Copy-of-CPS-napkin-sketch-1

Women in Welding: From Rosie the Riveter to Custom Powder Systems

by Featured NewsGeneralNEWS

During World War II as all the “boys” were off to war, women stepped in and took up factory jobs. American women were working around the clock to make sure our troops had the tanks, jeeps, airplanes, and artillery needed to get the job done.

Post-war America saw more and more jobs move into the office setting. But not all of them. Not by a longshot. As many from the millennial generation, and younger, gravitate to tech jobs, a large hole is being created in the manufacturing industry. It’s created an opportunity for many, and women are back at it! Since 2004, the number of women entering welding apprenticeship has increased by 35%.

Custom Powder Systems works closely with Ozark Technical College in Missouri helping young adults find their way into something more than a job. We help them build a career in manufacturing.

DeAnn Kraichely, our Director of Human Resources, was recently tasked with attending Manufacturing Day at OTC and met Nadine, who would become our first female welder in the company. “She had no skills for aluminum, but she could weld stainless steel.” This didn’t disqualify Nadine, because DeAnn saw an opportunity to help a new employee grow. “It was a big opportunity for her, but it was also a big one for us.” Giving her the chance to show her willingness to learn worked out great for both Custom Powder and this young welder. “She was willing to do whatever it took,” DeAnn said. “Her attitude had a lot to do with it, but I saw the guys rally behind her. They wanted her to succeed, and that was a big part of it.”

The hiring process is a two-way street.

A company is evaluating a new employee, while the employee is sizing up the company. A good reputation isn’t something that just happens, it requires both leadership from the top and teamwork from the staff. Nadine shared with her fellow students at the technical college that Custom Powder Systems is “real.” DeAnn says that comes from the family atmosphere found in each department. “They go over the goals with the employees…they’re very open and honest with what we’re working towards and what we’re trying to do.” This deliberate approach to openness accounts for much of what makes Custom Powder Systems one of the great manufacturing companies to work for in the area.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over a half-million unfilled jobs in the manufacturing industry. Finding people who “perfectly” fits a job description is becoming increasingly difficult, which is why Custom Powder Systems is always looking for those diamonds in the rough, like Nadine. Welding and other manufacturing jobs provide a great opportunity for young women and men looking for a good-paying job, without the ever-increasing costs of attending a four-year university.

We’re proud of Nadine, and all of our employees, who work hard every day to help us forge strong bonds with our customers.

We’d love to talk with you about any current challenges you may be facing. Please call us at (417) 868-8002 or fill out the short form below:

Please select a valid form
Napkin Sketch

Happy New Year! Here’s Your Blank Napkin

by Featured NewsGeneralNEWS

We are an idea company. When we first meet customers, they are always a bit baffled…perplexed…flummoxed even. Our job is to take their (seemingly) impossible challenge and come up with the best way to solve it. We love love love being asked to do the things that haven’t been done before.

We’ve been sharing with you stories of great inventions and businesses that literally started on a blank cocktail napkin. Today, we want to give you your blank napkin:

What will you do with it? What can you do with it? From the Gettysburg Address to Southwest Airlines, great ideas just need a little space. Entire forests have grown from a tiny acorn. Like a growing plant, ideas need air, room, and nutrients. If you neglect ideas and hide them away, they most certainly perish.

But a blank page can be a tad daunting. When you’re told “just come up with ideas…the sky’s the limit,” you may find yourself paralyzed by over-choice. Coming up with ideas is like a muscle. With work and practice, you can find yourself coming up with ideas like a post-impressionist artist!

Introducing your new muse:  Alex Faickney Osborn.

Osborn was a mid-century ad-man (the “O” in BBDO). He’s the one to thank for  “brainstorming.” That’s his baby. Many think brainstorming is “just throwing ideas out there and seeing what sticks,” but brainstorming is a process. A system.

What’s the goal?

It’s important to know where you’re going before you start. Gather as much information as you can and identify what you’re trying to accomplish. Whether you’re brainstorming by yourself or with a team, this will help keep your ideas on track.   

