Company invests in the next generation of a local community.
By David Mantey
Bradford White Corporation (BWC), a water heater and storage tank design firm that manufactures in Middleville, MI, was looking into updating the company’s software, and Jeremy Waller, the advanced quality systems manager at BWC was charged with heading the investigation. As he rooted through the long list of potential upgrades, he stumbled across a program that would not only benefit the current Bradford White workforce, but it had the potential to impact employees in the making.
 Students at Grand Rapids Community College would rather explore new software on their own than be led in a lecture…until they get to that point where they have a question. (Photo Courtesy of Architectural Glass and Metals) |
Waller researched Autodesk’s Invest in Education program and found that by purchasing software from the company, Autodesk would, in turn, donate a number of software licenses in Bradford White’s name to a secondary educational facility of their choosing.
According to Waller, as he looked at his options it became an easy decision to make: “We investigated it further, and we have quite a few co-ops and interns from Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC),” Waller says. “At one time we were up to seven or eight employees who had come from GRCC in an office of around 60 people. Whom we would be donating to was pretty much a given.”
BWC — which operates out of a Grand Rapids, MI suburb — purchased six seats of Autodesk’s Inventor 2008 3D software to leverage in its R&D processes through 3D design and new product exploration and, as a result, GRCC received 25 seats of Autodesk Inventor 3D software, a grant valued at $130,000.
A Capable Graduate Comes At A Price  A bird’s eye view of Bradford White's 800,000 square foot manufacturing facility located in Middleville, Michigan — a Grand Rapids suburb. (Photo courtesy Bradford White) |
As design firms have made the migration from 2D into the third dimension, it has become increasingly difficult to find capable graduates trained on current, forget state-of-the-art, software. The result is a growing learning curve and non-billable work hours logged under training.
“For [BWC] especially, we tend to be on the cutting edge of design work in our field,” Waller adds. “About two years ago, I was a member of the product design engineering group, and I was in the process of transferring us from the standard 2D design work, into 3D solid-modeling. In doing so, I realized that GRCC probably had the best program around, but they were just lacking slightly in software.”
Originally, BWC was bringing in students who were trained in comparable software. After some basic cross-training, the new hires were brought up to speed, but at a substantial cost. “To get someone fully up to speed, it could be up to six months to get them completely comfortable with the system,” Waller says.
With 13 percent of the company’s roster plucked from GRCC classrooms, helping the college breed more qualified junior engineers was a notch in the pro column. “Once I saw this possibility, it offered us the ability to bring in someone who is fully trained on the software and integrate [him/her] into our engineering program,” Waller says. “I would say, on an annual basis, it is probably saving us anywhere from 25 to 30 percent just in design time. That’s not including anything else, like training.”
Close To Home While BWC has staffers from GRCC, the firm has also made a few hires from area four-year colleges. It’s a practice Waller encourages, because while the pool of prospective engineers may not be dwindling, the same can’t be said about the area’s perceived economic stability.
“From our side here in Southwest Michigan, [the amount of qualified engineers] is not as robust as it used to be,” Waller admits. “Right now we’re starting to see a slight influx due to the downturn of the state’s economy, but within recent years it’s been fairly lean as far as our ability to find good engineers or any good designers for that matter. In [making this donation] we’re hoping to open up the field a little more and try and make it so when we do get interns and co-ops, they’re already up to speed on the software that we’re using, and they can sit down and start right away.” BWC usually offers five to seven internships each summer.
“Traditionally, West Michigan companies have been very supportive of the community and to the local education institutions,” says Tom Boersma, the head of the Drafting and Design Department at Grand Rapids Community College. “This last year has been tough; companies are closing, product lines are moving, but we still have more demand for our students than we do students. There is a supply problem where a lot of counselors, parents and even students don’t want to get involved in anything locally, because they think they’ll lose their jobs if they get one in the first place.
“That’s not true,” Boersma adds. “Companies need a lot of innovative employees, and I think Bradford White is generous in their gesture. Companies need to know that they have to help the pipeline. We have a lot of people retiring in the next five years, and a lot of these students aren’t showing interest.”
Sparking Interest In A Generation Of Instant Gratification With traditional AutoCAD training, Boersma describes an instructor-led classroom environment in which students would follow the instructor’s prompts. That’s just not the case in the new millennium. “Now, software is just more intuitive, and the students speed along a lot more naturally in understanding how to get things to work,” Boersma illustrates. “They’d rather explore it on their own than be led in a lecture … until they get to that point where they have a question.”
Boersma, the self-confessed old-timer, admits that the reach of Inventor 3D software goes further than traditional tool and product design. “There are graphic arts students who want to develop basic solid models as well as graphic illustrators. There seems to be quite a cross-section of people interested in this solid-modeling technology.”
Boersma notes that a new 3D printer has added to a blossoming interest throughout the student body. Students are “enjoying seeing their 3D models come to life.”
The department head shares that he now sees students walk into the classroom with software on their laptops that’s more up-to-date than the programs taught at the school. To this he attributes the growing availability of trial software as well as programs that offer students discount software.
“[This donation] was something that we could benefit from in the long run,” Waller adds. “By helping students obtain the ability to use this software, it’s not only going to benefit them, but it’s going to benefit us.”
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