At Coarc Manufacturing Inc., the employees are as important as the customer — even as its projects take on more complexity.
The Mellenville, N.Y., manufacturer does injection molding, assembly and all of the work of traditional manufacturer, but it also serves as part of Coarc Inc. a nonprofit agency that provides work and training for about 500 disabled adults.
“For manufacturing, we employ 125 with disabilities,” said executive director Bruce Drake, during a Plastics News conference call with company executives. “Some are extremely independent but some need a great deal of assistance.”
He said the company works with all the individuals to find them the right job.
The mission, according to John Menegio, Coarc's director of manufacturing, is to “find a job that we can adjust according to their capability so they can complete the task.”
He said that they will build a fixture to help an employee perform a task if it is needed. That is all part of the program.
William Schwaikert, president of First Preference Products Corp. has worked closely with the organization since moving in 2005 to Hudson N.Y.
“We've had a good partnership. We found them to be a reliable supplier — their part quality is excellent,” he said.
First Preference supplies products for laundries and has used Coarc to produce its proprietary closures that are used on cleaning products. Coarc employees have also made plastic laundry products for the company.
“They are a very solid organization and a very valuable source for the community. They are very positive, very caring and they do it well — their molding is very good,” said Schwaikert.
Coarc Inc. was founded in 1965 by a small group of parents of children with disabilities. Since its manufacturing subsidiary was added in 1989, it has succeeded because it has honed its ability to help companies make their products.
Coarc got its start molding simpler products like lipstick containers and food trays, according to Tom Vantassel, director of engineering, and “we used the molding work to create more work.”
The company added more machinery to take on more business, and it also offered assembly and other secondary services