Dakota Lytle, left, is a third-generation manufacturer at Daystar Machining Technologies, Inc., Asheville, NC, a 3,000-square foot job shop featuring state-of-the-art CNC turning and milling centers, as well as custom design and manufacturing services. Dakota’s grandparents handed the business down to their children, Jimmy Lytle (Dakota’s father) and Anna Viands.
Last week, Dakota and Jimmy, shown above at right, traveled to Knoxville to attend ACE’s in-person next-generation machine tool workforce training developed by IACMI and UT Mechanical Engineering Professor Tony Schmitz.
Unlike many of the other attendees, Dakota and Jimmy have plenty of hands-on CNC machining experience. Although Dakota’s current title at Daystar is “programmer”, he says his role consists of everything from programming offline, machine setup, quoting, and visiting customers to learning the family business inside and out.
After graduating high school, Dakota says he was interested in going to college, playing D1 basketball, and studying business and marketing. When his basketball pursuits did not pan out, he decided to complete a state and federal apprenticeship program in machining through Daystar and learn business hands-on from his dad in the shop.
When a friend forwarded him an email about the ACE program, saying, “Check this out”, Dakota said he “wanted to see for myself if this program has the opportunity to expose and attract young people to manufacturing.”
He continued, “We need more young people to take an interest in manufacturing because it is the “hub to the wheel of the program.” That may sound cheesy, but every person who dreams up a new product must eventually incorporate a manufacturing process to take it to reality. What is so cool about our industry is that every day, we see brand new ideas and inventions that people want to create, and we get the opportunity to make that happen for them.”
Did the ACE program deliver?
In Dakota’s opinion, the combined online and in-person CNC machining training program has the ability to expose young people in technical schools, high schools, and middle schools to the manufacturing industry and promote it as a valuable and profitable industry to join.
“I think there is a highly inaccurate stereotype people apply to manufacturing today. This industry is not the factory work of the 30’s and 40’s anymore; in fact, it’s the place to see technology at its cutting edge.”
While Dakota and Jimmy were already comfortable operating the CNC machines before attending, Dakota said he still learned a few things. “I built new connections and relationships by being a part of the ACE program, but the biggest thing I learned and enjoyed was the tap test. It was a big deal!” He explained, “Chatter is no surprise in manufacturing and the industry has “understood” it and battled it for years, but learning the science behind chatter was great.”
ABOUT ACE
America’s Cutting Edge (ACE) is a national initiative for machine tool technology development and advancement and workforce development. It is supported by the Department of Defense Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program from the Office of Industrial Policy.
The machine tool research and development for ACE is based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), whose Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) is a global leader in developing and validating systems and processes that leverage digital frameworks for manufacturing innovation. According to Adele Ratcliff, IBAS program director, “ACE is intended to help the United States recover the technical and manufacturing leadership position and enable our ability to design and make the machine tools required to produce so many of the products that are used in modern society.”
The machine tool education and workforce development training for ACE is led by IACMI. The ACE CNC Machining Training program uses virtual training and machining simulation to teach essential manufacturing skills—all designed to help tackle the nation’s skills gap and recover its technical and manufacturing leadership position. Through ACE, IACMI has partnered with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT) and Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC), also in Knoxville, to pilot a new, no-cost CNC machining training opportunity. The training uses a modular, interactive, learn-at-your-own-pace course on modern CNC machining fundamentals. No prior machining experience is required.
The ACE online training component began in December 2020. The six-hour online curriculum walks users through the steps necessary to set up for machining a component, up to the point of engaging with the machine. It introduces new technology advancements being developed at ORNL with partners like MSC Industry Supply to reduce expensive trial and error and increase productivity and efficiency of current machine tools.