Motlow State Automation and Robotics Training Center – Above and Beyond Businesses

Larry Flatt, executive director at Motlow State Automation and Robotics Training Center, discusses how the center is preparing its students to help meet growing workforce demands in Tennessee.

What is The BLC Connection?

The BLC Connection Podcast is a fun and informative show from Ben Lomand Connect that answers your questions about the internet, Wi-Fi, home security and more, and brings you information on the stories and events in “Ben Lomand Country.” Bryan, Karen and Micah take you behind the scenes of Ben Lomand Connect, where the cooperative connects Middle Tennessee with the latest in communications technology and with businesses that are making a difference in our service territory. The BLC Connection Podcast also offers tips for business marketing and residential/workplace technology.

Karen Wilson:
Welcome to the BLC Connection Podcast.

I'm Karen Wilson and your host for today.

These small episodes will focus on local businesses that excel
at particular parts of customer care.

Today's guest is executive director Larry Flatt from Motlow
State Automation and Robotics Training Center.

Welcome to the BLC Connection, Mr.

Flatt.

Larry Flatt:
Well, thank you, and we're glad to have you here.

We especially appreciate everything that Ben Lomand Connect – I
keep wanting to call it Ben Lomand Telephone.

That shows how my age has come around.

But we appreciate everything you do for the community.

And I especially appreciated every night when I sit down and my
internet is working, and I'm able to see those TV

channels that I like to see.

Karen Wilson:
Are you able to get our gig service yet?

Larry Flatt:
Yes, we are.

Karen Wilson:
Good, good. I love the gig.

You know, you don't have to worry about any spinning or anything
like that.

It makes a huge difference.

But I want to say how impressed I am.

I've been in your facility a few times, and it never ceases to
impress me that we have this in our region here.

Larry Flatt:
Well, Warren County has a jewel in the Automation Robotics
Training Center, the ARTC, as we call it.

We are one of only two facilities in at least 250 miles that
have three competing robot

companies in the facility.

The other one is in Decatur, Alabama.

It is funded by the state of Alabama.

So they have some pretty deep pockets.

We, on the other hand, are part of academics, but we are more
specifically part of the workforce group of Motlow

College. And so therefore, we have to raise our own money.

So we're quite proud of the fact that we have this multimillion
dollar facility.

I would also add that we are going to increase the size by about
7,000 square feet, hopefully starting sometime

in late fall, early spring.

Karen Wilson:
Let's begin with the training that ARTC provides.

So what is automation and robotics training for those who have
not visited a plant or factory?

You know, you have a visual in your mind of human beings on a
line, but that is probably not accurate

anymore. What is all the robotics that you all provide or the
training?

What is that used for?

Larry Flatt:
Well, you are correct in that the image is back to the forties
and fifties when most people talk about manufacturing.

And there are still facilities that employ that, but they are
like dinosaurs.

They're going to live a fairly fast demise.

Most of the companies you work with today have embraced this
thing called 5S, where you shine up your

facility, you focus on productivity, you focus on customer
support and employee

well-being. And people that listen to TV or listen to radio or
read are hearing this thing called

I4.0. I4.0 is industry 4.0.

It's just another way of referring to what I would say
revolution in industry number four.

So we think back to Henry Ford in the late 1800s or early 1900s,
and then we had the automotive people that came here

from Japan and other things that happen.

But the industry 4.0 is about automation and providing creature
comfort

as well as creature well-being, plus the ability to earn a
living that affords you the ability to have the

things that we enjoy for those of us that are a little bit
older.

So I4.0, you're going to hear terms like big data, whereas
before our interest

was in improving productivity by working harder and maybe a
little bit smarter in some cases.

With I4.0 strategy in the workplace, we're now in the process of
collecting data, analyzing

data, looking for automation that has artificial intelligence.

So it says this motor traditionally has run 500 hours, and we
have to replace it.

And so now we start collecting data, and we look at that and at
250, 300 hours, we plan to replace the motor instead of

letting the machine break down.

So it is an all encompassing approach to more productivity, with
more profit, with

more people employed at a higher level, because now we need more
technical skills.

Karen Wilson:
Right. So you're planning your maintenance like many factories
do, and then you're not waiting for the automation to

break down on its own.

