®| Training is our business Winter 2000 Volume 2, Number I |
SKC
Amazon.com
Solectron
Honda
Geico
Viracon
Project Update
Operating Results
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Custom Training, Team Building
Soon, from the top of the world's tallest skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, you will see Statesboro, GA.
Well, almost, that is. What you will actually see is the "Statesboro, GA" stamp on every frame of architectural window glass in the Taipei Financial Center's skyscraper — glass custom-fabricated by Viracon in its new $35 million-plus plant in Statesboro. Viracon officials say that Quick Start’s help was a major factor in locating, opening and operating their ultra-modern, 341,000-square-foot plant in Statesboro this past spring. Viracon’s architectural glass solutions are used all over the world. The contract on the 1,666-foot-tall building in Asia is only a small portion of the international sales from Viracon, a company of the glass technologies division of Apogee Enterprises, Inc. Not only has the new Viracon plant boosted the South Georgia economy, it is also bringing worldwide attention to Statesboro.
“Quick Start offered everything we needed,” Miller said. “Mike Diedrich and I were very impressed with the quality of people teaching, and dealing with Quick Start’s Vidalia office has been fantastic.” Viracon’s plant, located on 50 acres outside Statesboro, already employs 359 people in coveted, good-paying jobs which turn out high-tech glass-fabricated products. These range from beautiful architectural glass for buildings like Taipei’s skyscraper to insulation, security and hurricane-resistant glass. The company has already added additional glass production lines in Georgia and will employ approximately 600 people in a plant designed for easy expansion. Recent examples of Viracon’s glass fabrication efforts include reglazing the Sears Tower in Chicago and doing the special non-glare glass for ‘sky boxes’ in the new Houston Astro’s Stadium. “Quick Start is a very thorough training organization,” Miller explained. “One of the biggest draws to us initially, since it was a start-up operation, was for them to come in and do the pre-employment training. Also they could do the training for us, to get us off the ground. They offered everything we needed.” Nearly all of the employees for the Statesboro plant were hired in Georgia, and they knew nothing about glass fabrication when Quick Start and Viracon began training them. In addition to pre-employment training in basic manufacturing subjects and safety, Quick Start and Viracon fashioned tailor-made training for jobs such as glass cutting, glass tempering, glass laminating and glass coating.
Mike Diedrich calls Peggy Chapman ‘Statesboro’s secret weapon’ in the tough fight to gain industries for the area. “She seems to have her antennae out to sense what major companies need. Only six years ago the industrial park where Viracon is located was nothing but pine trees. Now there are 2,000 employees working for companies with major facilities there such as Briggs-Stratton, Wal-Mart and Viracon.” Chapman puts together the teams of business, civic, cultural and education leaders who can answer the questions of a company considering locating in the Statesboro area. “Quick Start is a very important part of our teams,” she said. Viracon needed convenient interstate highway access, proximity to a deep-water port to ship its international orders and availability of a dependable labor force, officials of the company said. “Quick Start’s flexibility, the ability to re-schedule and change — that had a huge impact on us,” said Miller. “They produced training very specific to our needs.” “Quick Start first made a three-day, very intensive trip to observe work at Viracon in Minnesota. The training staff were everywhere in the plant, photographing control panels, shooting videos. They were assigned to study different production lines. They also learned how to give new employees a basic understanding of how glass is made and of the Viracon fabrication processes,” Miller said. The pre-employment training package from Quick Start was particularly helpful to Viracon in evaluating prospective employees and giving them a look at Viracon.
“All of our production lines are based on the team concept, and with Quick Start’s help, the new employees were already working as a team before we put them on the floor,” Miller said. Diedrich originally had some doubts that Quick Start could handle the tough assignment of taking completely inexperienced workers, training them and getting them on the production lines on time. Training had to race the incredibly brief 10 months from the bare ground to an operating plant.
“I did have my doubts at first. We didn’t have an organization like
Quick Start in Minnesota. Everybody in Minnesota would say they had a
program for us, but they had their own program, and you adapted to their
program, rather than them adapting to our busines,” Diedrich said.
A visitor on the floor at Viracon’s Statesboro plant is hit by the
quiet, high-tech efficiency of the 24-hour-per day, seven-day-per week
production lines, the safety measures taken and the no-nonsense
expertise of workers who knew nothing about glass fabrication a few
short months ago. Employees are obviously proud of making products for
one of the world’s premier glass fabrication companies.
Viracon contributes greatly to the South Georgia economy, and it has as
many orders as it can fill, Miller said.
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QUICK START | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | TECHNICAL INSTITUTES | DTAE HOME
An unusually effective team effort between local leaders and Quick Start
persuaded the Minnesota-based company that Statesboro was the best of 26
competing sites, said Mike Diedrich, Viracon’s vice president of
manufacturing. Before the Viracon plant was opened in March, Quick Start
staffers studied glass fabrication operations in Minnesota, coming up
with a practical training program. None of the other serious contenders
for the plant — South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia — could
match the ‘one-stop,’ unique training help offered by Quick Start, said
Steve Miller, ISO/training coordinator at Viracon.
Luring Viracon to Statesboro was a finely tuned effort led for the state
by David Sapp, economic development representative for region 10. The
task ultimately involved hundreds of local leaders, educators, the
Statesboro-Bulloch County Chamber of Commerce and Development Authority
and Quick Start. Locally, Peggy Chapman, executive director of the
Development Authority and Statesboro Chamber president, zeroed-in on
what Viracon had to have for its new location.