Cork-based manufacturing software consultancy Seabrook Research has donated some €300,000 worth of manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to Athlone Institute of Technology.
Over the coming year the software will be incorporated into a number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses with the aim of giving students that will one day become manufacturing engineers and plant managers hands-on experience of enterprise applications.
As part of this, Seabrook manufacturing consultants are giving Institute staff hands-on training in supply chain management and manufacturing control systems.
Seabrook was established in 1989 and provides speedy manufacturing process implementations, technologies and methodologies to various industries. Seabrook staff in Cork are focused on full software development and customer support.
“This is a very practical example of cooperation between industry and education and the advantages for the students of Athlone Institute of Technology are very evident,” commented John Cusack, head of the School of Business at Athlone Institute of Technology. “Close collaboration between academia and industry is the best way to ensure that our future leaders enter employment with the most relevant and up-to-date set of skills possible.
“Students trained in business software systems such as Seabrook’s MFG-PRO will bring major benefits to the companies they join on graduation. This donation provides students with the opportunity to use world-class software and industry-standard tools for enterprise management as part of the curriculum.
“The goal is to make the learning experience as rich as possible and to give students exposure to real life scenarios which may be met in future employment,” Cusack concluded.
By John Kennedy
