Northwest Florida Manufacturing News Monthly
Next General Membership Meeting July 17th Business and Labor Development Across the Manufacturing Eco-System in Washington County
We will tour West Point Home on July 17th and then head over to FPTC for lunch and our Program. Come and hear Washington County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development’s Ted Everett, West Point Home’s Terry Ellis, and FPTC’s Martha Compton give an Overview of the Manufacturing Eco-System, how a business can redesign their sales, operations, and supply chain to meet that system’s needs, and how our education system can adapt to continually develop a talent pipeline to meet labor demands. Following them will be Triumph Gulf Coast Inc.’s Dr. Frank Fuller updating us on Triumph funding for Educational Programs.  
 
The tour of West Point Home will be an eye opener. See how a large-scale manufacturer can meet the needs of anywhere from one customer to major retailers. They are not only a manufacturer, but a fulfillment company with expertise in more than process, product and placement. West Point Home is a supply chain and logistics powerhouse. 
 
From there we will take the short drive over to Florida Panhandle Technical College for lunch and the program. FPTC Director Martha Compton will talk about the programs ability to adapt to the communities needs for ever-changing skill-sets. It is worth your time to see both the tour and the program, join us at 10:45 to get signed in for the tour. 


Here is the address for both West Point Home, and directions to Florida Panhandle Technical College.
 
FPTC is approximately 2.5 miles from West Point Home:
 
Depart by Brickyard Rd / CR-280 (LEFT) toward Traffic Light - 0.4 mi
Turn right at light onto Orange Hill Rd / CR-273
Continue STRAIGHT at US-77 at Traffic Light - 2.1 mi
Turn RIGHT onto Hoyt St - 0.2 mi

Arrive at FPTC – Take second RIGHT into the from Parking Lot
Florida Panhandle Technical College – 755 Hoyt St, Chipley, Florida 32428

Meeting Location – Building 4 - Wayne Saunders-Learning Resource Center – Only Two Story Building on Campus
Northwest Florida Well Represented at Florida Sterling Awards
Fort Walton Machining, American Elite Molding, Eastman Chemical, and Pall Corporation were all Finalist for the
2019 Florida Sterling Awards ( https://www.floridasterling.com/# ), which is an outstanding achievement
in manufacturing. 
The awards were held in conjunction with the FloridaMakes, MakeMore Summit in Orlando. At the award ceremony, Dan Gustafson , Dee Setzer, Tim McDonald, Daniel Krug, Wayne Henson, Paul Miller, Nicole Gislason, Kristie Nixon, Julie McClure and Mary Nutial were able to get away quickly
for a picture.
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UWF, FloridaMakes and NWFMC at MakeMore Summit
Nicole Gislason, NWFMC BOD Member, and UWF, Director of the Office of Workforce and Industrial Innovation(top right), led a panel on Talent Development that included Dehryl McCall (Florida Department of Education), Marilyn Barger (FLATE), Eric Owens (FL. DOE), and Abe Alangadan (Johnson and Johnson Vision, FloridaMakes BOD), Bayne Beecher (PGT Custom Windows and Doors), and Bill Wydra, (Ashland Technologies).
Suzanne Looper, Director, Quality, EHS, Training and Ethics at Vertex Aerospace in Okaloosa County (2nd image on the right), sat on a Business Growth panel along with Laurie Moncrief (DefenseWerx, Okaloosa County) who also spoke on manufacturing and its importance to innovation and technology. Laurie Moncrief, from DefenseWerx, spoke on Manufacturing and its importance to Innovation and Technology and sat on the Business Growth panel.
At the Summit, manufacturing vendors held demonstrations on their products.
Wayne Henson, NWFMC BOD Chair, and Site Manager at Eastman Chemical (Santa Rosa County), and Dee Setzer, HR Director at Fort Walton Machining (Okaloosa County), watched a demonstration of a miniature CNC Machine for classrooms by Levil, a
MakeMore Summit Presenter ( http://www.levil.com/ ). Both mentioned that it would fit nicely in our Manufacturing Academy classrooms. 
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AEM, Arc of Emerald Coast and Crestview High School Team Up in Okaloosa County
The vision of the NWFMC is to build a talent pipeline for manufacturing in North West Florida. Part of the way we are doing that is to discover hidden workforces, create partnerships with organizations that work with them, and to help each other develop the talent that resides there. American Elite Molding, the Arc of the Emerald Coast, and Crestview High School are doing that over in Okaloosa County. The unique program matches the need to kit cable ties for retail customers with the Arc’s pathway from disability to capability. AEM staffs people from the Arc Alongside Crestview High School students learning about manufacturing. 
Murilo Basso, UWF Office of Workforce and Industrial Innovation, Additive Manufacturing Mechanical Engineer visited with Randall Denny, Directory of Quality, to discuss new mechanical engineering projects and discussed the kitting process. "The Arc empowers those with disabilities to lead meaningful lives,
and we are proud to partner with them to provide these employment opportunities," saidAmerican Elite Molding Founder and CEO Robert Sires. "We have been extremely pleased with the results of the partnership and the performance of our team members who come from The Arc." To read more about AEM’s program, please click here…( https://americanelitemolding.com/press-releases#25 )
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Manufacturing Career Pathways Updated
In 2014 the Northwest Florida Manufacturers Council worked closely with its members and the National Manufacturing Skills Standard Council to implement a formal certification program within our local school system, providing students access to a curriculum specifically designed for achieving success in a manufacturing field. Through funding provided by the state of Florida and UWF, the Council launched Manufacturing Academies in each of the Council’s 10 school districts. In year one, more than 1,000 middle and high school students in Northwest Florida were enrolled. The next step is to ensure those students graduating from the secondary programs have a path to follow, either through CareerSource to employment or through established Career Pathways for those students who decide to continue their education. Through the Council’s partnership with the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center and the region’s post-secondary institutions, these pathways have been defined.