Agree it’s just ideas

The first thing you must do is agree that you’re just coming up with ideas. NOT solutions. This might be the hardest part. Our busy brains want a solution, so each time an idea is presented, it’s very natural to shove them through the logic-filter to see if it’s a “good” idea or a “bad” idea.  It’s neither. It’s just an idea. You absolutely must separate the generation of ideas from the solution. We’re not there yet.

Solutions

Now that you have your ideas, you can work on your solution. Ideas and solutions don’t play nice together. The right side of your brain is playing with possibilities, while the left side of your brain is trying to herd a bunch of crazy squirrels. Each side resents the other and when they start fighting, you get stuck. Just as you kept ideas separate from the solution, keep the solutions away from new ideas. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in rabbit holes you never expected.

Test this thing

Now you can implement the solution. A solution that came from a goal to come up with ideas that lead to the solution. Did it work? No? Now you refine the goal. Then you come up with ideas. Then you apply the ideas to a solution.  

Alex Osborn worked with Professor Sid Parnes and developed the “Creative Problem-Solving System,” or “CPS” (Hey! Nice initials!)

“Of all the gifts we have as humans,” said Professor Parnes, “the one that stands out, giant-like above all the rest, is our ability to be creative. It is responsible for all the progress we enjoy today.”

Their work led to the founding of The Creative Education Foundation, a non-profit organization developed to “spark personal and professional transformation by empowering people with the skillset, toolset, and mindset of deliberate creativity.”

The Osborn-Parnes Method, loosely outlined above, goes like this:

Clarify:  This includes setting a goal, gathering information, itemizing your resources and knowing any challenges.

Ideate:  Now you’re generating ideas that are connected to your clear goals. Don’t stop. As many as humanly possible, without judgment.

Develop:  This is where you turn ideas into solutions. Evaluate, improve, and select the ideas that fit.

Implement:  Explore acceptance and identify resources and actions that will support the implementation of the selected solution(s).

This comes from the firm belief that everybody IS creative in some way, and everybody HAS the capacity to learn creative skills. Should the implementation not work for some reason, refine your goals and restart the process.

Because it is a process.

Have a happy, and very creative, new year. Here’s your napkin.

CPS-napkin-sketch

Napkin Sketch: Life-Saving Fire Hose Nozzles

by Featured NewsGeneralNEWS

Necessity is the mother of invention, but when three million gallons of liquid hydrocarbon explodes in front of you, waiting for mother to call isn’t an option. While the event was cataclysmic, it inspired the invention of the variable flow fire nozzle now used by fire departments around the world.

Volunteer firefighter Clyde McMillian arrived at The Standard Oil Company in Whiting, Indiana on the morning of August 27, 1955. Just after sunrise, the nation’s largest oil refinery erupted in a fireball so huge, residents thought it might be the end of the world. One witness said “I thought the sun had exploded,” while others were certain that Russia had finally dropped the atomic bomb on the United States. The blast shattered windows nearly 50 miles away.

McMillan was fighting the blaze to the best of his, and his fire hose’s, ability. When a tank of naphtha exploded, the nozzle on his hose did not have a spray pattern wide enough to protect him. His only choice was to drop the hose run. McMillan suffered third-degree burns on his back, legs, and arms. He was down, but he wasn’t going to let this happen to another firefighter.

Simply put: The nozzle was ineffective. The spray was inconsistent, and couldn’t compensate for unpredictable water pressures. After recovering, Clyde McMillian founded The Fire Task Force in Gary, Indiana. This new company focused on one thing: water.  

The Fire Task Force eventually became Task Force Tips, and grew into a trusted international company when McMillian began scribbling on a cocktail napkin. On May 10, 1968 he drew a diagram for a variable-speed, or “automatic,” nozzle. Similar to an automatic transmission in a car, the correct nozzle is automatically chosen as the speed of the water flow increases or decreases. 

jbHqI3fmQB0UiRSatt XYUJCVpdPhqEwWYbTtTKVjssAIP2LbXAqqn6OpZ7IMtQBOyWhY ewJS6Js4 82mZk70Qlrtqr7at3lFjs0JbPH26L

The original napkin sketch is on display in the Task Force Tips Fire Museum.

