ON THE ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY
How Phoenix Contact Builds A Sustainable Workforce It’s a familiar refrain: “We need people in production and engineering,” says Dave Skelton, Vice President & General Manager of Development and Manufacturing for Phoenix Contact at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Harrisburg, PA. And like many U.S. manufacturing operations, Phoenix Contact has had difficulty filling both skill sets. The problem became particularly acute in production when more operators and technicians were needed during a 2011 expansion. After consulting with company headquarters in Germany, Skelton and his team decided an apprenticeship program could solve the problem. Particularly important, says Skelton, was the need for a program in mechatronics, the interdisciplinary field that combines mechanical and electrical engineering with computer science, which “is the hardest skill for us to find.” The absence of an existing mechatronics apprenticeship program in the U.S. meant the company would need to create its own. Tapping their experienced staff and local community-college partners (who provided input on “general-purpose courses like thermodynamics and [standard] 61131 PLC programming,” according to Skelton), a four-year program was designed that features approximately 8000 total training hours— 600 in the classroom, and the rest on the job at the Harrisburg facility. A full-time trainer was hired to help administer the apprenticeship program and assist with employee training in other areas like IPC (Institute of Printed Circuits) standards and safety.
To fill the apprenticeship classes, the company had to look no farther than its own operation. “We found a number of employees here who were interested and willing to make the commitment,” says Skelton. “The attraction is that while you’re in school, you’re still at work, which means you’re still being paid. What you learn in class you apply immediately on the job.” Another attraction was that upon completion of the course— now registered with both the federal and Pennsylvania-state governments—graduates would receive journeyman papers. The first group of five graduated in mid-February, says Skelton, who adds that he hopes to expand the program into other areas, including quality and maintenance. Spurring interest in engineering takes a longer view and has a longer history at Phoenix Contact. Centered on a paid internship program begun in 2006, the company’s quest for engineers is aided by its relationship with several local colleges and universities whose students participate year-round. “Last summer we had 22 interns in development manufacturing,” says Skelton, who calls the program a win for the company and interns because it involves “real work,” not tedium. Interns receive a well-rounded view of the company by starting in production assembly and moving through more complex operations the longer they’re aboard. “This way we learn about them and they learn about us,” says Skelton. “Right now we have about 10 who work here part-time, and when they near their final year, we can make them job
Phoenix Contact goes a step farther with a local lightingmanufacturer customer that buys large quantities of the company’s rail assemblies. “We once packaged everything for them using bubble-wrap and cardboard,” says Ferguson. “Then we developed a cart system where we slide the rail assemblies onto a [stainless steel] cart, roll it onto a delivery truck, drive it to their facility, drop it off and bring back the empty.” The customer rolls the stocked cart into its production area, slides the rail assemblies off where needed, and returns the empty cart to its shipping/receiving area for pickup and return to Phoenix Contact. “The customer loves this,” he says, “because they’re not opening
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MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY & ASSET PERFORMANCE
offers. By then, everyone knows each other and we know there will be a fit. We do a lot of our recruiting that way, and we have no trouble filling our internships.” Other company-driven initiatives like its annual Engineering Week also help Phoenix Contact stay ahead on hiring. This event mainly “celebrates our engineers,” says Skelton, but also includes communityoutreach efforts to local public schools as well as universities. A highlight is the weeklong engineering-themed course created by Phoenix Contact engineers who teach it to a local middle-school class. The event also features a company-sponsored contest where middle- and high-school students are given Phoenix Contact controllers and connectors, and tasked with creating working machinery, winning examples of which are on display in the Harrisburg lobby. This effort has since been expanded to the college-level. These outreach programs “were not intended to bring more people into Phoenix Contact directly,” says Skelton, “but they have given us great awareness in the community and the fact that we have technical careers available. We are, however, seeing a lot more people who want to come work at our company. There’s an investment in each of these programs, but the rewards are great because the employees we get are committed, they’re knowledgeable and they’re good people. The cost of recruiting is expensive,” he adds, “so the bar to entry is not all that high for what we do when you consider the benefits.”
a box, taking out packaging material and having to throw all of that away or recycle it. It saves them many minutes of labor just getting to their product.” Clever solutions like this exemplify Phoenix Contact’s equally strong commitment to customer needs and sustainable solutions, says Ferguson. And it’s this approach, he believes, that will enable the company to realize its master plan in Harrisburg, which calls for further additions to production and office space. “We’re here for the long haul,” he notes. “And doing these types of things to remain competitive will get us there.” MT&AP APRIL 2014