Built to Work: Episode 12: Dr. Richard Billo - Kummer Instituate Center for Advanced Manufacturing
- Marissa Watkins
- Mar 18
- 20 min read
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Welcome to Built to Work The podcast that gets its hands dirty dives into the grit and uncovers the heart of what makes the blue-collar world tick I'm Colin your host and I'm sitting down with the people who keep our world running from those tackling the tough jobs no one else dares to do to the HR professionals working overtime to find the labor force we desperately need Whether you're in the trenches or behind the scenes this podcast is for anyone who values hard work determination and the stories that build the backbone of our workforce So grab your gloves your coffee or your clipboard It's time to get to work Hey Welcome to another Built to Work podcast I'm Colin Douthitt and today I am here with Dr Richard Billow from the Missouri University of Science and Technology Dr Billow thank you so much for joining me today Thank you for having me Colin So I am an alumni of Missouri S&T formerly University of Missouri-Rolla formerly Missouri Univers-
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Missouri School of Mines So a lot of names And I got introduced to what you guys are doing when I attended a Missouri Association of Manufacturing event down at Rolla
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for a manufacturing day which was an awesome event And the school is launching something called the Protoplex and I know that you have a very large role You're the director of it So tell us a little bit about what your role is at the school with the Protoplex and tell everybody what the Protoplex is S&T alumnus who provided us a gift of over $300 1000000
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to return Missouri to manufacturing excellence
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that was his vision
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the building was built to be a state-of-the-art high-bay advanced manufacturing research
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prototyping facility So it's not does not focus on fundamental research It focuses on working with companies to develop products and prototypes-
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of of their next-generation products So there's really
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we were charged with 2 m- 2 related mission statements One is bring Missouri to manufacturing excellence make it competitive bring companies back to the US which actually aligns very well with the mandates of the new administration And a related mission statement is provide a pipeline of well-trained and well-educated engineers and skilled technicians to be able to work in these companies And we do this really by taking advantage of emerging advanced manufacturing technologies We feel that is the way to compete
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So that was really what we were charged to do
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with the facility Okay That's awesome And how big is the facility that's Is it complete now or is it still under construction Still under construction
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we'll start moving equipment in around the co- this coming November and
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that should be
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complete by February We'll have a an opening ceremony probably a month or 2 after that But we've been very active anyway
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since I came here 3 years ago We immediately started
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building the
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the the contracts and the grants
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that would be carried out in the center and sort of buying equipment
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to start doing that work now And we we put that equipment any place that we can find a place Yeah
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not efficient but we have been successful in garnering over $23 million in a- active contracts right now We've got about 10
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full-time staff on board Okay
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and
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that really with those kinds of contracts you you really need a high-performing staff So
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the engineers do
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all of the work on in the facility And then we have project managers that really
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keep
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all of the data collection all the reporting in place for us
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keep that up and and help let the project managers focus on getting the engineering work done Okay That is that is cool
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it's amazing that you guys have got so much funding you know from alumni you've gotten so many
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you know the grants and the equipment now and I'm sure you guys have a lot more equipment that you're gonna be getting And and I have I have so many questions about it
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you know the first you know the first one is
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you know when I remember hearing you guys speak about this before you were really almost opening up like a new kind of I wanna say emphasis or degree line within engineering that s- that Rolla was offering Can you tell me about that Sure It's it's it's An emphasis has been there It's part of mechanical engineering It's called the manufacturing processes emphasis And it had really
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kind of
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faltered
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during the pandemic Okay And
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we were awarded
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with 2 community colleges a $9.2 million grant from the state through the MO Excels program And
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each of us then took a different tact on how we would
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use that for manufacturing
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Ours was to revitalize that manufacturing emphasis So
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we
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created or modernized 7 courses in that curriculum threw out all the old ones and brought in new ones and the ones that were still relevant we modernized them and created 4 new
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hands-on teaching laboratories in support of those courses And these were aligned very much with what the manufacturers
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the state had asked for We had brought them together previously
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an advisory board of about
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25 to 30 of them and ran a workshop and asked them "What critical skills do you need that you're not getting from us?" And
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we did that in a very organized fashion Had a
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the Barnes Global Advisors come in and and facilitate that
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workshop And so we knew what needed to be taught
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And we brought that to our manufacturing
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committee and
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made the decision that if we won Mo Excel's that we would incorporate these critical skills into the curriculum and we did
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we piloted with one new course in additive manufacturing in the fall and 6 courses this spring
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Wow went into place And the students absolutely are thrilled absolutely thrilled because the equipment that we got was also designated by the companies not the faculty The companies said "This is what the students need to use learn on because these are the machines that we use in our companies."
