Planning Grant for National Center of Excellence for Automotive Manufacturing

密歇根州、俄亥俄州、肯塔基州和田纳西州的一个社区学院联盟计划建立一个国家汽车制造卓越中心。 汽车制造业已经发生了巨大的变化，从依赖装配线工人到使用多个供应商和基于计算机的技术的分散的“精益制造”模式。 该中心的目标是提高社区和技术学院的能力，以吸引和教育汽车制造业的高技能，多方面的技术人员，其中约80%居住在该联盟的地理区域。 规划活动是根据参与的学院和个人的经验和专业知识制定一个共同的愿景，并建立一个虚拟中心，利用基于互联网的技术和媒体来实现愿景，以促进沟通。 利用一次大型会议和区域讲习班，从所有赞助者那里获得关于劳动力需求的说明，并确定他们的承诺水平。 一个以行业为基础的咨询委员会指导开发，并从专门从事汽车制造业的研究和咨询团体那里寻求信息。

A consortium of community colleges in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee plan for a National Center of Excellence in Automotive Manufacturing. The automotive manufacturing sector has changed dramatically from reliance on assembly-line workers to a decentralized, "lean manufacturing" model using multiple suppliers and computer-based technologies. The goal of the Center is to improve the capacity and capability of community and technical colleges to attract and educate high skill, multifaceted technicians for the automotive manufacturing industry, about 80% of which resides in the geographic area of the consortium. The planning activities are to develop a common vision based upon the experience and expertise of colleges and individuals involved and an organization for a virtual center to implement the vision using Internet based techniques and media to facilitate communication. A major conference and regional workshops are used to obtain descriptions of workforce needs from all constituencies and determine their level of commitment. An industry-based advisory board guides the development and information is sought from research and consulting groups specializing in the automotive manufacturing industry.