2010-11 Advertorial

The “Made in Florida” manufacturing advertorials in Florida Trend’s NEXT magazine have been an effective vehicle in reaching thousands of high school students throughout Florida. The advertorials promote positive awareness of manufacturing careers and education, and serve as an educational roadmap for students interested in manufacturing as a viable and lucrative career pathway. Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE and a strong voice for manufacturers throughout Florida, says painting a positive picture is only one piece of the awareness and recruitment puzzle. Barger believes parents and the entire community must be made aware of the challenging, state-of-the-art, high-wage, high-skill careers that the manufacturing industry provides.

To assist in this double-edged effort, FLATE partnered with the Manufacturers Association of Florida to expand the “Made in Florida” brand into a coordinated statewide awareness campaign. The initiative encompasses the Made in Florida DVD and online video, live and virtual industry tours, career pathways, Facebook and YouTube content, student interviews, and web-based resources on the Made in Florida webpage at www.madeinflorida.org.

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2011 marks the sixth year FLATE has placed content in NEXT, the career guidance edition of Florida Trend. Since publication of the first manufacturing advertorial in 2006, FLATE has collected data indicating a significant increase in the number of schools that have received lists of potential enrollees from FLATE. Between 2009-10, 60% of the responders filled out the paper reader response cards while 1,132 responders (40%) requested information online via the NEXT website at www.FloridaNEXT.com. Over half of both male and female high school students responding to this same edition of the advertorial requested community/state college information in addition to career materials. Demographic results also suggest a significant interest by female high school students; 72% of female responders expressed an interest in careers and education in advanced manufacturing. Forty five colleges and technical schools in Florida currently receive monthly lists of prospective student leads in their service areas for follow up. (You can view current and past advertorials at www.fl-ate.org/projects/fl-trend.html.)


Who among us can deny a lab-on-wheels is a neat idea? It’s a breakthrough concept that has fired up the curiosity of many students pursuing an engineering technology (ET) degree at Florida Gateway College (FGC) in Lake City, FL. The mobile ET lab, the brainchild of Bob Deckon, director of the ET program at FCG, is a state-of-the-art facility that offers hands-on, minds-on education and training, and is probably the first of its kind in the state, or perhaps even the country.

This lab on wheels is housed within a 52 ft. triple axel trailer, and holds eight Hampden Technical Training Systems, two Nida model 130 electronic training consoles with individual circuit boards, has two fluid power trainers (hydraulic on one side and pneumatic on the other), a four loop instrumentation & process control trainer, a three-loop instrumentation and process control trainer, and two PLC trainers. Deckon points to these technical training systems as educational tools that enable students to “transition from traditional printed classroom material to a dynamic hands-on approach to ‘involvement’ training.” The trainers are specifically tailored to every level of complexity, and reinforce classroom learning through a series of hands-on projects that permit students to isolate a particular component and/or system and focus on its operation and usage.

Use of NIDA trainers in the introduction to electronics course has yielded tremendous success. Looking to the future, the program is looking to incorporate use of process control trainer into the manufacturing materials and processes, as well as mechanical measurement and instrumentation courses, and expand the advanced manufacturing curriculum through use of other trainers in the motors and controls, hydraulics and pneumatics, PLC’s and process controls courses. Its aptitude for flexible onsite training has also extended its services to a wide audience. Since September 2009, Deckon has hosted tours for seven high schools in Columbia and Gilchrist counties, with plans to take the mobile lab and use the hydraulics and pneumatics trainers to supplement the ag-mechanics classroom instruction at Fort White High School. Several tours and demos of the lab have also been conducted for local college students, faculty/instructors, members of the local ET advisory committee, College Board of Trustees, as well as local companies and technical schools.

For information on FCG’s mobile engineering technology lab contact Bob Deckon at robert.deckon@fgc.edu/386.754.4442, or visit www.engineeringtechprogram.com/MobileLab. For information FLATE’s statewide engineering technology degree contact Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org/813.259.6578.

As mentioned last month, the Manufacturers Association of Florida announced the 2010 Manufacturers of the Year at their annual November meeting in Orlando. Each company was rated on nine various business parameters, an onsite tour and interview by a panel of 26 judges. Following are the winners in the larger employee categories.

Danfoss Turbocor Compressors, Inc., Tallahassee (126-400 Employees Category)

Turbocor Compressors started in Australia, moved to Montreal and finally relocated its headquarters and manufacturing facilities to Tallahassee in 2007 as a joint venture and became Danfoss Turbocor Compressors. This ISO 9001:2000 certified plant of 176 employees, produces the world’s first highly energy efficient refrigeration compressor utilizing magnetic bearings and variable frequency motor controls.

Using a combination of aerospace, magnetic bearing, and digital electronic technologies, its compressors are used in air- and water-cooled chillers and rooftop units. These oil free compressors are roughly 33% more energy efficient than conventional units and are used worldwide in the commercial heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industry. With its breakthrough combination of patented technologies largely sourced from the aerospace industry, Turbocor’s employees promise new horizons in energy efficiency and lifetime operating costs for mid-range chiller and rooftop HVACR applications.

Swisher International, Inc., Jacksonville (Over 400 Employees Category)

Swisher International, Inc. began in 1861 when David Swisher received the business through a debt settlement and by 1924, he was operating in Jacksonville. The plants here produced the first individually wrapped cigar in cellophane along with a simple device for removing the cellophane by pulling on the cigar band. Swisher’s King Edward brand became the world’s number one selling cigar in the 1940’s and by 1965, the Swisher Sweet brand was being shipped to all 50 states and 70 countries around the world.