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that also helped with our contracts in that now we have the machines When the companies are developing new products they don't need to stop production to test those products They just come and use our machines which are available on an hourly basis
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for
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renting Oh really Oh so- Yeah So And you were talking about the contracts a little earlier So the-
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The machines that you guys have procured you will rent them out to a company if they're trying to prototype something that only these machines can do Is that is that what I understand Yes And that that fits well with our motto of the Show Me State
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these are emerging advanced manufacturing technologies and
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they're obviously
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they're not sure how to use them and and
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they don't believe that it's as easy to use as as
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you know ma- vendors of these machines tell them they are and they're not
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There's a lot of engineering goes into them So
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they work with us
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on these machines and together we engineer their products
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with them Not for them but with them
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and at the end of that they make the decision that "Hey this can really help my company," or "No this is not worth it for my company." But they don't have to make a commitment to the capital investment early on Okay Only when they're sure that it's going to make a a difference to the- Yeah productivity Okay so they get to kinda test run it out at at at-
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Rolla's facility at S&T's facility instead Okay Right Well that makes that makes total sense That's a great program that you guys have Plus it generates a little bit more money
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for the university so always good And for companies too
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for example we're working now with SRC Remanufacturing out of Springfield Yeah And they
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they're remanufacturing
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a
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large automotive engines truck engines and they have to throw away millions of dollars in cracked parts And they said "Do you think that
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some of the things that you're working with might be able to help us repair those cracks?" And I said "You know we could try." And so they brought a truckload of those parts up and we're now looking at our technologies to see if we can repair those cracks And there again we invested in
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in technology then to be able to see inside those parts deep inside them- Yeah to see if they the cracks truly are repaired Okay So there again it's
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the machines are being driven by the need not by the desires of
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of the internal faculty Okay That's that's so cool So you've used the term and this one was
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new to me basically
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the first time that I came down to the manufacturing day was advanced manufacturing techniques And when I think manufacturing I'm thinking- maybe- an assembly line pouring molten metal maybe some lathe and CNC work maybe some you know
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you know you know doing something with plastic injection molding blow molding What are advanced manufacturing techniques that are that are just now coming out that that you're working on- Sure the cutting edge of Sure They these are new
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I had never heard of these technologies 3 years ago and it was really through the companies like Lockheed and Boeing and Caterpillar that
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informed us of them and I re- I remember my reaction to every one of them is "Well what's that?" And they would tell you you know And they'd look at me like "Well you really need to know this You really need to educate the students." But things like laser micro-welding
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friction stir additive manufacturing robotic cold spray additive manufacturing laser powder bed fusion
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wire arc directed energy deposition I'll bet you've never heard of most of those phrases I I haven't and maybe I could discern what one or 2 of those actually do but some of them-
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just flunk right over the head Those that's the- Right Yeah Never heard any of that Right And you know but some of these technologies what we're learning is and we're learning it by working with companies are far superior to the way we're doing things now For example we're working with Sikorsky Helicopter out of Connecticut and they were concerned that it was taking them
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up to 2 years to get forged parts from their suppliers And
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they hired a couple of PhD
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out of
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you know students graduates out of the University of Alabama and said "Add brought why aren't you doing friction stir?" And they go "What's that?" And so they
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they bought a machine and what they learned was they could
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fully manufacture these parts in about 2 weeks not 2 years and the me- mechanical properties were far superior than those of forged parts And so we're working with them now to look at to compare the different brands of these machines and to let them know which which ones are providing s- the most superior
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properties- Yes
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for a part It's things like that that we just I didn't know Yeah And of course they didn't know 3 years ago Yeah that's so companies like that don't know then so many people you know companies that you would say are on the cutting edge or you know very well versed in manufacturing So just for my own knowledge- Yeah what is friction stir Well friction stir is actually
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it's using friction It's it's taking a a a metal rod and it's rubbing it against a base plate and spinning very very fast And it heats up and it begins to melt that
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the metal at the base
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And then it pops up moves in in the X direction and does the same thing Then it moves
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in the Z direction up a little bit and does the same thing again and applies melts that metal to just n- not completely melts it but where it's soft
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And leaves it
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1
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one level at a time And
