anon's planned US$600-million investment to boost its manufacturing prowess at its Hampton Roads site will add momentum to Virginia's already robust advanced manufacturing sector. Site preparation work for the 700,000-sq.-ft. (65,000-sq.-m.) facility is under way as the company progresses toward a spring 2009 opening. The facility will produce cartridges for laser printers that will incorporate Canon's proprietary high-speed automated technology for cartridge production. The project also entails the expansion of the company's repair and refurbishing facilities for digital consumer products.
      "Currently we manufacture 10 models at this facility, and we are expanding our capabilities," says Scott Millar, director of human resources at Canon Virginia. "Our products will be the same, but we will be automating our manufacturing processes to involve robotics and other automation equipment. In the past, most of our cartridge assembly has involved a lot of manual inspection and assembly. Over the past few years, we have begun to incorporate automatic processes and robotics. Our new facility will be fully automated, and our employees will require extensive training, both in process operations as well as in what we call TPM, or total preventive maintenance."
      Training will be held at several community colleges as well as in-house.
      "We are putting together an extensive training curriculum, from basic circuitry to electronics, robotics, hydraulics and advance PLC [programmable logic control] features important in the new line," Millar says. "Part of the reason we were able to land the project here in Virginia is the strong support from community colleges, which will provide a portion of our training."
      The Virginia Community College System comprises 23 community colleges. Thomas Nelson Community in Hampton will be the lead school for Canon's training, but Millar says other community colleges will provide instructors and training for technicians and supervisors over the next three years.
      "Other aspects that make Virginia attractive are the research and development features that the state's engineering schools offer," Millar says. "We will be collaborating with them in the research and design of our automation equipment. We hope to look at innovative and creative methods that will not only be used at our facility, but at other Canon facilities around the globe. Virginia is very strong in this area and has several good engineering schools."
      Training is a key to the project. Millar notes that there are not enough potential skilled workers in the region to fill Canon's needs.
      "Labor presents a challenge, and we came to the conclusion that we really cannot hire the work force that has the skills we need," Millar says. "We have to develop that work force and train them up to our standards. That's why we developed the partnership with the community college system. It will enable us to have employees ready to go. We are fortunate that we don't need all 1,000 employees as soon as the building opens — we'll be ramping up."
      Training is already under way with a pilot program Canon initiated to develop maintenance technician positions. The first group of 15 began training in mid-May, and another group will begin in August. Millar says those two groups will be ready to begin work when the first equipment arrives next year.
      Canon Virginia is Canon's only manufacturing operation in the Americas. It is a division of Canon USA, which is building a new headquarters in Melville, N.Y. Canon Virginia currently employs 1,500 in cartridge assembly operations. Canon looked globally, both at Canon sites and other locations, before deciding to place the new facility next to the current plant.       Other regions of the U.S. are also cobbling together education efforts to promote advanced manufacturing. Among them is "Rio South Texas," a seven-county region where an alliance of 60 business, education, economic development, industry, finance and government partners that form the North American Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education Initiative (NAAMREI) recently opened the Rapid Response Manufacturing Center (RRMC) at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburgh. NAAMREI was launched with $5 million from the U.S. Dept. of Labor's WIRED initiative.
      Dr. John Lloyd, RRMC director and research professor of manufacturing engineering at UTPA, says the center offers services in research, development and demonstration; education; innovation and entrepreneurship; and technology-based incubation.
      "We will be working with universities such as Pan American, and also universities around the country and the world, to provide education opportunities for engineers and for engineering students," Lloyd says.
      Education will focus on manufacturing sectors served by the more than 180 manufacturers operating in the 47 maquiladora parks in the McAllen region, such as automotives and electronics. The second phase of RRMC's effort will be development of an education facility on a site near the maquiladora parks. Lloyd says the City of McAllen has donated an 80-acre (32-hectare) site for the facility.
      "The facility will provide education from the 9th grade through continuing education for practicing engineers," Lloyd says.
      The NAAMREI effort has already drawn worldwide attention, says Lloyd. Several Korean, Chinese and Japanese firms have visited the area looking for new manufacturing sites.