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Penn
State's Dr. Andrew P. Schissler
(left), who does research
at Westpoint Mining Corporation's
Harmony Mine, an anthracite
coal mine in Mount Carmel,
Pa., is with Westpoint President
Edward Smock (center) and
Dr. Maochen Ge, Penn State
associate professor of mining
engineering.
Westpoint
Mining Corporation
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Streamlining
production, increasing productivity
and cutting costs are important goals
for any business, even mines, which
are complex factories underground,
according to Dr. Andrew P. Schissler,
Penn State assistant professor of
mining engineering.
Improving mining processes is important
in Pennsylvania, a state that ranks
fourth in the nation in coal production,
with 64 million tons mined annually.
Involving
Employees
Schissler
helps the mining industry use business
process improvement (BPI) methods
to analyze continually occurring
processes and make changes for the
better. BPI methods involve employees
in finding those solutions, "because
the people making the product are
the best ones to improve it," said
Schissler, who spent 28 years in
the industry before earning a Ph.D.
and joining the University.
Mining contributes $523 billion to
the U.S. economy and employs nearly
500,000 individuals who extract
such minerals as coal, diamonds,
gold, iron ore and lead, as well
as aggregates, like limestone.
Last summer, Schissler organized
Penn State's first Industry Summit
on Mining Performance to spread
the word about BPI's benefits. The
conference, which drew 65 mining
executives and employees and industry
suppliers and customers, proved
to be popular, and Schissler is
currently at work helping to organize
the second summit, to take place
in Colorado.
Employees of Caterpillar Inc., a
leading manufacturer of construction
and mining equipment based in Peoria,
Ill., have used a BPI approach called
Six Sigma to improve problem solving
and quicken response time for dealer
inquiries, among other achievements,
according to Glen A. Barton, retired
chairman and chief executive officer
of the company, who reported on
Caterpillar's results at the summit.
Peter Fordham, principal at Norbridge
Inc., a management-consulting firm
based in Concord, Mass., helps mining
companies make improvements with
its own BPI approach, called HOME
TEAM (Home of Mining Excellence,
Through Teamwork, Execution, Achievement
and Measurement).
Fordham, who also participated in
Schissler's summit, said, "Ten
years ago, most mining companies
were not utilizing process improvement
techniques and did not recognize
the benefits," adding that
now many companies have active
programs and are generating significant
gains.
The next BPI summit will be held
this fall in Denver, Colo. Dr. Tibor
G. Rozgonyi, head of mining engineering
at Colorado School of Mines, said,
"The summit will provide mining
companies with a holistic system-oriented
approach to BPI, which can help
them maintain a good professional
work atmosphere and employee satisfaction."
Schissler added, "The challenge
for companies is to make the improvement
process
continuous."
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Penn
State has helped generate more
than 400 new businesses in Pennsylvania.
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Penn
State is the largest contributor to
the state's economy--an engine of 24
campuses generating $6.14 billion annually
in direct net economic impact to the
Commonwealth, according to an economic
impact study conducted by Tripp Umbach.
Tripp Umbach President Paul Umbach presented
the findings to a Board of Trustees
seminar in January. In the same meeting,
Vice President for Outreach Dr. Craig
D. Weidemann reported on current economic
development efforts across the University
(see presentation at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/weidemann/speeches.asp),
including a new Outreach Office of Economic
and Workforce Development, led by Jack
Gido.
The presentations highlighted the three
dimensions in which universities contribute
to economic development--economic impact,
human capital development, and research
and innovation--and how Penn State contributes
within each dimension.
Highlights from the presentations include:
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Penn
State has helped generate more than
400 new businesses in the Commonwealth.
-
More
than 15,000 Penn State alumni own
businesses in the state, and these
businesses employ more than 425,000
residents.
-
Research
conducted at Penn State supports more
than 16,000 additional jobs throughout
Pennsylvania. These jobs generate
more than $1.7 billion in additional
economic impact and more than $52.8
million in additional revenue annually
for the state.
-
Every
dollar invested in 2003 by the Commonwealth
to support the operations of Penn
State returned $19.42 in total economic
impact to the Commonwealth.
-
In
2004, Penn State Continuing Education
units at all campuses were responsible
for working with over 400 Pennsylvania
companies, upgrading worker skills
to help these companies remain competitive.
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Interns
learn how to apply their technical
know-how to business processes.
Ron
May |
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All
28 apprentices from the first year
of a program at Penn State Erie's
Center for eBusiness and Advanced
Information Technology have been hired,
thanks to hands-on experience they
gained through the center providing
technical know-how to local companies.
The new center aims to help college
graduates in information technology
(IT), management information systems
(MIS) and computer science learn how
to apply their technical knowledge
to business processes by pairing them
with local companies. "It's a
win-win situation for everyone," said
Ron May, manager of the apprentice
program.
"We are creating partnerships
with IT providers to give our apprentices
exposure to new skills that meet the
needs" of those companies. The
apprentices often get hired at the
company where they trained.
Ken Harrison, 23, joined the program,
which runs from three to 12 months,
"to learn things that were not
covered in school." A fall Penn
State Erie MIS graduate, he is now
working as a systems analyst with
Distributed Network Software LLC
in Erie.
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