READI for: Ivy Tech’s Industry 4.0 Training Lab
New smart manufacturing pathway will attract students and jobs to Kokomo area
Industry 4.0 is a revolution in manufacturing on a scale comparable to the introduction of robotics to production lines in the 1970s and 1980s. It will be transformative, and Kokomo will sit at the epicenter of it all, thanks to Ivy Tech Community College.
The college just launched its first classes in the pathway to an Associate of Applied Science in Smart Manufacturing and Digital Integration degree. The students in this program should have no trouble finding a lucrative job in their chosen field at the conclusion of their two-year educational journey.
“We will see an increasing need within the community for this degree outcome,” said Ethan Heicher, interim chancellor for Ivy Tech’s Kokomo campus. “Right down the street, Borg Warner will be able to hire you today for positions that exist. There are positions at Stellantis that connect to line efficiency and preventative maintenance that connect to this degree pathway right now.
“We see an increasing number of positions opening up in all of our manufacturing spaces connected to this. It really is about a new type of technology coming into the manufacturing space. We just need to make sure our students are skilled to do that work.”
The space for an Industry 4.0 Training Lab is ready. All that is needed is funding from the READI grant.
Ivy Tech Industry 4.0 Training Lab
Project estimate: $2 million
Local investment: $1 million
READI request: $1 million
The Industry 4.0 Training Lab will introduce students to a new skilled trades field, which integrates traditional maintenance and the engineering of a production line. Heicher explained that graduates will be able to manage the production line and spot-check for faults that occur. They will know how to maintain the component parts of the line.
“Students will learn to manage the system,” said Heicher. “This will be a skilled trades area that falls between engineering and normal maintenance. We see that as a big need in industry right now, as engineers are being pulled into maintenance and management of systems where they weren’t in years past.
“We know that technology in advanced manufacturing is changing. You can go right down the road to Borg Warner and see Industry 4.0 technology. It is about managing the information and data associated with advanced manufacturing, improving efficiency, and making sure quality control is there in a very pointed way.”
The importance of this Industry 4.0 Training Lab is enormous. The skills it will instill in workers will make them invaluable. They can save a manufacturer millions of dollars and even its product reputation. Heicher offered as an example an automotive recall. In years past, a recall for a bad part or production flaw would involve tens of thousands of vehicles, costing the company dearly in dollars and public opinion.
“Now you can trace back problems and inefficiencies to a single group,” said Heicher. “You can see where the problems begin and end in production. And the recall number – if you even want to call it a recall anymore – is much, much fewer.”
Kokomo will benefit greatly from the existence of the training lab. Not only will Ivy Tech be able to train people in a new and vital advanced manufacturing field, it will attract people and businesses to the area.
“There are other Ivy Tech service areas that will offer smart manufacturing pathways, but a large-scale training cell like ours is hard to find,” said Heicher. “We hope to draw interest from students well beyond the local level. We hope this will bring people and new businesses to our community. They will know there will be a trained employee base here. This is about job attraction as much as it is about talent development.”
The closest large-scale training lab of this type is located in Detroit, and that lab serves as the blueprint for Ivy Tech’s iteration. Outside of those two labs, there are very few opportunities for this type of training in existence. But it will take funding to make this dream a reality.
Already, the City of Kokomo provided American Recovery Plan (ARP) funding to Ivy Tech to jump-start the training lab. Heicher said that funding allowed the college to create its first scaled-down training cell, which occupies a 30’x30’ footprint. That was enough to soft launch the degree program this spring. READI grant funding will bring the college’s offering to fruition.
“The READI grant will be used for the purchase of equipment that connects to a training cell,” said Heicher. “We have purchased equipment that will serve students in the first year of the two-year program pathway. They have a complete system with autonomous robots that move around. It meets all of the program needs, but it does not reflect in a small cell what is really happening in advanced manufacturing spaces.
“Having this training cell will bring full-scale robots, additive manufacturing units such as metal 3D printers, augmented reality, and cybersecurity in the manufacturing space. It will give future employees and current employees seeking to be up-skilled the opportunity to get a sense of what it is really like.”