Success for his new company wasn’t immediate.  The first nozzle wasn’t sold until 1970, and by 1972 the business was still housed in the McMillian family basement. But good ideas find their way. By 1976, they were a $250,000 company (equivalent to $1.13 million today).

It’s a trait shared by our engineers at Custom Powder Systems. The ideas may seem fanciful at first, but the ultimate test is not what people think of the idea… but rather if the idea becomes useful. Some of our finest ideas have come from an off-handed comment while brainstorming, but good engineers know to file these ideas away. Sometimes on an app, sometimes in a file cabinet, and sometimes on a napkin.

Finding solutions is what we at Custom Powder Systems do each day. We are at our best when challenged by the things that other companies think can’t be done. We are always inspired by great thinkers like Clyde McMillan and appreciate good ideas can come to all of us at the most unexpected times.

Thanksgiving - Custom Powder Systems

Preparing for Thanksgiving

by Featured NewsGeneralNEWS

No, that’s not a typo.  No, we didn’t push the wrong button.

Instead of a holiday once a year, what if we gave a little “thanks” …every day?

At Custom Powder Systems, we’re a building full of scientists and engineers.  We like to see methods and proof. This is why we’re delighted to discover that science has confirmed what many of us already knew:  Being thankful is good for your health!

The University of California and the University of Miami published a report called “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life.”  That’s quite a mouthful to simply say what Charles Dickens so eloquently summed up:

“Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

Whether you call it “counting blessings,” “saying thanks,” or “expressing gratitude,” many health professionals agree:  Being thankful can be just as powerful as any drug in your happiness. In “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens,” researchers found that “inducing a state of gratefulness through the self-guided gratitude exercises led to some emotional, physical, or interpersonal benefits.”

What this, and Charles Dickens’ quote tells us is that our worries seem bigger because they are the rare standout. We tend to notice dramatic contrasts. If you really analyze things around you, you’ll find most of your day is filled with good things with the occasional “ugh” thrown in there.  Because the “ugh” is the oddball, it stands out.

None of this is to minimize the many struggles we all have but to re-organize our thoughts to highlight the good. According to Harvard Medical’s publication “In Praise of Gratitude,” proving a direct cause-and-effect is difficult, nonetheless “most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual’s well-being.”

What might happen if every day you deliberately noticed the things you’re thankful for?

  • A warm cup of coffee
  • The shoes on your feet
  • A ride to work
  • A place to work
  • The friend who made you laugh
  • The person who held the door for you
  • Lunch break
  • A warm bed
  • Friends, family, and mentors
  • A toe-tapping song on the radio
  • Your faith and beliefs
  • Pie
  • Kids laughing
  • Hugs

What would you add to the list?  

Think of it as “preparing for thanksgiving.”  Keep an ever-growing list that you can turn to, and remind yourself of the things you’re grateful for. 

Some recommendations from Harvard University include:

  • Write a thank-you note
  • Keep a gratitude journal
  • Count your blessings
  • Pray
  • Meditate

Even simply saying a mental “thank you” when you think of something or someone in your life that you’re grateful for can make a real impact on your happiness. Try spending as little as 90-seconds each morning and note as many things you’re thankful for as possible. It can be as simple as a bowl of cereal, or as grand as your family and friends.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the impact it has, and it’s guaranteed to have no bad side effects.

We’d also like to take this moment to give a big THANK YOU to you. The customers we get to serve each day is truly a blessing and one we never take for granted.  Thanks for being who you are and for trusting us each day.

We hope each day can be a day of thanksgiving for you.  

Blender with IBC bin

Not All Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) Are Created Equal

by Featured NewsNEWS

The plumbing in your house.  The road under your car. The intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) you use in your process. 

All important.  All easily overlooked. 

Pipes, highways, and IBCs have been around for a long time doing crucial jobs, and fortunately, somebody else thinks long and hard about them.  And just like pipes and roads, using “any old IBC” can prevent an unseen risk.

IBC Bin Blender at Custom Powder Systems

“Recently a pharma company bought some IBCs from a low-end supplier and when they got them there, the side of the of the IBC was a bunch of pieces and scabbed in,” according to Bob Luebbe, Senior VP of Sales at Custom Powder.  Instead of being neat and tight, the IBC was like cobbling together small squares of drywall.

