Weaving machine manufacturer hires five
to shore up future, remain customer focused
Posted April 13, 2015
By Devin Steele
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The much-ballyhooed – and real – skills gap is not only a major issue for textile and apparel manufacturers, but for many of their suppliers, too.
Picanol of America, the U.S. subsidiary of Belgium-based weaving machine manufacturer Picanol, is certainly among those suppliers that recognized a need for quality, skilled technical people – especially as many of its senior-level technicians began to approach retirement age. Which is why company President Cyril Guerin has spent the last couple of years plumbing the talent pool for qualified individuals, and not always in the most obvious places.
In searching for good fits, Guerin cast a wider net to seek out military veterans and began making pitches to students at technical and community colleges – and also looked at individuals with vast experience in certain areas.
And he has found some success. In the past 14 months, Picanol of America has hired five people – and not all just in the technical arena. That may not seem like a lot, but it represents a high percentage for a 20-person operation.
“Hiring good people is the challenge for anybody in any industry, and we have struggled to find candidates to begin with,” he said from his office here recently. “We have been looking for technicians – and that’s a big word for Picanol. Essentially, what it means is someone who has a set of skills that is not a specific discipline, someone who can understand not only the world of textiles and yarn and weaving but also what’s happening on the loom in terms of mechanical movement and how those mechanical movements are controlled.
“You have pneumatics and hydraulics and electronics and this is where we start to touch on a very important subject,” he continued. “What is the impact of the electronics on the quality of the fabrics? We make machines – and they are pretty good, there’s no denying that – but at the end of the day those machines must produce first-quality fabrics for customers. And sometimes there are issues and we have to go down to almost the level of the component, be it on the circuit board or on the nuts and bolts, to understand why there is this defect on the right-hand side of the fabric, or in the middle or on the left-hand side.”
Bridging the skills gap
Picanol of America casts wider net to land talent
The ‘perfect’ candidates
Picanol of America struggled for a couple of years searching for the “perfect” candidates – someone with technical knowledge AND some weaving knowledge and, ideally, someone who knows Picanol weaving machines. But Guerin learned that pond is not well stocked, despite all the contraction in the textile industry that led to a glut of job seekers over the last two decades, he said.
“Many of them are not necessarily willing to come back into the textile industry, even though Picanol is not really textile; it is machinery. But our customers are textile,” said Guerin, who has been with the company for 13 years and has led Picanol of America since 2012. “The textile industry doesn’t have this sexy attraction anymore because many people in this area know someone who has been affected by a plant closure. It could be a mother, dad, brother, uncle, neighbor, what have you. So they are not necessarily inclined to come back.”
Another hurdle Picanol and the industry as a whole has to contend with is the lack of attractiveness, along with misperceptions about the industry, Guerin added. Numerous headlines of plant closures and the misinformed impression that the industry is still a noisy and dirty environment have played a role as well, he said.
But the realization that such skills cannot be learned overnight and with several longtime technicians – all with more than 20 years and some with more than 30 years – beginning to eye retirement, Guerin knew that a phased-in transition of new employees would be required.
“Our pool of technicians, as good as they are, are also becoming more senior and you don’t build a technician in only a couple of years,” he said. “So it was becoming urgent for us to find talent that we could train over an extended period of time to replace those technicians once they decide to retire.”
With electronics a crucial element of Picanol’s machines, he sought out candidates who were strong on the electronic side. And, as importantly, someone who is curious, he said.
“That’s a key word for us,” he said. “We want a curious person who is able to embrace a new environment. We can teach them what a yarn is, what a warp is, what filling is, what a cam is, what a dobby is. And, hopefully, if he is really curious, he can make the link between his expertise in electronics, or mechatronics, and textiles.”
Eye on veterans
Picanol of America President Cyril Guerin has spent the last couple of years plumbing the talent pool for qualified individuals, and not always in the most obvious places.
Hitting a wall in search of the right candidates, Guerin began to look in another direction: at the military. He knew that many military personnel were returning to civilian life searching for jobs. He also knew they were continuously trained on high-tech systems and equipment. So Picanol of America began to participate in veteran job fairs and similar events.
“We were very impressed with the level of training that these guys had,” he said. “Eventually we identified five candidates. Two were ready to work for us and we finally hired one. The other one decided to take a job somewhere else, and we are happy for him.”
Nathan Thomas, 23, joined the company in February after serving in the U.S. Marines for five years.
“He doesn’t know a loom from a broom, as we say, but I think he will be extremely valuable,” Guerin said. “Today, he’s taking a trip to a customer in Georgia to troubleshoot with one of our senior technicians. I asked him if he was ready and he said, ‘I was born ready.’ Typical U.S. Marine attitude. And what we need here in Greenville.”
In the Marines, Thomas was responsible for the maintenance side of a type of aircraft that jammed enemy signals, a plane undoubtedly loaded with electronics. What impressed Guerin the most, he said: Thomas was the person who signed the paper declaring the aircraft flight ready.
“When you put your name on a document that sent an aircraft up with six of your friends on board, probably in a combat zone, that’s pretty serious,” Guerin said.
The student ranks
Nathan Thomas
Guerin also began looking at local community and technical colleges to find potential candidates. So far, he has found one, Blake Johnson, a full-time electronics student at Spartanburg Technical College. Many of his classes are in the morning, and he spends some of the rest of the day at Picanol. He works between 20 and 25 hours a week and is learning the job from the ground up, Guerin said. “He’s already pretty proficient on the job,” he said. “You need to take that first step. He’s on a path.”
On the day of the eTC interview, Guerin had spoken with a group of students at Greenville Tech.
“I told them, ‘you guys don’t understand weaving, but let me tell you what it is. It’s something that has not changed in 5,000 years,’ ” he said. “But the machines today are controlled by electronics to a great extent. So we have to have somebody who really understands what’s going on with the electronic side of the machines to help us identify the issue on the fabric if there is an issue.’ ”
He went on to tell the students that Picanol of America doesn’t have a current opening because of its new hires, but down the road as they graduate, they may want to consider taking a look at his company and others besides big players in the area such as BMW, Michelin and Bosch.
“The Greenville area is fortunate to have companies like that,” he said. “They are very attractive for young graduates because they’re a big name and stable companies. But I also wanted to let them know that there are some smaller companies that are world-class leaders. We’ve been in Greenville for 41 years. We’re dealing with U.S. customers. They have a direct impact on the life of the communities, the military and the industry and when they are starting to look for new opportunities, they should definitely check out those big companies. But they should not forget that there are smaller companies, too. And not everyone is suited to work for those big companies.”
Blake Johnson (sitting) is assisted by longtime technician Danny Painter.
Other hires from varying backgrounds fit needs
Aside from Thomas and Johnson, Picanol of America hired three others with varying backgrounds for certain positions. Robbie Guthke was hired a little more than a year ago as a technician; Jesse Beversdorf was added as technical manager in February; and Tom Johnston came aboard as sales manager last summer. All joined the company under varying circumstances.
Jesse Beversdorf (left) works with After-Market Sales Manager Charles Swift, a 32-year Picanol employee.
Guthke was a technician for one of Picanol’s customers, Liberty Denim, so he had an intimate knowledge of the machines. But those were airjet looms, so with Picanol he has had to expand his knowledge and expertise of rapier looms, as well.
“One of the goals we are achieving here is cross-training technicians, not only in the sense of electronics on the textile machine but also in terms of insertion technology because Picanol offers both rapier and airjet machines,” Guerin said. “So it’s important that we don’t remain too specialized. We are too small here in Greenville to have one guy perform jobs only in one area.”
Guthke came highly recommended by several people in the industry, Guerin said.
The latest hire, Beversdorf, spent 32 years at denim producer Americas Cotton Growers (ACG) of Littlefield, Texas, which closed early this year. ACG was a longtime customer of Picanol, so after the closing announcement, Picanol began talks with Beversdorf – and he welcomed the opportunity to move halfway across the country to join its ranks.
Robbie Guthke
Tom Johnston
“The strength that Jesse brings is his customer perspective,” Guerin said. “He knows the attitude because he was one for many years. So he will help us be closer to our customers’ needs. He is in touch with our customers on virtually a daily basis. Being from the denim world, he will have to learn a few other things. But he understands the customer’s point of view.”
The company hired Johnston to expand its sales expertise in areas away from traditional textile weaving. With nearly 30 years of experience, he brought a strong background in technical textiles and a large network, Guerin said.
“As the U.S. weaving industry moves more and more toward technical fabrics, we needed to really expand our horizon into the technical fabric world,” Guerin said. “And Tom brought us that level of expertise in that area. At ITMA 2011 in Barcelona, we introduced our OptiMax machine in 540 centimeters for carpet backing and geotextiles, so it is truly important for us to have somebody with good connections in this industry so we could have a good knowledge and impact.”
With his involvement in hiring the new personnel, Guerin said his recent experiences will teach him plenty about the best avenues to pursue when seeking employees.
“We have five people from five different backgrounds,” he said. “After awhile, we will be able to say, ‘OK, we like military because of that, we like the guys from the yarn industry because of this.’ We don’t want to hire people from our customers because we don’t want to steal those, but if somebody would be willing to do the transition and come to Picanol, we will be looking for these type of skills. I think we will have a good overview of exactly what we need and how we can integrate people.”
Continuous training
As difficult as hiring people has been, training new personnel and integrating them into the company culture is just as challenging, Guerin said. The technical hires are serving in something of apprenticeship roles over the next months and years, in which they’re working with senior technicians to learn every aspect of the role. During that period, part of their onboarding requires them to travel to the company’s headquarters in Belgium for in-depth, customized training programs.
“There are two things we want to achieve by sending our new hires to the mother company in Belgium,” Guerin said. “No. 1, of course, is we want to make sure they have all the skill sets they will need. But there is another dimension that’s super important and that is to know the people over there. We connect a lot with Belgium at all levels and if you have not met somebody physically, that person remains a voice on the telephone or a name on an email and it doesn’t create the right work environment. So by going there to meet those folks, if for only 10 days or so, you’re going to create bonds, you’re going to create the physical connection. And then six months down the road when you need that person, you know that’s the person you need to call and you have a personal connection with them.”
All of Picanol’s technicians attend seminars in Belgium once a year to not only connect and interact with their peers from around the world, but to stay abreast of the company’s latest technologies, Guerin said.
“It’s amazing how they interact after they all go home,” he said. “For instance, if we deal with a customer who is weaving a specific fabric, they may remember meeting a technician who works in Indonesia who told them that he had a big project on this type of fabric. And they can contact each other. And they do. It’s what makes Picanol such a great company to not only work for but also to buy the machines from because we can tap into this huge network of people from around the world with a lot of different experience.”
Picanol of America also has airjet machines for training, parts testing and simulation on site, including an Omni from the 1990s, an OmniPlus from the early 2000s and a more current OmniPlus Summum, an airjet loom. It also houses an OptiMax rapier machine for those purposes.
“We use these for our own internal needs but the classes here are also for customers,” Guerin said. “The machines last for a long time – 20, 25, 30 years – so our customers need to train their technicians. It’s a lot better to train people in a quiet environment like we have here as opposed to the mill.”
One of Picanol of America’s strengths, Guerin said, is it has very little turnover in general. But that can be a challenging path, too, as he has learned.
“This morning I was telling students that this is almost like Hotel California – you can check in but you cannot check out,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a good problem to have, but if you don’t pay attention and do not bring in new blood, then you come to a place where you have people with a lot of experience, which is great, but time goes on and at some point in time, these employees will retire. And no matter what you do in terms of trying to write it down or record it, the ‘library of knowledge’ may burn down. So that’s why we are moving very aggressively to bring new people to try to capture as much information, skills, knowledge and best practices from our existing employees before they go.”