Autokiniton – Maintaining the Manufacturing Workforce

In manufacturing, you continually need to decrease downtime and increase production to remain profitable.  Without properly trained employees, manufacturers would not be able to accomplish this.  There are many employees in the skilled trades who are close to retirement, so we need to have new journeymen trained and ready to fill those shoes.  Manufacturers need apprentices to work with current journeymen so they can share the vast amount of knowledge they have learned over the years. 

GST Michigan Works! completed a Fact Finding with Peggy Rogers – Human Resource Generalist at Autokiniton (Formerly Tower International).  They have several Apprenticeship Programs that will have first year apprentices attending training.  In addition, they will need to hire more apprentices to fill openings.  It was determined that Going Pro would be a good fit to assist in paying for the cost of some of the classroom training and on-the-job training.  

Autokiniton applied for and was awarded $12,000 through the GPTF 2022. This award assisted them in training two new Tool & Die Maker Apprentices, one Maintenance Technician Apprentice and one Electrician Apprentice! Autokiniton utilizes Delta College for their classroom apprenticeship training. We must continue to train our existing and new apprentices to maintain the business that we have, as well as give us the ability to take on new projects. 

Peggy shared, “Through the training with Delta College and our mentoring program, we have decreased downtime and increased production which positively affects our profitability! The training is also helping to secure the future for new business and building the skills needed to maintain our workforce.” Logan Briesmiester stated that, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career. Delta and Autokiniton have provided me with an opportunity that I didn’t think was possible! I knew I didn’t want to be weighed down by thousands of dollars in student loan debt. Deltra provided me with the tools I needed to succeed and Autokiniton has given me a career that I can grow in as an Industrial Electrician.”