Sure, it’s a wall…but not a very good wall.

Plumbers, city planners, and IBC manufacturers like us also ask an important question:  How are you using this? We approach this like a tailor making a suit. We help you figure out the right size, what to consider depending on the product, and how our IBCs can stay flexible for future projects.

IBS Tall Bin at Custom Powder Systems

“We don’t just say, ‘Hey here’s a few standard sizes we offer…’ We make them custom fit to whatever size they’re going to need,” said Luebbe.  We understand that this is an important part of your process that is typically feeding a critical, and expensive, machine. “If we’re using a compression sleeve on a 10-inch diameter valve and one valve compresses the gap all the way and the other one doesn’t…you’re gonna be losing product.”

We don’t want that to happen any more than you do.

The IBC is often thought of last in the process, but it’s really the workhorse of your operation.  Luebbe reminds us that “whether it’s filling, blending, lifting, or discharging… The IBC is the thing that’s getting moved around the most and takes the biggest beating.”

That kind of thinking is where our niche is. 

We don’t just understand IBCs, we understand your process.  We’re thinking about the width of your hallways, the height of your doors, and the product going into (and out of) your IBCs.  We’ve even thought long and hard about the best place for the placard so every employee can clearly see what’s in the IBC. We are going into details most companies have forgotten about to make this as easy as possible for you.

Our hopper design angles go from 30 to 70 degrees, undergo drop, vibration, lifting, and pressure tests.  They meet cGMP and UN codes, and we know dozens of ways to customize to fit your unique operation.

Many things have changed since the last time you purchased a IBC: 

·       You can get more than 20 channels on TV 

·       Phones are no longer plugged into walls

·       And IBCs now have better valves and even better finishing

We know you have many things to think of, and IBCs might not be high on the list…but the good news is it’s always high on our list.  We’re thinking way ahead of the things you might not know could be a challenge, and we’d love to have the opportunity to make this easy for you.

[nivoslider id=”3169″]

We also know you’re going to shop around.  Please do. Just remember:

Not all IBCs are created equal.

We’d love to talk with you about IBCs or any current containment challenge you’re facing at ISPE in Las Vegas next week. We’ll be in Booth #516, or if you’d like us to look you up (or if you won’t be attending), please call us at (417) 868-8002 or fill out the short form below:

Please select a valid form
CPS-Pinball

Another Engineer Obsess—err, Hobby: Pinball Machines

by Featured NewsJust For FunNEWS

When engineers aren’t “engineering,” you’ll often find them building, tinkering, and inventing. Most engineers spend their days within a structured framework, but they’re always on the hunt for a creative outlet. Today, we profile Scott Heffern, Senior Vice-President of Products, about his after-hours obsession: Pinball Machines.

At Custom Powder Systems, we call upon our engineers to create simple solutions to complex problems, and Scott is one of our best. Since the beginning of CPS in 2005, he’s had a hand in many of our engineering developments, including aseptic isolation, bin/blend systems, and integrated process systems.  But earlier this year we saw Scott at the Texas Pinball Festival grinning from ear-to-ear as he walked among over 400 pinball machines.

9A30782D 614B 444A 86F9 A6CF4B6D60AD

Scott’s obsession with pinball began when he was about eight. His family would head to Minnesota to go fishing, but he was more interested in staying back at the lodge mastering the games. 

As the years went on, it was obvious his passion was more than just child’s play. He had the opportunity to purchase some arcade games and discovered his mechanical skills were perfectly suited for restoring old games. “I like the restoration as much as playing…probably even more,” Scott said.

While pinball has existed in some form since the 1700s, the contemporary version we know started its climb in the 1940s when flippers, bumpers, and electrification were introduced. The popularity reached a zenith in the 60s and 70s when pinball was such a national obsession that The Who wrote an entire rock-opera, giving us the hit song Pinball Wizard. As computerized games grew in popularity in the 1990s, the pinball industry was reduced to just one manufacturing company, but in the last decade, a resurgence has breathed new life into pinball.     