You schedule your maintenance and things like that and then
you're training, I guess, and you correct me if I'm wrong, your

people to work on these robots and do the maintenance and things
like that.

I know that's a very small way of looking at it.

Larry Flatt:
But you're exactly correct.

The skills that we're imparting to young people through the
mechatronics program on the academic side allows

them to enter the workforce at a much higher pay scale with a
lot more skills.

And you're going to hear things like micro credentials and
stackable credentials, but more specifically,

the TCAT next door to us and what we do here again on the
academic side is providing those young men and women

with a lot of hands on opportunity so that they can do things
like you were alluding to.

If you're looking at a motor, we're now going to predict when
it's going to fail, and we're going to not let that cause us to

have a catastrophic event in our factory.

Karen Wilson:
Right. Productivity and as you said, well-being of the workers as
well.

So tell us, I guess, how the idea of the training facility began
and then came to fruition.

Larry Flatt:
If you look back at what has happened in Warren County that has
made Motlow be a star in the state of

Tennessee, and in some cases across the entire nation, as it
relates to mechatronics and robotics.

If you recall, we had several factories closed back ten or 15
years ago.

Carrier being one of those.

AL Smith.

Karen Wilson:
Aquatech.

Larry Flatt:
Powermatic.

You just keep naming them.

There were five or six major industries that closed.

And so consequently, we had all these people who had done things
really well for their employer, but they didn't have a lot of

skill sets. For instance, at Carrier, there were many people,
good people, that came to work every day and

performed their job very well.

But they might have only driven a Ford truck.

And they maybe didn't have a lot of academic background.

And so when Carrier closed or Powermatic closed or Century or AL
Smith or whoever you want to name, those individuals needed

other opportunities to improve their skill sets.

And so the Business Roundtable Action Group with Motlow and
Industrial Development Board and Warren County all came

together about 2008 or 2009 and said, "We really need to start a
mechatronics program."

Motlow is the second community college in the nation that
embraced the Siemens approach to third

party credentialing of individuals coming out of that program.

And by doing that, we now have a third party validation that
says we are teaching what industry believes those

young men and women need to have.

And from there, we built up the mechatronics program, started
with nine individuals, and as of last count, we have

graduated well over 600 individuals out of the mechatronics
program.

That gets us to about 2015.

And in 2015, it became apparent of what was happening to replace
individuals in industry who were doing these

dangerous, mundane, sometimes dirty jobs.

And so robotics began to show up.

And the group that pretty much the same group of companies might
be different faces came back to Motlow and said, "We think we

need to start a robotics program." And out of that robotics
program grew the concept and the facility we

have. And so I'll hush, and let you ask another question, but
then I'll expand a little more.

Karen Wilson:
Well, that's what I was going to say.

So you got us to the point, you guys were doing some teaching
through the mechatronics.

And then did it just kind of evolve where it's like, "Okay, we
need a facility here.

We need we need more hands on approach to this."

Larry Flatt:
It evolved from the standpoint that people begin to look around,
and all of a sudden we became the Detroit of the South.

And so the automotive people, the Nissans, the Volkswagens and
other companies were locating here, or

relocating here.

And when they did that, you have all these tier one suppliers
and tier two suppliers that are also locating or co-locating or

building. And the group that came together, when I go back and
look at the grant, it was approved.

And as part of Governor Haslam's drive to 55, they identified
that there were 7,000 robots within 70 miles

of Warren County.

So because we're halfway between Chattanooga and Smyrna and
Nashville area, we have those businesses with robots.

But they really miss measured.

Because I can count three companies that have 7,000 robots, but
the impetus was there that we need to

equip individuals to repair these robots, to program these
robots, to service

the people who are providing the robots into the company, i.e.

the engineers and the project managers and those people.

Karen Wilson:
So let's get into how you've partner with these leading
manufacturers of industrial robots and what these robots

are used for in the industry.

You mentioned three major robotics manufacturers that you all
work with and outside certifications and

things like that. Elaborate on that partnership.

Larry Flatt:
Okay. There are lots of robot companies, and they're more every
day trying to get into the business.

