OXFORD,
Miss. – Amid government bailouts and concerns about a global
depression, plans for the Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the
University of Mississippi continue full speed ahead as advisory board
members met for the first time Friday (Oct. 31).
Gov. Haley
Barbour, who was in attendance, said he is convinced that Mississippi
has the potential to be as advanced in manufacturing as anywhere else
in the world.
“Despite what’s happening in the world today, we’re on the right side of what’s going to happen in manufacturing for at least two generations, maybe longer,” Barbour said. “We’re already competing successfully with the industries that we have. With the addition of the CME, we can only go forward.”
Presidents, plant managers and senior administrators representing 16 industries, lending institutions, and federal and state government agencies gathered in the Inn at Ole Miss boardroom to discuss short- and long-term goals for establishing the center. The meeting’s agenda included introductions, the creation of committees and a discussion of the center’s mission, financial sustainability and renderings. A second meeting is scheduled for next spring.
“Because nothing like the Center for Manufacturing Excellence has ever been done before, there’s a lot we have yet to learn,” said James Vaughan, F.A.P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and interim director of the center. “We need everyone involved to have a better understanding of what manufacturing really is and how we can help produce a stable workforce for it in the state and region.”
In efforts to initiate manufacturing education, Vaughan said the university would begin recruiting for the program in fall 2009, before the center itself has been built. He also mentioned two one-week education programs for K-12 students, which will be offered in June 2009.
Mississippi industry members include Fred Carl, president and CEO of Viking Range Corp. in Greenwood; Anthony Topazi, president and CEO of Mississippi Power Co. in Gulfport; Kristie Sturgeon, plant manager of General Electric Aviation in Batesville; Joey Tarrant, vice president of H.M. Richards Furniture Co. in New Albany; Irwin Edenzon, general manager of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilders of Pascagoula; Charles Holder, CEO of HoI-Mac Corp. in Bay Springs; and Markeeva Morgan, manager of Independent Assessments and Continuous Risk Management for NASA in Madison, Ala.
Representing Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi in Tupelo are President Misao Fukuda and Vice President for Administration David Copenhaver. Toyota supplier member Dennis Cuneo of Covington, Ky., serves on the committee as adviser to Gov. Barbour. Paul Johnson of Oxford represents the governor’s office on the board.
Others CME committee members are Emily DeRocco, senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, D.C.; Aubrey Patterson, chairman and CEO of Bancorp South in Tupelo; David Rumbarger, president and CEO of the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo; and Eric Clark, president of the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges in Brandon.
Associated with the building of a new Toyota manufacturing plant near Blue Springs, the CME will be a first for Mississippi and unique in the nation in its offerings to undergraduate students. The university plans to offer several cross-disciplinary academic programs slanted toward lean manufacturing. In addition, the center is to serve as a resource for manufacturing-related research support and collaboration, industrial extension services to train the state’s manufacturing community in modern manufacturing philosophies, executive-in-residence and visiting faculty fellowship programs, and collaboration with K-12 schools and local community colleges.
For more information about the Center for Manufacturing Excellence, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/cme