The objective of this paper is to outline the details of a recently-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) project that aims to educate and enable the current and future manufacturing workforce to operate in an Industry 4.0 environment. Additionally, the startup procedures involved, the major ongoing activities during year-one, and preliminary impressions and lessons learned will be elaborated as well. Industry 4.0 refers to the ongoing reformation of advanced manufacturing (Operation Technologies - OT) enabled by advances in automation/data (Information Technologies - IT). Cyber-enabled smart manufacturing is a multidisciplinary approach that integrates the manufacturing process, its monitoring/control, data science, cyber-physical systems, and cloud computing to drive manufacturing operations. This is further propelled by the dissolution of boundaries separating IT and OT, presenting optimization opportunities not just at a machine-level, but at the plant/enterprise-levels. This so-called fourth industrial revolution is rapidly percolating the discrete and continuous manufacturing industry. It is therefore critical for the current and future US workforce to be cognizant and capable of such interdisciplinary domain knowledge and skills. To meet this workforce need, this project will develop curricula, personnel and communities in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The key project components will include: (i) Curriculum Road-Mapping and Implementation – one that integrates IT and OT to broaden the educational experience and employability via road-mapping workshops, and then to develop/implement curricula, (ii) Interdisciplinary Learning Experiences – through collaborative special-projects courses, industry internships and research experiences, (iii) Pathways to Industry 4.0 Careers – to streamline career pathways to enter Industry 4.0 careers, and to pursue further education, and (iv) Faculty Development – continuous improvement via professional development workshops and faculty development leaves. It is expected that this project will help define and chart-out the capabilities demanded from the next-generation workforce to fulfill the call of Industry 4.0, and the curricular ingredients necessary to train and empower them. This will help create an empowered workforce well-suited for Industry 4.0 careers in cyber-enabled smart manufacturing. The collaborative research team’s experience so far in starting up and establishing the project has further shed light on some of the essentials and practicalities needed for achieving the grand vision of enabling the manufacturing workforce for the future. Altogether, the experience and lessons learned during the year-one implementation has provided a better perception of what is needed for imparting a broader impact through this project.
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Data science skills and domain knowledge requirements in the manufacturing industry: A gap analysis
Manufacturing has adopted technologies such as automation, robotics, industrial Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics to improve productivity, efficiency, and capabilities in the production environment. Modern manufacturing workers not only need to be adept at the traditional manufacturing technologies but also ought to be trained in the advanced data-rich computer-automated technologies. This study analyzes the data science and analytics (DSA) skills gap in today’s manufacturing workforce to identify the critical technical skills and domain knowledge required for data science and intelligent manufacturing-related jobs that are highly in-demand in today’s manufacturing industry. The gap analysis conducted in this paper on Emsi job posting and profile data provides insights into the trends in manufacturing jobs that leverage data science, automation, cyber, and sensor technologies. These insights will be helpful for educators and industry to train the next generation manufacturing workforce. The main contribution of this paper includes (1) presenting the overall trend in manufacturing job postings in the U.S., (2) summarizing the critical skills and domain knowledge in demand in the manufacturing sector, (3) summarizing skills and domain knowledge reported by manufacturing job seekers, (4) identifying the gaps between demand and supply of skills and domain knowledge, and (5) recognize opportunities for training and upskilling workforce to address the widening skills and knowledge gap.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1935646
- PAR ID:
- 10296195
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Manufacturing Systems
- Volume:
- 60
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0278-6125
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 692 to 706
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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