Currier Plastics Receives $100,000 Lean Manufacturing Training Grant
Auburn, N.Y. Currier Plastics has been awarded a training grant by New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL). Currier Plastics is expanding its central New York facility and applied for assistance through the Excelsior Jobs Program and Economic Transformation Fund to support this expansion. Currier sought additional funding through NYSDOL’s Existing Employee Training program in order to upgrade the skills of incumbent workers and to create a culture of lean manufacturing throughout the entire organization.
Lean manufacturing is the practice of continuous improvement. Companies adopt Lean to improve quality, stay competitive and to reduce waste. “Continuous improvement” means incremental improvement of products, processes, or services over time, with the goal of reducing waste to improve workplace functionality, customer service, or product performance
“We are expanding our current footprint to accommodate a growth in our core business of custom design, injection mold and blow mold packaging. We felt that the additional workload would require that we train more in Lean Manufacturing techniques to ensure our success moving forward,” says Diane Pisciotti, Human Resources Manager.
The in-house Technical Training Program will include both hands-on and classroom learning for approximately 80 people resulting in approximately 100 hours of training and mentoring. The Job Instructions (JI) would focus on the lean manufacturing enterprise, and would support process standardization/process control among technicians and operators. The JI Training Program would allow Currier to advance new products and processes because the company’s workforce would be applying a consistent methodology to their work with a greater focus on continuous improvement.
Currier plans to retain the 100+ manufacturing employees and add 50 new manufacturing jobs in the next five years. The proposed training programs will enable Currier to close the skilled workers gap from the inside, training their incumbent workers as primary and back up technicians and skilled operators.
Pisciotti adds, “The value this training will provide is immeasurable. It would supply Currier with a skilled, flexible and committed workforce and would in turn promote our V² business philosophy and enable Currier to be more competitive and innovative in an ever changing global economy.”
Currier Plastics is located in the heart of central New York and has been custom molding for a variety of industries such as plastic packaging, beauty and cosmetics, amenities, household consumables and medical measuring devices since 1982. Currier defines V² as value in everything they do times speed or true velocity to provide outstanding service to their customers.
