Puget Sound First Articles

CENTER FOR MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

The CME was established at Shoreline Community College in 2003, one of a dozen centers of excellence in various career fields established around the state with funding from the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. Since then the Center has also received additional funding from the U.S. Department of Education to continue and expand its work.

The Center’s purpose is to promote manufacturing in the state by raising awareness of manufacturing careers and training opportunities, and to assist community and technical colleges in designing manufacturing training programs that meet industry’s evolving needs. The Center has actively sought to accomplish these goals in a variety of ways, including:

* Building on the work of the Manufacturing Advisory Technology Group (MTAG), and other state organizations to define basic manufacturing skills and abilities required for entry level manufacturing employment;
* Designing a one-quarter Certificate in Basic Manufacturing which is currently offered by Shoreline Community College, and generating interest from other schools;
* Producing a Manufacturing Careers brochure which has been widely distributed around the State and adopted for use in other areas;
* Partnering with The Association of Washington Businesses and Washington Manufacturing Services to bring the National Association of Manufacturers’ Dream It! Do It! campaign to the State.
* Participating regularly in job fairs, conferences, and other manufacturing meetings around Washington and the Northwest Region;
* Directly supporting other manufacturing associations such as the Spokane Advanced Manufacturing Consortium and the Washington State Food Processors.

In addition to continuing engagement in these activities, the Center currently is taking a lead role in three important statewide initiatives concerning manufacturing training: 1) alignment of manufacturing training programs to enhance student career planning and facilitate articulation of credits between schools, 2) the establishment of an advanced certificate in machine technology, offered by various schools, and readily recognized and understood by employers throughout the state, and 3) formation of a statewide manufacturing training advisory committee.
Manufacturing Skill Panel

At its inception, with support from the Washington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, the CME assembled a manufacturing Skill Panel. The panel is an industry-driven consortium of private and public organizations that oversees the Center’s activities and provides direction for its work. Panel members also serve on CME working committees. In the past, these have included curriculum, certificate, articulation, and marketing committees.

The CME Skill Panel currently consists of representatives of 26 manufacturing companies and related groups, 4 government and labor organizations, and 11 educational institutions.

Together the CME and Skill Panel members mobilize Washington’s manufacturers- horizontally across industry sectors and vertically through industry associations. The State’s top manufacturing employers contribute to the CME’s success by offering workforce development expertise, marketing acumen, in-kind donations, sponsoring activities, and advocating for crucial changes in public policy to support a broader base for economic growth. In return, these companies profit from the exchange of market and workforce information with industry peers, and direct access to leaders in manufacturing workforce training institutions and organizations.

Center for Manufacturing Excellence at Shoreline Community College.

The Puget Sound Chapter NTMA was in attendance at a Field Hearing of the United States Senate Subcomittee on Employment and Workplace Safety held November 28th at the Olympic Hall of South Seattle Community College. Chaired by Washington State Senator Patty Murray, the hearing testimony from the distinguished panel of industry and education experts was delivered to a standing room only crowd gathered to hear about the role to be played by the Federal Government in workforce development and education.

The subject heading under which the assembled experts presented their testimony was “Making the Connection: Creating Pathways to Career Success for the Next Generation of Workerson”. Many of the panel testified to themes well known to anyone in our industry: that there are significant and growing shortages of the skilled people needed across a wide range of technical occupations, that resources available to schools and colleges have not kept pace with this need, and that the good news about manufacturing being alive and well in the state, in fact that is has grown significantly in the last 5 years is not getting out to the young, the unemployed, and the underemployed people of the state who would benefit from this demand for workers.

The written testimony presented at this first of several planned hearings is here.

Hosted by the Manufacturing Technology Program at Lake Washington Technical College in Kirkland, this Open House event is designed to allow employers seeking to address the lack of skilled employees in engineering and manufacturing occupations to meet and gather information from industry and education professionals involved with workforce development over light refreshments from 4-7 pm on Thursday, November 8.

Bring your business cards and your training needs at the high school, college, and vocational level. This is your opportunity to voice your concerns, hear about training initiatives, and gather contacts in a meet-and-greet format.

We know you’re busy, so come when you can, network with representatives of programs that make sense for your organization, and leave with ideas for improving your current staff as well as developing your future workforce.

This event is co-sponsored by the Puget Sound Chapter and the Center for Manufacturing Excellence at Shoreline Community College.

Download the Open House flyer here.

RSVP to Norah Peters at npeters2@shoreline.edu

March 20, 2007 International Export Symposium, Noon – 5 p.m. Get information on possible business opportunities in Canana, including the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Meet with Washington State trade representatives, and representatives of other rade services available in the Puget Sound region. Followed at 5:30 p.m. with a reception with Governor Gregoire and the Trader of the Year awards. For information, visit www.seattletradealliance.com

May 16-17, 2007 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR

For more information on our closest regional show, which will be presented together with the Facilities Expo, please visit www.machinetoolexpos.com.

Due to a comment-spammer, Wordpress bug, or hacker (take your pick), The Chapter web site was bumped off the air for a while. We were reset back to a vanilla site, which was annoying to say the least. Rather than reload the few posts from last year, I will be working to keep things up to date going forward. Feel free to drop me an email at sean at t2k dot net.