Hiking on Over to Laminating...

Due to the recent holiday weekend, we interns are still somewhat in Mother Nature mode.  Hannes went on relaxing hikes in Western Washington while Stephanie went camping for the first time at Sasquatch Music Festival.  Now that we ditched the granola bars and water canteens, it’s time to get back to work and on to the next step of the box making process. 

Therefore, we caught up with John Erickson in Laminating, who is also no stranger to the great outdoors!

That's John. Hannes & Stephanie left him hanging by himself. Boo..

What’s your position at AllpakTrojan?

John is a 21 year veteran who is the Supervisor of the Laminating/Aerating Department. 

 

What are your job responsibilities?

To oversee the Laminating Department, but also to work with many other departments as well! I make sure the schedule coordinates with other departments, help with ordering of raw materials, and am in contact with the maintenance department to make sure the machines are running smoothly. 

How did you spend Memorial Weekend?

The original plan was to go away with my wife and five year old daughter; however we got a flat tire by Rainier at 3,000 feet. While I was changing the tire in the rain and mud, my daughter was being entertained by watching Scooby Doo in the backseat.  Unfortunately, that was about the extent of the weekend. (We would say his daughter definitely had the better end of that deal…)

What’s your favorite time of year?

October-January 28^th (to be exact).  John and his wife are former Alaskans and winter babies who love to hunt and snowboard. He is a member of the Tacoma Sportsmen Club which was established way back in 1933. Some adventure highlights include exploring deep into Alaska with his son and also snowboarding with fellow employee, Shawn back in the good ole’ days. 

Press Room Shenanigans!

The saga continues for us interns, and after learning the ins and outs of Customer Service and Prepress, we now move on to the Press Room. For this step, we interviewed people from both plants since the litho printing at Trojan and the flexo printing at Allpak are a little bit different. In simple terms, litho is printed on a sheet before it’s glued to a corrugated sheet; whereas, flexo is printed directly on the corrugated sheet.

At Trojan, we talked to Ken Puhl, a 15 year veteran who is the 8-color lead press operator. 

Look at Stephanie posing again!  Ken is in the middle.

What is your job responsibility? 

I am responsible for making sure that the color set up meets the customer’s needs.

What is a highlight of your job?

Any job that is well done is always fun to be a part of. It is always nice to know that I contributed to a high quality product.

Where can we find you after work?

After 2pm, I am usually enjoying an ice cold IPA at the Rainer Grill in Enumclaw. I also enjoy going on long hiking trips.  I just went to Wenatchee on a camping trip with my family!

 

At Allpak, we talked to Dean Smith, shift supervisor and football enthusiast.

Really Hannes?

What is your job responsibility?

I am responsible for everything! I work with shipping, customer service, sales and production to make sure that we meet deadlines in a safe manner.

What is your favorite hobby?

Coaching youth football for middle schools in Enumclaw. I don’t have kids; however, I love to coach and help shape them into positive upstanding citizens. 

Would you say you play the role of a coach here at AllpakTrojan?

It’s funny you bring that up; we just hired a new employee who guessed that I coach in my spare time. The post-lunch stretching exercises we do to help limit work injuries gave it away.

What are your favorite college football teams?

Huskies (go dawgs!) and any teams with a diverse offense, such as LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, and even Oregon….. (and that’s when us UW interns ended the interview)

And We're On To Prepress...

Hi, Hannes and Stephanie again. 

A lot has happened since last Friday as we interns live an action packed lifestyle.  In addition to getting the hang of the whole sales thing, we have also been participating in the marketing aspects of the company.

Every Tuesday, we have the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another in the marketing group.  Our marketing team is finally taking time to get some rest and relaxation after preparing and celebrating Missing Sock Memorial Day (and Hannes’ birthday), which just happened on May 9th!  Before we can relax too much, we are already planning the next holiday at AllpakTrojan – National Trail Mix Day in August!  Assisting us in this endeavor is Todd from prepress, who is especially talented in drawing, and has been making special cameo appearances at the meetings.

To continue our journey of staff and process introductions, our intention was to learn more about him and what he does down in Prepress, but alas, he was gone when we went down there. Instead, we found two of the Steve’s (apparently there are an abundant number of people named Steve in Prepress) and sat down to get to know what their part in the box making business is.

So let’s meet Steve Brown and Steve Huckins, aka Steve²!

The Steve's

What are your responsibilities here at AllpakTrojan?

We make sure the designs that come from the design department are accurately reflected on the project. That means we fix scoring errors and look closely for errors and inconsistencies before we give our OK. Or as they like to say it, finding Waldo for grown-ups!

What do you enjoy most about working in Prepress?

We like the creative side of things. We have to come up with creative solutions for every design challenge that comes our way.  Essentially, since every design is custom, we have to find individualized solutions for every project.

What do you like to do in your freetime?

Steve Brown loves rockhounding and camping. Don’t know what rockhounding is? Neither do we! Rockhounding is “the recreational study and hobby of collecting rocks and mineral specimens from their natural environment” – Wikipedia (don’t tell our professor’s we used that).