TK Mold taps local schools to build trained workforce

Romeo, Mich. — As low unemployment and the skilled worker shortage make headlines almost daily, a small Michigan injection mold maker is finding young people and growing its own future workforce.

At TK Mold & Engineering Inc., more than half of the shop-floor machinists — 14 out of 20 — are 19 to 25 years old. That's an extraordinary ratio of young people in a graying industry.

Tom and Krista Barr, the husband-and-wife team who own the mold shop in Romeo, north of Detroit, scour the area for promising young people who want to learn the trade. They worked with Macomb Community College, where Tom did his own apprenticeship more than 25 years ago, to create a curriculum for a four-year-long apprenticeship program for mold makers.

They also get involved with Romeo High School.

"We're fortunate in Michigan, in the Detroit area, we have an infrastructure with all the manufacturing that goes on here at the local community college, and even a lot ​ of the high schools have skilled trades programs already in motion," Tom Barr said.

Like most other Michigan mold makers, the company serves the automotive market, building tools for interior and exterior trim parts. TK also makes insert molds and molds for two-shot rotary and overmolding and builds some tools for nonautomotive markets, such as aerospace.

Barr was working at a mold shop when the owner moved the operation and offered to sell it to him. The Barrs bought the business in 2003, renaming it TK Mold & Engineering (for Tom and Krista).

The shop had an older, mature staff. TK made it through the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, and then the automotive sector bounced back quickly.

"Coming out of the downturn, things were going good, and to find help was not easy," Tom Barr said. "So now we've made a commitment to go develop the help."

Total employment has grown from 13 to 24 today: 20 on the floor and four administrative workers.

Tom and Krista Barr are an unusual mix for running a manufacturing company. Tom is a third-generation mold maker whose grandfather had a shop in Detroit, Korver Engineering. His father and uncles got involved, and he worked at Korver in his younger years.

In his office, he proudly points to his framed journeyman's certificate from 1991, signed by his father and grandfather and listing Korver Engineering as the sponsor.

Barr knew how hard it is to find mold makers. He got jazzed up about the potential of young workers a few years ago at a plant tour organized by the American Mold Builders Association of Cardinal Manufacturing, a high school student-run manufacturing program in tiny Strum, Wis.

Then he hit upon TK's activist approach when he took a class at Macomb Community College to learn about new EDM technology that the company was looking to purchase.

"I heard that the instructor who was teaching the class was really good, so I took one of my apprentices and we signed up for it. I got the last spot," he said.

What he saw — a class packed with young students — impressed Barr as much as the EDM stuff.

"I'm sitting in this class and I'm looking around and I'm saying, 'Man, look at these kids,' you know? And there's the typical Ford guy who gets paid to sit there. But 80 percent of the class was people that want to get into manufacturing. Some of them didn't even have jobs at that point. They're students. Again, you got to walk down halls to get to your class. Look at all these kids!"

It dawned upon Barr that manufacturing was coming back as a career option. He talked to the apprentice coordinator at Macomb Community College and started work on a curriculum geared specifically to TK Mold.

By then, Krista had joined TK as director of employee development. Krista and Tom have been married since she was 18 and he was 20. She stayed at home to raise their three daughters, working part-time jobs and taking college courses here and there. She earned a master's degree in social work about two years ago, then did hospice and nursing home work.

"I've always loved psychology and social work. That's how my brain thinks. I never was interested in manufacturing and numbers and all this kind of stuff," she said.

But seeing her husband's growing dedication to hiring young people, she decided to join the team at TK Mold. She played a major role in the apprenticeship curriculum. Tom Barr wanted the program to be approved by the U.S. Department of Labor, which required a combination of 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and 42 credit hours in the classroom.

Classes include applied trigonometry, drafting, electricity and electronics, CNC and EDM programming and machining, fluid power, robotics and welding.

The government registered the apprenticeship in September. Before that, employees would take a few classes and get reimbursed. "But now, it's an official document that will follow them and make them more valuable and marketable with their own career path," Krista Barr said.

The Barrs make a unique team. Tom is technically focused, making sure the shop runs properly. Krista keeps in touch with the young employees. As Tom put it, "She knows how to talk to them."

She posts signs about positive thinking in her office and on the shop floor. The Barrs, as well as other company veterans, joined what they call the "kids" in a Tough Mudder challenge. The company has barbecues and other fun events.

Krista Barr checks in with the apprentices on a weekly basis.

