Check out our Manufacturing Training programs. The PAT School will customize either Internet or hands-on industrial skills training for you or your company.
Visit us at http://pattc.com/manufacturing-a-automation
Ultra high speed robots with computerized vision systems. It’s a reality. After engineers design this equipment, manufacturing technicians are the individuals who install, set-up, validate, maintain and help in the innovation of the next generation of these systems for many types of manufacturing processes.
How does electricity work and why? Have you ever wondered how electricity works, creates jobs, how it powers industries, products and services all over the world? Electricity is a simple concept, once it is clearly explained. Find out how electricity works and how it can be applied to electrical systems. How this can be applied to manufacturing and field service jobs that pay very well 
Check this video out. We would like to get your comments.
The PAT School has been accepted by the nationally recognized accrediting agency the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools into a membership as a Candidate for Accreditation. PAT, located at 7446 Ogontz Avenue, became a candidate member earlier this month and is now moving forward with the MSA subscribed comprehensive self-study process.
PAT is encouraging neighborhood residents, automotive and manufacturing employers, former students and any other interested parties to contribute feedback. Philadelphia Automotive Training is seeking accreditation with MSA as part of our commitment to excellence in career-oriented education.
PAT welcomes all input as we pursue accreditation with the Middle States Association and look forward to preparing Delaware Valley region residents for rewarding technology careers through PAT’s School.
Contact:
Sherman McLeod, President
Philadelphia Automotive Training
215-381-9403
Pattc.com
Through this blog, I’ve been trying to be as transparent for you guys as possible. I want you to know exactly what’s going on and how we do it here at PAT. But we do still seem to have a few secrets here at our school, so maybe it’s time I finally open up for you.
Secret #1: We know how to find people the jobs that start their technology careers. Of the 100 students who have attended our program, 85% of our graduates have been placed in the field they trained for. The truth is that entry-level positions in the Automotive and Manufacturing fields require successful applicants to have technological proficiency. In other words, exactly the kind of training we provide. But too few still seem to know that in 10 weeks they can transform their dead-end job into a hands-on, technologically sustainable career.
Secret #2: No one knows how cool it is to be an Engineering Technician! Nothing against our Automotive Program, but I would choose robots over cars every. single. time. There, I said it. You know where I stand. But the level of production in these manufacturing facilities of today is astounding, and the speed and pace that the computers and robots need to operate at to match production levels is staggering. Speed is important, but precision is even more so. If a medical production facility puts out 1,000,000 band-aids each day and 5% of those band-aids are contaminated with SARS, then 50,000 people will potentially be contaminated with SARS from those band-aids. Only 5%, but because there are so many band-aids, 5% can translate into a huge number. So that’s what makes precision just as important as speed in manufacturing.
And these computers and robots need maintenance just like a car does. Machines cannot operate indefinitely. They need to be programmed, repaired, trouble-shooted, etc. So Engineering Technicians save us from SARS, salmonella poisoning, and all those nasty contaminants that seem to sometimes find their way into our food, drugs, clothing, and more. Engineering technicians are the white blood cells of the manufacturing industry. The heroes of the manufacturing immune system.
Secret #3: We are cooking up a way to let both of these secrets get out to the public at the same time: a free manufacturing seminar that will outline and introduce you to the work of the engineering technician. You’ll learn some basic industrial machine programming, basic industrial electronics, and you’ll learn to do it safely. Registrations will begin in December, and space will be limited. We just want people so start realizing that technicians are cool. I’ll keep you posted as more details develop…
There is a popular and widespread misconception that PA’s manufacturing industry is underperforming, but if Philadelphia’s manufacturing sector is any indicator, then PA’s manufacturing firms are starting to see the light at the end of the recession tunnel. And that light is coming from the Delaware Valley. According to a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey released Thursday (11/18), Philadelphia manufacturers are making more, spending more, and employing more than they were six months ago. Almost 40% of manufacturers surveyed expected to invest in their facilities and equipment within the next six months. Of course, more investment in facilities and equipment requires more installers, programmers, and validators, etc.
This is welcomed news for both the PAT School and its students. The distinctive improvement in manufacturers’ outlook over the course of the last month suggests that the sector is improving rapidly. Hirings are imminent. The best way to ensure yourself a piece of the manufacturing pie is to streamline your education and join their ranks in 10 weeks. Ergo, the PAT School’s 10 Week Manufacturing Training Program.
Don’t join the bandwagon….START it.
The last two weeks have been my busiest since joining the PAT School. The phones have not stopped ringing. The variety of different questions people have asked me is clearly reflective of the different personalities and backgrounds of the prospective students interested in our program. Each time I give a tour, or speak to a prospective on the phone, I learn a new story why someone wants to come to the PAT School. And they’re always different.
One prospective student has a full-time job with a well-paying salary. Another has training in HVAC and pipefitting (already a hands-on career), but he wants to acquire the controls background to work with high-speed automated machinery. “I just want to learn everything,” he tells me. One student called me and told me he was interested in the Automotive Program because his girlfriend’s car broke down and she chided him for not being able to fix it. “A man’s got pride,” he says.
It’s a wide array. Some are unemployed. Some are underemployed. Some just want a change. Somehow, all of these different parts make the PAT School go.
According to its Latinate roots “manus” and “facto,” manufacturing literally means something made by hand. Wow. That definition is clearly antiquated. If you’ve been following along in this blog, you recognize that very little is actually “made” by human hands anymore in the manufacturing sector. It’s the work of conveyors, robots, and machines. But that’s actually not the topic of this blog entry.
Instead of focusing on the by hand issue, I’d actually like to direct your attention to the other part of the definition: to manufacture is to make something. This aspect of manufacturing, I posit, is just as antiquated as the rest of the definition. Or at least it should be.
In her latest blog on the NY Times’s website, green energy blogger Elisabeth Rosenthal discusses the benefits and challenges of recycling technological waste like computers, cell phones, ipods, batteries, etc (http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/responsible-recycling-my-e-waste-odyssey/#more-76671). Recycling these products is imperative, she explains, because they are made with dangerous chemicals and heavy metals that can threaten water supplies and babies. Despite the fact that numerous laws are being written to punish non-recycling offenders across the country, recycling these products remains a murky hassle. Unlike soda cans and milk cartons, there is no blue recycling bin for your expired Sony PS2 or Beta-max. Rosenthal explains that an Apple store will recycle your brick sized ipod, but will refuse to take your old Mac laptops.
Understandably, manufacturing today is about making things. Because, as its etymology literally suggests, manufacturing has always been about making things. But, as we’ve already learned, definitions can evolve. Manufacturing is no longer about making something by hand. So why does it have to be about making something? Why can’t manufacturing mean to re-use old parts to create something new?
Obviously, the dizzying pace of technological innovation makes it seem unfathomable to use old parts to create new and better machines. And designing the logistics of reacquiring parts from consumers for reprocessing would require massive amounts of planning. But just as interchangeable parts revolutionized assembly lines at the turn of the 20th Century, perhaps re-usable parts will revolutionize manufacturing in the 21st Century.
Sustainability will be the buzzword of the 21st Century. Forward thinking manufacturers may want to start imagining a more sustainable manufacturing future.
