Curriculum

Five courses. One working line.

One course per semester. The first two are taught in the classroom and on the bench; the last three run on the production floor, where students first operate the line, then build training-station subassemblies, then complete a full machine module to released engineering packages. Every course ships with an instructor guide and session-by-session lesson plans, ready in Canvas LMS.

5courses, one per semester
225instructional hours per course
1,125hours in total, 3 of 5 courses on the floor

Course 1

Industrial Foundations

Classroom and bench

Bring every learner to a common, safe, employable baseline: safety, tools, electrical and mechanical fundamentals, and a first taste of structured troubleshooting.

Topics

  • Shop safety, PPE, lockout/tagout, electrical and robot-safety awareness
  • Hand and power tools, precision measurement, fasteners and torque
  • Materials and mechanical drawings; introduction to CAD
  • Mechanical assembly: extrusion frames, bearings, shafts, belts, fixtures
  • Electrical fundamentals: AC/DC, Ohm's law, meters, wiring discipline
  • Relays, contactors, basic control wiring, introduction to safety circuits
  • Motor basics; structured electrical troubleshooting with fault insertion

Week by week

  1. Shop safety, PPE, lockout/tagout; machine and robot safety awareness
  2. Hand and power tools; precision measurement; fasteners and torque
  3. Materials, mechanical drawings, tolerances; introduction to CAD
  4. Mechanical assembly: frames, bearings, shafts, belts, fixtures
  5. Electrical fundamentals: AC/DC, Ohm's law, series and parallel circuits
  6. Meters, wiring discipline, terminations
  7. Relays, contactors, control wiring; introduction to safety circuits
  8. Safety relays; motor basics: induction and DC machines
  9. Structured electrical troubleshooting; integration project begins
  10. Integration project and safety sign-off; review and final assessments

Course 2

Automation Core

Classroom and lab

The working automation toolkit: PLCs, sensors and vision, pneumatics, practical hydraulics, servo motion, safety circuits, and industrial networking.

Topics

  • PLC programming, I/O, ladder logic and HMI, with a second PLC platform for cross-platform awareness
  • Industrial sensors: photoelectric, inductive, capacitive; first look at machine vision
  • Pneumatics and electro-pneumatics
  • Hydraulics in practice: safety, reading schematics, leaks, pressure and flow problems, troubleshooting
  • Motors and drives: VFD setup and tuning; servo fundamentals and two-axis coordinated motion
  • Practical safety circuits and industrial networking; device commissioning and I/O checkout
  • Production paperwork: bills of materials, work orders, checklists

Week by week

  1. PLC fundamentals: architecture, I/O, tags
  2. Ladder logic: timers, counters, latching, sequencing
  3. HMI; cross-platform PLC overview; sensors introduction
  4. Sensors; machine vision first look
  5. Pneumatics and electro-pneumatics, including PLC-controlled pneumatics
  6. Practical hydraulics; VFD setup begins
  7. Servo drive fundamentals; two-axis coordinated motion
  8. Motion checkout; practical safety circuits and industrial networking
  9. Production paperwork; integration project: an automated sorting cell
  10. Project commissioning and demonstration; review and final assessments

Course 3

Production Floor I: Operate and Maintain

Production floor

Become a competent operator and maintenance technician on the production line, rotating through every station, with explicit training in structured troubleshooting and machine recovery.

Topics

  • Production-floor safety on automated lines
  • Station-by-station operation: feeding, inspection and vision, sorting, marking, robot handling
  • Structured troubleshooting and machine recovery: fault-finding method, escape and recovery procedures, root cause
  • Preventive maintenance and daily start-up and shutdown
  • Production tracking and MES: output, defects, downtime; GMP and IQ/OQ/PQ overview

Week by week

  1. Production-floor safety and line orientation: lockout on the line, walk-through, energy mapping
  2. Standard work, start-up and shutdown, changeover; feeding and distribution station
  3. Vision inspection station: on-line inspection and limit samples
  4. Sorting and handling station; vision competency check
  5. Marking station; structured troubleshooting method and machine recovery
  6. Troubleshooting practicals and full-line recovery drills
  7. Robot handling: industrial robot cell and collaborative robot, operation and recovery
  8. Preventive maintenance: clean-inspect-lubricate, belts, sensors, air preparation, PM work orders
  9. Production tracking, MES and OEE; GMP and IQ/OQ/PQ overview
  10. Full-line runs and kaizen; review and final assessments

Course 4

Production Floor II: Build Subassemblies

Production floor

Manufacture subassemblies of training stations from released engineering packages, and learn to run production like a shop. Each team's output feeds the capstone units built in Course 5.

Topics

  • The product line and the production system: work orders, routers, engineering packages, quality documents
  • Reading drawings and BOMs; production planning; metrology and incoming inspection
  • Mechanical subassembly: frames, brackets, conveyor sections, fixtures
  • Control-panel assembly: DIN rail, terminals, PLC, HMI, relays, safety circuit
  • Pneumatic-panel assembly and leak testing; drives, servo and motion wiring
  • Commissioning: I/O checkout, program load, safety test, fault insertion; factory acceptance testing of finished subassemblies

Week by week

  1. The product and the production system: work orders, routers, engineering packages, quality documents
  2. Drawings, BOMs and build planning; metrology and incoming inspection
  3. Mechanical build to drawing: frames, motion hardware, first-article inspection
  4. Conveyor and guarding; sensor and vision hardware installation
  5. Control-panel construction: layout, power distribution, terminations to UL 508A practice
  6. Panel completion with PLC and HMI; safety-circuit wiring and validation; pneumatics begin
  7. Pneumatic completion and leak testing; VFD and servo wiring
  8. Motion checkout; commissioning: loop checks, program load, dry cycle
  9. Commissioning practical; witnessed factory acceptance test and production documentation
  10. Completion and punch-list closure; review and final assessments; stock handed to Course 5

Course 5

Production Floor III: Capstone Build

Production floor

Build, integrate, commission, document, and ship a complete machine module: a real, working unit, and the graduation proof.

Topics

  • Capstone scope, design review, hazard review
  • Cell layout and mechanical build
  • Industrial robot integration: programming, end-of-arm tooling, PLC handshake over industrial Ethernet; safety circuits
  • Vision integration; collaborative robot and coordinated servo motion
  • Data logging and dashboards; commissioning, factory and site acceptance tests, machine-recovery drills, documentation, final demonstration

Week by week

  1. Project launch: customer order, scope freeze, hazard review, design-review gate
  2. Final assembly and alignment; handoff tests; line dry-cycle; robot setup
  3. Robot programming and end-of-arm tooling; run at rate; task validation
  4. PLC and robot integration over industrial Ethernet; cell states and interlocks; safety zoning and validation
  5. Vision deployment: job development, reject verification, benchmarking
  6. Collaborative robot deployment and coordinated servo motion
  7. Production data and OEE dashboard; network documentation and backups; acceptance-test preparation
  8. Witnessed factory acceptance test with run-at-rate and machine-recovery drills; site acceptance test
  9. Commercial documentation set; the business of machine building; demonstration rehearsal
  10. Final demonstration to a review panel; review and final assessments

See the curriculum running on a real line.

A walkthrough shows the classrooms, the trainer labs and the production floor, with the course plan in hand.

Book a Walkthrough