Processors push to attract next generation of workers

Indianapolis — Charlie Braun wants to close the skills gap. And instead of just sitting around complaining about it, the president of Custom Rubber Corp. is doing something.

Inspired by the student-run Cardinal Manufacturing at a high school in Strum, Wis., Braun has taken the initiative to help develop a similar program in the Cleveland area. Braun was one of three speakers at the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference in Indianapolis in October discussing how to create excitement in manufacturing's future.

Braun, along with the principal of Shaker Heights (Ohio) High School, visited Cardinal Manufacturing in 2017 to see the vocational school turned student-run business in action.

“I returned to Cleveland with the principal determined to take action,” Braun said.

The process has been slow, he said, but they are taking little steps including adding to the curriculum and equipment for two new classes: metal machining and industrial robotics. He said the process of getting what is being dubbed Raider Manufacturing off the group is going to take five-10 years and approximately $100,000.

In the interim, he's doing everything he can to get students to understand what modern manufacturing looks like. He started a consortium of local manufacturing businesses that can give tours of their facilities. He said the consortium started out with high school students, but he eventually wants to branch out to middle school and elementary school aged children.

During the tours, students will often visit two different plants.

“The idea is to make every day Manufacturing Day,” Braun said. “I usually talk to them about how great manufacturing is, and our [human resources] folks will talk about pay and benefits. And they will go over some do's and don'ts of interviews.”

Then students get to see manufacturing in action.

About an hour south of the conference, a business like Cardinal Manufacturing just got off the ground at Brown County High School in Nashville, Ind. Chris Townsend, engineering and technology instructor at the school, said it has 19 students in the business. The school has 650 students.

Students work on four different aspects of the business: administration, engineering design, CNC machining, and graphics and promotional materials. He said the business will be a custom manufacturer but will also produce its own products.

“We already have students quoting orders,” Townsend said.

And as important it is that the students learn the hard skills of machine work, the soft skills are even more important, he said.

“Honestly, I don't care if a student comes out of our program and is an expert on running a CNC plasma [machine]. What I care about is that when students come out of our program that they can talk to people, that they can work with others, that they can problem solve,” Townsend said. “It's important they have those employability skills to get in the door and learn and actually grow in their career.”

He said the business is great because it gives relevancy to other curriculum.

“If they are taking a math class and are taking trigonometry, they don't really see how that gets used,” Townsend said. “But if you're running a CNC machine, you learn really quick where trig becomes really important.”

Eagle Manufacturing is the fifth student-run manufacturing business at a high school in Indiana.

Missy Rogers, president of Noble Plastics Inc. in Grand Coteau, La., said the company has started working with engineering students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The company does a mystery design challenge where it announces a project to engineering students who have a short time to develop a plan and buy supplies before executing a plan.

Rogers said the project is designed mimics reality TV challenges and gets students really excited. The company pays for supplies and food for students.

“Every year, I'm seeing the very best people from every engineering department in that college for $1,500,” Rogers said. “It's cheaper than renting a table at a local career fair.”

She said it can be a recruiting tool.

“I tell them, ‘My team has figured out six different solutions to this challenge. If you can figure out something we haven't thought of, I'll hire you.' That's the type of people you want, right?” she said.