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it re- that that friction really causes that metal to bond very very well better than forgings-
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as is what's learned and then it's machined to near net shape To its final shape Okay
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because it looks pretty sloppy and you think never think "Well that mess is gonna be a part." But they machine it then to its final shape And this and
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that machining and and then heating it to relieve stress in it et cetera can all be done for a large part in about 2 weeks That's amazing That's amazing So you really cut down the manufacturing time I mean you're gonna have more material costs but now everything- Right But I mean being able to manufacture that quickly it also allows multiple iterations to happen and develop and and refine processes as well right "Oh this part's not exactly right Let's rebuild another one." Instead of having to wait for a year to reforge it you can have another one in a couple weeks Right Right And we just had
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one of those machines installed here on campus this week Okay
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Yeah So one thing that I really love
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so first off as an alumni I love that you guys are doing this advanced stuff
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even though I wasn't in mechanical engineering I'm now in the more in the manufacturing and the industrial space I'm actually a civil and architectural engineer
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by training and still love it
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but this this stuff that you guys are working on is really cool But I love that we're trying to focus on bringing it back to Missouri And I live in Missouri now was born in Kansas but live in Missouri now Went to school in Missouri
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and so and so I love seeing that So what's the what's the long term vision for Missouri I know you know being involved with Missouri Association of Manufacturing they're kind of supporting what you guys are doing You guys are both supporting each other basically What's the what's the goal for Missouri in in this whole program Well you you wanna look at what Missouri is and we we looked at this The number one industry sector in the state is aerospace Number 2 is manufacturing And those 2 are quite related
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our objective is to increase the manufacturing base- in Missouri And to provide- I like that that th- that that talented pipeline so we do work closely with community colleges For example
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St Charles Community College is through
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our MO Excels program that we have with them is looking at implementing a new
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metallurgy program for castings and forgings Okay
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for the skilled trades And they're really smart It's they've got it set up 3 ways If you're in high school and wanna go straight to work come here get a certificate in 6 months and you can be ready to go to work in a foundry Or you can be a
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technician get a- a AA degree 2 years And or if you want to go on
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into engineering at S&T
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let's see no It was the AA degree was one year and the AAS degree was 2 years if you wanna be an engineer Okay So
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they really are hitting the market very well with where people may wanna be with the amount of education and what their objectives are
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So
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so but it really is a couple objectives Yes we want to increase the manufacturing base for the state And honestly
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we just had a company commit to move here from Massachusetts to start up operations manufacturing in
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Rolla Missouri because of the Protoplex They're gonna start in the Protoplex and what their plans are within 2 years to build their own manufacturing facility in the Rolla area And there's this company- Can you can you disclose who that company is Yes Yeah you you you met the CEO last at Manufacturing Day Aaron Burt of Solvus Global That's right yes I do And they are coming back in early April
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to sign a lease in Protoplex and also to interview our May graduates- Okay
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as the first employees They're committed to hiring our graduates 'cause guess what Because of the new curriculum we're spot-on teaching what's needed and they can't find these folks in Massachusetts
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Nobody has these capabilities in the C- United States this comprehensive set of capabilities nobody And nobody's teaching them at this level this comprehensive level So they're gonna be back in May
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there's a second company that
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we are just initiating discussions with VRC Metals out of South Dakota that's- Okay very interested in in same thing moving to the Protoplex to have a presence in Missouri for manufacturing Okay So it's a win-win-win for everybody It's a win for Missouri it's a win for our
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our graduating students
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It's a win for the companies that are moving here That's- You know and we have the 7th lowest labor rate in the United States which is very appealing 'cause Massachusetts is the third highest in the United States Yes So So it's
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And when you're manufacturing obviously you wanna keep things as low-cost as possible Yes Yeah definitely with that there's- So it's those kinds of things It's and so we're very pleased starting to fulfill that mission getting companies seriously looking at moving here
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that's great And I love So much of this is you know ha- having gone through Rolla and and being in civil like there was a lot of of hands-on stuff right We touched concrete we touched asphalt right We did we did all sorts of tests-
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Mechanical engineering does a l- a lot of those hands-on labs as well but but one of the thing I really like about it is you know partnering with the community colleges and focusing on hey it's not all just about the engineer and the 4year degree right It's that- Right one-year degree it's the techs it's And and even down to the unskilled right It's the whole the whole gamut of people is needed for this manufacturing industry to be successful And so I love that that there's a holistic look at at the whole thing and not just at the 4year degree which I think is something that's a little I don't know I don't wanna say-
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revolutionary but outside-the-box thinking for a
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a an institution like Rolla to say "Hey let's partner with these community colleges and let's and let's work on the different steps that are gonna be needed for success within the manufacturing industry."