But if you look locally, there are three manufacturers, one out
of Sweden, ABB, and FANUC

and your Yoshikawa Motoman, both out of Japan.

But they have U.S.

bases that provide somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 to 80% of
the robots in the United States to

industry. If we look specifically in our area, FANUC is located
in Nissan.

It's located in Voltswagen.

It's located in lots of other companies, and they probably have
somewhere around 60% of the US market share.

So if you go to the Nissan factory in Smyrna or you go to the
Nissan factory where they make the engines in Decker, Tennessee,

you're going to see somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 to
5,000 robots in those two locations, putting together either

engines together or cars together or whatever.

When I go to your Yorozu ten miles down the road, they've got
somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 to 1,500 robots from

Motoman Corporation that are welding car parts.

So odds are when you drove over here today, the undercarriage of
your car was probably – some part of it was made in Morrison

Tennessee, and they used a Motoman robot to weld it together.

And then we look at ABB, as I indicated when you came in, we have
a class today.

ABB and FANUC are located in Michigan and Motomon is located in
Ohio.

We have a class of ABB students here this week, and ABB can do
the same thing at any other robot company can do.

But in the automotive industry they have a niche market.

So if you go to Volkswagen, for instance, they're painting the
cars, they're putting the elastic or mastic around the

windshields and of the moon roofs, and then they're putting
those items in the cars.

You go to Nissan in Smyrna, they're painting cars.

So they have a niche market.

But as I said earlier, we are partnered with them, and we have a
contract with them.

And we have a revenue sharing agreement with them where some part
of what is charged for each class is returned back to Motlow

in the form of a profit.

Karen Wilson:
Okay. So it kind of helps.

It's not just something that's just here because.

As you guys are hopefully making Motlow even more stable,
bringing money into Motlow through this need that

the industry had and fulfilling that need.

Larry Flatt:
That's correct. And as I said earlier, I won't call us a profit
center, but we are different.

The ARTC is different from academics.

Academics is a 14-week semester.

You pay tuition fee, and you get a certificate or credential.

Or you get an AAS or AS degree.

And then you go into the workforce, you go on to a four-year
school, and you complete that formal education.

Everything we do in this facility is work based or around
working.

Those three individuals that I introduced you to earlier all
work for a company in Louisiana.

They may not have seen a robot when they came here on Monday,
but this coming Monday, they will be back in their factory

programing robots.

Karen Wilson:
Wow. Impressive.

So how do you keep.

I know this technology changes.

How do you keep your facility up to date as these robots kind of
evolve and change?

Or is it something that maybe it doesn't change that much?

Or elaborate on that for me.

Larry Flatt:
Well, with any technology, it's good for about 3 to 5 years, and
then you're going to be looking to have to upgrade.

So we fortunately hit a time when most of the companies had just
introduced current versions of

what their robotics programing need to be.

And every robot is made up of what people see out here that's
got an X, Y or Z and 1 to 3 axis.

We call them six axis robots, so that we can move in six
directions at one time.

That robot doesn't change as often as this thing called the
controller.

The controllers like your computer at your desk where you input
data, and then you output data through a printer.

So the controllers change as they see a competitive need or as
technology changes.

So our challenge is to find money from some source to continue
to upgrade.

And we do that through grants.

We do it through the money that we raise for teaching, but
there's never enough money.

So we're always looking for what we're going to do the next time
we need to upgrade.

And in some cases, our contracts with these companies allow us
to maybe trade in the older version, and

they will put that in spare parts.

Or they'll sell it on the market for less money for smaller
companies that maybe don't have the money to buy the more

expensive robot at the time.

And then that allows us multiple ways to re-facilitize, if you
will.

Karen Wilson:
Is that part of your responsibility?

I guess, as a director is to constantly evaluate the technology,
and when it's time to upgrade do you lean on kind of these

manufacturers to tell you when it's time to change your
training?

Larry Flatt:
As a matter of fact, I do.

I do that as part of my job.

For instance, ABB will be introducing a new robot next year.

The people that were designing that robot, I actually spent
several hours on the phone with them in a conference calls where

they ask my input about "What do you think we need to do?

What would make it easier to train on these robots?" So that's
the kind of relationship we have with these companies where I'm,

in many cases, personal friends with their senior training
managers, or in this case, an engineer, a lady that was working

on a new robot.

