A clever carnival initiative
USA Company | 04. February 2019
W. MÜLLER apprentices fulfil orders independently, and in so doing support local carnival associations.
Every year, the medium-sized company based in Troisdorf Spich has always strived to provide training for young people in various job profiles in both the commercial and the technical/vocational field. W. MÜLLER recently integrated an exciting new project into its company-based training scheme that is now run with varied content in every year of training.
This year, all 6 apprentices training as industrial managers, industrial mechanics, mechatronics specialists and technical product designers formed their own small "company within a company" and independently fulfilled a contract from the acquisition stage through to production and delivery.
The project involved making small piggy banks, which were produced on the specialist blow molding company's own systems and then distributed to carnival associations, kindergartens and colleagues from the company who were actively involved in the carnival.
The interested parties were approached in advance and a quantity enquiry was made. In addition, each customer was able to choose two colours for the money bag-shaped piggy banks. This even enabled the associations to have their molding material in their own association colours. In other words a completely individual end product. Production then started, which the apprentices themselves controlled and monitored and then delivered the end product to their customers.
The idea of the project is to teach our young colleagues how the departments within a company are interlinked and how the work of each one builds on that of the others. Appreciating this and supporting each other is one of the family-run company's core philosophies. "Small and medium-sized companies thrive on the ability to be flexible and on the departments and colleagues being a well-coordinated team. We want to demonstrate this to our apprentices too, and above all we also want them to profit from it. No-one here is just a number. And we're very interested in our apprentices wanting to stay with us after they complete their training. It's clear to us that a different approach is needed these days compared to a few years ago", explains Brigitte Müller, Managing Director of the Troisdorf company. "The apprentices were able to learn a great deal from the project, and both they and the supervising trainers Sabine Zanders, Ulrich Hund and Norbert Mohr found it very enjoyable."
And all those who've managed to get hold of one at the carnival processions in Troisdorf, Lohmar, Heide, Siegburg and the surrounding area should also enjoy these little money bags!
The technology of extrusion blow molding involves melting a synthetic granulate in an extruder and then forming a pipe from it. This pipe emerges from the extrusion pipe head, a highly complex system that represents the core competence of W. MÜLLER. It is then transferred to a mold and inflated with high pressure. See the process in more detail here.