Area manufacturers net funding to go lean
Workforce training grants help companies sharpen skills
Bay State manufacturers are using workforce training grants to invest in lean manufacturing practices to combat overseas competition by improving worker productivity and cutting down on excessive inventory.
Among those awarded were several local manufacturers, including Catania Spagna Corp. in Ayer, Cycles Inc. in Sterling, Georgia Pacific in Leominster, Incom Inc. in Charlton, Intel – Massachusetts in Hudson and the Worcester Envelope Co. in Auburn.
"We were old school," says Joe Basile, vice president of sales at Catania Spagna, a producer of specialty oils, adding that the $30,980 grant will help educate workers on a new automated inventory system that replaces a single worker doing hours-long manual inventory checks each morning.
Catania Spagna will train a group of managers on the new inventory system, which reduces the time it takes to inventory the 70,000 square-foot warehouse to mere minutes. Those managers will in turn train the rest of the workforce. The developer of the system’s software will lead the training, set to go live January 1.
In Sterling, Cycles Inc. performs injection molding for a variety of industries, including medical, automotive and telecom markets. All 120 employees will receive training in lean manufacturing, leadership and management development, project management, statistical process control, and problem solving techniques. Says Paul Nickerson, vice president of sales and marketing, the $137,450 received will cover the training costs.
The Leominster division of Atlanta-based Georgia Pacific approached lean manufacturing in different way with its $29,150 grant. The plastic cutlery manufacturer plans to cut back on downtime and workplace inefficiencies by training its management staff to hold more productive meetings and improve its supervisory skills. The firm developed a training program with Mount Wachusett Community College, and will train the managers on site.
Incom Inc., a fiberoptics manufacturer in Charlton, will use the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership to convert to lean manufacturing principles. The grant, totaling $126,000, will cover some of the training, says Michael Detarando, vice president of product development.
"It’s one of those opportunities to really expand an area that we had already shown a lot of interest in," says Richardson, who adds that before receiving the grant, other priorities may have prevented the firm from investing more heavily in worker training programs.
In Auburn, the Worcester Envelope Co. plans to take a unique approach to gang lean by creating in-house classrooms for machine adjustment training. The $70,518 grant will go towards underwriting the salaries of the in-house trainers and ensuring the company prospers in the Bay State in the years to come, says human resources manager Doug Heywood.
"The training program is crucial to the company’s future growth in Massachusetts," he says.
Jeffrey T. Lavery can be reached at jlavery@wbjournal.com
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