And so they've let me know that next year, maybe a year after,
we're going to have to replace the six robots I have here from

ABB.

FANUC, I just saw a note come out today.

They've introduced a new robot.

I knew it was coming. I just hadn't seen the specifics on it,
but I did get an email on that today.

So all of a sudden I'm going to be leaning on somebody to find
some grant money that we can buy what we need and do what we

need to do. Because if you're not current, people are not going
to come here.

Karen Wilson:
Well, and you alluded to that earlier, talking about people
coming here from other areas to train.

So that's another resource that the ARTC provides, is training
for people already in the industry.

Talk to the audience about that need and how the ARTC is
utilized in that capacity.

Larry Flatt:
In response to the question, I'm going to make a statement, and
then we'll talk a little bit about that.

The thing that I would like our audience to know is the people
who come here are from the

region. For instance, we've just done a significant amount of
training for Batesville on the automation side.

We haven't even talked about anything except robots, but we also
teach automation.

Automation uses things like PLCs, Programable Logic Controllers.

That's a big, fancy word to say.

It's just like your computer or your controller in your car.

It is a device that runs a piece of equipment.

And so logic controller implies there's logic involved, and
you're controlling something.

And so those PLCs have replaced in the last 25 years, things
like switches.

Today, when you pick up your smartphone, you don't have keys
anymore.

You've got a thing called a human machine interface and HMI.

That's your smart screen.

And so you begin to touch that, swipe it and do those things.

We now do that with machines in industry.

We don't buy a bunch of switches.

We program them into an HMI, and then this thing called a PLC in
the background, it takes the input from that screen and makes the

machine do something.

So with that in mind, the ability to do these things

helps people get better jobs, higher paying jobs, and in many
cases get promotions.

I said all that to lead up to the point that it is regional in
that we go out and try to recruit people

from all over the state, if you will, to come here.

But more importantly, some portion of our attendees here,
probably more than

70% as of right now, are from out of state.

And they come here because we are on the website of these
companies.

So, for instance, if you go to ABB's website and you're looking
for a class that they call US420, Introduction to Robotics

. Little old Motlow is listed right there with their corporate
training facility.

And so you can say, Do I want to go to Michigan in January, or
do I want to come to McMinnville, Tennessee?

Karen Wilson:
Oh, we're happy to have them here.

I mean, Larry, you could get over my head pretty quick with all
of the, but I mean, it's amazing too and reassuring to think of

even local industries utilizing this facility to better their
factories, their jobs, you know, and

educating their people.

Because all of those people reside in our region here and are
making a living here and raising their families here.

So it's very, I guess, good to know that places like Batesville
and factories in our territory are

utilizing this.

Larry Flatt:
Yes. Yeah. And locally we have top people from Dyersburg,
Tennessee,

Chattanooga, of course, our local industries.

A lot of people out of Smyrna come here.

One of the things that's really helped us in getting people to
want to come here is the new hotel and the renovation

that they're going to be doing to the Best Western, which may
not be common knowledge, but they're going to be investing fairly

good amount of money in upgrading the facilities at the Best
Western.

So those two facilities being within some cases walking distance
of this facility have allowed people to and

encourage people to want to stay in McMinnville.

Before unfortunately, they were staying in – I guess fortunately
for them, but unfortunately for us – they were staying in

Manchester, Murfreesboro and other places.

And so we always want to recognize those people that are
supporting us in the additions that have been made in Warren

County in terms of creature comfort and convenience.

Karen Wilson:
Yeah, if you want to or you've got to go to training someplace,
you do like a nice place to stay.

Convenient. Good places to eat.

Of course, it's beautiful here, and there's plenty to do if they
decide to stay.

But I didn't think about that.

You need those complimentary resources to make it attractive to
send your folks here.

Larry Flatt:
Yes. And several of our instructors who are outdoors kind of
people have actually brought their campers down,

and they're staying at Fall Creek Falls or Rock Island or other
places and enjoying the outdoors part of what we have to offer

here, in addition to being able to teach you.

Karen Wilson:
Well, that's good to know. It's all a big circle and hands go in
hands to make all that just a perfect environment.