"How's it going? Are you getting the help you need in your area? Are we training you properly? I'm constantly asking the kids that," she said. "And that's stuff that I never even had in my part-time jobs. Nobody cared how my day was going. They just wanted me to show up and do my work — and so that, I believe, separates us from other companies. Because they're in a place that they need to be for their careers."

Executives at larger mold makers tease Tom Barr that he's running the minor league and their big-league companies can hire them away, fully trained.

"The difference is, these kids don't think that way. They want to be in a place where they're recognized," he said.

Krista Barr acknowledges the risk of spending thousands of dollars to train new machinists then see them leave the company.

"We are hoping that we're creating an environment that they'll want to stay. And if not and they leave us, there's nothing we can do," she said.

TK Mold & Engineering has 10 pieces of metalworking equipment and two injection molding presses for mold testing.

The oldest machine — a manual horizontal boring mill — is where the "kids" do training.

The more experienced, older shop-hands are enjoying the youth movement.

"I like it. We need to train these guys to keep the trade growing," said Gary Pero, an eight-year TK Mold veteran. "A lot of them are catching on really well. They're all learning, and I like how they work together."

Thomas Oliver, 19, is the youngest employee. He went to Macomb Community College, but he did not have the money for college. So his guidance counselor suggested studying machining and general manufacturing. Right about that time, Krista Barr did a job posting at the school.

Jonny Salter was working at TK Mold, and his parents wanted him to get a bachelor's degree. He said working at TK Mold has allowed him to earn the money and gain good experience to pay for school. He credits work for his ambition and drive to get a degree in communications.

"By working, it teaches you how to get things done, how to have that dedication to get everything done. At the of the day you want to quit, you just keep going. That's what work teaches you, is to keep working hard," Salter said.

Salter, 24, graduated last spring with only about $6,000 in college debt. He started on the old boring mill then moved to CNC mill operator.

"Now I'm programming three operating machines," he said. "I have another apprentice training with me."

His next assignment: run a five-axis machine equipped with a robot.

Salter said his communications degree will help him talk to customers and get everyone on the same page for tooling jobs.

Chris Belloli is manufacturing coordinator. His son, Jake, joined TK Mold after he devoted about five years to health care education.

Jake Belloli, 24, decided in his junior year of high school to try nursing, which was a popular career choice. He went to a career prep center in Warren, Mich., and shadowed nurses. After his first year of training, he decided to drop out nursing school and started an emergency medical technician program at Macomb Community College.

"My dad, he'd been here [at TK Mold] for a while, and I thought maybe I'll try the manufacturing side," Jake Belloli said.

"I came in here. Tom gave an interview. He said if you're serious about this trade, he's all in for it," he said. "[Tom] gave me the opportunity, gave me a shot, and ever since then, I've been learning new things."

Chris Belloli said Tom Barr took a risk with the very young staff.

"There was no one coming up in the next generation, and Tom noticed that right away and decided to start filling the whole shop up with younger talent. And we [have] been working with the young kids. And their young minds, man, they want to learn and they're developing quickly, and I think the risk is paying off. They're moving up pretty quick, to some of the things that some of the older guys can't even do. We're excited about that," Chris Belloli said.

TK Mold also partners with Romeo High School, which has one of Michigan's Career and Technical Education programs. The school has machining classes with a full range of equipment. People from the mold maker made a presentation at an open house. Tom Barr joined a new advisory board and became chairman.

TK Mold won an AMBA workforce development grant and presented a $9,000 check to Romeo High School to replace outdated textbooks and fund advertisements for a CTE open house.

Natalie Davis, the high school's CTE director, said involvement by local industry is critical.

"Without the support of Mr. Barr, TK Mold and those in the manufacturing industry right now, we would not be able to sustain the program we have, which is definitely meeting the needs of the companies," Davis said.

Tom Barr said he helps the high school to give back to the community and expose the students to mold making. People used to come straight from high school to the mold shop, but those days are over, he said. The volunteer work helps Romeo High School and puts the mold making sector in front of key school leaders such as guidance counselors.

"I don't look at that level as, 'I want these kids [to work at TK],'" he said. "Because some guys walk in there and they're only there for a couple of meetings and they say, 'Well, I didn't get any kids out of this.' Are you kidding me? These kids are 17 and 18 years old. They don't know what they want to do."

But later, once they do decide — and maybe tried college — the mold making industry is waiting. And TK Mold is set up for the new industrial workforce.

"If you can build rapport with your employees, and they know they can trust you, then I think you're going have a healthier environment, which trickles down to everything else," Krista Barr said.