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we we were You know we felt the same way as you is is like "Hey let let's just work with them." same way as you is is like "Hey let let's just work with them." The need is there for skilled technicians
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but we were surprised and we work very closely with the Department of Defense and and we were informed by them you know why does the DOD want so badly to work with us Well it's not only the technology but they said "It's because you team with community colleges."
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And I go "Yeah Well why is that such a big deal?" They go "You you don't realize that you're only one of 2 universities in the United States willing to have that kind of partnership with community colleges?" The other being University of Texas El Paso We were very surprised Wow
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but we have we we work with 3 of them now and we we have joint funding with 3 of them that you know S&T helped get for them And we're trying to get funding for the 4th one
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which is the
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St Louis
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community college
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system
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so we're still working on that But the other 3 we've we've gotten funded It's like St Charles starting the metallurgy program
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East Central College is moving to Rolla and had just bought a building here That's how they're using their state funding- Okay is
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you know setting up a new campus here in Rolla and with those funds setting up a center for advanced manufacturing- Wow to be able to teach
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the skilled trades
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we're working with Ozarks Tech mainly on
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the remanufacturing
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because
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St Charles
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Saint Springfield is the I we didn't know this the remanufacturing capital of the United States There are more remanufacturers in Springfield than any place else in the country And so we're looking at casting repair workshops
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and we're offering one in June early June on June 5th- Okay
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for
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companies
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that would be interested in how to repair
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cast products Awesome You know I knew that SRC was down there in Springfield obviously
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but I didn't realize there was other ones And I thought it was really cool learning about SRC I read the the book that Jack Stack wrote The The Great Game of Business which has been definitely influential in my life
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but then to see- it's you know coming full circle and now you guys are working with them And
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I didn't realize that that Springfield was such a hub for for remanufacturing Well we're really
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the industrial support has been great and we
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we're required with the grant that we did get to
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to offer
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these workshops And so Caterpillar is on that grant with us
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And
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we are prototyping w- with the parts and we're using the SRC parts that they gave us as part of that workshop so that it's real so they can- Okay and the knowledge really it's Caterpillar's engineers that are teaching us you know how to do these repairs as as part of this grant So and what blew me away was
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everybody involved in this $5 million grant Lockheed-Sikorsky
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Caterpillar
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Missouri Association of Manufacturers Ozarks Tech S&T e-
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they all signed an agreement that
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th- what we learn will be placed in the public domain No 1 Oh wow is gonna no one is gonna claim ownership that the need or the skilled
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you know or the knowledge the skilled people that will get this these skills is greater than any proprietary
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business
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and
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need that they may have I love hearing that I'd never seen anything like it Yeah I I couldn't believe it you know That's great That's
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and you know with the the current-
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administration too pushing to bring so much stuff back you know from abroad I mean this is the perfect time to have that sort of an agreement where everything'll be shared and reinvesting in these technologies so that we can you know bring some of this manufacturing back to the States that's that's really great Well it's it's it's
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I have to tell you a lot of this effort this coming together has been through the alumni of S&T It- Yeah really has been Yeah it's it's it's they people we work with at CAT they're our alumni They're the champions
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They
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it it's
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Boeing they're the champions They're all alumni Boeing has 3 engineers that live in Rolla CAT has moved one engineer and they're bringing a second one in
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this summer
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and and as you know we've got 2 other companies
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Yeah moving here And we got a
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actually a startup that
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has approached us about moving in this summer Awesome Just a a brand new startup So then you guys are making a lot of stuff happen there You guys are gonna change that town even more yes that's the idea It's the town the state the country Yeah That's the idea Yeah that's that's great You know one thing that kind of stuck out to me and has made me much a little bit I wanna say much more passionate
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about what we do-
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on our end is one of the statistics I heard and you may have brought it up in your presentation
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during the manufacturing day was just the shortage of labor in the manufacturing sector
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Do you have any of those stats handy on the top of your head Because I remember- Sure did them really really- Sure do sticking out to me.Yeah this really caught our attention In the United States in manufacturing there are only 55 available workers for every 100 jobs Missouri it's much more severe There are only 47 available workers for every 100 jobs And so we saw the need for a pipeline to be established So part of it is- is we know we're working on with the skilled trades and- and now we're- we revamped the curriculum for the engineers But we work with
