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大学联盟计划建立一个全国汽车制造卓越中心。汽车制造业已经从依赖装配线工人，转变为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为汽车制造业吸引和培养高技能、多方面的技术人员的能力和能力，该行业约80%的技术人员位于该联盟的地理区域。规划活动是根据所涉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的组织，以利用基于互联网的技术和媒体实现这一愿景，以促进交流。主要会议和区域讲习班被用来从所有支持者那里获得劳动力需求的说明，并确定他们的承诺程度。一个以行业为基础的咨询委员会指导发展，并向专门从事汽车制造行业的研究和咨询集团寻求信息。

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.