Acme Corrugated Chairs Amtech Industry Orientation:  “A Day in the Life”

Amtech has spent a lot time examining our workforce and how to grow it during our Innovation Revolution.  Given our move to the cloud, we made a decision to fill specific positions with a technology focus, which leads to hiring employees outside the Corrugated Industry.  By doing this, we know it is our responsibility to invest in our people by educating our growing workforce and assisting them to develop their Packaging Industry IQ.  To that end, we piloted an Amtech boot camp with various components.  The first component was sending employees on-site to a Corrugated Plant where they had the opportunity to walk the plant floor and see a Corrugator and Converting Equipment in action.  The second was a two day Packaging 101 seminar taught by Ralph Young, AICC Consultant.  The next phase of this program occurred recently, “A Day in the Life of the Packaging Industry”.  We invited Acme Corrugated Box Company into our office for an informal lunch and learn.  Debbie Boone, Client Relations Manager, and Jennie Becker, Controller, represented Acme. 

“I specifically selected Acme to partner with us on this lunch and learn.  They are very progressive and have an amazing group of Packaging Professionals” stated Cosmo DeNicola, Amtech President.

Debbie and Jennie spoke to Amtech employees from various departments, such as Customer Service, IT, Marketing, Sales and Professional Development, about their job functions and how technology assist them in their day to day.   “We do the spectacular for our customers” Debbie said as she spoke about Acme’s customers, which demonstrates her pride in Acme’s product and passion for the industry.

The Acme Team focused on the roles they play and the interaction of all departments in the plant.  The collaborative environment was not lost on the Amtech employees.  Our team started to better understand the importance of box maker/end-user integration and the critical nature of an efficient and lean supply chain. 

One of the first things that Debbie and Jennie relayed us was how valuable their paperless systems are to their customer and team’s day to day lives.  Going paperless, has allowed them to be more efficient and focus energy in other areas of their jobs.  This was music to Michael DeNicola, Sales Executive, ears.  He spends a lot of time talking to customers about how Amtech’s applications will produce a return on their investment by “freeing up” people’s time.  This leads to efficiency, sales focus and a proactive culture within an organization.   

Jennie also spoke about real life examples of how Amtech’s software directly impacts their business.  It is extremely beneficial for Amtech employees, in all departments, to hear firsthand how our customers business can be impacted by what seem like simple problems such as the inability to print load tags.  “This conversation gave me a new understanding of how severe a printing problem can be” said Zach Handzlik, IT Technologist. 

“The back and forth between Jennie and Debbie with Amtech employees was fantastic!  It provides new channels of communication and strengthen relationships” said Stephanie DeNicola, Director Human Resources/Professional Development.   In the final analysis, our participants came away with a better understanding of what it takes and what it means to run a successful packaging plant.