Industrial Automation (IA) has brought in a demand for new skills and knowledge among the workforce. With increasing automation in the manufacturing ecosystem, the lack of trained workforce began to affect productivity. To address this issue, Rhino- ACE – SkillSonics have aligned Swiss Pedagogy with Machine Building, Swiss Vocational School, Component Domain experts to provide training in Industrial Automation. In this guest article Manish Kothari, MD, Rhino Machines and Director, ACE Foundation tells us how these initiatives will help upskill the existing workforce, skill the new incoming workforce, skill the faculty members.
Working in the automation space in India, Rhino Machines realized that it had no avenue to have any structured or formal training of its own technicians/engineers in Industrial Automation (IA). We had to train all our team members one by one to acquire field experience, as needed. There were separate in- depth training sessions for PLC, Pneumatics, Hydraulics by manufacturers of the systems. However, not a single comprehensive training solution could be developed since it was not viable from the perspective of both, time and cost. Moreover, these were not integrated – while in todays automation solutions – all the systems are together, while the training is separate.
Courses in Industrial Automation: Click here to download the brochure on courses in Industrial Automation from Rhino Machines and ACE Foundation.
In 2016, when BVM Engineering College approached Rhino Machines as part of its MOU to provide Industrial Automation related training under their World Bank Funded TEQUIP program, they, with SkillSonics® & ACE Foundation put together the course for Industrial Automation (IA) in Industry.
Looking at the structure, and success with more than 100 students, in 2018, Rhino and ACE Foundation extended the program to the industry, faculty members and students. They brought in the domain specific partners on one platform such as Himak – Siemens System House, Siskon – Parker Pneumatics, Hitech – Hydraulics Integrator and most recently we signed an MoU with Yuken India for Hydraulic Components and Systems.
Thus, we have combined the Swiss Pedagogy, Industry based Institute, Domain Expertise and Integrated Automation demonstration on the machines in assembly at Rhino Machines. At any given point of time, Rhino has machines, which are integration of the entire IA – and therefore the training goes beyond the class room into Application. This is perhaps a unique industry – driven course which is open to all industries, and in the past 6 months ACE has trained students undergoing Engineering program, faculty members from Coimbatore Engineering College, Industry technicians/engineers from Pune, Kanpur, Faridabad, Jalandhar and other places.
Let me share the feedback from one of the industry members about the program. This person, who underwent training, had not done any ITI course earlier. But, after the training the way of working had changed for him and therefore the quality of work had improved considerably. The entire batch of trainees were very happy and have planned to send their persons one by one to Anand for the week and create a strong trained workforce. With this ACE – Rhino team with SkillSonics® has not only touched the skilling of 16 year olds, but also engineers, college faculty members, experiential workers, working engineers – ultimately impacting the resource efficiency and performance in the industry.
About the author: Mr. Manish Kothari, MD Rhino Machines and Director, ACE Foundation. He can be contacted at: manish@rhinomachine.com
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