ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: reporter's notebook
SOURCE: ALISON BLAKE
Coming late this year to the Wytheville Community College parking lot: "A very sophisticated tractor-trailer."
That's one way to describe part of a new business-assistance center - at least in the words of its director. Former Georgia-Pacific Corp. executive Jay Tice runs the Manufacturing Technology Center based out of the community college.
And the director of the Mobile Lab Project will have to go to truck-driving school before he takes the wheel of the center's bizmobile, which will travel from factory to factory as requested. "Its interior design is versatile in that it may be configured as a traditional classroom, a computer training center, a demonstration or working lab, or various combinations of the described configurations," reads a flier for the project.
Ironically enough for local farmers, its proponents tout the center as an extension service for manufacturing. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, the 75-year-old organization that sends experts into the farmer's fields to help out, has waged a valiant effort to stay in business following years of budget cuts.)
Representatives of the center, along with local community college administrators and U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, got together over breakfast recently to learn about the project. The year-old center coordinates among five community colleges in the far corner of the state.
While still spreading the word about its existence, the center has already helped a range of manufacturers, Tice said. One employer wants all his employees to learn to use computers. Another big defense contractor is converting to the private sector. Another company has had a surge in orders, but hasn't increased production. The center did an assessment to find productivity bottlenecks.
"One of the things we're trying to do is promote changes to make [businesses] more effective," Tice said.
For instance, "a lot" of the region's companies are not using computers, he said. At the center, employers can test-drive expensive equipment before they buy. They also can tap into help for such things as money-saving and regulation-meeting pollution control assistance.
By year's end, the modified tractor-trailer - the mobile lab - takes to the highway.
"We'll pull it up to a plant site and do training," Tice said. "And also take it to the secondary school system. The days of just doing one or two small operations on an assembly line are fading fast in manufacturing."
The idea will be to start training those headed for manufacturing jobs - where they'll increasingly be expected to perform a number of tasks - while they're still in high school.
At the moment, the center has $1.3 million in federal and $200,000 in state funds to operate. It's still looking for businesses to assist, Tice said.
"It's an educational process," he said.
To contact the center, call (540) 223-4805, or send e-mail to: jjticenaxs.com
Allison Blake, The Roanoke Times' higher education writer, works out of the New River Valley bureau.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB