Math is a Must in Today’s Industrial Skills Training
The industrial skills necessary to be successful in today’s manufacturing industry have change drastically over time. However, basic industrial skills still include:
- Applied math
- Reading
- Application of information
- Technical skills in production, machining, quality assurance, logistics, technology safety and maintenance.
As technology progresses so must the industrial skill level of plant workers. And, math is perhaps the area that needs the most focus. Miles Free, the director of research and technology at the Precision Machined Products Association, agrees and expressed the importance of developing math skills in manufacturing employees in his statement comparing older technology with today’s CNC machines. Free said, “In the old days, the adjustments were all manual, mostly by feel, and involved loosening screws, tapping with hammers and retightening. Today’s CNC multi-axis machines require knowledge of Cartesian coordinate systems, trigonometry to calculate offsets, sophisticated math for linear interpolation of thread forms, as well as G code and block logic programming to operate and adjust the machines and its operations — plus, tolerances are now at the fifth decimal places in some cases.”
For that very reason, industrial skills training is critical to the development of today’s manufacturing workforce. Ideally, workers would be hired with these industrial skills sets already in their possession but the reality is that many plant owners and managers must take manufacturing training into their own hands. There are benefits to this though, by implementing industrial skills training in-house employees will receive proper training tailored to your specific business. Plus, they can take advantage of hands on training with the equipment and processes they will actually deal with once their industrial skills training is complete. Manufacturing managers are no longer solely looking for manual labor, they need qualified human capital that can deliver their desired results efficiently and effectively. To do so, advanced math skills are a must. Contact ITC Learning today, to learn how your plant can benefit from our comprehensive industrial skills training courseware.