Ferris State customizes on-the-job training for Reed City Group

Michigan-based Reed City Group LLC injected some in-house training into its process technician ranks thanks to a program offered by Ferris State University.

The Big Rapids, Mich.-based school has a professional development department that acts as a liaison with industry.

RCG is an injection molder serving automotive, consumer goods, medical and other customers. The company is based in rural Reed City, about three hours northwest of Detroit.

RCG turned to Ferris State for custom training after it received a $58,375 state grant.

Ferris State sent Stephen Wolfer, a professor of 27 years, to meet with the company's production and human resources managers.

"They had a good feel for what they needed, which helped tremendously," Wolfer said in a phone interview. "We developed an outline and delivered it."

Founded in 1959 as Reed City Tool & Die, the business changed its name to Reed City Group a year ago to reflect growth in 3D printing and automation from the company's roots in mold building, press making and injection molding. The name change coincided with the purchase of the company by two investment firms, Argosy Private Equity and Stone River Capital Partners.

The focus of RCG's latest training program was basic injection molding technology on "native" equipment with lessons about safety, materials, molds, injection molding machine components, clamping systems, actuators, position indicators, molding cycles and defect identification.

"This was a customized course that included our employees working directly on our own equipment at our facility," Tracie Ruppert, human resources manager, said. "Reed City Group wanted to drive personal skills and growth, increase troubleshooting experience and increase knowledge of process and materials."

RCG partnered with the state of Michigan to obtain the grant, which covered most of the classes. RCG picked up the remaining cost and paid the employees while they attended training.

"One of our main initiatives here at RCG is to develop our people," Ruppert said. "These courses have helped ensure that we are continuing to invest in our employees and their future at RCG. With a low employee pool for hiring, it's important to grow your employees and invest in them to ensure they are fulfilled and want to continue their employment."

RCG's plastics, tooling, automation and 3D printing departments are expanding, and so is the need for skilled labor to fill open positions for machinists, design engineers and mold makers. Ruppert said employees who receive training position themselves for higher wages, more responsibility and opportunities to advance.

Wolfer tailors courses about operations, mold changing and processing for workplace training at other plastics businesses in the U.S. and Mexico but wouldn't name them for confidentiality reasons.

At Reed City, he set a 24-hour course aimed at improving quality and productivity as well as communication between company administrators and production crews. He met with the six trainees in two-hour sessions for about 10 weeks.

"I had two who were just ending their shift, two that were coming in before their shift and two that were coming in on their rest time," Wolfer said. "I presented a little theory with PowerPoint and [we] go right to the shop floor so they can apply it."

Some lessons were heavy on industry lingo and vocabulary, such as hygroscopic materials, which Wolfer said would then be reinforced in the plant with activities about the need to verify moisture content to troubleshoot issues related to part aesthetics and properties.

Reed City employees did well with the training and should be proud of their test scores, Wolfer said.

"I can say without reservation, that regardless of the attendee's shift inconveniences, the success that all these trainees had was due to their engagement towards the material presented," Wolfer added.

The newly trained employees gave the program high marks, too, saying they came away with "higher confidence," new reference sources and a "better understanding" of everything from terminology to resins to how presses and molds fit.

"The training was easy to understand, hands on and relevant to my career path," Reed City Group employee Trevor Thiel told Plastics News, singling out subjects like safety, mold-to-machine compatibility and plastic material usage.

Thiel is currently the main process technician on the first shift. He works closely with customers and his team to complete mold tryouts.

"This training laid the groundwork to improve my knowledge to begin to advance in my position at RCG," Thiel said. "I continue to be mentored while working under our director of plastic injection molding to improve my skills on a daily basis."

In the classroom at Ferris State, Wolfer teaches introductory classes on injection molding and robotics to about 50 first-year students in the plastics program.

"In most cases, the freshmen in college have no idea what an injection molding machine is and I'm talking about something completely foreign to them," Wolfer said. "But if I go into a plant, often people have been working there five, 10, 30 years. They are just missing some plastics theory… while the kids coming into college are a blank slate."

Ferris State offers the only bachelor's degree in plastics engineering technology in Michigan and one of a few in the U.S. The plastics program's graduates are among the university's most heavily recruited, earning an average starting salary of $65,000.