Advanced manufacturers know where to go when they’re looking to make their business better. Whether it’s streamlining a manufacturing process, designing a product prototype or doing more with less, they turn to the University of Kentucky’s Center for Manufacturing.
The center is a non-academic division of the university’s College of Engineering, which employs a 35-person staff that includes university faculty. Established by the state of Kentucky in 1986 as the Center for Robotics and Manufacturing, it remains the premier source of technological aid for Kentucky’s advanced manufacturers and inventors. The effort keeps Kentucky’s businesses globally competitive.
Center staff provides the latest in manufacturing research and education and takes technology from the classroom to the manufacturing floor. Last year, the center worked with 11 Northern Kentucky companies on 16 projects in the areas of plant layout expansion, product and prototype design.
“When a company makes a product it all starts with an idea. After the idea, you have to design it, and depending on how complex it is there could be a single or multiple components to that. How you design it can affect the cost and quality of it. So we get involved in design for established and startups,” said the center’s engineering services manager Kim Sayre. “We are a tool in a manufacturer’s tool box.”
The center can work with manufacturers either onsite, or companies can bring in managers and other staff for training at the center’s Lexington campus. It offers classes in partnership with other state universities including Northern Kentucky University.
The center also offers training in lean manufacturing techniques. Manufacturers can work at a mini-factory used as a teaching and training tool.
“Mini factories are set up using traditional manufacturing techniques, and they can start implementing lean techniques that improve efficiency,” Sayre said.
The services are fee-based, and are customized to the individual needs of each company.
Among the Northern Kentucky companies helped by the center is Global Shelter Systems, a small company known for its recently developed BlastBloc protective barrier structures. The product is designed to protect military assets and troops, gas lines and infrastructure in combat zones, among other uses.
The center was instrumental in getting the Fort Thomas company’s product from concept to idea.
“We came to UK with a napkin sketch. They took us from the napkin sketch into manufacturing. All the research and development that went into the product … UK helped us with a significant portion of that,” said Burke Herron, Global Shelter Systems chief development officer in a web video outlining the center’s Industry Services program.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: UK Center for Manufacturing engineering services manager Kim Sayre
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