Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1313710
16 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2020 Johnson: With those numbers, you're not talk- ing just 12 months. For all 10 workers, you're talking about 10 years. Vanderford: Exactly. That's a long time. One of the big reasons for this is internal train- ing mechanisms. For many companies, train- ing isn't a primary part of what they do. As a manufacturing facility, they produce prod- ucts. Training is important to them but not as important as production. Many companies say, "Here are some videos to watch. Now, shadow this person for the next three months. Maybe we'll get an issue that shows up." At LCCC, we force those issues on them. We purposely put a little goblin in the room to mess up the equipment. We do the oppo- site thing that companies want to have happen to all of their equipment so that students gain timely troubleshooting skills. They have to set it right by the end of the day so that they can make boards, or they're not going to get points for their lab. It's this level of how we train peo- ple at the college that sets us apart from more traditional training programs. For example, we show them what the issue is and the dangers of having the pick-and-place machines down because one of the nozzles is jammed. We tell them, "Your stencil printer is sitting there and waiting because the machine is down. The stencil print inspection system before that is now waiting, too. We have to get the pick-and-place back up and running because the whole line is not producing. Every- thing down the line is waiting on you. It's up to you to fix this efficiently and effectively so that we can continue producing again." Some people say, "I'll get this done tomorrow," but when the machine is down, the yellow light is flashing, and nothing is producing, you have to fix it right then. We encourage the people we train to learn how to troubleshoot effec- tively and efficiently. The luxury of being a training institute is we can offer a way to not only show them the right way to do things but also the wrong way. Many people learn based on a limited amount of training experience, and they don't learn to do hand soldering effectively. While instructing on hand soldering and hot air rework, we don't have to worry about products being destroyed. In our case, they're built to be destroyed and burned so that the students can see what it looks like and how bad it is. Feinberg: It's too bad you're not enthusiastic about this (laughs). Vanderford: I love what I do. I love it when I see a student say, "I got the job." It's the best thing in the world because you know a company got a good employee and the student has a career and will get a quick return on the investment because the degree costs less than most uni- versities. Feinberg: The value of the industry just went up a little bit. Vanderford: Exactly. It's growing the manufac- turing community around us. Holden: How much academic theory or engi- neering methodology is included in the pro- gram? Vanderford: We get questions like that a lot, such as, "Why doesn't your degree have any calculus or advanced physics? Why do students learn how to do photolithography and chemi- cal etching on PCBs without having three or Lorain County Community College students gain practical skills in operating and troubleshooting machinery across the entire assembly process.