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Reading:  More than 40 leaders from the packaging industry, economic development, and education met in Reading, PA on Thursday, June 25 to hear the results of multiple studies that were conducted in the course of a Regional Innovation Project in packaging through a Regional Innovation Grant from the US Department of Labor.  Studies reported included an overview of the packaging industry in the tri-state (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) area, a study of the capabilities of the machine building industry in the region to build packaging machines, an in-depth examination of packaging supply chains and opportunities to fill gaps as a part of business attraction, and a report of the highly-articulated program of training in mechatronics and  industrial maintenance that has been developed for new and incumbent workers.

Scott Sheely, Director of the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board, and Keith Campbell, Project Director of the Industrial Maintenance Training Center, opened the conference with an overview of the project.  Click here for that report.  Campbell and Tom Egan, Vice-President of the Packaging Machine Manufacturers Institute provided a general overview of the packaging industry.  Click here and here for those reports.  Sheely presented an overview of the industry and a review of the supply chains and their gaps.  Click here for these reports.  Rob McIlvaine from MANTEC provided an overview of the study of machine-building capacity.  Click here for the entire report.  Commentary by Glenn Siegele of Omega Design Corporation helped those attending in developing a list of priorities for future training including better communication between the parties, more CAM training, and training in rapid design protocols.

John Devere, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development/Community Education at the Reading Area Community College, and Campbell briefed those attending on the program of training that has been developed by RACC in cooperation with the Berks and Lancaster County Workforce Investment.  Click here and here for this information.

Following the morning session and tours of the Schmidt Training Center, educations providers met together to plan for extending the industrial maintenance and mechatronics curriculum into a statewide project.  For more information, contact Scott Sheely at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Chicago, November 10-11, 2008: As a part of its Regional Innovation Project in Packaging, the Center of Excellence in Packaging Operations brought five teachers, counselors, and administrators to Chicago to participate in Pack Expo 2008, a national trade show run by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers' Institute, earlier this month. The eduators spent November 10-11 touring the Expo which fills every major exposition space at the McCormack Place Convention Center in Chicago, IL.

Hatsady Phongxaysanith is a technology education teacher at Conestoga Valley School District, Pam McCarty runs the Future Career Center at McCaskey East High School in the School District of Lancaster, David Tappany is an Assistant Principal at the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center, Mark Reinhardt is a technology education teacher in the Hempfield School District, and Bryan Lefever teaches in the manufacturing program at the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center.

Careers in packaging are among the highest priority jobs in Lancaster County and south central Pennsylvania. Packaging machine operators, hand packers, industrial maintenance mechanics, and mechatronics engineering technicians are high-skill, high-wage, and high-demand jobs with career paths that extend into the food,biotechnology, and other consumer goodsindustries.

This visit to Pack Expo 2008 allowed these key teachers to see first-hand the technology which moves the industry. For a podcast featuring our local teachers and other packaging educators from the Expo floor, click here.

For more information, contact Keith Campbell, the Project Manager of the Center of Excellence in Packaging Operations, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Chicago, November 9, 2008: Over the last four years, the Center of Excellence in Packaging Operations has been providingtraining in mechatronics for incumbent workers in manufacturing-related companies in south central Pennsylvania under the leadership of Project Manager Keith Campbell. The non-credit training program has evolved into a for-credit education program at Reading Area Community College which articulates to a four-year degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology at Purdue University and an Electro-Mechanical Technology degree at Penn State Berks.

PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers' Institute), a national trade organization, is ready to provide industry recognition for components of the non-credit andcredit programs. All of these developments were discussed at Pack Expo 2008, the five-day national trade show run by PMMI which this year was held in Chicago. Keith Campbell's report follows.

One hour into the show, Purdue University Calumet and Reading Area Community College held an official signing ceremony to officially put in place an articulation agreement between the two schools. Dean of Workforce and Economic Development John DeVere of RACC and Dean of the School of Technology Niaz Latif of Purdue signed the agreement which allows students graduating from RACC with an Associate in Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering Technology at to complete the Bachelor of Science degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology at Purdue University Calumet. Both programs are new within the past year and this is the first articulation agreement of its kind in the nation. The RACC program already has 20 students enrolled and the Purdue program has 6. Click here to see a podcase with the two deans discussing the articulation.

Later in the morning, Michigan State University's School of Packaging hosted a Packaging Educators Meeting to discuss development of a Packaging Educators Forum. This forum would provide some structure for sharing ideas among schools and provide occasional social opportunities at which packaging educators could interact. Under discussion is the establishment of a website that can serve as a single source of information on packaging education programs and people.

Sunday afternoon saw a follow-up meeting of educators who participated in the Purdue Workshop on Packaging Mechatronics. This meeting was held in July and sponsored by PMMI and the Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Partnership. The goal of this group is to create a set of nationally recognized certificates that can be offered by PMMI to certify trades people, technicians and technologists in packaging-oriented mechatronics. The group has made excellent progress in defining the suite of certificates. They will be refining the associated skill standards over the next several months and seeking additional industry input.

For more information about the Center of Excellence in Packaging Operations, the Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Partnership, and the Industrial Maintenance Training Center of Pennsylvania, contact Keith Campbell at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .