How Agri-Inject Invites the Public In A student group is led on a tour of Agri-Inject's facility by Sergio Sanchez.
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ince the 1980s, Yuma, Colorado–based Agri-Inject has been a leader in manufacturing products for chemigation, which is the use of mobile irrigation systems to apply fertilizer and chemicals in liquid form. Agri-Inject, however, is also a leader in public outreach. The company brings local students into its facilities for tours and simulations and also provides opportunities for internships. In this interview, Erik Tribelhorn, the chief executive officer of Agri-Inject, speaks with Irrigation Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly about how Agri-Inject is using outreach and internship programs to train up the next generation of ag manufacturers. Kris Polly: Please tell us about Agri-Inject’s public outreach initiatives.
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Kris Polly: Do you send the students home with anything? Erik Tribelhorn: I want to give them something useful, so I hand out six-in-one screwdrivers, with small and large flatblade and Phillips-head screwdrivers and two nut drivers.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF AGRI-INJECT.
Erik Tribelhorn: Over the last few years, we have taken the initiative to let our local community know what we do. A lot of folks in our small town don’t understand who we are, that we are a manufacturing business, what manufacturing means, what our products do, or where around the world those products go. To address those problems, we’ve held tours and educational sessions for students and teachers, including a manufacturing simulation for students to teach them how lean manufacturing or one-piece flow works. We have a group of students coming in from a nearby school that has an overall K–12 enrollment of about 70 kids. They have signed up with a program called “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” They choose a local manufacturing company, do an intensive tour, and then create a video in
which they describe the company and how it manufactures its products. I’m also working with the local school here in Yuma. Six students are going to come over and look at the production cell where we build pipe-fitting assemblies. They will study, observe, and perform the production techniques and then use an online computer-aided design (CAD) product called Onshape to develop jigs and fixtures and different tools that we can potentially use to improve the cell’s productivity and quality standards. Working with students in this way is challenging in that it takes us out of our routine and requires our employees’ time, but it always turns out to be rewarding. Plus, the students who visit us today may be our most valuable employees in the future. My background—I attended college for several years but moved on to the professional world without a degree—allows me to tell students that college isn’t for everybody, and that if you can think creatively and critically, solve problems, work well with others, and add value to an organization and its customers, you can be successful without a degree. You can also create your own organization where you’re adding value to customers. Unless I’m hiring for a really technical position, I look for those skills before I check what kind of degree an applicant has.
