business backgrounder | employment & workplace
One High-Tech Classroom to Go, Please
A new 53-foot mobile classroom lets employers bring
specialized aerospace training to the worksite.
Jason Hagey
A look inside the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee’s new
Advanced Inspection and Manufacturing Mobile Training Unit.
Lean manufacturing has transformed the way companies
produce products, leading to improved quality and — frequently — big savings of time and money.
But along with heightened attention to quality comes
a greater need for a workforce with specialized training.
Gone are the days when workers manufactured products
and inspectors checked them for defects. These days,
everyone is an inspector, said Laura Hopkins, executive
director of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee.
And that means everyone needs to know how to use the
modern, increasingly high-tech equipment used to manufacture and check aerospace components.
To help today’s aerospace workers get trained in how
to use the latest tools, the committee, known as AJAC,
outfitted a 53-foot trailer with a bank of computers and
other specialized manufacturing equipment and sent it
out on the road.
at a glance
The Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship
Committee, a nonprofit state-funded
organization aimed at addressing
a shortage of skilled aerospace
workers, has equipped a 53-foot
tractor trailer with state-of-the-art
manufacturing equipment.
Employers can schedule the mobile
training unit to come to their
worksite so workers can receive
training without traveling or
shutting down a production line.
50 association of washington business
The rolling classroom, officially known as the Advanced
Inspection and Manufacturing Mobile Training Unit,
includes multiple computerized training stations with
CAD, CAM and HAAS simulators, an advanced metrology
lab, 3-D prototype technology, a Coordinate Measuring
Machine (CMM) and a portable CMM.
The trailer is expected to go on the road to employers
soon. It’s already made some educational tours, including
an October visit to Columbia Basin College in Pasco for
the Smartmap Expo Girls Learning About Manufacturing
(GLAM) event.
Mobile classrooms aren’t new, but there’s nothing else
in the world quite like this trailer, Hopkins said. It’s got
plenty of “wow-factor,” including a 3D scanner similar to
the kind celebrity car buff Jay Leno uses to create copies
of old car parts that are no longer produced. “When we
designed it, it really was making it up as we go,” she said.
what it is:
• A 53-foot mobile classroom containing computerized training stations, an advanced
metrology lab, 3-D prototype technology, CMM and more.
what it offers employers:
• Specialized training for individual worksites, including training journey-level workers
to be on-site trainers
• Ability to train employees while regular work takes place on machinery at the works
• Training on equipment not available at company worksite
where it will go:
• Employer worksites, including aerospace, medial manufacturing,
marine, and automotive
• Community and technical colleges, in conjunction with AJAC training programs
• Training centers
• K-12 schools