Abstract NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract A COMMUNITY COLLEGE - INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP TO DEVELOP AN AUTOMATED SYSTEMS TRAINING PLATFORM Abstract SMC International Training, Inc., Intel, the National Science Foundation and Maricopa Advanced Technological Education Center (MATEC) partnered in 2001 to develop a technician training platform for highly automated production systems. The system was to have broad but significant applications in a variety of high tech industries including electronic and nano devices, aerospace subsystem manufacturing, thin film and optics production, biomedical device material handling, and highly automated cargo transport control and monitoring systems. Twelve community colleges in the seven states vying for national recognition as high tech manufacturing regions were invited to join this coalition. These educational institutions participated with industry partners in the conception of and ultimate realization of the HAS 200 (Highly Automated System) Training Platform, currently available from SMC - International Training. HAS 200 training systems were installed at the Pilot schools over a 12 month period in 2003 – 2004. The Pilot group has been facilitated and coordinated by MATEC, a National Science Foundation National Center for Advanced Technological Education. This paper describes the long range planning and implementation of this project, and lesson learned during this long term development partnership between industry and academia. Equipment Concept Development The role of manufacturing and production technicians in many industries is rapidly changing. Technicians are now required to have a working understanding of modern manufacturing concepts. Thus, educational institutions at both the two- and four-year levels must have the capacity to teach Factory Dynamics Concepts (theory and practice) including: Theory of Constraints, Tool Capacity Utilization, Throughput, Cycle Time, Yield, and Manufacturing Automation Systems. This requirement has created a need for a hands-on training and education system that emulates a modern manufacturing environment (e.g., a 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facility, or “fab”) with a MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to integrate production processing with the ordering processes for system optimization, WIP (Work in Progress) identification and tracking systems, and an AMHS (Automated Materials Handling System). Intel, its industry colleagues and its education partners recognized this need and approached the problem in two steps: 1) skills standards development and 2) collaboration to develop and pilot the training and education system to emulate the modern manufacturing environment. A collaboration of industry and educators conducted a year-long study to create a formative set of skills standards to guide technician education.1,2 Published in 2002, The National Skills Standards for Technicians in Highly Automated Manufacturing Environments