Breaking News
Communities

Learning about manufacturing

800 students from 25 schools tour local companies

By Dylan Jackson 3 min read

NEW ULM -- Schools from the area toured three local businesses Thursday as part of Manufacturing Month.

Over 800 students and 25 different schools participated in the annual South Central Tour of Manufacturing.

In the area, students from Sibley East High School, River Bend Educational District, GFW, High School, St. Peter High School, and New Ulm High School toured the sites of 3M, SpecSys, and DSM-Firmenich throughout the day.

At SpecSys, Fabrication Lead Robert Olson gave a tour, after which Operations Manager Andy Robinson answered questions from students.

"We build ready mix trucks. We cover just about anything you can think of in the company, aviation to agriculture, paving, mining, forestry, you name it we build it. But this building is solely based on ready mix trucks," Robinson said.

He also talked about the struggles of building different vehicles.

"[All vehicles] have their own challenges. One of the hardest challenges is having to use someone else's drawing package. We're trying to read a print from Germany and Italy," he said.

But despite challenges, Robinson said that the workplace is fun.

"We try to carry pretty good humor in the building. It makes the work day fun. We should be able to enjoy the day, laugh and have a good time, that's important," he said.

Robinson emphasized the importance of SpecSys's role in the community.

"We participate in some school tours because we believe we have to participate in the trades and help out there," he said. “It’s pretty neat what we do and we want to show others that, but all said and done giving back to the community [is our goal.]"

SpecSys has two employees that started as interns from the CTE center and now work in the building.

River Bend student Remington Schultz found the SpecSys tour beneficial because he is interested in manufacturing.

"It was great. It's one of the places I've been thinking about applying for when I turn 18, Schultz said. Something like this or 3M definitely manufacturing, that's where you can learn or hone some skills.

He also appreciated the information Robinson offered, "He answers the questions honestly and it was really nice," Schultz said.

DSM-Firmenich is an international company with 30,000 total employees worldwide that specializes in fragrance and flavoring. They play a role in the creation of products that line the shelves in grocery stores across the globe.

Following a video showcasing products that use flavorings produced by DSM-Firmenich, Production Specialist Kirsten Olson led an activity where students guessed different flavorings.

New Ulm High School students were able to identify the two mystery flavors as strawberry raspberry oatmeal and jolly rancher drink mix.

"Now you're starting to understand how far reaching our company is," Olson said. "We're in your everyday."

Lastly, students were taken on a tour by Production Supervisor Luis Benitez to get a better understanding of what production looks like on the floor at Firmenich.

New Ulm High School student Kellan Reinarts enjoyed walking around and smelling all of the products being worked on. Although he doesn't know what he wants to do in the future, he said that field trips like the one to Firmenich helps him see what is out there.

This belief is also shared by Intro to Business teacher Theresa Mosher.

"Being an Intro to Business class, maybe they want to run something at some point," Mosher said. "Seeing the work part of it and the office part of it, they get the whole picture of what it takes to run a business."

Starting at /week.