PR2011 Oct 23

Sunday

The Tuscaloosa News

Oct 23, 2011 at 12:01 AM

Building a Workforce

by Wayne Grayson

Alabama has only recently emerged as a leader in the automotive industry. Along with the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama is home to two other auto assembly plants, a Honda plant in Lincoln and a Hyundai plant near Montgomery. And many Alabamians work at the Toyota engine plant in Huntsville, the Kia assembly plant near the Alabama state line in West Point, Ga., and numerous automotive suppliers.

Alabama has only recently emerged as a leader in the automotive industry. Along with the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama is home to two other auto assembly plants, a Honda plant in Lincoln and a Hyundai plant near Montgomery. And many Alabamians work at the Toyota engine plant in Huntsville, the Kia assembly plant near the Alabama state line in West Point, Ga., and numerous automotive suppliers.

Now, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Vance and Shelton State Community College are trying to ensure the state will continue to be an automotive leader in the future.

The two are partnering to offer a new program that combines classroom instruction at the Shelton State campus and on-the-job training at the Mercedes plant.

More importantly, students who excel in the program will be guaranteed a job at Mercedes.

"Our goal is to not only get students more interested in the automotive industry, but really to raise their interest in all technical jobs," said Phil Johnston, vice president of engineering for MBUSI.

The Mercedes-Benz industrial mechatronics program combines mechanics, electronics and computer science training in the manufacturing of modern automobiles, MBUSI President and CEO Markus Schaefer said in a news release.

"With customers wanting more features in their vehicles, there's no end in sight to the cutting edge technology and increasing vehicle complexity we expect in the future," he said.

Johnston added, "The issue for us is that the technology in our products and in our processes is moving at a rate that is unprecedented. We're having to engineer our work force while we engineer our facilities."

Johnston said the mechatronics program will be a great help once the Mercedes plant begins production of the C-Class sedan in 2014. The facility announced Thursday that it would begin producing a completely new model vehicle starting in 2015.

"This program is a building block to a major goal," he said. "How we will build cars in 2014 with the C-Class will be completely different than how we have built cars in our entire lives up to this point."

The concept for the Shelton State program originated in the fall of 2010 and is modeled after the mechatronics program that has been used for the past 12 years with great success by the German automotive industry, said Joaquim Santos, a Mercedes-Benz training master.

MBUSI and Shelton State began planning for the program near the end of May. Around that time, Santos and fellow program trainer Martin Kuehnel moved their families to the U.S. They are tasked for the next three years with building the program.

Shelton State began taking applications for the program at the beginning of October. The deadline to apply is Friday.

Jason Moore, Shelton State's associate dean for business and industry training, said preparation for the new program has been hectic, but that the partnership has been extremely rewarding.

"This has all moved at such a fast pace and we had to get these courses aligned correctly, we had to bring in quite a bit of additional equipment and find more space to hold these classes in," Moore said.

"And probably the biggest challenge we've faced is finding quality instructors for the program. The people who have these skill sets are usually already in the industry and making a very nice living."

Prospective students must first apply and be accepted to Shelton State before applying to the mechatronics program.

The inaugural term for the new program will begin in January. However, in the future the program will accept students only in the fall, beginning in fall 2012.

Students will take seven terms of instruction at Shelton State that will include courses on electronics, welding and metal cutting, robotic programming, hydraulics and pneumatics and more.

Mechatronics students will attend classes at Shelton State Monday through Thursday. On each Friday, they will work at the Mercedes plant. Students will be paid for their work at the plant while enrolled in the program, and the students' work assignments at MBUSI will reinforce the skills learned in the classroom.

"It's very important that we have a relationship with the students," Santos said. "They are in our program. So they should personally know us, our plant and the technology and equipment we use."

And there is plenty of incentive to excel in the program. Students who hold a grade-point average of at least 3.0 while enrolled will receive assistance from MBUSI with tuition, fees and books. In terms two and three, MBUSI offers 50 percent of those costs. But in terms 4-7, that offer increases to 75 percent.

After they complete the mechatronics program, the top 75 percent of each class will be offered a full-time job in production at the Mercedes plant. Johnston said these students will work in the plant's paint and body shop.

"The paint and body shop is one of our most automated shops in the plant," Johnston said. "Working there requires you to know how to work advanced equipment."

Johnston said these are financially strong and stable positions. Shelton State's dean of technical services Steve Fair agreed.

"This is an opportunity for the entire community," Fair said. "It will enhance the quality of life here in the long term."

Once coursework is completed, students will earn an associate degree in applied science-industrial electronics and receive a short certificate in industrial maintenance.

Some of these top students will get further opportunities for more technical certification in the Mercedes-Benz industrial mechatronics maintenance program, which will involve 18 months of extended training at MBUSI, according to the news release.

Shelton State dean of students Tom Huebner said that the program coursework ensures that graduates will be equipped to adapt to the automotive industry's rapidly changing landscape.

"If you just take a look at some of the titles of the courses, many of them are ‘Concepts of' and ‘Principles of,' " he said. "That means we're equipping them with the basic principles and concepts key to this profession. Mercedes can continue to train them with no problem as things change in the future."

For those on the fence about applying for the program, Huebner said the college is more flexible in this inaugural application process than it will be in the future. 

"Because this first term will take place in the spring, those prospective students are not going to be high school graduates. They're going to be folks who are already in the work force, who have work experience, or those who are currently in school pursing another degree," he said.

"But those folks shouldn't think that their experience won't apply here. Some classes they've taken will transfer and if they've got work experience they will have a leg up in this program."

"So we want these folks to apply. Give it a try. You can't know if you have what it takes if you don't try."