So my final question, I guess, and is just what are a couple of
your favorite success stories or wins for the

ARTC?

Larry Flatt:
Well, I thought about that last evening as I was getting ready
for the podcast today.

We have lots of individuals and companies that I believe have
benefited significantly from the fact that we're

here. But a couple of things that I would just share right off
the top.

We have a strong partnership with Kasai, which is a Tier one
supplier of door panels and headliners to many car

companies.

Corporate headquarter is in Manchester, and of course, the
manufacturing facility at corporate headquarters in Smyrna and

the manufacturing in Manchester.

I think I said that incorrectly.

They about 18 months ago had a new model being introduced by
Nissan, and they needed to

build, I believe, it was a door panel for a car to make a
prototype deadline.

The work cell that needed to make that was still in Japan.

And so they weren't sure how they were going to be able to
provide this in time, that Nissan wasn't going to be unhappy with

them because they didn't make their deadline.

We have, with all three companies, we have a virtual training
opportunity with

them, specifically Kasai I use his Motoman, and they have a
thing called MotoSIM Touch.

And so MotoSIM Touch allows you to program the robot offline on
a computer, but you can import

your work cell that engineers have designed.

You can import your robot.

You can do everything virtually.

And so they call me up and said, "What if we come down and do
that?" They brought one of our former students

and two engineers down, and in three days they started from
scratch, programmed that entire work cell.

Programmed the robot. Put it on a thumb drive, and when the work
cell arrived, they plugged a thumb drive in, tweak the points,

and they made the deadline for that part.

That's a real win when you can talk about industry coming here
to be trained, but more importantly, we can support industry.

And so we're quite excited by those opportunities.

The other thing we're excited about that is not a win yet, but
we anticipate it will be, is electric vehicles are the

up and coming thing that everybody is talking about, reading
about and anticipating.

Specifically Blue Oval City, a multibillion dollar investment by
Ford over in West Tennessee.

They're going to employ somewhere around 11,000 individuals, if
I remember the right number.

And many of those will have to be trained.

Even though they're going to build a Tennessee College of Applied
Technology facility onsite, we're optimistic at working with the

local Industrial Development Board, Economic Development for the
state of Tennessee and Ford specifically, that we're going to be

able to get part of that training.

And that means people would be traveling here from West
Tennessee, being trained and then going back to Ford.

And if we when we accomplish that, it will be a major event for
this faciliy.

Karen Wilson:
I think about 11,000 potential employees, one coming to the state
for that.

But then you can't possibly train at one facility for that.

But it's so interesting that within even that same state of
Tennessee, they have a second location

to come here to McMinnville and get that training.

That's just so impressive.

Larry Flatt:
Well, we're excited about it.

And we've already had some dialog with some people from Ford.

I can't go a lot deeper into it right now, but we're working
that.

We're also excited that Ultium Sales in Spring Hill, Tennessee,
will be the battery provider for General Motors Cadillac that's

going to be built starting, I believe, next year in the Spring
Hill facility.

We're also working with them to possibly be a training provider
for them.

They're going to be exclusively FANUC robots.

We're not sure about the PLC yet, but I have four brands of PLCs
we can teach, and we're pretty confident that one of those four

will be ones that we teach.

Karen Wilson:
So this wasn't on my list of questions, but thinking like, okay,
I've got a student in high school, maybe

early years of college or something of that nature.

What as a parent or as a teacher are you planning?

What seeds are you planting for students to go into this field?

What are they studying in their high schools or at the high
school to broaden this career?

Larry Flatt:
But I'm going to answer your question with a statement, and then
I'll talk specifics.

I taught mechatronics here for about six and a half years before
we built a facility.

And I moved over here, and I tried to encourage those young men
and women by saying to them, plan your career about

what you do not want to do when you're 55, as opposed to what
you can do when you're 25.

And so as we take that and they kind of mull that over in their
head and wondering what this old man is trying to tell them, we

get then into the conversation about what do you really want to
do with your life?

It's easy to be on top of a machine or climbing the ladder when
you're 25.

It's not so easy when you're 65 or 55.

And so that leads us then to the discussion about getting skill
sets, getting credentials, getting micro credentials,

demonstrating capability.