Throughout the years, Swisher continued to prosper through the continuous upgrading of machinery and the constant pursuit of Continuous Improvement techniques in both Product Quality and Productivity processes. In 2004, Swisher adopted the Lean and Green Principles as its journey which encompasses all the past and current manufacturing principles/techniques under one umbrella.

Since Swisher is a private, family owned operation which allows for great flexibility and can react quickly to marketplace opportunities and developing trends. This, along with constant improvements, has made it a formidable force in the tobacco business now and in the future.

For more information visit www.mafmfg.com

A “We-Make-it-All” product development technician is operating a fixed volume closed container batch reactor to make a test batch of miracle lotion “C”. A known mass of starter material, “A”, is put into the reactor and just heated so the “A” molecules rearrange their chemical bonds to form “B” molecules which then rearrange again to make the desired lotion molecules, the “C” molecules. After reviewing the data shown below the tech thinks there is something wrong.

There is nothing wrong with this reactor system. (yes or no). Please submit your answers at https://www.fl-ate.org/

The STEM Virtual Enterprise is an in-class pedagogical simulation that has students assume the roles of members of a high-tech enterprise and operate that business in face-to-face teams. It delivers technical, soft and business skills as part of an entrepreneurial experience comprised of a series of active-learning modules, online tools and student events. Faculty implementers have embedded it within existing IT, BioTechnology and Electronics courses. It has also been used as a standalone offering for STEM majors. The power of STEM-VE is its organized national and international network of student businesses, motivating students to produce high-quality projects and connecting classrooms across the STEM spectrum.

This seminar will discuss Virtual Enterprise and provide time and resources for integrating the pedagogy into your STEM classroom. Limited travel stipends are available to qualified STEM faculty members.

For more information please click on the flyer, or contact Edgar E. Troudt, lecturer and director of the Center for Economic and Workforce Development at the CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise at 718.368.6598/Edgar.Troudt@kbcc.cuny.edu

Contributed by FLATE Focus subscriber at the CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise



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FLATE’s Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting in January included a brainstorming session to map ideas for strategic directions for an additional round of funding from NSF. FLATE has been invited by NSF to submit a proposal for an additional three years of funding that begins in 2012, with a short preliminary proposal due by mid April 2011. The IAC broke into four groups which included a group for remote online participants, each focused on one of the three major FLATE goal areas of curriculum, outreach, and professional development. On February 3, FLATE’s National Visiting Committee (NVC) participated in the same activity during their annual face-to-face meeting, held at Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. The NVC also divided into four groups, three for those attending the meeting in person, and one remote online group.

We are grateful for the ideas provided in the brainstorming sessions; all ideas contributed will require additional research and will be considered as the FLATE leadership team develops its new proposal. If you have additional ideas, please add them in the comment box below, or email myself (barger@fl-ate.org), Brad Jenkins (jenkinsb@spcollege.edu), or Richard Gilbert (gilbert@eng.usf.edu).

While you’re reading this edition of the FOCUS, please check out FLATE’s newly updated wiki at www.flate.pbwiki.com which includes our current offering of courses in alternative/renewable Energy, check out our new manufacturing student profiles on FLATE’s, reimagined Made in Florida website at www.madeinflorida.org, find out what’s happening in Florida’s ongoing manufacturing-related certification analysis, and join us in a heartfelt “welcome back” from maternity leave to our newsletter editor and communications specialist, Janice Mukhia, and a “welcome to the world” to her new baby boy.

Industry certifications ensure relevance in academic curriculum, and facilitate creation of “high-tech, high-skilled” employees. In Florida the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) ACT of 2007 provides a statewide planning partnership between business and education communities to expand and retain high-value industry critical to sustaining a vibrant state economy.

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FLATE recognizes the importance of industry certifications and its value to manufacturing employers, and has played a leading role in ensuring high school career and technical programs align with relevant industry certifications. In September 2009, FLATE identified 96 certifications on the current approved list of industry certifications compiled by Workforce Florida Incorporated (WFI). FLATE developed a survey tool and the list was reviewed by the Center’s Industrial Advisory Committee, four engineering technology college program advisory boards (St. Petersburg College, State College of Florida, Brevard Community College and College of Central Florida) and two Banner Center for Manufacturing focus groups held in Jacksonville and Sarasota, FL between September 2009 and September 2010 for a total of 52 respondents. Ranking the 96 listed certifications by frequency resulted in 19 certifications obtaining 20 or more affirmative votes.

FLATE also partnered with WFI and its Banner Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Manufacturer’s Association of Florida’s Workforce and Education Committee to engage industry earlier in the process as WFI releases new proposed certificates each fall. Through the Rapid Response Committee, FLATE sought feedback from manufacturers and related industries on the newly proposed certificates prior to final approval by WFI. This process was recently completed for the 2011-2012 Approved Certification List, and submitted to WFI by the Banner Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

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Eight major manufacturers (Armament, Marine, Chemical Processing and Mining, Medical Device Mfg, Metal Stamping, Food/Drink Production) and 2 regional manufacturing associations responded to this survey. Thirty five of the newly proposed certifications were endorsed, 17 of which were endorsed by a single respondent. None were rejected, most received a neutral or no comment response.

To view a more comprehensive report of both surveys visit: www.fl-ate.org/committees/IAC.html, or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger at 813.259.6578/barger@fl-ate.org