Manufacturing Institute, Washington, D.C., has partnered with the Industrial Maintenance Training Center (IMTC) of Pennsylvania and PMMI, a trade organization representing the packaging and processing supply chain headquartered in Reston, Va., to support training for “hybrid” production shops.

A total of 10 community colleges and technical schools in Pennsylvania will align programs to PMMI’s industry certificates in mechatronics, a skill set for modern “hybrid” manufacturing processes. More than 500 students are expected to earn PMMI certificates across the consortium in the next two years, and the pilot partnership will be expanded across the country.

Hybrid industrial maintenance is a growing subset of manufacturing. Historically, technical training has focused on either continuous “process” manufacturing such as production of fluids or “discrete” manufacturing characterized by short production cycles. Hybrid manufacturing requires advanced understanding of both electrical and mechanical skills as well as pneumatics and multi-axis motion control.