MANUFACTURING THE MOLD MAKERS OF TOMORROW


I was asked to represent our company in a project with elementary school aged kids to teach them about manufacturing and show them the many career options that are out there within the industry.  I guess because I am a kid at heart, I was the best person for the job.  The following story is a synopsis of that experience.  One that I won’t soon forget.
After touring M.R. Mold & Engineering, the Brea School District superintendent asked the company to participate in a program with Laurel Magnet elementary school where local businesses would introduce students to their industry.  The fire department, waste management, restaurants, veterinarians and hotels were all among the different businesses participating in the project.  The goal was to give kids a glimpse inside the world of local companies in their community and to their industries.  The students and business partners would then collaborate on a project that involved problem solving, critical thinking and presented a challenge to the students.  The projects were timed for completion towards the end of the school year that would culminate in a Career Exploration celebration.  The students would make displays and exhibits illustrating their experience working with the different local business.      

Miss Chang’s 4th grade class was our assigned student partners.  I wasn’t sure what kind of collaboration we would do with this young group, but I knew when I first met the class, I had to bring something to keep their attention long enough to introduce them to the world of  manufacturing and what we do at M.R. Mold in a short period of time.  Gift bags containing tradeshow giveaways like cupcake pans, magnifying glasses and the ever popular pointy stress ball were all I needed to hold a captive audience long enough to show them how much manufacturing is a part of their everyday lives and opened their eyes to new kinds of tools they never knew existed.

Once the introductions and presentations were made, we set up a tour of our facility for the kids.  They could catch a personal glimpse of all the different operations and processes that go into building injection molds.  I’ll never forget their awestruck faces, the “oohs” and “aahs” as they filed in to our shop for the first time.   Their heads were on swivels as they tried to take it all in.  They had never experienced the type machinery we used on a daily basis.  The kids visited each department and learned of their roles in the mold building process, the different machinery used and the different skill sets needed.  They were very inquisitive and the scope of their questions ran the gamut from “what is an end mill?” to “how much do you make?” and you could see in their expressions they never knew shops like ours existed.  As we progressed through the shop tour, the idea for our collaboration came to me.  Let’s have the kids come up with an idea for a tradeshow giveaway.
                           
At the end of the tour, Miss Chang and I agreed on the idea and we then presented the challenge to the kids.  We asked them to develop a product for a trade show giveaway that would draw the interest of visitors to our booth so we could initiate a conversation about the expertise and services our company offers.  We suggested their product/giveaway include our company name and logo and be something people would want to use over and over.  We told them they were only limited by their imagination and a fictitious budget that they had to meet.   
              


Going into the last quarter of their school year, I got to participate in the “Read Across America” program where adults read to kids.  This coincided with Dr Seuss’s birthday so I donned my best Cat in the Hat costume and read “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” to the class.  Afterwards I worked with the kids on their ideas.  There were eight groups and each one had a different product they were going to pitch to the company to be the next giveaway.  They used their laptops to create presentations and used computer aided drafting software to draw up their ideas.  They also made parts based on their models using their 3D printer.  Stress-ball type products were the special of the day as was the word “squishy”.


              
                   

The big day finally arrived when the kids would pitch their ideas to the M.R. Mold hierarchy.  The AMBA’s 2019 Mold Builder of the Year, Rick Finnie, and marketing director Geri Anderson sat on the judges’ panel as one by one the groups would give their presentations as to why their entry should be considered for manufacturing.  The presentations were projected onto the big screen TV in the classroom as each group member read their part of their pitch.  They responded well to the questions asked by the judging panel after their presentations.


After much deliberation, a silicone bottle stopper caught the eye of the judges and was the winner of the contest.  The winning part featured a hollow cork like structure topped with a metal bottle cap looking top.  The company name and website information were to be featured on the part as well. 
With the kids’ part of the program complete except for the exhibit at the Career Exploration celebration, we designed and manufactured a mold based on the winning part presentation so we could show the kids the finality of their hard work.  We manufactured a single cavity tool and molded sample parts for them to have and take home to their parents to show what they learned.  The class created a story board, tabletop presentation set up for the Career Exploration celebration explaining their journey and the parameter set before them.  The winning team manned the table and explained how the mold was built and how it made the sample parts to the different visitors who came by and asked about their project.  They were so proud of their accomplishment and were in awe we were able to produce parts for them to have as a reminder of this project.





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