Professional Certificate in Total
Productive Maintenance
Overview of Program
State Fair Community College
Industrial Technology Program Overview
Professional Certificate in Total Productive Maintenance
Program Origin
The Professional Certificate in Total Productive Maintenance is part of the AAS in Industrial Technology,
Industrial Electrical Maintenance (IEM) Program at State Fair Community College. The Industrial Maintenance
Program at State Fair Community College is designed to prepare students as Industrial Technologists for career
opportunities in commercial, production, manufacturing and other industrial settings. Inclusion of all major
maintenance disciplines results in a comprehensive knowledge and skill base. Competency is gained in
interpreting and utilizing electrical, fluid power and automation diagrams/schematics for troubleshooting,
general requirements of the National Electric Code, programming, troubleshooting and improvement of
Programmable Automation and Control, Industrial Safety based on 29 CFR 1910, and the knowledge and
techniques of quality, reliability and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) complete this broad based
preparation.
The goals of the program are to design, deliver and access relevant and realistic training in the principles and
applications of Industrial Technology. A significant investment in training equipment, supports the philosophy of
1 student per trainer for the majority of classes (versus sharing a trainer or a rotating schedule for trainer
equipment access) which ensures maximum student learning. Class size is driven by training equipment access
and is usually capped at 16. Four classes can be offered online, usually during the summer – IEM 126 Industrial
Safety, IEM 128 Maintenance Management, IEM 136 General NEC Requirements and IEM 146 Quality
Management & Control. IEM 130 Principles of Refrigeration will also be offered online, beginning the fall of
2015.
Several years ago, the nationwide statistic for completing a 2 year degree was reported at 4.2 years.
Concurrently, industries nationwide were experiencing or predicting shortages of skilled workers in all fields of
manufacturing and production. The SFCC Industrial Technology Team began work on an accelerated program to
complete students in a much improved time frame. The result was the Professional Certificate in Total
Productive Maintenance or TPM. The TPM is 30 credit hours delivered over two 16-week semesters. It
culminates in the students sitting for the Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT) exam from the
Society of Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP). The curriculum consists of the ten core courses of
the AAS Degree in Industrial Electrical Maintenance.
When the Missouri Manufacturing WINS Grant was announced, we knew we already had built the perfect
program for this endeavor.
The accelerated program employs 2 full-time instructors teaching 6 to 9 credit hours out of the 15 credit hours
per semester. Additional teaching load of these instructors is utilized for the AAS degree program and for parttime student enrollment in other classes.
Scheduling, Innovations & Enhancements
The TPM curriculum is based entirely on the courses in the IEM Degree. Initially it was offered as an accelerated
daytime program. Students attend classes only 2 days per week, from 8 am until 5:15 pm. Most IEM courses
are offered in an 8-week format which satisfies prerequisites much faster than 16-week courses. An additional
benefit is that students can earn 15 credit hours per semester (16 weeks) but only be engaged in a portion (9
credit hours) of that during the first 8 weeks and the second 8 weeks. As an illustration, the first semester
schedule includes four 8-week classes and one 16-week class. The second semester is identical in times and
location but the courses change. “POT” stands for Part of Term and “1*8” is the first 8 weeks, “2*8” the second
8 weeks and “16” is the full 16 weeks. It looks like this:
Semester
CrsNo
Course
CrHrs
Days
Start
Fall
IEM 102
Electric Fundamentals
3
TR
8:00 AM
Fall
IEM 104
Electrical Power
3
TR
8:00 AM
Fall
IEM 106
Industrial Mechanics
3
TR
Fall
IEM 108
Fluid Power Technology
3
TR
Fall
Semester
IEM 128
CrsNo
Maintenance Management
Course
3
CrHrs
TR
Days
12:30
PM
12:30
PM
4:00 PM
Start
Spring
IEM 112
Control Circuit Troubleshooting
3
TR
8:00 AM
Spring
IEM 114
Motor Control
3
TR
8:00 AM
Spring
IEM 122
Intro to PLCs
3
TR
Spring
IEM 124
Intermediate PLCs
3
TR
Spring
IEM 126
Industrial Safety
3
TR
12:30
PM
12:30
PM
4:00 PM
End
10:50
AM
10:50
AM
POT
3:20 PM
1*8
3:20 PM
2*8
5:15 PM
End
10:50
AM
10:50
AM
16
POT
3:20 PM
1*8
3:20 PM
2*8
5:15 PM
16
1*8
2*8
1*8
2*8
As you can see, 2 days a week for 2 semesters results in completers, ready to go to work. This program was a
perfect match to the MoManWins Grant beginning the fall of 2013, and the first class graduated in May of 2014.
