60 Seconds with Steve Harrington, Industry Liaison at the National Center for Supply Chain Automation

Steve Harrington, National Center for Supply Chain Automation

Title: Industry liaison

Location: Norco College, Norco, Calif.

Experience: 11 years with the center

Modern: What is the NCSCA and why is it important?

Harrington: The center was funded in 2012 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a materials handling automation technician curriculum and map the career pathway. The idea started with an NSF official who toured a highly automated Skechers distribution center and picked up on the need to develop a workforce with a higher-level skill set for the 21st century warehouse.

Modern: Seems almost obvious today, but it probably wasn’t more than a decade ago. Why did the NSF pick Norco College?

Harrington: Actually, Norco was an obvious pick. Under the leadership of Kevin Fleming, the school already had a grant program with NSF on goods movement. And, Fleming was already collaborating with other schools. NSF focuses on building collaborative technician education programs driven by emerging technologies that pay entry level living wages. They don’t fund programs forever. Furthermore, the Skechers DC was in California. So, Fleming and Hank Rogers wrote a grant request and NSF launched the program with $3.5 million.

Modern: Actually, the part about not funding programs forever is the reason we’re talking today. Tell us about it.

Harrington: So, the center will close next month. The NSF has stopped funding it, but with good reason. Enough of an infrastructure is in place that automation technician training will continue quite strongly. In the beginning, we held 16 workforce forums in 14 states around the country.

Sixty community colleges and technical high schools were involved in the early days. And we worked closely with key companies that guided and supported the center’s work. Five prominent firms involved in the effort were Target, Walmart, Home Depot, FedEx Ground and UPS.

In addition, key industry groups got involved. Both MHI and MHEDA provided strong and extended support for the program.

And, based on industry research conducted by the national center, the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) developed an industry validated automation technician certification program—Certified Technician Supply Chain Automation (CTSCA)—that was released in March 2020. For the hands-on portion of the training and skills verification, Amatrol built its Skill Boss device, which teaches and assesses 100 hands-on skills needed by technicians in today’s logistics operations (amatrol.com/product/skill-boss-logistics).

Modern: You have certainly been busy. Someone told me you didn’t start with much including a definition of what a supply chain automation technician is.

Harrington: That’s right. We built this from the ground up. Starting with writing the occupational definition based on industry feedback.

There are now more than 70 certified instructors around the country. More than 1,200 people have been certified. Nearly 170 Skill Boss training devices are in 33 states and 4 countries. And Target has built their own programs around the CTSCA program to certify their workforce.

In fact, Target is scaling to 40 training sites with four training centers delivering hybrid instruction online and in person, successfully certifying nearly 400 technicians.

Anyone interested in the program can start here: msscusa.org/certified-technician-supply-chain-automation.

Modern: You’re the only person to have been with the center from start to finish. It must be very satisfying. What’s next for you?

Harrington: With the funding for the National Center sunsetting I’ve transitioned my role to CTSCA program advocacy for MSSC. I’ve been traveling the country sharing the great news about the innovative program with academics, industry partners and key workforce development stakeholders during conferences, webinars and in-person meetings. That’s keeping me busy.