June 1996 € Volume 6 € Number 6

Touch the Future -- Introduce a Student To Manufacturing


By Bob Briggs
General Manager
MRM Elgin Corp.



Manufacturing professionals are at a disadvantage when it comes to encouraging students to explore careers in our industry. Students' first work experiences usually are dominated by jobs in local fast food restaurants and supermarkets. We quietly wait until they turn 18 or older to try to show them the most exciting careers in the world of business. Why should we wait? Every day we focus on being proactive, so why do we just sit back and complain about the lack of students interested in manufacturing? We are the leaders in manufacturing -- let's start leading the youth of America.

The first action is to destroy the perception that a manufacturing facility is a dangerous place to work. The image of a factory staffed by mindless, uneducated employees working in dirty, smoky, unsanitary conditions for minimum wage must be changed. The only way to address faulty perceptions is with facts. We must show the youth of America that manufacturing is a valid and exciting profession. They need to know that workers in manufacturing earn an average of 40 percent more than other workers and that most manufacturing facilities are safe, friendly environments that employ fewer than 50 people.

I am the general manager of the MRM Elgin Corp. of Menomonie, Wis. MRM Elgin employs 55 people to manufacture packaging equipment for both domestic and international customers. Menomonie is a growing community of 14,000 that has added more than 2,000 new jobs in the last five years. MRM Elgin has a 35,000-square-foot facility in the Menomonie Industrial Park. In the last five years, we have averaged only one lost day per year due to injuries. The average salary is $10 per hour. I believe MRM Elgin represents the typical manufacturing business of the 1990s.

I have become involved on numerous levels in introducing students to manufacturing. On the elementary school level, I volunteered to be the business consultant and lead the lessons for a fifth grade Junior Achievement program. The interest and excitement that my students demonstrated was impressive. The five-week exercise introduced 30 students to manufacturing. The capstone of the five weeks was a tour of the MRM Elgin facility by all three fifth grade classes at the elementary school. With an investment of only eight hours, I was able to introduce 90 students and three teachers to manufacturing. Now they all have an appreciation of manufacturing as a valid career choice.

The key to introducing students to manufacturing is to open our factories to them. The local chapters of APICS, the Society for Manufacturing Engineers and ASQC have toured MRM Elgin as part of their programs. In addition, local high school clubs such as DECA (Business and Marketing) have visited our company and met our employees. Both high school and college students have worked at MRM Elgin in paid and unpaid internships and in cooperative part-time positions. Job shadowing an employee for a day or a week is another vehicle that has been used to introduce students to manufacturing.

Every summer, MRM Elgin is a business site for the tours of the Cray Academy, a nationally recognized two-week summer program where more than 900 Wisconsin K-12 teachers can develop their math, science and technology education skills. The business tours that the teachers take each week are an integral part of the education program. The three tours provide firsthand insights into the skills that local businesses need from employees. The tours also provide some teachers with their first look inside a business. Once the teachers are exposed to the opportunities in the local businesses, they can better provide their students with more alternatives to make career decisions. To further develop an understanding of present and future business skills needs, the business representatives participate in a roundtable forum with the teachers at the Cray Academy.

I am a member of the School-to-Work Council of the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin, a consortium of representatives from the education and business communities. The council currently is working on its vision and mission statements to focus its energies and resources effectively. All the members are concerned about the students and about preparing them for their place at work and in their community. Preparation includes programs in K-12 with seamless transitions into two-year technical college programs, four-year college programs or directly into the workplace. The programs concentrate on career exploration, school-based learning and work-based learning. We are working to define the community's needs and translate them into meaningful skills programs for our students.

There are many avenues that we can use to introduce students to manufacturing. We can create youth apprenticeships, internships and cooperative education positions in our businesses. We can participate in schools by tutoring, by attending career days, by becoming a Junior Achievement teacher and by adopting a school or class. We need to open the doors of our factories for tours by educators and students. We need to bring APICS to the high school, junior college and technical college levels.

There are more than 100,000 manufacturing professionals who, I hope, will react to this article. If each of us introduces 30 students to manufacturing each year, we will affect three million students! We must take action now and touch the future.


Bob Briggs is the general manager of MRM Elgin Corp. in Menomonie, Wis. He has spent his entire professional life in manufacturing and previously worked for General Electric Co. and two smaller contract assembly firms.


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