act states “Recent changes to patent laws and procedures and Supreme Court decisions have adversely affected inventors such that the promise of Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution of ‘securing for limited times to inventors the exclusive right to their discoveries’ is no longer attainable.”  The biggest change to the U. S. patent system was made by the America Inventors Act of 2011,  

The Act states that “Inventors are denied the fundamental right to ‘exclude others’ by the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, LLC.” Thus, inventors have lost their injunctive rights granted by the Constitution.  It also states that “Inventors were stripped of the right to file suit in their own judicial district by the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC.”

Imagine if you invested in a house, moved in, started to enjoy it, and then had squatters arrive, whom you can’t legally kick out. Yes, you could charge them rent, but if you can’t kick them out, they have no incentive to pay! They would just keep squatting and living in your house for free. That’s what has happened to our patent system.

The ability to stop others from infringing on inventor’s patent rights was what helped big tech companies years ago. Amazon never would have existed without Jeff Bezos’ patent for “the one click purchase” that he licensed to Apple to use for their app store.  Amazon and Microsoft ere helped to grow by their patent licensing revenue.

Now, large companies are stealing patents and inventors can’t stop them from using the technology. These large corporations are choosing to spend years in court in a process called “efficient infringement,” by paying legal fees to harm new innovation by inventors instead of paying fair licensing royalties to grow the new innovation. The inventors have to incur extensive legal fees to protect their patents, which often bankrupts them if they can even afford to initiate a lawsuit.

  While American innovation is faltering to grow here, China has out legislated America, (learning from our mistakes by mandatory licensing and punitive damages on intentional infringement to quickly grow innovation. Their strong patent legislation is growing their economy exponentially. They now have a billion dollar start up every three days in crucial fields like AI, 5G, and other new technologies, while in America we have none.

Instead, we only have large USA corporations stealing innovation from small companies, then bankrupting them in Patent Trial and Review Board (PTAB) trials by judges appointed by the USPTO at a rate of around 86%.

For further information on the patent crisis, you may watch the trailer for the documentary Invalidated: The Shredding of the U.S. Patent System  The full version is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Attempts to undo the damage of the America Invents Act of 2011 and Supreme Court decisions isn’t new.  There were three bills related to patents/inventor rights were introduced in the 115th Congress (2017-2018), but they never got out of committee for a vote on the House floor:

H.R.6557, Inventor Protection Act – “To amend title 35, United States Code, to restore patent rights to inventors, and for other purposes.” It was designed to restore patent protection for inventors by reversing a generation of laws and regulations.  (Sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-CA)

S.1390, Stronger Patents Act of 2017 – A bill to strengthen the position of the United States as the world’s leading innovator by amending title 35, United States Code, to protect the property rights of the inventors that grow the country’s economy. (Sponsored by Sen Chris Coons (D-DE)

H.R.6264 – Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act of 2018 – A bill “to promote the leadership of the United States in global innovation by establishing a robust patent system that restores and protects the right of inventors to own and enforce private property rights in inventions and discoveries, and for other purposes.” (Sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)

H.R 5478 is a simple bill that would protect inventor’s rights. The main provisions of H.R. 5478 are:

“SEC. 3. Inventor protections.

(a) Inventor-Owned patent. —Section 100 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(k) The term ‘inventor-owned patent’ means a patent with respect to which the inventor of the invention claimed by the patent or an entity controlled by that inventor—

(1) is the patentee; and

(2) holds all ‘substantial rights.’

(b) Inventor-Owned patent protections.—Chapter 32 of title 35, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

§ 330. Inventor protections

(a) Protection from post issuance proceedings in the united states patent and trademark office. —The United States Patent and Trademark Office shall not undertake a proceeding to reexamine, review, or otherwise make a determination about the validity of an inventor-owned patent without the consent of the patentee.