In the fall of 2014 the grant was expanded to include our part-time evening students. An improved night
schedule was constructed with implementation in the fall of 2015, which will allow the students to enter into
the TPM in any semester and complete the program in 6 semesters. In the illustration below the top row are all
entry level classes. The bottom row has prerequisites. After completion of IEM 102 & 104 on the top row,
students move to the classes in the bottom row for 3 semesters. If they did not already complete the other 2
pair of entry level classes (106-108 & 126-128) they would move back to the top row and complete them. All
classes are Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30pm to 9:20pm. The arrows represent possible paths to completion.
2 additional courses were needed in the rotation to keep it balanced, so students actually earn the 30 credit
hours of the TPM plus an additional 6 credit hours toward the AAS degree. It looks like this:
Part
Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring
of
2015 2016 2016 2017 2017 2018 2018 2019
term
1*8
2*8
1*8
2*8
IEM
106
IEM
108
IEM
102
IEM
104
IEM
126
IEM
128
IEM
106
IEM
108
IEM
102
IEM
104
IEM
126
IEM
128
IEM
106
IEM
108
IEM
102
IEM
104
IEM
122
IEM
124
IEM
132
IEM
134
IEM
112
IEM
114
IEM
122
IEM
124
IEM
132
IEM
134
IEM
112
IEM
122
IEM
124
IEM
132
IEM
134
IEM
114
Open entry is available any semester and completion only takes 6 semesters. None of this would have been
possible if we had not adopted the 8 week course format back in 1999. The evening program employs 2 Adjunct
instructors and 2 classrooms for teaching 12 credit hours each semester (6 per instructor).
Resources
An extensive list of all resources has been provided, emphasizing the hands on nature of the IEM programs at
SFCC. The substantial investment in training equipment, tools and classrooms provides excellent support to
adult learners, allowing them to master skills necessary to be productive workers. It also supports our
philosophy of education about the concepts of technology and “interpretation, not duplication”. Students are
required to not just duplicate applications of the technologies, but to interpret the applications.
Distance Learning
Online courses are not conducive to learning skills. The skills in the TPM Certificate Program cannot be
mastered outside of a “hands-on” environment. Only a few IEM courses are knowledge-based and suitable for
online delivery. Although the TPM is delivered as an on-ground, accelerated program, 2 of the courses in the
certificate are offered online for all students. Some students may have completed the course on line during
previous semesters or during the summer. The courses are IEM 126 Industrial Safety and IEM 128 Maintenance
Management. The coursework is identical with the major exception of mandatory discussion boards for the
online classes. Additionally IEM 126 online classes do not include the written assignment of the on-ground
classes, due to the discussion boards.
Additional Information for Reviewers
SFCC like most educational institutions, have established broad, institutional learning outcomes (ILOs) for all
students. For SFCC the objectives are, Think Critically (higher level thinking), Communicate Effectively, Behave
Responsibly, Value Others, Develop Life Skills, Utilize Technology and Investigate World Processes. For IEM
classes, higher level thinking, communicating effectively and/or utilizing technology might fit well with the
curriculum. The outcomes that are appropriate and measured are listed on the course’s Overview Table.
Limitations
Some of our course materials are copyrighted and therefore, cannot be uploaded. The most common example
of this are the workbooks associated with the four American Technical Publishers Textbooks for IEM 102, 104,
106, 108, 112 and 114. All of our equipment “lab” manuals are also proprietary, with the exception of the IEM
108 manual which was authored by an SFCC Instructor. A few test banks are also owned by the textbook
publisher or Software Company and are copyrighted. Due to the prohibition of uploading PDF files for this
review, many of our files conversion from Adobe to Word are less than optimal. There are missing graphics and
incomplete texts due to the conversion process. Rockwell Automation ladder logic files were “printed” to PDF,
then converted to Word, to provide a sample of some of the programs developed in IEM 122 and 124.
This workforce product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training
Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S.
Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or
implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to,
accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership .
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.