Book knowledge is always important.

I'm an engineer by degree.

I have a master's in business, and they have served me well.

But the thing that served me better as I came out of college was
the fact that during that time I worked in factories

when I was a junior and senior in college, and then later in my
career.

And I had these crusty old men that would pick me up and say,
"Don't do it that way, do it this way, because that's a better

way of doing it." And so we try to encourage our young men and
women to think about better ways to do it.

What skills do I need, what I really want to do with those
skills.

And 10, 15 years down the road, instead of just today, I get to
buy a new car.

Karen Wilson:
Critical thinking skills.

And that's part of what I guess kids are developing during those
years of their schooling is to rethink things.

Larry Flatt:
Yes. And I might add, because as we ponder this question, I was
working with a company about two months ago, and everybody

today wants to talk about soft skills: team building, writing a
resumé, being able to communicate those kind of things.

This company looked at me across the table and they said, "Do
not use that term again in our factory.

It's critical to work skills." And so I am trying to get people
to start calling them critical to work skills.

You need these skills.

You need to be able to work in a team.

You need to have critical thinking.

You need to have problem solving.

You need to be able to look beyond today and see what's going to
happen tomorrow.

So if I just burned up a $4,000 motor, why did it burn up as
opposed to putting another motor in there and burning up

another $4,000 motor?

So these critical to work skills are the things that we all
should be promoting in our young people.

Karen Wilson:
Well, you mentioned the expansion.

What is that looking like, or what are you planning for the
expansion of the ARTC?

Larry Flatt:
Well, as I said, we're going to add an additional 7,000 square
feet with some offices.

What that will entail will be three classrooms.

We're going to add a cybersecurity program in McMinnville.

We've already got it in Moore County, and we've got it in
Smyrna, but we'll be adding it here.

So we'll have a large classroom for cybersecurity.

We'll have two new classrooms for mechatronics, and we're adding
three additional laboratories: one for cyber, two for

mechatronics, and then the additional space.

Because if you go to the original center here in McMinnville,
you'll say there's not any room for

growth in terms of adding faculty or administrative services.

And so we'll be adding several opportunities for more office
space, more administrative space.

Karen Wilson:
Well, as a technology provider.

When you say cybersecurity, that just, you know, appeals, that
is such a critical thing right now.

Glad to see you all offering that because it's something that's
very needed all over the United States, all over the world.

So it's impressive to think that some of those people will be
training here locally in McMinnville.

Larry Flatt:
It's especially important when you look at the companies that are
being held hostage.

One of our sister community colleges was ransomware about six
months ago, and last

semester they had to enroll people on paper because they still
had not gotten all their records and systems back up and running.

And so cybersecurity, the ability to intercept and thwart, if
you will, those people that are trying to get

inside of your facility is one of the most important things, in
my opinion, that is currently being taught to

our young men and women.

We also have the ability through some grants to and working with
Amazon, a thing called AWS.

Amazon is, it's cloud computing, if you will.

But Amazon is providing funds and credentialing for our students
and for our faculty to be able to achieve,

in many cases, thousands of dollars worth of credentials free
simply by going through our cybersecurity program.

Karen Wilson:
Wow. That is a great opportunity for students.

There's many out there. As you said, getting certifications and
credentials can be very expensive.

So that's a great resource for them to get what they need at
little or no cost to them.

And then what a leg up in the career world that they have with
those credentials.

It's almost like endless possibilities.

Larry Flatt:
That's correct. And I don't recall if I said this before or not,
but when we started introducing on the academic side

micro credentials two semesters ago, working with Motoman, the
four credentials that cost the students

$100, if they came here and took that on the industry side, it'd
be $4,000 worth of credentials.

So when we can work with companies on the academic side and get
discounts or free certifications, it's a real

win for the college and the students and the community and the
employer.

Karen Wilson:
Yeah, well, that's a good note to end on.

Mr. Larry Flatt.

That's a very positive note, and I want to thank you for being
our guest today on this special edition of the BLC

podcast. I think we've learned a lot about how you all provide
employment resources and training facilities for

leading industrial employers, and I invite our listeners to tune
in for future episodes and share this content with other

businesses. Until next time, this is your BLC Connection.