GA Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) Georgia Tech

Kia Plant Tour Drives Student Interest Towards Careers in the Automotive Industry

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In April, a group of Georgia Tech students had the opportunity to tour the Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) automotive plant, an impressive facility spanning over 2,300,000 square feet located in West Point, Georgia. Hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Atlanta Section, the tour provided students with an in-depth look into KMMG’s history and manufacturing process for the three Kia models produced in the plant: The Optima, Sorento, and most recently the Telluride, which debuted in spring of 2019.

Mike Stonecipher of GaMEP at Georgia Tech, Joy Johnston and Ted Arnold of KMMG welcome Georgia Tech students to the Kia Plant 

Before witnessing the plant’s assembly line in action, the students met with KMMG employees, Ted Arnold, Head of Quality Assurance, and Joy Johnston, Public Relations Specialist, to learn what sets KMMG apart from other automotive manufacturers. Arnold and Johnston highlighted several of the company’s quality accolades, including its recent award for ranking number one among all mass market brands for four consecutive years. The pair was quick to credit its success and continued growth to its incredibly diverse and highly skilled workforce.

“The Kia Georgia Training Center and Georgia Quick Start have played a key part in the Kia Continuous Improvement mindset, helping us to sustain a work environment dedicated to fostering teamwork, safety, and world-class training,” said Johnston while discussing some of the company’s core values and training methods.

Following a Q&A session, the students experienced the final part of the visit and what they had been anticipating since their arrival – a golf cart tour through the different stages of the Kia assembly facility. During the tour, the students were driven through multiple buildings on-site as Johnston explained the operations performed in each one. In addition to watching employees work together on the assembly line to build vehicles, the students got a firsthand look at how the plant incorporates automation into its process. Stopping at one point in front of a group of industrial robots, the students observed how the robots welded together the inner and outer panels of a vehicle.

“Seeing the automation that surrounds the process was really interesting,” commented Reed Clark, a Georgia Tech senior majoring in mechanical engineering. “I had never been in an automotive plant before so I enjoyed seeing how the assembly line works and watching all the car bodies and parts move overhead from one area to the next until you’ve ended up with a full-blown car. It was easy for me to identify all the different steps of production as they were happening on the assembly line.”

Accompanying the group of Georgia Tech students during the tour was Mike Stonecipher, Project Manager for the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech and Board Chair for the SAE Atlanta Section. Having significant work experience within the automotive field, Stonecipher is an industry expert and has been involved with the SAE Atlanta Section for the past five years. After being named Board Chair three years ago, he has played an integral role in revitalizing the section through strong leadership and strategic plan development and execution. Generating excitement and interest in the field of automotive has been an important goal of the SAE Atlanta Section’s strategic plan. To accomplish this, the SAE Atlanta Section works with Georgia Tech and GaMEP throughout the year to develop successful events that not only increase interest within the community of students, but also champion manufacturing in the state of Georgia.

“The SAE Atlanta section is heavily involved with promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and serving the automotive industry,” Stonecipher said. “We have some of the best colleges in the world developing the next generation of engineers and leaders.  As a result, one of our objectives is to support local manufacturers and students by providing an opportunity to connect.”

The Kia Plant tour is one event choice that aligns well with the SAE Atlanta Section’s objective. According to Patrick Sands, Public Relations Manager, KMMG is excited to offer students ranging from middle school age to college level an inside look at the automotive industry as well as provide an example of an advanced manufacturing opportunity that could be available to them once they join the job market.

“During a plant tour, students are able to see up-close-and-personal the quality that Kia puts into its products,” Sands said. “We hope these tours not only inspire students to think higher of the brand, but to also consider joining the Kia team once they graduate.”

 

About Kia Motors America

Headquartered in Irvine, California, Kia Motors America continues to top quality surveys and is recognized as one of the 100 Best Global Brands and 50 Best Global Green Brands by Interbrand.  Kia serves as the “Official Automotive Partner” of the NBA and offers a complete range of vehicles sold through a network of nearly 800 dealers in the U.S., including cars and SUVs proudly assembled in West Point, Georgia.*

A GR-R-REAT Consortium Event!

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Recently, the Kellogg’s Bakery in Rome, Georgia, hosted the Northwest Georgia GaMEP Advanced Manufacturing Consortium for a deep dive learning event on, “Predictive Maintenance.” The speaker, Jeff Craig, Reliability and Maintenance Professional with Fuss and O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions, presented to the group on how to create a more efficient and accurate maintenance plan using tools to collect data and monitor equipment in real time.

Jeff Craig, Reliability and Maintenance Professional with Fuss and O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions, presents to the group on how to create a more efficient and accurate maintenance plan

Then the group took a tour of the bakery, testing out monitoring tools such as thermal imaging cameras and vibration sensors, many of which were inexpensive solutions that connect to smart phones to display images or record data.

Finally, the attendees met back to discuss the “plusses and deltas” of the tour, noting great ideas and examples seen in the host plant, but also sharing suggestions and opportunities for improvement.  Paula Glover, Enterprise Engineer with Shaw Industries said, “The deep dive event allowed me to benchmark and bring several ideas back to our plant that we could use almost immediately.”

Predictive Maintenance is just one tool of the Total Productive Maintenance system (TPM.) Equipment-related problems can frequently lead to safety, quality, productivity, and customer delivery issues. TPM is a proactive approach to equipment maintenance that alleviates the stress and frustration caused by breakdowns and reactive maintenance programs, leading to higher levels of uptime/output and lower costs. Sound like something your company could use? Contact your Region Manager for more information.