Gulf Power Foundation and Consortium of Florida Education Foundations teamed up to deliver new Career Pathways for Northwest Florida. Nearly 500,000 Floridians are currently unemployed, and yet Florida has more than 260,000 open jobs – many of them in high-skill, high-wage industries such
as manufacturing. Florida’s skills gap is a big challenge and with an additional 6 million residents expected by 2030, there is no better time to address it than now. While there is no quick fix, local education foundations are well-positioned to build awareness and encourage students to pursue career pathways that lead to rewarding careers by making information easily accessible to families and schools and by actively marketing those pathways
to students.
Click on the map for more information in each area .
The Gulf Power Foundation encourages local education foundations in their service territory to take on this role by providing support for their capacity and hard costs through a five-year commitment with the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations taking on the role of coordinating the effort. In addition to acting in this leadership capacity in workforce development for this NW Florida region, the effort can have statewide impact by becoming a model for other industry leaders to adapt to other areas of the state.
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The results of this collaboration in part are manufacturing career pathways. The NWFMC has linked to these on our website here. Click on your county and see what opportunities in manufacturing look like. Then go to our homepage here, scroll to the bottom to the “Jobs in Manufacturing” link, and see what jobs are currently available in our 10 county area. UWF/FloridaMakes Business Advisor, Mary Nutial contributed to the manufacturing pathways, and attended the unveiling of the new Career Pathways website. 
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Additive Manufacturing Shapes Opportunity
Unlike subtractive manufacturing methods that mill or cut away material from a slab to produce a part, additive manufacturing prints parts from a digital file. The term additive manufacturing (AM) includes several technologies that produce parts in layers. The Three most common printing technologies include material extrusion, stereolithography, and powder bed fusion.  

Material extrusion uses filament deposited through a hot nozzle. Extrusion printers have become widely available to a variety of consumers and are known to most as FDM or Fused Deposition Modeling. Stereolithography (SLA) printers use liquid resin in a vat to selectively cure the material with a light-activated process known as photopolymerization. SLA produces a high-resolution print.  

Powder bed fusion uses a laser beam to fuse regions of a powder bed. Printers that use this technology commonly refer to this as SLS or SLM—selective laser sintering/melting. SLS/SLM technology produces a high fidelity part that requires less post processing than other methods. All three methods are widely used in industry and have an array of feedstock options to include metal and flexible resin.  

Additive manufacturing is being deployed in industrial production that goes beyond prototyping. The new BMW i8 Roadster features a lightweight mounting for the top cover. This particular component is stronger and weighs less and would not have been possible using a traditional casting process.
Another example is GE’s now famous jet engine fuel nozzle—an intricate part with complex internal geometries that are exposed to extremely high temps. With 18 components and interior channels as thin as a human hair, the fuel nozzle could not be made via conventional manufacturing processes. The team, which included Greg Morris, incorporated powder bed metal 3D printing, to fabricate the part. Thanks to the design experts and 3D printing technology, it became possible to consolidate this 18-part design into a single piece. The result is a nozzle that is 25 percent lighter and five times more durable than previous iterations.  
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As faster and lower cost production opens up new market opportunities for 3D-printed parts, an increased number of manufacturers will deploy this technology for short-run production of custom parts as well as mass-produced, ultra-lightweight components that may be printed on demand. 
The University of West Florida Sea3D additive manufacturing lab provides valuable 3-D printing resources and fosters innovation and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, industry leaders and the Northwest Florida community. Please contact the additive manufacturing team by emailing Nicole@uwf.edu .
Maintenance Cost Survey
NIST has created a survey for manufacturers to assess current maintenance costs and the cost/benefit of predictive maintenance. 

Manufacturers have reported ( NIST AMS 100-18 ) significant savings as a result of investing in improved maintenance, including 35%-45% reductions in downtime and 65%-95% reductions in defects. These results, however, do not tell the whole cost/benefit story. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed a strong program in Predictive Maintenance Technologies. A related effort is the study of the costs and benefits of manufacturing firms advancing their maintenance techniques. NIST needs present maintenance costs from manufacturers to better understand potential opportunities for Predictive Maintenance projects and develop a useful tool for manufacturers. The Maintenance Cost Survey results will be used to develop free software tool for manufacturers. Link to survey and information here:  Maintenance Cost Survey
New Members
UWF/FloridaMakes Business Advisors helped to add three new members to NWFMC this month.  

Please welcome:
GKN Aerospace is the world’s leading multi-technology tier 1 aerospace supplier. With 50 manufacturing locations in 14 countries, GKN serves more than 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers. GKN Aerospace is located Panama City, Bay County.

Strand Core is a leading domestic (Made in USA from Melt Stage to Assemblies & Coating Finishes) manufacturer of Commercial and Mil-Spec Strand, Wire Rope and Wire Rope assemblies. Strand Core is located in Pensacola, Escambia County.


TPR Systems, Inc . is a AS-9100D certified, Florida based, precision manufacturing and fabrication company serving the Pensacola, Milton, & Pace FL local communities. TPR Systems also specialize in the manufacturing of turbine parts, replacement stators, stator parts, and stator repairs. They operate out of Milton, Santa Rosa County.
Regional Manufacturing Calendar
Wednesday, July 17
11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
West Point Home

C ATIA Technical Engagement
Tuesday, July 29 - Thursday, August 2
Time 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM CDT
UWF Fort Walton Beach Campus
News
This newsletter was developed in collaboration with the University of West Florida and FloridaMakes.