theview
November 2017
Arlington Students Tour MicroPort on
World-Wide Manufacturing Day
Story and Photos by Terry Bondurant, Editorial Director
To celebrate World-
Wide Manufacturing Day
on October 6, MicroPort
Orthopedics opened its
doors to students from
Arlington Middle and High
Schools to get a first-hand
look at the manufacturing
business. We joined a
group from AMS 8th grade
Honors STEM class that
afternoon as they learned
about
manufacturing,
machining, metal finishing,
inspections, and robotics.
Dick Lunsford, Director
of
Manufacturing
at
MicroPort
cites
the
opportunity for today’s
students to pursue careers
in
manufacturing.
According to Lunsford,
Memphis is home to 30
manufacturers, including
MicroPort, which by itself
employees 535 and hires
an average of 20+ people
per year. Some positions
require a technical degree
and other a bachelors or
master’s degree.
“What we want is for
students at this point in
their life to understand
what manufacturing is like
in
2017,
specifically
medical
device
manufacturing,” Lunsford
adds that students need to
be consider manufacturing
earlier in their schooling
and be comfortable with
technology
because
everything is run by
computers.
According to Arlington
Community Schools Chief
of Staff Jeff Mayo,
"MicroPort has been a
great partner to Arlington
High School allowing for
student
tours,
guest
speakers, reviewers of our
curriculum to make sure
they meet current job &
skill needs – and in the
near future, beginning a
shadowing
program
allowing our students to
actually go in and shadow
employees in the different
divisions."
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