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Mrs Courtenay Jones and through our
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STEM Center
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Courtenay has a passion for students in the rural counties She was a high school tea-
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principal in Arkansas And Courtenay working with her we bought her e- eq- equipment Courtenay reaches out to over 12,000 K through 12 students each year now and provides them and manufacturing students beginning with
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young people as- at age 9 Wow
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and through middle school through high school We're offering high school summer jobs in the ProtoPlex
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this year
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she provides a summer internship for 350 teachers high school teachers each year
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and Society of Manufacturing Engineers said "Listen if you teachers any of you will go back to your high school and implement what you learned we will provide up to $400,000 in funding for equipment for you." Wow And so it's that kind of effort And so
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with our grants we were able to buy Courtenay
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educational manufacturing equipment
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little mini lathes mills robots
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laser cutting systems whatever it may be so that they have those hands-on experiences She runs 8 manufacturing summer camps She runs 30 summer camps overall but 8 of them are s- specifically for manufacturing for K through 12 students That's to create the interest And part of this was because
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what's happened really due to the
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the drop in the mining industry is massive unemployment We've got over 25 counties
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with
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a large proportion of the population living below the poverty line And I guess what woke me up about this was
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3 years ago at the Governor's Economic Development Conference there was a panel of
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school administrators from the rural counties And they opened up their talk with our- with a statement that went to the effect of "Are you aware that in our counties our students most don't want to go to college most don't want to go to community college or trade school and they don't want to go in the military?" And they kind of left it open what they do
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They didn't say Well it wasn't hard to figure out It's a lot of our counties our young people are involved in drugs The addiction and turning to homelessness And I went back to my hometown in- in West Virginia and I hadn't been there many years and I was shocked Number one in the country for fentanyl addiction per capita Yeah
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my town had reduced from a population of 70,000 to a population of about 14,000 And people lying on the streets needles on the streets
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I mean you don't want to walk downtown at- in the night That's what's going to happen if we don't show young people an alternative
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And so Courtney's dedicated to show them that there are opportunities in STEM and especially in manufacturing
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in the State of Missouri Yeah Well you need to put me in touch with Courtney 'cause I
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I I would love to get her in our schools locally where where I am I'm I'm in a small town about 5,500 6,000 people and
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luckily
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our county seat has a technical college So we do have some outlets for people that don't wanna do you know go to the traditional 4 year or the military-
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so they can go up there and learn you know
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become like a a nurse assistant or you know diesel mechanic that sort of stuff
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but I would love to I'd love to be put in touch with her 'cause I think there's definitely a need for that
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just for them to see options 'Cause I'm involved with the youth in our community through our church and a number of them do do go to college but a lot of them too are like
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I don't know Maybe I'll just go
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you know work construction." Right They don't-
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know all the different options that are out there So I I- Right This is why I wanted to have you on today
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because of everything that you guys are involved in doing and I am passionate about it passionate about it for Missouri And so I think it's great So I I wanna commend the whole organization that's around it because I think you guys are doing some great work So thank you for that Well thank you Collin We appreciate it Yeah And as alumni it really makes me proud too Well you know I'm very proud We've got you know Collin we've got over 60,000 S&T alumni
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still working out there-
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all over the country That's quite a few That's quite a few So you know for being a a you know a a smaller school I'll say
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it you know S&T definitely has an impact And that's- Thank you that's one thing that I've I remember the first time I walked into a career fair there and just seeing all of the huge companies like the CATs and John Deeres and the big engineering firms and the big construction companies that are there trying to recruit from from Rolla And seeing you know you know like a Raytheon and the Department of Defense companies and everything you're just like "Whoa." Like there was a lot of really really cool really important companies here So there's something something right's going on there Well
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they it must be because we still consistently rank every year in the top 10 highest wages
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Yeah that our
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our graduates
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obtain
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so we're very proud of that And I'm sure they really enjoy that Yeah Yeah Well I need to figure I need to figure that one out My first job wasn't the most high-payinging but we figured it out down the road
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So
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well Dr Billow thank you so much for your time I'll let you have the rest of your day
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thank you for sharing everything that S&T's doing You guys are doing some great work
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we really appreciate it The state appreciates it So keep it up Thank you Collin Thank you for having me today Appreciate it
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