Why Partner with Us: Smart Manufacturing
The Smart Manufacturing Industry
With all the technology and smart features of today, the manufacturing industry is following suit in utilizing connectivity and real-time access to data to improve processes. Growing digitization and technological advancements have propelled the growth and desire of Smart Manufacturing technologies for improved business performance. Industry 4.0 technologies and processes are allowing for greater access across the entire supply chain network creating more efficiencies, cost reductions, and cutting of waste. The numerous benefits of adopting smart manufacturing have become a necessary addition for many companies. Technological advancements have evolved substantially in recent years, demanding employees and job seekers to have several skill sets not previously required before. Closing the skills gap will become essential as the industry adapts and evolves. There is an increased need for education in Smart Manufacturing in Northeast Ohio, where there is a push for industry adoption, to continue to be leaders in American Manufacturing.
The Need for Micro-Credentials to Close the Skills Gap
One of the primary challenges of many regional companies is the inability to keep up with 4.0 industry adoption. The digital transformation is underway and there is a need for a workforce that has the skills and knowledge necessary to implement these technologies, to be able to work with new automation and address the cyber security challenges that keep manufacturers up at night. While it has been discovered that certain regions are not keeping pace with Industry 4.0 advancements, without the workforce available to implement these technologies, this will certainly continue to be a challenge.
Micro-credentials are cost and time-effective ways for manufacturing professionals to be able to learn these new technologies, the importance of their use in the business case, and how to assess data and the results, providing greater benefits to their plants and factories.
Micro-credentials are a way to provide foundational education to workers across the industry, providing greater equity in industry education that can truly enhance one’s career prospects and commitment to their industry.
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Our Partnership with Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University and Focus EduSolutions have come together to offer three industry micro-credentials in Smart Manufacturing to help the manufacturers of Northeast Ohio in meeting their workforce development needs and the promotion Industry 4.0 technologies that will help advance the industry into the future.
The state’s primarily small and medium-sized manufacturing base has reported that one of their primary concerns include retaining and developing talent, in addition to attracting new and younger talent. According to a 2020 manufacturing report produced by MAGNET and partners, there is a known shortage of skilled workers, that more than half of manufacturers in the region have reported as hampering their growth. There is a clear struggle to get the right people, with the right skills, into the right jobs. As of 2020 there were approximately 8,000 open manufacturing jobs, and those numbers are projected to rise over the next decade.
Cleveland State University is ready to help solve this challenge in providing micro-credentials in Smart Manufacturing that are made by the industry and for the industry. Professional subject matter experts and long-time manufacturing consultants have been brought together under Focus EduSolutions and Cleveland State University to create three micro-credentials that are focused specifically on the use of Industry 4.0 fundamentals, emerging smart technologies, data use, business development with smart technology, and leading factories through smart manufacturing strategies. Micro-credentials are time and cost-effective methods of up-skilling and re-skilling a workforce, allowing for direct consumer investment in their own professional development, and the opportunity for companies to invest in their workforce.
Each credential has an individual purpose from fundamentals and process flow understandings to deeper technical knowledge of data use, sensor, and new technologies, to serving in leadership position and bringing your company through an entire system of change and enhancement.