3M Brookings

South Dakota grows all kinds of crops. But some of the most unusual are cultivated not in the state’s farms or fields, but in labs –labs found inside 3M’s vast plant in Brookings, S.D.

The crops are spores. The farmers are 3M microbiologists, chemists and engineers.

The workers harvest the spores, then package them in vials for use in hospitals around the world.

And there, health workers use the spores to help determine whether surgical instruments have been properly sterilized.

They do this by putting a spore-containing vial into the sterilizer with the instruments. After the cycle, the vial gets put in an autoreader, which detects whether the sterilization killed the tough little spores.

If it did, then the workers can trust that the process killed other organisms, too – and that the instruments can safely be used.

That’s science and innovation in action. And 3M’s Attest Biological Indicators are just a tiny fraction of the more than 1,700 unique health care products that are made in the 3M Brookings plant.

“For example, we make a variety of medical tapes,” said Dale Tidemann, plant manager.

“In fact, each year we make enough medical tape in Brookings to cover 21,000 football fields.”

One of 3M Brookings’ flagship products is Micropore tape. The surgical tape is used to secure dressings, IVs and other devices to skin.

“We’ve been making that here for 40 years, and in that 40 years, we’ve made a billion yards of Micropore tape,” Tidemann said.

“That’s enough to go to the moon and back. And that’s just one tape.”

3M Brookings employs more than 1,100 people. Most them gown up and put on special shoes, hairnets and other personal protective equipment before they step onto the production floor.

There they find a process that, in the case of the tapes, takes raw materials from railroad cars, fashions huge rolls called jumbos and then cuts, packages and (for many products) sterilizes the tapes before shipment.

Over time, the steadily growing workforce – 3M Brookings is one of the largest employers in Brookings – also has become more technical. So, 3M Brookings now partners to encourage STEM training.

“We continue to see a need for skilled workers,” said Becky Jirava, HR manager at the plant.

“For that, it’s important for us to make investments in technical institutes as well as colleges on the STEM front, and we’re looking to do that at the high school level as well.”

Along those lines, 3M Brookings maintains generous parental leave, volunteer service, personal wellness, charitable donation and other benefits to help not only employees, but also Brookings.

3M’s vision statement speaks of advancing every company, enhancing every home and improving every life. “At 3M Brookings, we talk about that last one a lot,” Jirava said.

“Improving every life, including the lives of our employees, our community and the people who use our products. That’s what we’re trying to do.”