As materials manager at Mack Molding Co. in Arlington, Vt., Ann Wedell manages the production planning group. The team is responsible for inventory accuracy, scheduling, materials planning and on-time delivery of products to customers.
"My team works with internal partners to ensure the materials required to hit an order due date are at Mack on time and that there is the appropriate amount of labor available to execute the build plan. This includes managing the planner who establishes our molding schedules — essentially what runs when," she said.
The team oversees the scheduling of molded products both for external customers as well as internal contract manufacturing of assemblies for customers.
"When orders are entered, we see the demand for product, make a plan and expedite material — all the while coordinating with molding, the finishing floor and secondary operations to ensure we meet our timelines," she said. "Our long-term goal is to introduce capacity planning by press."
Wedell began her career in the pulp and paper industry as a process engineer at a kraft paper mill in Georgia. She earned her green belt from an internal lean manufacturing excellence program and worked on continuous improvement projects.
She then took a job in Chicago as a process engineer for Dedert, an engineering firm that designs and installs industrial drying systems. "In this role, I not only gained knowledge in sizing and quoting industrial drying equipment, but I also had the opportunity to travel internationally to assist in plant startups," she said.
Life then took her to Vermont, where she joined Mack Molding as a quality engineer primarily working on medical molding programs. Wedell then transferred to manufacturing engineer, engineering team lead and now materials manager.
"In this role," she said, "I aim to streamline our planning process and optimize the use of our ERP [enterprise resource planning] system to drive on-time delivery of our products."
When Wedell was an intern, she was the only woman in the engineering department. At her first full-time job, she was one of eight women employed out of more than 300 employees at the mill.
"At my current company, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of women at all levels of the organization; however, I now find myself in a new phase of life as the mother of young children. I am learning to navigate how to balance working full time and motherhood," Wedell said. "The mold I am trying to break is that I want to show my children that you can have it all. You can be ambitious and strive to achieve success in your career while also being a fully engaged parent."