December 2019

www.mtcofswva.org

1000 East Main

Wytheville, VA

Serving 17 counties and 4 cities

1

FROM THE DIRECTOR

As 2019 draws to a close, so does my

time at the MTC.

I will be retiring January 1st after 19

years at the MTC. I want to thank all

MTC employees, clients, and partners for the amaz-

ing support you have provided during my time here. I

have enjoyed it very much.

The MTC and its mission will continue and I wish all

of you the very best in the future. If there is anything

I can do to assist you in any way, please do not hesi-

tate to ask.

Thank you again, and may you all enjoy a wonderful

holiday season and a happy and prosperous 2020!

Nelson Teed

I am sure many of you remember The Jetsons. Would you have dreamed you would be living in that

age of inventions? Of course, we all own a smart phone and I never had a clue when watching The

Jetsons on Saturday mornings I and others would own such a convenience, along with such items

as the smart watch, microwave, robotic vacuum, 3D printer, and the list goes on. Vehicles today—

wow! Talk about conveniences when driving. Check out Volvo’s truck and conveniences—talk about

home on the road. https://youtu.be/mQYNlPkkvE0?t=773 GPS—it has taken the place of paper

maps. No more pulling over to look at your map. Thank goodness! Our ancestors would have been

impressed. The manufacturing industry continues to wow and impress with bigger innovations, i.e.,

some soon to come are brain-computer interfaces (no more mouse/keyboard), employee robots (no salary/benefit

packages), artificial intelligence, Graphene, a subject spoke on at the Higher Education Center this past spring—very

interesting, the flying vehicle (some are skeptical but I am sure the Wright Brothers received their fair share of skeptics), and smart houses.

Manufacturing is in a league of its own—you are a part of this special league—and the industry will continue to bring many surprises, some we

will be ready for, some we may not. Life is to be embraced and enjoyed and with so many modern conveniences it makes it easier. This

Christmas season, as many will receive some of the inventions lived in The Jetson household, take a minute to remember those less blessed,

give thanks, and enjoy those around you. As 2019 ends and a new decade begins, live each day with gratitude. Best wishes and may

each of you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. I look forward to working with you in 2020! Linda

Linda Newman

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

News from the Director………………..….1

Engineering Corner Shawn Wildman……...2

Engineering Corner Kevin Mumpower…....3

Working to Make the World A Better Place……………………..………………………….….4

Upcoming Events: Spring 2020

LSSGB—NRCC February 6 thru May 14

LSSYB—NRCC March 4 thru April 29

LSSGB—VHCC March 19 thru June 4

LSSYB—VHCC January 30 thru March 5

LSSGB—SVCC March 17 thru June 02

LSSYB—SVCC January 28 thru March 3

LSSBB—Abingdon, VA March 11,12,25,26; April 8,22,23; May 6,7,20,21; June 3, 4, 17, 18

ISO 9001:2015; 14001:2015 April 6, 13, 20

GD&T (Basic) VHCC—May 4, 11, 18; June 1, 8

LSSGB—WCC—February 11 thru March 24

LSSYB—WCC—March 31 thru April 21

GD&T (Basic)—WCC—March 9, 16, 23

ISO 9001:2015; 14001:2015—WCC February 3, 10, 17

E ngineering Corner

GPS apps have become very advanced. All you have to do is say the address

where you want to go, push a few buttons on the screen and the app will give you

turn-by-turn directions and provide a map on how to get there. While traveling

your GPS will read the directions to you and provide new routes to avoid traffic.

You know where you want to go and the app tells you how to get there and even

helps avoid obstacles that would slow you down. If only Apple or Android would create such an app for

our business. We could just say what we want our business to look like in a year, push a few buttons on

the screen and the app would give us step-by- step instructions to achieve our business goals.

“I want my business to be the industry leader in widget manufacturing with 0 safety incidents, 99% on

time delivery at the customer, 99% overall equipment efficiency, and $0 in customer credits.”

Press a few buttons on the screen, communicate the plan to your Leadership Team, and then reap the

rewards of a successful business year! Regretfully, Google Play doesn’t list an app for creating business

operating plans. The lack of an app isn’t the only problem companies face today. Often what needs to

be fixed within the business to make it successful isn’t clear, which only makes the problem that much

greater. However, there is a way you can identify the issues that keep the business from achieving goals,

generate ideas to improve the efficiency of your business, and create a plan to make those ideas a reality.

The creation of a Value Stream Map, or VSM, is designed to help identify the problems that generate

waste within a business, create a future state in how the business should operate (with less waste), and a

set of action items to move the business from where it is now to the future state. The first step (1) to

creating a VSM is to create a map of how the business operates now, or the “current state” VSM. The

process of creating the current state VSM helps identify unnecessary steps within the front office and

wastes in the manufacturing processes. With wastes within the business processes now known it’s time

to create the “future state” VSM. The second step (2) is to create a future state VSM for the business

that eliminates as many of the unnecessary steps and wastes in the current state as possible. The fu-

ture state VSM is a map of how the business should operate to maximize performance. It becomes the

vision of the future and how to run the business. What becomes obvious is a glaring difference be-

tween the current and future state VSM’s. This leads to the third step (3), creating and completing an

action item list to move the business from the current to the future state. The completion of the action

item list is often the most difficult task in the process. Taking steps such as setting task completion

dates 30 days out, utilizing existing equipment, and utilizing everyone within the business to complete

tasks can greatly improve success.