(b) Choice of venue. —Any civil action for infringement of an inventor-owned patent or any action for a declaratory judgment that an inventor-owned patent is invalid or not infringed may be brought in a judicial district—”

As the findings cited in the Act state, “Inventors have contributed significantly to innovation in the United States and their continued dedication to inventing and sharing solutions to modern technical challenges is essential for the United States to maintain leadership in the global economy.” It is crucial for inventors to be able to have some assurance that the rights to their patents will be reviewed in a consistent manner, so that they will be able to secure investors and get their product into the marketplace.

Josh Malone, volunteer advocate and inventor of top selling Bunch O Balloons emailed me, “Our patent system was intended to incentivize individual inventors but has recently been captured by trillion-dollar corporations. Small businesses have virtually no chance when it costs tens of millions of dollars and takes a decade or more to bring an invention thief to justice. Inventors need to make their voices heard by contacting their Senators and Representatives to tell them to repair our innovation system by passing the Inventor Rights Act.”

In order to ensure that H.R. 5478 gets out of committee review and is voted upon by Congress, more co-sponsors are needed. Please urge your Congressional Representative to co-sponsor H.R. 5478, which would restore patent protection for inventors and mitigate the laws, regulations, and court decisions that have discouraged innovation by failing to secure to inventors the exclusive rights to their discoveries.

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FAME Develops World Class Manufacturing Technical Talent

Tuesday, February 4th, 2020

Over the past several years, I’ve written nearly 30 articles about programs that address the shortage of skilled manufacturing workers. Last Friday, I had the pleasure of being connected by a friend to interview Dennis Dio Parker, who heads up the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME). The purpose of FAME “is to be the driving force for developing global-best technical talent for manufacturing and other employers of technical workers.  FAME strives to be a powerful conduit between industry and education.”

Dennis told me that according to the 2018 Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute Skills Gap and Future of Work study. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming the world of work through artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, automation, analytics, and the Internet of Things. Despite common fears, these technologies are likely to create more jobs than they replace—as illustrated by the tight labor conditions in the US and global manufacturing industry.”

While there was a shortage of about 500,000 unfilled jobs in 2018 due to the skills gap of manufacturing workers, the “study reveals that the skills gap may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028, with a potential economic impact of 2.5 trillion.” The reason why 2028 is a watershed year for the age of workers is because the last of the Baby Boom generation (1946-1964) and the first of Generation X (1961-1981) would be starting to retire.

Dennis explained that the FAME Advanced Manufacturing Technician Program was an outgrowth of training that Toyota Motor North America provided for employees when they built their new manufacturing plant for vehicles in Georgetown, KY in 1987.  Dennis was one of the first 13 trainers hired to start the training in 1987 and he is the last one still working of the original 13 as he transitions to support transfer of the program after The Manufacturing Institute and Toyota Motor North America announced a partnership to hand-over operation and stewardship of FAME in September 2019.

Dennis added, “Toyota had the advantage of having a culture of continuous improvement, and we continually improve the program. The original vision was to have the training program set up at eight locations where Toyota has a manufacturing presence in North America. We wanted to have other manufacturers as partners in these regions to create a pool of skilled workers for all.  Part of our goal was to help solve the problem of the lack of skilled workers, but the problem is too big and endemic for one program to solve.  There are a lot of good programs, but FAME is different from the others in the way it is structured. This is an employer-led program, not an education-led program.”

When I asked how the training expanded out of Toyota, he said, “In 2005, Ernie Richardson and I made a proposal to Keith Bird, Kentucky Community Technical College Chancellor and Jim Kerley, BCTC President to build a new community college in Georgetown to introduce a new education program. The new campus design was established at NAPSC in 2006 and began operation with the first students in 2007.

With the campus in place, we completed development of the Advanced Manufacturing Technician program establishing an employer group to participate in it. I contacted Ken Carroll, then V. P. of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, and worked with him to develop an employer collaborative to support the AMT program. We held the first discussions with other companies in 2008 – 2009, and by October we had formed an organization and elected officers. The first name was the Bluegrass Manufacturing Development Collaboration. (B-MDC)”

He explained why the program stalled, saying, “The Great Recession hit full force in 2009, and we decided to be inactive until business conditions improved. However, Toyota began the first AMT training class in August 2010 at the new campus. By 2011, business conditions had improved to the point that Ken and I decided that it was time to restart the B-MDC. On September 29, 2011, the group met again. We had invited a number of special guests to help relaunch the effort, including Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute; Wil James, president of Toyota’s Kentucky plant; Dr. Vince Bertram, national president of Project Lead the Way; and Dr. Stanley Chase, a national expert on educational collaboration with business and industry. Since that meeting, the employers group supporting the AMT Program has been in continuous operation.”

