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M A N U F A C T U R I N G A L L S T A R S 2 0 19 11 How does your company promote teamwork, and what is your role in a team within your company or your department? Cross-functional meetings and projects promote teamwork. My role is to improve processes while ensuring we are creating quality castings for the customer. What has been the most fulfilling experience you have had at your company? Having the opportunity to automate a large portion of the business at Eck Industries. Do you have a mentor? Yes. He provided me with insight on beneficial training and growth opportunities to expand my skill set to succeed in my career. Do you believe that your job is an exciting and engaging profession? Every day in manufacturing is a new challenge. There is always a new problem to work on solving. education to learn, grow and develop into other positions. The opportunities are endless. What has been the most fulfilling experience you have had at your company? One is being able to develop several members on my team into leadership positions. I enjoy seeing others grow, take initiative and be successful. The team thrives even when I'm not there. The second is being part of launching two different production lines, including the development of four new products. Do you have a mentor? When I first started at Johnsonville, I had no manufacturing experience. I had mentors who believed in my abilities and were patient as I grew into my position. They challenged me each day to pick something I could improve — big or small. That has really stuck with me, and now I challenge my members to do the same. S P O N S O R P A I D P R O F I L E NEW ERA NORTHEAST WISCONSIN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE ALLIANCE neweraonline.org You can begin at any one of the colleges in the Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance to earn an associate degree and then pursue a bachelor's degree in Engineering Technology - Mechanical, Electrical, or Environmental at either UW Green Bay or UW Oshkosh. Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance Engineering Technology. Start Anywhere. M eet Matt Riehbrandt, a 2018 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who majored in mechanical engineering technology. Matt thoroughly enjoys his new career as a Quality Engineer at Generac in Oshkosh. "I had the best of both worlds — I could stay in my community, earn an associate degree at UW-Fond du Lac, continue my studies in the mechanical design technology program at Moraine Park Technical College and then transfer to UW-Oshkosh and complete my Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering technology. I experienced the best of what each college had to offer." Matt's advice to aspiring engineering technology students is to work hard, challenge yourself to learn new ways of solving problems and take the initiative to work on interesting projects. "My philosophy is there are simply no 'dumb questions' because you might be asking the very same question that others are wondering about," Matt says. "The faculty are trying to help each student be successful." As part of the engineering technology degree program, students are required to have at least one internship experience. "My internship experience at Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac was a wide range of hands-on challenges in mechanical engineering," Matt says. "Teamwork and results made the internship an incredible learning opportunity." While attending UW-Oshkosh, Matt received a Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance (NEWMA) scholarship. START ANYWHERE AND EARN YOUR ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY DEGREE