At the Texas Pinball Festival, Scott isn’t just there as an attendee. He often brings his own restorations for others to try out and occasionally purchase. Like many hobbies, this isn’t a money-maker for Scott. Seeing others get the same pleasure from pinball he did as a kid is payment enough. 

“They’re just starry-eyed. [People say], ‘I played this back in 1953!’”  But there’s more than just nostalgia happening here. It quickly becomes a family event as kids enjoy the games just as much as their parents.

Frame 15 08 2019 11 29 30

This wide range of engineering talent is what makes Scott Heffern a key part of Custom Powder Systems:  “My strength at work is the mechanical design of our equipment.” When it comes to pinball machines, Scott tells us, “The mechanisms and the toys that are on them really fascinate me.”  

When one of our customers encounters a new problem, we turn to Scott and his team to use their skills, experience, and personal passions to come up with a creative way to solve it… and sometimes knowing a little something about flippers, bumpers, or springs is the solution that’s needed!

Scott Heffern, Engineer at Custom Powder Systems, Pinball Machine Lover

CPS - Napkin Sketches

Napkin Sketches – The Story of Compaq Computers

by Featured News

A firefly enters your field of vision and you reach out to grab it.  But as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.  

Ideas are just as fleeting.

Ideas are known to dance just out of reach when you look for them.  They sneak up on you in the shower. They come into existence fully formed just as you are about to fall asleep, and promise you they’ll still be there when you wake.  But they lie.

Anyone who relies on ideas knows that if you find an idea, you better capture it in a jar before it flies away.  Our engineers at Custom Powder learned years ago to be ready when ideas come to visit. Some record a voice note on a smartphone.  Others keep a note pad handy. And, if it’s absolutely necessary, you can always write it down on a napkin.

Because so much of what we do for our clients is customized, our engineers are constantly thinking up new ways to solve problems.  Engineers in all industries share this trait. A mad puzzle of disconnected ideas flits through the air…until one day…BAM! It seems to fall together on its own, and it gets scribbled down on a napkin.

compaq sketch
Original Sketch of the Compaq, drawn in a “House of Pies” restaurant in Houston TX.

Joseph “Rod” Canion, along with two coworkers at Texas Instruments, had one of these “napkin moments,” and the result became known as Compaq Computers.  One morning over a stack of pancakes, Canion came up with an idea that would give us a portable computer.

At 28 pounds it wasn’t quite ready to be called a “laptop.”  Laps weren’t ready for that kind of burden. But the scribbles on a napkin from a pancake place told these three they were on to something big.  Instead of working for someone else, they ventured out on their own. Canion told investors they expected sales between $20 and $30 million in the first year…and they all laughed.  “That was unheard of,” he said. A company had never started with their first-year sales that high.” It’s true that his estimate was wrong. It turned out he guessed way too low. After the first year in business, Compac Computers made over $111 million.  By the second year, that number was $329 million.  

If you speak with our engineers here at Custom Powder, you’ll likely hear a story similar to Canion’s.  Growing up, he liked to tinker. Hot rods were his hobby, and that would lead him to pursue an engineering degree.  Our tinkering-engineers can be found building remote-controlled planes, gardening, and repairing pinball machines.  

All engineering ideas need to work within a framework.  Architects must abide by the laws of gravity and physics.  Automobile manufacturers need to follow federal regulations.  Custom Powder technicians need to know laws and understand the realities of your business.  And the young creators of Compaq had to come up with a computer that would be compatible with industry standards.

This was years before the words “plug-and-play” or “user-friendly” would be connected to computers.  They had to figure out a way to make their Compaq Computers work with most of the software and add-ons available.  We think nothing of that today, but in the mid-80s scribbling this out on a napkin would prove to be revolutionary.

Compaq would become the fastest company to ever make it onto the Fortune 500 list, achieving that honor in just four years.  In an industry that was dominated for decades by IBM, Compaq also became one of the first young computer companies to give them serious competition.  And they wouldn’t be the last.

Many businesses stretching from Silicon Valley all the way to our company in the Ozarks, rely on intuitive people coming up with new ideas. 

If your company finds itself stuck for a new way to tackle and old problem, we have a team of whip-smart engineers and a big stack of napkins ready to come up with a fantastic solution.

