AUBURN, N.Y. -- Custom molder Currier Plastics Inc. plans to boost its lean manufacturing skills with a $100,000 training grant from the New York State Department of Labor.

The Auburn-based company will upgrade the skills of its existing workers and promote a culture of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Currier plans an in-house technical training program that will include hands-on and classroom learning for about 80 employees. The focus on lean manufacturing will support process standardization and process control among technicians and operators.

Diane Pisciotti, Currier's human resource director, said in a news release that the training will help the company's growing workforce to be more flexibile.

The company said the training grant will help it retain more than 100 manufacturing jobs, and that it plans to add 50 more in the next five years.

Currier which was founded in 1982, has customers in the packaging, beauty and cosmetics, amenities, household consumables and medical measuring device sectors.