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

Already in Canvas.

The LMS

Every course arrives built in Canvas LMS: modules, lesson plans, assignments, quizzes and the instructor guide, with access included in the package. Nothing has to be imported into your own system.

The textbooks

Industry-standard texts matched to the equipment on the floor, so the chapter and the machine agree. One list per course.

Industrial Foundations. Core Curriculum: Introductory Craft Skills (NCCER, 6th ed.) and Electronics Fundamentals: Circuits, Devices and Applications (Floyd and Buchla, 8th ed.).

Your instructors go first.

Before the first cohort, instructors spend a week running every station, clearing faults and teaching a lesson from the guide, on the real line. A refresher follows each year, and new instructors are trained when they join.

Where it leads.

Production technician. Runs the stations, keeps the pace, logs output and defects.

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