Some of the greatest ideas in history came to life by writing them on a scrap of paper, the back of an envelope, or as you read in today’s story, on a House of Pies restaurant napkin.

At Custom Powder, we believe in working with you every step of the way, from pencil to product. We realize that inspiration often strikes at the most inopportune times, and sometimes you just have to grab what’s in front of you and write it down. You’re not alone.

Custom Powder Finding Inspiration Through Da Vinci

Finding Inspiration through Da Vinci

by Featured News

From a 21st century perspective, one might look at the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci and conclude he “stumbled upon the inevitable.”  His original concepts, ranging from tanks to parachutes, appear “obvious” in hindsight.  But Leonardo wasn’t working with hindsight. All he had was the limited resources of 15th century Europe and his curious mind.  A plaque outside a traveling da Vinci exhibit notes that Leonardo “lived his life as if he were on a quest to learn everything there was to know.” 

Finding the Art in Science  

At Custom Powder Systems, we devote several hours each week asking “what if?”  What if…there’s an even safer way to do this so the end user can be confident the product is pure?  What if…there’s a way to increase efficiency just 4% to get the product to the consumer faster? What if…there are 94 other ways to do this we haven’t even thought of?  There’s an art to science, and there’s science in art. We are always on the lookout for elegant solutions to challenges our industry faces each day.

The great Leonardo da Vinci was often referred to as the original “renaissance man.”  A term that has come to mean “a person of many talents.” Because of the uniqueness of our industry, we look for people who are not only highly skilled in their own field, but who also look for possibilities where others see none.

Where is your “da Vinci?” 

If you had to point to something in your personal or professional life where you could apply a little “da Vinci,” what might it be?  That question can seem overwhelming.  

Suddenly you imagine 173 different areas you’ve always wanted to improve.  But what might happen if you begin with… one? Challenge yourself (or your staff) to identify just one area where things can be improved.  Or done differently. Or… done in a way never thought possible.  

In da Vinci’s time, the sheer audacity of even considering leaping from a cliff and gently floating to Earth must have seemed incredible.  Whatever you come up with will likely seem borderline crazy. In fact, it might not work.  

Many of da Vinci’s ideas would not be perfected, or even attempted until long after his death.  But don’t let that dissuade you. You’re not creating a helicopter or an underwater diving suit.  Your challenge is to find a new way to do one thing. By breaking one small pattern, neurologists have shown you can start a new cycle of thinking, which can lead to another…and another.

Let Custom Powder Systems Be Your Muse

For us, you don’t need to look any further than our name: Custom Powder Systems.  We put “custom” in our name because what you need is going to be different than what the next customer needs. Customizing is our moment to find our da Vinci. It’s the time that we sit down, look at the resources available to us, and say… “what if?”

We hope you can find your own da Vinci inspiration and that we have the opportunity to help you find a creative solution to your next challenge.

To receive regular ideas, inspiration, and other critical components to the Art of Engineering, sign up for our email newsletter.

Custom Powder Systems STEM vs STEAM

Should STEM Evolve into STEAM in Our Schools?

by Featured NewsGeneral

At Custom Powder, we spend an inordinate amount of time applying art to science. As a result, we’ve taken a special interest in the current (and often heated) debate to introduce art into the concerted efforts for more primary and secondary education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Should STEM evolve into STEAM in our schools? It’s an argument worth considering.

A Quick History of STEM

The push for STEM education came from a valid concern: As technology continued to change our economy, employees lacked the skills to compete. In the United States, the 1950s brought the initial push from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This focus carried into the 1960s with President John F. Kennedy and the space program.

The 1970s brought national science programs, which helped to push technology forward into the 1980s. The first cell phone, the space shuttle, and even artificial hearts were all born in the 1980s, and the home computer entered the market as well.

School curriculums changed in the late 1990s, helping teachers to drive the push toward STEM. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that the STEM acronym first came into use.

In more recent years, there has been a significant push for equality in STEM fields. Programs, scholarships, and even legislation have come to pass to help bring more women and minorities into the fold.

Science Meets Art

When we think of the word art, most of us imagine painting, sculpting, poetry, or music. But the challenge of the STEM vs STEAM argument is to understand that “the arts” is a broad field.

