Iván Hernández Dalas: Festo Didactic celebrates Manufacturing Day, dedicates efforts to workforce development

Ted Rozier speaks at the new Festo Regional Service Center in Ohio as the company celebrates its centennial.

Ted Rozier speaks at Festo’s new Regional Service Center in Ohio as the company celebrates its centennial. Source: Festo Didactic

Today is national Manufacturing Day, which kicks off Manufacturing Month. In addition, Festo is marking 100 years as a global innovator.

The Manufacturing Institute organizes Manufacturing Day activities across the U.S. to showcase modern factories and production technologies. It also hosts STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) events and job fairs to address ongoing shortages of skilled labor.

Festo Didactic is the vocational and technical training unit of Esslingen am Neckar, Germany-based automation vendor Festo SE. It has 40 years of experience with physical systems, consulting services, and online learning. Festo Didactic has U.S. offices in Eatontown, N.J.

The Robot Report spoke with Ted Rozier, director of digital, advanced, technology, and robotics at Festo Didactic, about the company’s milestone and this year’s Manufacturing Day.

Festo marks anniversary, Manufacturing Month

Congratulations on Festo’s centennial! What does that mean to you?

Ted Rozier with students at IMTS Smartforce Student Summit. Source: Festo Didactic

Rozier: When I joined Festo, I was looking for a different opportunity. What caught my eye was the Festo Bionic network — the robotic butterflies and kangaroo. I was thinking as an engineer, “It really would be cool to look at creation and then allow that to inspire engineering capabilities.” The funny thing is, after I got the job, I haven’t worked on any of those things, instead focusing on digitization and workforce development.

But it does speak to the breadth and depth of ingenuity that comes from Festo. It hasn’t been around for 100 years for no reason. Being able to be so active in so many different areas really speaks to innovation.

What are you looking forward to this Manufacturing Day and Manufacturing Month?

Rozier: NJMEP [the public-private New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program] is hosting yearly events including a Manufacturing Leadership Conference. I will represent Festo on a panel on artificial intelligence and manufacturing and the impact on the industrial side and education.

AI: Threat or opportunity?

A lot of people view advancing AI as an existential threat. How do you see it?

Rozier: Right now, everyone wants to make AI tangible. They want to open up the box, get their hands inside, and say, “Let’s stop talking about it, and tell me how to use it.”

We all know what ChatGPT is, and it’s a useful tool. But I think the No. 1 struggle is to make sure we don’t go ignorant using it. It’s “garbage in/garbage out.” You still need to use your mind to tweak the outcomes to get them where they need to be.

On the other side, there’s AI for production. We have to keep in mind as we’re designing algorithms, do they solve a particular problem?

Our perspective on the educational side of the business is can you teach students about what historical data is, what real-time data is, and can you classify that data to eliminate what I don’t care about and help me with predictive maintenance? If I can get a machine to talk to me, and we can trust the output, that can allow technicians and operators — the two hottest job roles out there right now — to make better decisions and improve efficiency.

Speaking of careers, where do workforce development efforts need to focus to get people into modern manufacturing?

Rozier: I don’t care if we’re talking about high schools, vocational schools, community colleges, or universities. When it comes to manufacturing, there’s programming PLCs [programmable logic controllers], working with robots, and HMI [human-machine interface] that is stackable to the PLC.

And then there’s another piece, where there’s an MES [manufacturing execution system] that captures information. So do you understand connectivity, IP addressing, and conflict of IP addresses? What I just defined are some skill sets that speak to mechatronics.

On the software side, it’s Python and several software platforms that work alongside Python programming. Some companies have data scientists. With emerging technologies, everyone has a role to embrace a piece of AI at different stages, whether it’s at the data collection, the analytics, or the electrical and mechanical design. The standard roles in manufacturing will expand horizontally.

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Soft skills still matter

Rozier: There are additional skills that we’ve really been pushing along with the electrical, mechanical, and software.

What are those?

Rozier: We’re trying to help individuals get jobs in manufacturing, and you have technical skills and “soft” skills. It’s so important that the soft skills — adaptability and the ability to communicate — are being taught properly.

Sometimes students or incumbent workers do things in silos, and what happens is that nobody ever injects a new idea. Things are only done one way, but people need to work well with others. It’s important for educational institutions and businesses to make sure that students can articulate themselves.

It’s also important that students get their hands on on the same equipment that’s currently used in industry. Sometimes things are put in front of them conceptually, and then there’s a steep learning curve when they get a job placement.

Institutions should work harder to get students to visit manufacturing facilities so they can see what’s going on in real time.

How does Festo’s new Regional Service Center in Mason, Ohio, fit in?

Rozier: It offers a glimpse of the factory of the future. When you look at a standard factory or warehouse, you’re going to have a lot of manpower.

We have a lot of new technology that’s being tightly integrated in that facility to not only provide a fantastic experience for the employees in working with the leading edge of technology, but to also be more efficient in getting components to our customers.

Festo Didactic offers a cyber-physical lab for training and teamwork. Source: Festo Didactic

How does Festo Didactic see itself in the wider manufacturing and automation ecosystem?

Rozier: We’re a global organization. One way to gauge Festo Didactic’s activity is certifications. Along with our partner NC3, we’re getting close to handing out 1 million certifications.

That number is impressive, but an employer has to be able to ask, “While you were in your training or apprenticeship program, what have you learned?” Certificates and credentials help candidates respond in a standardized, measurable way.

Years ago, when funding was given to schools, there were not a lot of checks and balances making sure graduates could perform with current technologies. With certifications, the human resources managers or hiring managers can feel a whole lot better.

Festo has put a lot of hard work into building out a curriculum that aligns with certifications, making sure that the training, repetition, and quality are there.

Can you give some examples?

Rozier: At Enterprise State Community College in Alabama, the job placement rate is nearly 100%, and local employers want to recruit our students before they even graduate. Up to 40% of participating high school students earn their associates before they get their diplomas with an Enterprise mechatronics program supported by Festo Didactic.

Portland Community College has a fantastic program with a teaching cleanroom. The process of gowning up for it might not be great if you’re claustrophobic, but it gets students prepared early for advanced manufacturing.

We’re also making sure we’re incorporating STEM even at the middle school level.

We’re currently focusing on semiconductors and are looking at different verticals, including electric vehicles, battery production, agriculture, and life science. You can’t quantify the amount of work that could be done with AI, robotics, and cobots.

The common thread in all these sectors is the automation, digital, data piece. If you can prepare the workforce to innovate and build that out so that it’s stackable, it will help everyone thrive.