What is Experience MFG?

What Experience MFG Means

Experience MFG gives students the opportunity to be inspired by and experience manufacturing! Manufacturing isn’t the dull, dingy, boring industry that some have come to associate with it. Manufacturing is a tech job – integrating modern and cutting-edge technology throughout every step of the process. In fact, modern manufacturing in the United States wouldn’t be possible without utilizing ever-evolving technology.

With constant innovations and integrations, that means jobs in manufacturing are constantly evolving and challenging too. People working in manufacturing come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences that all serve them in learning & growing with the technology used.

At Hansen & Company Woodworks, we created Experience MFG to give local students a chance to see what a modern manufacturing facility really looks and what it takes to run one, right here in Central Minnesota.

Get Hands-On Experience with Technology

While we can’t let students touch machinery, we like to share the real-life technology used every day here throughout our tour. Our shop tour demonstrates the programs, machines, and robots (yes, robots) we use.

We take it a step further by showing how technology is used from the time we first look at a project at estimating to when we finally see it installed in the field. We love introducing the opportunity for students to see and touch the technology we use before cabinets are even built! After all, manufacturing is a tech job.

As we looked to re-introduce our in-person tours for schools this year, we knew it can be challenging them to coordinate schedules with a specific single-day tour so we changed our

tour offerings! Schools are now invited to tour our shop throughout the school year on any Tuesday or Thursday that works best for them during the months of October, November, February, March, or April! Tours can be scheduled here.

History

In 2017, Hansen & Company Woodworks hosted it’s first-ever MFG Day event.

MFG Day, or Manufacturing Day, is recognized annually on the first Friday of October each year by The Manufacturing Institute. Since it’s beginning in 2011, MFG Day has encouraged several thousand manufacturers to open their doors to local students, parents, and educators to help inspire the next generation of future creators.

The event held at Hansen & Company Woodworks was decidedly not a recruiting event and set out simply to serve as an educational & inspirational opportunity for students. We hoped to spark curiosity in the next generation to consider the hundreds of career opportunities and paths in manufacturing, whether here in Central Minnesota or really anywhere in the United States and beyond.

Since 2020, we’ve provided a hands-on kit, engineered & manufactured right here in Central Minnesota, empowering students to build a unique item that they get to keep! All at no cost to them or the schools, thanks in part to our sponsors.

Each year, we worked to improve the event from a single-day of tours to a virtual model with hands-on kits and virtual tours in 2020 to today featuring a revamped in-person experimental tour and the popular hands-on kit experiences!

The event purpose remains to inspire the future creators of manufacturing and is not used for recruiting in any way.