One could argue that language arts, liberal arts, and even social studies have roles to play in the development of STEM fields. The argument isn’t that we should spend less time on STEM projects, but rather that we should approach them from the creative perspective that the arts can provide.

The Greatest Scientists are artists as well Albert Einstein

Two Sides to the Story

Albert Einstein said that “the greatest scientists are artists as well.” It’s hard to argue that Einstein knew a thing or two about science. So if he believed that art and science should marry, why has it taken so long for the rest of us to start the discussion?

The argument against combining the arts with STEM lies primarily in maintaining focus. If an engineer is paying attention to language or civics, are they maintaining the focus needed to do their best engineering work?

Another argument is that there isn’t a curriculum in place for STEAM. Nobody really knows what it would look like. But there was a point when we didn’t know what a STEM education would look like either…

The end result is that there is not yet an end result. STEM is critical, both to the continued success of our country and to the individuals within it. But maybe – just maybe – it’s time to expand our definition.

How do you feel about the subject?

Custom Powder - Careers

The Sky’s the Limit — Career Opportunities at Custom Powder Systems

by Featured NewsNEWS

Dylan Armstrong came to Springfield, Missouri, by way of Delaware almost five years ago. His plan was to play college football, but as we all know, sometimes life has a way of changing the best-laid plans. A close friend had moved to the area and convinced Dylan to move to Springfield to learn a trade. His work ethic and willingness to learn helped him turn that invitation into a career with us here at Custom Powder Systems, and now he travels the world to help our customers.

In The Beginning

Dylan’s story isn’t unfamiliar to most of us. But how he handled the changes that life threw his way makes him an asset to Custom Powder. After moving to Springfield, he found work through the Labor Ready employment agency. Dylan saw an opportunity and began to teach himself how to weld “a little bit. Not very well. Just a bit of the basics.”

According to a 2018 report by The ManpowerGroup, trades workers such as welders, electricians, and mechanics are more in demand than ever before. In fact, over 45 percent of employers report having difficulty filling these roles. What causes a headache for an employer creates an opportunity for someone who is willing to learn.

Joining Custom Powder

Dylan had been playing softball in a local league where he met Tyrell, who worked at Custom Powder. Tyrell had overheard that Dylan was looking for a job, and encouraged him to take a weld test.

“I took the test, and they were willing to keep me. They said that I would have to start at the bottom, but I could work my way up. I didn’t complain at all. I was willing to do whatever it took to get in the door.”

At Custom Powder, Dylan found the opportunity to hone his welding skills. Now, two and a half years later, he’s one of our trusted service technicians.

“Now, instead of building the equipment, I’m learning how to run and program all of the equipment we build and also learning to read and understand schematics. I get to learn all the ins and outs of every piece of equipment.”

Moving On Up

In Dylan’s words, “the sky’s the limit” when it comes to his next steps. But right now, he’s enjoying the life that being a service technician offers him. Recently, he had the opportunity to travel to Italy to repair some equipment for one of our customers.

The task was to fix some cracked welds and to get the job done in five days. Dylan figured on eight different jobs that needed to be done, but upon arriving in Italy he found a much bigger job. Twenty welds, in total, needed his attention.

“They gave me a week, so we still got it done. I guess they trust me a little bit,” he says, with a chuckle.

In his downtime, he was able to explore the surrounding area of Spoleto, Italy.

“It was probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. At night I walked around and saw the castles, bridges, and the town itself. The town sits on a huge hill, with stone roads and buildings that are thousands of years old.”

The Secret of Dylan’s Success

If you’ve read anything about us, you’ll know that there’s no secret to why people succeed at Custom Powder – they’re willing to put in the work. Dylan is no exception to that rule.

“I started as a helper. I wasn’t even a welder. I was pushing a broom. But I wanted to learn.”

In just over two years, Dylan has gone from pushing a broom to traveling the world, fixing problems and interacting with customers. From training on reading blueprints to metallurgy, and every step between Custom Powder is willing to invest in the future of its employees. If you or someone you know sounds like a good fit for our team, we’re always on the lookout for exceptional people.