Florida Colleges Participate in the Make More Summit to Focus on the Future of Florida’s Manufacturing



The second annual MAKE MORE Manufacturing Summit was a leadership-focused meeting designed around connecting ecosystem stakeholders with the needs and realities of industry leaders from the manufacturing sector. The Summit is produced by FloridaMakes, the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP) in Florida. Well over 200 stakeholders and attendees participated in the event in Orlando the last week of May. The Summit agenda included dynamic keynote speakers, TED-style talks coupled with panel discussions that laid the foundation for Florida’s manufacturing stakeholders, public and private, begin to leverage their collective assets and capabilities. Ted talks and panel sessions focused on workforce, business climate, and emerging technologies. The goal of the annual event is to strengthen the industry collectively for a more competitive manufacturing sector.
FLATE together with five of its community college partners attended the MakeMore Summit.  Sam Ajlani from the College of Central Florida, Lara Sharp from St. Pete College, Dante Leon from Daytona State College, Erik Christensen from South Florida College and Rick Frazier formerly from Tallahassee Community College attended to learn more about the state of manufacturing in Florida and, especially to learn more about statewide current and future workforce needs. “Most manufacturers just don’t know what great 2-year technical programs we have in Florida that support manufacturers.  Not only do we have state-of-the-art labs, but we also have subject matter experts teaching every course in every program. We offer flexible delivery, hybrid (in class and online), and 100% online courses. However, all manufacturing courses do have a hands-on component, but most are offered at flexible times. Not only do the programs offer strong technical skills, but students enrolled also learn important workplace skills. And, the colleges provide many important wrap-around services for students to help with transportation, child care, scholarships, and advising. Finally, the colleges all have strong articulated pathways to 4-year engineering technology and management bachelor’s degrees for graduates from their programs for continued upward career mobility. All these industry representatives should contact FLATE to get connected to their local community or state college Engineering Technology program if they are not already working with them.”

Sam Ajlani was interested in the emerging technologies which generated discussions about what new core and fundamental skills we would need to integrate into our engineering technology and manufacturing degree programs.  “Technology is changing so fast and is relatively cheap that the ROI for implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies can be fast realized. But companies must be up to speed, invest in not only the technology and expertise to implement but also in training and educating its workforce to get the maximum return on investment.”  Again, this is an issue right at the sweet spot of the 2-year technical manufacturing programs.”

Dr. Marilyn Barger, Executive Director of FLATE gave one of the TED talks in the Talent Development session. Its vitally important the manufacturers learn more about their state, community and technical college programs. The college house great state-of-the-art laboratories for advanced manufacturing that the taxpayers of Florida have paid for!  She urged all attendees to get to know their local college programs and program managers who can help each manufacturer meet talent needs. She also urged everyone to help change the perception of manufacturing.  Our communities need to know that manufacturing careers and jobs are high skill, high wage and now provide work on the cutting edge of technology.

Kevin Carr, CEO of FloridaMakes, is singularly focused on improving the productivity of Florida’s small and medium manufacturers. He was excited to share an improvement in Florida’s manufacturing productivity and urged the attendees to keep focused on improvements that could continue the upward trend.  This leading indicator of the industry’s “health” reflects the strength of the business climate, talent development, and new technology integration.

The event showcase provided a place for networking and for visiting the finalists of the annual Small and Medium Business Excellence annual awards. Thirty-three Florida companies were named as finalists after a rigorous Sterling review and comprehensive site visit for this year’s Florida Sterling Manufacturing Business Excellence Awards. The awards, recognizing high performing manufacturers in six categories, are announced and presented at this prestigious statewide formal event.  You can learn more about the SMBE awards at the FloridaMakes website and learn about this year’s winners!

You can learn more about the 2-year Engineering Technology degree that supports manufacturing by contacting Dr. Marilyn Barger (barger@fl-ate.org) or visiting the FLATE website.



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