So, until either Google Play or the Apple Store begin offering business operat-ing plan apps ,VSM’s will remain the best tool for businesses to create plans to achieve their goals. If you would like to learn more about Values Stream Map-ping, or any other service offered by the MTC, please feel free to contact Linda Newman at 276-223-4709.

Shawn Wildman

2

Shawn Wildman, MTC Sr. Project Engineer, representing the MTC at the Montgomery County Chamber of Com-merce Business Expo on November 13, 2019 at Virginia Tech.

E ngineering Corner

Recently the need in Southwest Virginia for basic and advanced knowledge/appli-cation skills in the area of Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) became evident. MTC stepped forward and took the lead to draft a comprehensive curricula that teaches the foundation, concepts, and applicability of GD&T per the new ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineering) Y14.5-2018 Standard.

The two one-half day (4 hour) workshop sessions has and can deliver to the students a detailed review of GD&T, from the history and purpose of GD&T, through symbols, rules & concepts, feature forms, da-tums, part orientation, part location, runout, and profile tolerancing. The combination of textbook dis-cussions, exercises using actual machined parts with their associated drawings, and a spacial demonstra-tion on imaginary datums with foundational videos of multi-axis Cartesian coordinate system concepts engages the students with intensity and challenges them via quizzes and tests.

Once again, MTC is leading the effort to ensure all of our manufacturing company’s training needs are ready to be met at all times. Come visit our website, check out our LinkedIn page, and/or give us a call so

we can take your staff to a new technical plateau of achievement.

Kevin N. Mumpower

3

+ +

The Manufacturing Technology offers a 6-week Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt (2.4 CEU’s),

and a 12-week Lean Six Sigma Green Belt with a Project Completion (4.8 CEU’s). Both

courses are ASQ certifiable and the exam fee is included in the tuition. These courses are

partnered with Workforce Development at MECC, NRCC, SWCC, VHCC and WCC and

there is assistance with tuition through grants.

MTC will conduct through a partnership with GENEDGE Alliance, a 16-day Lean Six Sigma

Black Belt with project completion course. This course, in cooperation with Virginia Tech’s

Continuing Education and Professional Education Group, will award commensurate con-

tinuing education credit upon successful completion.

The MTC offers the perfect opportunity for an individual to gain their Yellow Belt, Green

Belt and Black Belt, all within a 6-month period. Call the MTC today at 276-223-4709 for

more information on how you and your employees can get started on this Lean Six Sigma

path.

" Kevin Mumpower, MTC Sr. Project Engineer, talking with Steve Fletcher, Sales Manager, Wolf Hills Fabrica-tion. Kevin presented the MTC brochure showing all of the many technical training and support services offered by MTC to help Wolf Hills grow their business."

4

Working to make the world a better place!

The MTC conducted a ASQ

Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt

on the campus of Virginia

Highlands Community Col-

lege Spring 2019 in partner-

ship with VHCC Workforce

Development. Five stu-

dents completed this 6-

week course obtaining 2.4

CEU’s which qualified them

to sit for the ASQ Certifica-

tion Exam. This course

improves a student’s

knowledge base or improves

the knowledge base of executive champions who require an overview of the DMAIC process. This train-and

-do course uses classroom activities, combining lecture and simulation exercises. There are 18 training

topics covered in this course. Contact your local Community College WFD and register for a class in Spring

2020.

L-R: James Denton. Don Johnson. Thomas Hash. Fred Holt. Israel Crusenberry

Employees from InMotion,

Blacksburg, VA received .8 CEU’s

for training in ISO 14001 Spring

2019. This course covered Envi-

ronmental Management Systems,

compliance, aspects and impacts,

timelines for meeting require-

ments, and documentation exam-

ples. This course consisted of

lecture, class exercises and peer

discussions.

L-R: Phillip Hunt. Ian Hovey. Andrea Bedsaw. Adam Humphrys. Cliff Hatchett. Anh Le

Kevin N. Mumpower taught a Lean Six

Sigma Green Belt with Project Comple-

tion course at Virginia Highlands Com-

munity College Fall 2019. Four students

completed this course and are now eligi-

ble to sit for the ASQ exam. This was a

12-week course that also required each

student to complete a project that would

be cost-savings to their company. Each

project has to be supervisor/instructor

approved and many hours are spent

outside the classroom to complete the

project. Students earn 4.8 CEU’s for the

course and the ASQ exam is included in

the tuition. Congratulations to Don,

James, Drew and Scott for their accom-

plishment. Contact your local Workforce

Development Office to register for

Spring 2020.

L-R: Don Johnson. James Denton. Drew Langston. Scott Poston