1. February 25, 2009
SOCIETY OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON CHAPTER 248 Also SME and
Chapter 248 at the
Calgary, Alberta
2008 GPS Global
Petroleum Show
Ron Nilson Mike Marzetta Tim O’Halloran
Ground Force Altek Spokane Public Schools Future Issues:
Chris Wood,
TenX and the
First SME248
Professional Networking for Manu-
facturing, Engineering, Production, Lean Seminar
Business and Lean Leaders... SME248 Goes
MEETING Synopis: Inland Northwest STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing] Education and Work-
to College, the
force Development . 2nd Annual
Spokane Community College, Spokane, WA., Feb. 25, 2009 — Meeting organized by John Dickson, Chair SME 248, included participants
from SME, and other local organizations, schools and industry. Substantial educational initiatives are underway by many of the partici-
Student Tech
pants. The meeting was helpful in increasing awareness of what projects were underway by the various organizations. invitations were Presentation
issued by organizations to the others to participate or present at meetings or events being held by the individual organizations to pro-
mote better understanding and awareness. OBSTACLE IDENTIFIED: the state line between Idaho and Eastern Washington. The Eastern Competition
Washington and North Idaho area is in reality a cohesive economic region, cohesive programming is sometimes difficult to initiate as
some of the state and educational institutions involved must answer to different state or local authorities. (continued below) Lean Deburring
with Katie at
Fred Cousins Bob Ladd Leslie Hagle Darren Stuck Paul May Mackay Mfg.
SME SME LMC LMC WAGSTAFF Shelly O’Quinn Mike Mires, Mike Nepean
GSI SCC SPS Dale Carnegie,
John Dickson
and the Human
Side of Lean
John Dickson, SME 248
Douglas McGuire SME
FOLLOW-UP SME Chapter 248
Spokane, Washington
SME Chair John Event and Program Inquires:
Dickson as well as John Dickson, 2009 Chair
other SME members jdickson@bergo.com
Dave Davidson,
will be attending a SME Spokane editor
March 20 GSI spon- dryfinish@gmail.com
sored Manufacturer’s SME National website:
www.sme.org
Roundtable at which
Workforce Develop-
ment efforts will be
further discussed
:
BRAINSTORMING: centered on developing a strategy on how the various organizations and entities can coop-
erate and collaborate to better leverage accomplishment of an agreed common goal: how to better funnel students into having an interest in
a manufacturing oriented career in order to alleviate the current regional shortage of skilled labor for manufacturing and industrial opera-
tions.
FOLLOW-UP: Many interesting events, projects and concepts have been already initiated by the organizations involved in the meeting.
Among these are: (1) a North Idaho school specifically oriented to vocational/technical subject matter that is designed to draw students from
a cross section of different school districts in North Idaho. (2) Teach the Teachers programming that includes instructional events and plant
tours to make teachers as well as students more aware of manufacturing career advantages. (3) Job and career fairs (such as the one sched-
uled to be held at the Spokane Fairgrounds Show or Conference Facility) with booths maintained not only by professional and educational or-
ganizations but potential employers as well. (4) Developing Lean Curriculum for high school and Vo-Tec level institutions so that students can
hit the ground running when exposed to it in a workplace environment…. and others too numerous to mention here.
One of the major goals of the SME participants in the meeting is to develop a comprehensive for lean aficionadosthese activities
EDITORS NOTE: understanding how all of only, this docu-
relate to each other with a view to seeing if there are any SME resources that could be brought to bear to amplify or magnify their effect. □
ment has been formatted to an 11 x 17 or A3 dimension...
SEE ALSO: SME Education Foundation at: http://www.smeef.org/cgi-bin/smeefhtml.pl?/foundation/foundation_hp.htm&&&SEF&