Continuing, he said, “Other companies sponsored their first students in the AMT Program with the class of 2012 when 3M, Central Motor Wheel Manufacturing, and GR Spring added their students. In March of 2013 the re-born B-MDC elected new officers, installing Terry McMichael of 3M as President and Danette Wilder of SealingLife as Vice President.”

When I asked how the name was changed to FAME, he said, “The West Virginia Toyota plant started the AMT Program with their college and in close partnership with the West Virginia Manufacturers Association (WVMA). When West Virginia governor announced the start of the AMT Program, he also announced “WV FAME” as the name for the future group of manufacturers which would support AMT in West Virginia.  The “FAME” name was immediately recognized as a powerful promotional identifier for the whole Advanced Manufacturing Career Pathways effort, and with permission of the WVMA, we adopted FAME as the name for North American use, and the B-MDC voted to change the name of the group to KY FAME.”

He added, “On January 14, 2014, Governor Steve Beshear announced the formal incorporation of KY FAME as a state-wide organization with a state board of directors to guide it and direct support of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The Kentucky Community and Technical College System adopted AMT as a state-wide degree track, available anywhere that a local FAME chapter formed. a KY FAME chapter.

Dennis expressed that the results of the training were so compelling that the FAME sites became a destination for educators and educational researchers, business and industry, and news organizations. The AMT programs in Kentucky began contributing to research and study efforts, and had over 1000 visitors from across the U.S. and six foreign nations.  It was judged by many national educators and workforce leaders to be the best 2-year technical program in the U.S.  

He said, “The results of the program and the publicity fueled the growth beyond what Toyota ever expected. It became more than what Toyota could effectively support.  Toyota wanted to maintain what they had, but wanted to establish it on a long-term basis. This is what led to the program being transitioned to management by The Manufacturing Institute. In order to help make this transition successful, I am now on assignment by Toyota for the next few years to manage the transition.”

Dennis explained, “There are currently 403 participating companies at 34 community college campuses and four universities in 13 states, and the numbers are growing every year. The reason for the success is that the employer, not the student, is the number one customer and the profoundly higher outcomes of FAME AMT graduates compared to traditional graduates.  The program incorporates the six professional behaviors, the seven essential behaviors, and the five professional practices, all soft skills, in addition to the manufacturing core exercises that are based on five Lean manufacturing practices.  As a result, the program provides globally competitive technicians that support the success of U. S. manufacturing. The program is a core pipeline for students to continue to Advanced Manufacturing Business and Advanced Manufacturing Engineer degrees. In the AMT program, students go to school three days a week, and work for their sponsoring manufacturer two days a week.  The students are paid for their work, and the student makes enough to pay their tuition, so they can graduate without any student debt.”

He elaborated on future strategies by saying, “We want to proactively change the equation for technical career pathways.  We have been partnering with Project Lead the Way (PLTW) to engage PreK-12 students in the career pathway because they have a comprehensive, seamless, and coordinated PreK -12 program nationwide.  Toyota and others are already providing plant tours to high school students in PLTW programs.  Currently, the PLTW national office supports FAME with development or material and other engagement activities and FAME supports the PLTW national office with PR and involvement with activities on a regional basis.

We also partner with the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) because they focus on encouraging young woman and minorities to choose STEM careers.  Their “Make the Future” program, developed at our request, is connecting girls to manufacturing.”

I told him this topic is dear to my heart as I have been a woman in manufacturing since starting as an engineering secretary at age 18. I concluded the interview by saying it was a pleasure to learn about FAME and hope that it will expand westward in the future all the way to California where I live.

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