By Lara Copeland, assistant editor
The American Mold Builder
Recently announced at the AMBA Conference 2018, MSI Mold Builders, with locations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Greenville, South Carolina, received the Tooling Trailblazer of the Year Award. Introduced last year to recognize members whose leadership has resulted in a notable impact in education, the award comes with a $5,000 scholarship grant from Wauconda, Illinois-based Progressive Components, to be donated to the industry-related educational program of the winner’s choice.
Since 1971, MSI Mold Builders has done more than design and build steel and aluminum molds for injection, structural foam, rim, blow, gas assist and structural web processes. The company also has gone above and beyond in championing tooling education in the newly developed Cedar Rapids Iowa City Corridor – a 4,400-square-mile area in eastern Iowa that includes 500,000 residents in seven counties.
Due to a shortage of talent for its specialized business, the company established partnerships with the local schools many years ago—including community colleges and high schools. “We’ve been working with the local community college, Kirkwood, since we started in 1971,” said President and Owner Roger Klouda. The partnership has helped the company establish various methods to evaluate and train potential employees.
“Educational outreach is not a this-year, next-year event, rather, it is an every-year focus for MSI,” Dale Larsen, MSI’s human resource director explained. The company is continuously recruiting and training interns not only from the local community college, but also the surrounding high schools and four-year colleges. “At one point at our Iowa plant this year, we had eight different interns: four in the CNC department and one each in assembly, IT, maintenance and design,” Larsen acknowledged. “We also have two interns at our South Carolina facility.”
The internship program pays 100 percent of the student’s tuition, books and fees for anyone working with the company more than 10 hours a week. Full benefits are provided for those working more than 30 hours per week. “This has really helped in encouraging all classes at the community college to explore and investigate the world of moldmaking,” Larsen added.
Impressively, an entire work cell in its Iowa manufacturing facility is operated by interns. “They are responsible for manufacturing mold components that do not touch plastic,” Production Manager Eric Kolsto stated. The interns make lifter gibs, rods and shoes; wear plates, locks and pins for cams; and anything else required. Kolsto emphasized that these components are critical to a mold’s function and not just work to keep interns busy. The interns also are responsible for training the next first-year students in running the same machines as they move up into more responsible roles.
Larsen mentioned that about 60 to 70 percent of the interns go on to have a career with MSI, and of the interns who do not continue with MSI, most of them get so excited and involved in the industry that they decide to continue their education.
MSI also has been building relationships with local high schools for the past five or six years. “Since the 1980s, high school students have been told they have to enroll in a four-year college,” Larsen suggested. “We have to go a step further in combatting the belief that people must have a four-year degree to be successful – so we champion skilled trades in advanced manufacturing and moldmaking consistently and repeatedly.” MSI makes it a point to reach out not only to these students, but also to their parents. Larsen said it helps when parents see the types of jobs their children would be involved in: the process and the clean, well-ventilated working environment.
To reach the high school population, MSI welcomes students to job shadow all aspects of the business, anywhere from 45 to 90 hours each. “It’s a great position for them to get to see what kind of future they could have,” Kolsto explained.
To attract potential employees, MSI participates in the Advanced Manufacturing Advisory Board, Advanced Manufacturing Sector Board and the Foundation Board. The advisory and sector boards operate hand-in-hand and are also co-chaired by Kirkwood and the Corridor Business Journal (CBJ). “The advisory board meets to go over trends, happenings, the direction of the industry and to provide guidance to the sector board, which then tries to enact plans to draw people and employees to this area,” Larsen confirmed.
Considering the myriad ways MSI increases the visibility of the mold manufacturing industry, it’s no surprise that the company won the Tooling Trailblazer Award. When asked to reflect on what it means to him to win this award, Klouda said, “It validates that what we’ve worked so hard on is succeeding.”
Larsen continued, saying, “I think it’s a validation of the whole concept of the vision that clinched it for us.” It’s not just one thing we tired – we tried many different things, and some worked and others didn’t. Ultimately, it’s because MSI believes in education for current employees. It’s because the company believes in manufacturing, in the mold industry and in this community that allows us to have a lot of freedom with how we approach education.”
MSI plans to continue to develop educational outreach and has decided to give its $5,000 grant to Kirkwood to use for scholarships and outreach in the CNC and advanced manufacturing area. Additionally, MSI would like to continue to expand its market penetration. “Our employee footprint is up to an hour in every direction, and within that area are four more community colleges and more than 40 high schools,” Larsen said.
Realizing that MSI is competing with large, highly funded universities and even larger Fortune 500 companies, one of the most important factors in beginning that relationship with the nearby high schools, according to Larsen, is the “eye-test.”
“We need to present ourselves as a professional organization/path that would benefit students,” Larson continued. “We need the ability to look as good on paper in our market and advertising efforts as we do in person when we bring people in.” The company will soon be creating professional print material that would allow MSI to stay on the same footing as any other entity advertising its personal benefits with the schools.
“Our outreach in tours and education, in shows and fairs, in classroom presentations and job-shadows, has been a rousing success and continues to highlight not only the wonderful world of manufacturing, but specifically moldmaking at its best,” concluded Toby Bral, MSI sales manager.
