MFG Day

Company Donating Monetary Prize to the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center

ARLINGTON, Vt. (Oct. 23, 2019) – Mack Molding, a leading custom plastic injection molder and supplier of contract manufacturing services, announced today it was honored with second place in the annual Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors (MAPP) Educational Outreach Awards.

Distributed at the organization’s 2019 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference, which took place Oct. 2-4, 2019 in Indianapolis, the award recognizes MAPP member companies for helping to bridge the manufacturing skills gap and create excitement about plastics manufacturing within their communities. There is a special focus on encouraging students to discover the rewards of a career in plastics manufacturing.

Winners of this award receive a donation from MAPP to the recipient’s educational institution or program of choice. Mack has selected the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) in recognition of the organization’s support of the Company’s outreach endeavors.

“Mack’s workforce cultivation efforts have greatly benefited from VMEC, which helped launch our Made in Vermont Days program in 2014 and trained our employees to conduct a manufacturing flow game that puts context behind what students witnessed on the tour,” said Mack President Jeff Somple. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to give back to VMEC as it delivers on its mission to strengthen and empower Vermont Manufacturers.”

Mack’s outreach efforts include its biennial Made in Vermont Days, which attract students from high schools in Southern Vermont and New York state to get a first-hand look at the Company’s operations. Other local schools also visit throughout the year, with some 150 children and educators entering Mack’s doors in the last 12 months. Additionally, the Company’s internship program offers students real-world experience while helping them envision a rewarding life in Vermont. The program has become a significant source of recruitment for the Company, with 19 former interns accepting full-time positons in recent years.

“With more than 300 MAPP members voting on this year’s nominees, we are honored to be recognized and share our peers’ commitment to inspiring a new generation of manufacturers,” Somple said. “As we prepare to celebrate our centennial, it is exciting to see our workforce development efforts have brought us young engineers, technicians and leaders who are prepared to bring us into our next 100 years.”

About Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center
VMEC is a Vermont resource and trusted advisor to enterprises of all sizes. Since 1995, the VMEC team has brought world-class expertise through consulting, coaching, hands-on implementation support, and training and education for leaders and workers. VMEC provides proven systems and solutions focused on strategies, processes, products, technologies and people. For more information, go to www.vmec.org.

About Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors
Established in 1996, the Manufacturers Association for Plastic Processors is managed by plastics business leaders and has over 430 member companies nationwide. The association works to provide manufacturers with bottom line impacting programs, networking and additional beneficial services. For more information, go to www.mappinc.com.

About Mack Molding
Mack Molding is a leading custom plastics molder and supplier of contract manufacturing services. Mack specializes in plastics design, prototyping, molding, sheet metal fabrication, full-service machining and medical device manufacturing. Founded in 1920, Mack is a privately owned business that operates 11 facilities throughout the world. Don Kendall is CEO and chairman. For more information, go to www.mack.com.

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From Oct. 24-28, 2016, Mack hosted its biennial Made in Vermont Days at its Arlington, Vt., Headquarters – bringing local high school juniors and seniors into the Company’s manufacturing space to learn about manufacturing and engineering careers through tours, workshops and presentations.

The program is designed to reach students looking to go to a four year school, as well as certification and technical programs, and those who may wish to enter the workforce directly. This year Mack welcomed four schools – Arlington Memorial High School, Southwest Vermont Career Development Center, Long Trail and Burr & Burton Academy, as well as local home school students. In all, nearly 50 students, educators and parents participated.

Students toured the Company’s HQ through the lens of one particular product manufactured there that incorporates virtually Mack’s entire vertical integration of services. Following the tour students participated in a competitive workshop introducing the theory behind manufacturing flow before learning about careers available to them with the Company’s Director of Human Resources, hearing business insights from the HQ Plant Manager and an open Q&A with these key staff members. Students also were given the opportunity to sign-up for more in-depth workshops to be held at a later date in the following disciplines: Injection Molding, Machining, Sheet Metal Fabrication, Manufacturing and Engineering.

By hosting the event in October, Mack is able to leverage the power and name recognition of Manufacturing Day and Manufacturing Month, creating additional pull through while increasing access to supportive resources. Additionally, Mack benefited from its relationship with the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC), whose team trained some of the Company’s up and coming employees to conduct the manufacturing flow workshop featured during the event, which proved fun and informative for students, putting some context behind what they had seen on the manufacturing floor.

Mack’s Made in Vermont Days represent just one facet of the Company’s outreach efforts to cultivate the next generation of talent needed to drive manufacturing in the Northeastern United States. With a goal of building a sustainable workforce by encouraging the next generation of engineers, technicians and professionals, Mack regularly brings in middle and high school students, sends engineers into the classroom and has even had programs for children as young as kindergarten. In addition to Made in Vermont Days, Mack’s high point in this effort is an internship program that has hosted close to 100 interns from schools like UVM, WPI, RPI and RIT. The Company is now starting to recognize the fruits of its labor with a record number of interns – six – joining Mack as full-time employees in 2016.