Training that Sticks

Adhesive-film maker Oracal speaks Southern with a German accent

Christian Hersacher, director of manufacturing engineering at Oracal in Bryan County, remembers when he first learned about Quick Start. Oracal was looking for a site in the United States, and they came to see what Georgia had to offer.

“When I first entered the Quick Start office in Atlanta, it was so different from what I experienced in other states,” Hersacher says. “All the technology there and the professionalism of the entire organization were really amazing.”

Oracal, the U.S. arm of Orafol Europe, a 200-year-old international company based in Oranienburg, Germany, was impressed enough by the efforts of Bryan County’s economic development team, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the training services available through Quick Start and Savannah Technical College, that they eagerly picked the rural site and started building their new facility in 2005.

“We’ve been working very closely since the beginning with the officials of Bryan County, and there’s never been a ‘no’ or ‘we’ll put you on hold,’” says Hersacher. “Everybody tries to solve the problems and tries to help you. This makes a big difference.”

Today, the 260,000-square-foot facility has approximately 85 permanent employees, and the machine operators have gone through Quick Start training, which has ranged from quality and safety to Siemens PLC and manufacturing process training. Now, as the growing company’s hiring shifts into a new phase, the training needs have also shifted. One of Quick Start’s latest projects involves developing a company orientation video that can be used as individuals are added to the Oracal team.

“At the moment, we’re hiring two or three or five operators at a time,” says Hersacher. “An orientation video helps to provide consistent training to get them up and running.”

Film stars

Orafol, Oracal’s parent company, is a global leader in self-adhesive PVC graphic film manufactured for uses such as reflective signs on the highway, billboards, and the faux paint jobs on today’s race cars and emergency vehicles.

To make its signature product, the company first coats high-quality paper with silicone. Then the silicone paper is coated with adhesive and laminated with film. The laminated film is then wound on a roll, cut to the customer’s specified size, wrapped, packaged and shipped — all within 24 hours of receiving an order.

The operation runs smoothly thanks in part to Quick Start training. As the company expands, with plans to add another line every year, Quick Start will continue to provide programs specific to Oracal’s equipment and processes. In fact, new technology is scheduled to go online later this year, and plans are already in the works for Quick Start to help get a new team up to speed.

“We really love the way Quick Start comes up with ideas — they think along our lines and have an open ear for our needs,” says Hersacher. “All of the training material they’ve produced for us is so high-end. We’re very happy with Quick Start.”

And Bryan County is happy with Oracal, which has taken extra effort to make the plant environmentally friendly. It is a self-sufficient facility, using a limited amount of natural gas to start the process. The plant then creates thermal energy by incinerating nearly all of its own emissions.

“By burning our own exhaust, we use no natural gas and release only CO2 and H2O into the air,” says Hersacher. “The air coming out of this plant is actually cleaner than that going in.”

“Oracal represents everything that is desirable in an economic development project,” says Dr. C.B. “Bix” Rathburn, president of Savannah Tech. “Oracal is the kind of corporate expansion every community in the country wishes it could attract.”

“Bryan County and the state of Georgia have proven to be excellent partners in realizing our vision of manufacturing in the United States,” says Ben Philips, president of Oracal USA. “The Quick Start program is an ideal resource that we are blessed to have available to us to help make Oracal’s rapid growth sustainable over the long term.”

Obviously, Oracal has found a permanent home in Bryan County and is making it stick.

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