Interested in networking and benchmarking with other manufacturing companies at events and tours? Find out more about our peer-to-peer learning groups or check out our events page for an upcoming opportunities.

What Automation Means for Economic Development

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GaMEP Director, Karen Fite, moderates the Automation Panel at the 51st Annual Basic Economic Development Course.
GaMEP Director, Karen Fite, moderates the Automation Panel at the 51st Annual Basic Economic Development Course.

Automation.

The word and what it represents is driving a lot of discussion about what that means for manufacturers and for those in economic development tasked with bringing industry — and jobs — to their communities.

But automation is not the boogeyman people think it is, said Mark Ligler, vice president of Factory Automation Systems. The Atlanta-based company is a systems integration resource for many of the top manufacturers in the United States and supports them in programmable controller and drive systems, robot integration, and information solutions.

“Automation is not a job killer,” Ligler said. “It’s a job creator and it’s keeping people here employed.”

Ligler made his remarks as part of a panel discussion, “What Automation means for Your Community” at the 51st annual Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) held Feb. 27 through March 2.

Sixty-five economic development professionals from across the country attended the course held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.
Sixty-five economic development professionals from across the country attended the course held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

The interactive professional development course is produced by the Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and offered in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). It provides seasoned economic development professionals and those new to the field with the core fundamentals of business attraction, workforce development, retention and expansion, and entrepreneur and small businesschallenges, as well as transformative trends in the industry.

The 2018 BEDC theme — “Automation and Economic Development” — centered on how that is changing a number of industries and drove the panel discussions and other events for the 65 attendees who came from across the country.

“The research tells us that in roughly 60 percent of current occupations that at least a third of tasks performed in those jobs could be automated,” said Karen Fite, director of the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP).

A federally funded program at Georgia Tech, GaMEP works with manufacturers in the state to increase their competitiveness and efficiency and boost productivity.

Fite, who moderated the panel, said the question for those in economic development and manufacturers is to understand how automation will affect business and industry and how to best prepare for the jobs and skills it will require.

It was a sentiment echoed by other panelists, which included Josh Benton, executive director of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Tom Sammon, a GaMEP project manager specializing on implementing Lean manufacturing practices and helping companies develop capital equipment applications, and John Fluker, president and chief sales officer of Grenzebach Corp. in Newnan, Ga.

“Automation, when you look at it from a longterm perspective, is all about competitiveness,” Fluker said.

“Competitiveness and demographics are driving automation,” he said, adding the technologies behind it are helping create a new landscape with jobs that demand new skills.

“It’s not a job killer,” he said. “It’s a skills changer.”

Automation.

The word and what it represents is driving a lot of discussion about what that means for manufacturers and for those in economic development tasked with bringing industry — and jobs — to their communities.

But automation is not the boogeyman people think it is, said Mark Ligler, vice president of Factory Automation Systems. The Atlanta-based company is a systems integration resource for many of the top manufacturers in the United States and supports them in programmable controller and drive systems, robot integration, and information solutions.

“Automation is not a job killer,” Ligler said. “It’s a job creator and it’s keeping people here employed.”

Ligler made his remarks as part of a panel discussion, “What Automation means for Your Community” at the 51st annual Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) held Feb. 27 through March 2.

The interactive professional development course is produced by the Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and offered in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). It provides seasoned economic development professionals and those new to the field with the core fundamentals of business attraction, workforce development, retention and expansion, and entrepreneur and small business

Automation.

The word and what it represents is driving a lot of discussion about what that means for manufacturers and for those in economic development tasked with bringing industry — and jobs — to their communities.

But automation is not the boogeyman people think it is, said Mark Ligler, vice president of Factory Automation Systems. The Atlanta-based company is a systems integration resource for many of the top manufacturers in the United States and supports them in programmable controller and drive systems, robot integration, and information solutions.

“Automation is not a job killer,” Ligler said. “It’s a job creator and it’s keeping people here employed.”

Ligler made his remarks as part of a panel discussion, “What Automation means for Your Community” at the 51st annual Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) held Feb. 27 through March 2.

The interactive professional development course is produced by the Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and offered in partnership with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). It provides seasoned economic development professionals and those new to the field with the core fundamentals of business attraction, workforce development, retention and expansion, and entrepreneur and small business

Sixty-five economic development professionals from across the country attended the course held at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

challenges, as well as transformative trends in the industry.

The 2018 BEDC theme — “Automation and Economic Development” — centered on how that is changing a number of industries and drove the panel discussions and other events for the 65 attendees who came from across the country.

“The research tells us that in roughly 60 percent of current occupations that at least a third of tasks performed in those jobs could be automated,” said Karen Fite, director of the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP).

A federally funded program at Georgia Tech, GaMEP works with manufacturers in the state to increase their competitiveness and efficiency and boost productivity.

Fite, who moderated the panel, said the question for those in economic development and manufacturers is to understand how automation will affect business and industry and how to best prepare for the jobs and skills it will require.

It was a sentiment echoed by other panelists, which included Josh Benton, executive director of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Tom Sammon, a GaMEP project manager specializing on implementing Lean manufacturing practices and helping companies develop capital equipment applications, and John Fluker, president and chief sales officer of Grenzebach Corp. in Newnan, Ga.

“Automation, when you look at it from a longterm perspective, is all about competitiveness,” Fluker said.

“Competitiveness and demographics are driving automation,” he said, adding the technologies behind it are helping create a new landscape with jobs that demand new skills.

“It’s not a job killer,” he said. “It’s a skills changer.”