Anthony Nix knew what he wanted to learn, so he recently combined an industrial mechanics major with an automated manufacturing minor at Spartanburg Community College.
The result is the type of skills that five Upstate technical colleges are now pushing with the creation of TechReadySC and a new mechatronics curriculum that will be uniform across the colleges.
Mechatronics is an effort to combine mechanics, electronics, electrical systems and control systems into the skills that one technician would possess and is part of the technical college system's mission to "build a more competitive work force in the Upstate," said Wendy Walden, Greenville Technical College spokeswoman.
But the program is designed to do more.
It also is an attempt to expose middle and high school students and make their parents aware of a highly skilled, well-paid career that still labors under the perception that it is a dirty, greasy job, said Cynthia Eason, vice president for corporate and economic development at Greenville Tech and chair of TechReadySC.
"Fewer young people are selecting manufacturing as a career" at the time that baby-boomer employees are getting close to retirement, she said. "Our mechatronics will develop the skills needed for 21st century manufacturing and help keep the area competitive globally."
Nix, who graduated early this month and now works at Spartanburg Steel keeping the plant robotics running, agreed the need for workers with mechatronics skills is big and is growing.
"In most plants, maintenance work is divided between mechanics and electricians," he said. "That's not feasible any more. Now, the need is for people who can do both. The more skills you have, the more valuable you are to the company."
He's not alone in that perspective.
Donald Ryerson, human resources manager at Capsugel, said his company fields mechanical, maintenance and electrical workers. While at the announcement of the new program Wednesday, he said, "What excited me is the possibility of combining skills. This program has the potential to pull all these people together."
He said Capsugel's technology -- and its need for multi-skilled workers -- is "changing at the speed of light," and the company would like to hire technicians with multiple skills.
"We have a mature process," he said, "but we are asked to do more in less time with fewer people" -- a feat that requires skilled employees keeping the machinery running.
Bobby Hitt, BMW Manufacturing Co.'s manager of public relations, agreed.
He told those attending the announcement that BMW's body shops are 90 percent to 95 percent automated. The Greer plant, which daily makes about 660 vehicles worth $30 million to $35 million retail, can't afford for machinery to go down.
Every hour that a machine is shut down, the plant loses $1 million, he said.
Machinery "has to work all the time," he said.
The job of keeping the machinery operating at top productivity is a "sophisticated job" garnering high wages up to $100,000 or more, he said. It's also a career open to women as well as men.
Marvin Tedder, automation training specialist at Spartanburg Community College, said beginning wages are in the $18 to $22 an hour range at most area companies, but wages can soar with experience and talent.
"Every manufacturer needs these technicians," he said, adding they are among the least likely to be affected by general layoffs.
In fact, these jobs are among the least boring and best paid in a plant, said Steven Davis, senior engineer and facilities services supervisor with Velux, a maker of skylight.
His company currently does all its training in house, he said.
"It's been kind of a disconnect," he said, because the company couldn't find employees with the needed skills. Their maintenance technicians need robotics, controls and electrical skills -- which costs the company about $2,000 in training. In fact, the Danish company has brought technicians from Europe to work on machinery when necessary.
The idea of the technical colleges bringing mechatronics short courses to plant sites is a good idea because it can be difficult for maintenance technicians to find the necessary time for training, said Lynn Smith, corporate training coordinator for Velux.
This type of multi-skilled maintenance technician is more evident in other countries, Ryerson said, adding that the United States is lagging the more high-tech countries by 10 years or so.
Needed work force skills are changing, and mechatronics is an attempt to address the different skills needed, Eason said. The Southeast is one of the nation's fastest growing regions, and manufacturing is at the center of that growth, she said.
Despite having an assembly line that is 90 to 95 percent automated, the BMW plant in Greer has one of the largest work forces in the Upstate.
In addition, manufacturing jobs are good jobs, said Dan Davidchik, mechatronics project coordinator at Central Community College in Nebraska. Wages are 20 percent higher than those in other sectors. Two-thirds of U.S. exports are manufactured products. Manufacturing carries out more than 60 percent of U.S. research and development.
"Manufacturing is the engine that drives the American economy," he said, adding that without changes in the skills employees have that a shortage of between 13 million and 15 million skilled workers will exist by 2020.
And all types of employers need those skills, said David Beard, vice president of AdvanceSC and Milliken and Co.'s director of energy services.
"As you ride up and down I-85 and you see a pre-fabricated building that says sheet metal or pipe fitting, those guys are just as high tech as the BMW, Michelin and Millikens, the big boys," he said.
With $2.5 million in grants from AdvanceSC, a philanthropic arm of Duke Energy, the mechatronics is designed to meet the needs of area employers. It has included not only the creation of the curriculum but professional development for faculty members. Several have been to Germany and more will study there this summer, Eason said.
Beard said the mechatronics courses would need to continually bring in new technology -- not just annually but every semester, even daily.
The program eventually could be expanded beyond the current five schools, which include Greenville Tech, Piedmont Technical College, Spartanburg Community College, Tri-County Technical College and York Technical College, to other interested technical colleges in the state.
