Insight on Manufacturing

November 2020

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w w w.in s i g h t o n m f g . c o m November 2020 • /INSIGHT ON MANUFACTURING | 25 For educational outreach, in addition to visiting schools and hosting plant tours, the alliance and businesses have hosted SeaPerch competitions in which middle school students build and put to the test underwater remotely operated vehicles. More than 300 students have participated over the years. The event is held each February at a pool, and it draws students from all over the region, including Marinette, Door County, Brillion, Seymour and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Einstein Project, housed within the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's STEM Innovation Center, has taken over coordinating the event for the alliance, and throughout the years, several teams have advanced to the national competition. "What's great about the program is, besides building the robot and being able to compete with the robot in the water, (students) also have to give a presentation," which helps build important communication skills, Franz says. Delforge says he hopes the industry will see the positive outcomes of the work. "Our hope really is, we started reaching out to the middle schoolers and high schoolers six, seven years ago, so they're all graduating. That was our hope, was to lay the foundation, and now we'll start to see if we'll see any of those students that we've touched come back." Positioning for the future No victory could have been sweeter for the region in the 10th-anniversary year of the NCMMA than FMM winning the $800 million contract to build the Navy's new guided missile frigate. If all options are exercised, the cumulative value of the contract would be $5.5 billion. The contract, secured in May, was a win not just for the company but the entire region. All three Fincantieri businesses — which also include Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay and Ace Marine in Green Bay — will help fulfill the contract, and regional suppliers also will benefit. "With that activity, that expands out into our supply chain to hundreds of suppliers that those shipbuilders need just to supply the parts and components that go into the ship," says Meridith Jaeger, dean of corporate training and economic development for NWTC. FMM expects to hire an additional 1,000 workers to help it fulfill the contract. As it seeks to do so, it will look to NWTC's North Coast Marine NWTC's North Coast Marine Manufacturing Training Center opened in 2012 in Marinette and has trained more than 11,000 workers since that time. Virtual Manufacturing Conference Save the date: February 25th, 2021 Experience exceptional speakers, grow your business connections, join valuable discussions, and learn from world class, experienced experts. WMEP.org ADAPT&ADVANCE N W T C

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