ROCK HILL—At the annual Community College Leadership Congress of the Association of Community College Trustees in New Orleans, York Technical College's Institute for Manufacturing Productivity was one of 24 initiatives to receive the association's Community Economic Development Best Practice Award. York Technical College Commission Chairman Tony Vaughn and President Dennis Merrell were on hand for the recognition.

The Institute for Manufacturing Productivity, an innovative partnership between the college and manufacturing technology leaders like Okuma America, Charmilles, and others will be used as a model by other colleges across the country as they work to address local economic development and workforce needs.

In just two years, more than 500 students from manufacturing companies like General Motors, Harley-Davidson, TRW, Honda, John Deere, Siemens, Toyota, and Ingersol-Rand have come to the Institute for training designed to improve productivity in their operations.

"Much credit goes to our industry partners and to the strong leadership and hard work of Bill Beaver, director of the Institute, and the faculty, led by Dr. Marc Tarplee and Tom Dickerson," said Dr. Merrell.

In addition to its role in providing skilled operators, programmers, and CNC maintenance technicians, the Institute has increasingly been called on to assist industry in manufacturing process development and in development of new quality and productivity measures, an activity that is critical to the future success of manufacturing in the U.S.