Order Reprints

By Nathan Peck | Knowledge
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dean Krager said Ferris State University is working to attract talented students to the Manufacturing Technology program. PHOTO: NATHAN PECK

BIG RAPIDS — Dean Krager faces a lot of the same problems as those of Michigan’s manufacturers: a lack of qualified candidates.

As businesses struggle to find skilled workers and engineers, Krager, associate professor of Manufacturing Technology at Ferris State University, is working to attract students to a field where demand for their skills is growing.

The College of Engineering Technology has historically taken an applied approach to its curriculum, giving students the tooling, machining and production experience to work in manufacturing.

Today, the college has revamped its associate’s degree in manufacturing technology to allow students the freedom to choose diverse paths into industry in its two-year program or continue on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in eight concentrations, explained James Rumpf, associate professor and coordinator of the college’s bachelor’s degree programs.

“Ferris has taken a two-plus-two approach that has served us well. Our 4-year degrees grew because the 2-year associate’s degree had so much success. Students wanted additional education to advance their careers, but the associate’s degree is the foundation upon which everything else is built,” Rumpf told Knowledge. “But if a student got out of sequence in a course, it was very difficult for them to get caught up.”

Part of the problem was due to the way in which courses were offered. Labs were often eight credit hours, offered four days per week. If a student fell out of the sequence of courses, they found it very hard to get back on track. Additionally, students from community colleges found it hard to meet the course requirements and frequently found courses taken at other institutions didn’t transfer to Ferris.

Changing models

Five years ago, the program began a process of revamping its curriculum to allow students more flexibility in their education. Students had been required to take courses in different forms of tooling: jig and fixture, dies and molds. For a student looking to get into his family’s tool and die company, a course in building molds for plastic injection molding would be of little use.

There were benefits to splitting up 8-credit-hour courses into a lab and lectures, the applied and theoretical concepts. Students emerge better prepared by having to show expertise in both the applied tooling techniques as well as the math and tech competence behind the processes.

“You can’t have someone slide by on their lab performance or tech knowledge,” Krager said.

The change also allowed the program to better utilize its CNC operations, leaning its operations. Prior to the curriculum change, approximately 60 percent of students’ tools were built manually with the remainder built with CNC mills. Today more than 90 percent of tools are built on CNC.

“With the smaller courses and open lab scheduling, we have been able to better utilize our CNC and CAD/CAM technology,” Krager said. “We found students were finishing projects more quickly…using less time in the labs. We were doing more in less time.”

Changing perceptions

Krager and Rumpf say that Ferris is in a unique position, which is both a blessing and a curse. Because its associate’s degree program feeds into its bachelor’s degree programs, the manufacturing technology program sits in a space that is somewhat occupied by community colleges that offer basic tooling training and other 4-year programs that offer more of a design focus.

“The focus of our program has always been on manufacturing engineering rather than design or mechanical engineering,” Rumpf said. “Those programs teach you how to make one of something. The manufacturing program is focused on how to make many at lower costs than anyone else. That is where the value is for companies.”

That is not to say that students graduate lacking design experience – quite the opposite. From a CAD rendering to CNC machining of dies to final production, students have the chance to learn skills employers want.

As part of capstone projects, students must take an existing product and, given new design and budget parameters, find a solution that will meet a manufacturer’s needs. A recent challenge was taking a plastic injection-molded ballpoint pen and figuring out how to take it from 17 pieces down to, say, 10.

Filling the pipeline

A larger challenge, say Rumpf and Krager, is that of attracting students to the 2-year program. Companies are repeatedly telling Ferris that they need more associate’s degree grads in their operations (and frequently are courting students while still in the program), yet the majority of students entering the program are seeking 4-year degrees. Part of the issue is that families are weary of manufacturing as a career, as many have experience with a family member or friend losing a job in the auto industry.

The days of someone standing and loading pieces into a press while being covered in machine grease are gone, they said.

For students seeking a two-year degree, the prospect of paying room and board at Ferris is hard to swallow when compared to the tuition at their local community colleges. Rumpf and Krager have developed relationships with companies around West Michigan who sponsor students – typically gifted tech students from local high schools – to attend Ferris, covering their room and board, and then hiring them upon graduation. The college is working to develop more such relationships with businesses around the state.

“Our biggest problem is the same as manufacturing companies – we need more help feeding the pipeline,” Krager said.

  Order Reprints

TAGS:

• big rapids
• dean krager
• ferris state university