"Probably 70 Hayes employees have been through the robotics training furnished at Lanier Tech," said Lisa Milroy, human resources manager at the attractive, ultra-modern Hayes Gainesville plant.

Hayes former plant manager Richard Hagler and Russell Vandiver, vice president of economic development at Lanier Tech, formed a partnership greatly benefiting both Hayes and Lanier Tech when they brought robotics training to the Gainesville-area school. This venture into basic robotics training for Hayes employees is only the most recent collaboration between Hayes and Lanier Tech, a partnership that dates back before the Gainesville plant opened in 1993.

"I'm absolutely convinced that one of the key ingredients in Hayes' success was the support we got from Lanier and Quick Start," Hagler said.

Hayes is the largest wheel maker for automobiles, light trucks, and commercial highway vehicles in the world, having a 30 percent world market share. Last year, Hayes had about $1.7 billion in revenues.

The company has found that technical training is essential to high-tech production and their successful competition in today's fierce global business environment.

"Hayes is on the cutting edge of new technology," Milroy explained. At Hayes, robots do many production chores, such as welding wheels and pouring aluminum or steel to form the glistening wheels. They also carry out many repetitive, once fatiguing manual labor functions, such as loading wheels and performing routine maintenance tasks. Hayes furnishes wheels and wheel assemblies for most of the automotive industry, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Porsche, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda.

Even before Hayes opened its Georgia plant, Russell Vandiver was learning all about Hayes' operations in its Huntington, Ind., plant.

"I got to know Richard Hagler during the process of their site search. I saw a lot of robotics being used, mainly in hazardous areas, such as molding aluminum wheels and pouring the metal in, but also in handling the wheels when they come out of the molds," Vandiver explained.

But Hayes went into many new high-tech areas with its Gainesville plant. More things were to be done with robotics, Vandiver said. "As they grew from 100 to 300 employees, they started adding new technology and new robotics tasks."

"Not only were we going through the hurdles of starting a new manufacturing plant, but we were using brand-new technology," said Hagler, the plant manager at the time this partnership was developed. "The challenges were huge." The support from Lanier Tech and Quick Start working together was practically seamless. Hagler calls Quick Start "the ace in Georgia's hand" for luring new industry to the state.

NOW, BACK TO "BIG BIRD"
Hagler and Vandiver hatched the idea of "Big Bird." Vandiver had thoroughly inspected the Hayes operations in Indiana and had seen the role that robots were playing.

Vandiver found that he could get Fanuc, a major robotics manufacturer, to come to Lanier Tech and furnish a training robot and training — at a price. "Big Bird" is the welcome $80,000 result, coming from a fast-moving Department of Technical and Adult Education that saw the opportunity and need at Lanier Tech.

Convinced by Vandiver that having robotics training facilities at Lanier Tech would help their company, as well as being a high-tech instruction boost for the school, Hayes helped meet the costs of training robotics instructors at Lanier Tech. Because the Gainesville area has an extremely low rate of unemployment, Hayes decided to advance their own workers from basic-level jobs to high-tech positions, including robot operations and associated computer tasks. Thus was born the two-tiered approach, with basic training at Lanier Tech using "Big Bird" and the more advanced training on the floor at Hayes. At Lanier Tech, Hayes workers have a quiet, low-stress place to become familiar with robots. They learn how to maintain, take apart, and monitor "Big Bird." The robot's arm uses air suction to pick up a hockey puck (simulating a product), and then inspects it with a laser to find any defects. The puck is then moved along a roller to find any irregularities. Defective products automatically go into a disposal bin and good products are placed on a pallet.

"The training has been a fruitful relationship," Milroy said. "It has given many of our employees a technical job, rather than a manual job. It's upgraded their skills, not through book-training, but hands-on experience. When our workers come back on-site from Lanier Tech, they have a common, basic level of training."

The joint training efforts have helped many Hayes workers to advance from menial jobs to sophisticated high-tech positions, earning them more money and a sense of pride. "There is a whole host of people at Hayes who have embraced the automation and robots," Hagler said. "They have become very interested in how the automated system works."

Of special note, too, is that the robotics training has brought added skills to a large group of workers that is sometimes culturally and economically segregated — Hall County's large Hispanic workforce. Lanier Tech even offers instruction in Spanish on the Hayes project when needed. Their inclusion boosts newcomers' esteem and earning ability and makes a diverse workforce more cohesive.

Hagler says high-tech training has become absolutely essential, not only in times of low unemployment and economic boom, but all the time. Because technology is changing so fast, everyone has to stay current. "We are the largest wheel maker in the world. We are a profitable growth company, and in order to retain that position, we have to stay current in technology to produce a quality product at lower costs.

"I am so supportive of the job Gov. Roy Barnes, the lieutenant governor, and the State Assembly have done, because they seem to understand what fuels this economic boom. It's taking the people of Georgia and investing in their skills in technology while at the same time teaching them how a business operates," he said.

The Hayes-Lanier Tech high-tech training story is a satisfying story in itself, but it is only representative of a story having a much wider application to thousands of people throughout Georgia. At one time, Hall County, Ga., was like many other Georgia counties, largely dependent upon agriculture and the poultry industry. Now, ultra-modern plants in the area produce everything from chewing gum to ball bearings to Hayes wheels.

After Quick Start recruits a company, it's up to the technical colleges and institutes to lead the way for training skilled workers. According to Vandiver, "What we are doing in robotics now may have a dramatic effect on other industries that want to locate here.... The whole thing is preparing yourself to be ready for the major companies wanting to locate in our area. The first thing we have to sell them on is that we can handle the technology. You can have cheap land and a great building for them and a good Chamber of Commerce effort, but if you can't deliver a workforce that has the technology, you'll fail."

Lanier Tech obviously gets an "A" on its report card for training thousands of employees in its region of Banks, Dawson, Forsyth, Hall, Jackson, and Lumpkin counties. Vandiver himself has assisted in more than 250 company expansions or start-ups.

President Joe E. Hill said that Hayes and Hagler have contributed greatly to the education-business partnership in Hall County. Hagler, a true apostle of technical education in Georgia, sits on the executive committee of the Georgia Quality Workforce Business Alliance.

"That's a group of key business leaders who come together to tackle the concerns and problems and issues regarding technical education and its delivery," Dr. Hill said. He pointed out that Hayes is supporting Lanier Tech's efforts to get high school students started in technical education while still in high school.

"We have to go to our school systems for our future employees," Hagler said. "That's where the future is."