Mold Technician Trainee

Hayward Pool Products, a division of Hayward Industries, Inc. is the largest manufacturer of residential swimming pool equipment in the world, with a significant presence in the commercial pool market that is continuously growing. Headquartered in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Hayward designs, manufactures and markets a full line of residential and commercial pool and spa equipment including pumps, filters, heating, cleaners, salt chlorinators, automation, lighting, safety, flow control and energy solutions.

For over 80-years, Hayward has been enhancing pool ownership by manufacturing cutting edge, advanced pool and spa equipment. Hayward listens to our customers’ needs and makes sure they are implemented during the design and manufacturing process. The goal is to become the preferred brand of choice with every residential and commercial swimming pool and spa.

Position Overview:

The essential responsibilities of this position include learning how to install molds into molding machines, setting up secondary/auxiliary equipment and tools in a safe, correct, and efficient manner. This candidate must always strive to improve the quality and stability of the manufacturing process. The majority of this position is gaining a basic knowledge of all in house machinery – knowledge of machine safety, machine functions and molding vocabulary. As a trainee the individual should strive to improve on their core competency of setting molds (crane, clamping, watering, hydraulics, etc.) and machine start-ups.

Major Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Makes mold changes and setups on molding machines with assistance from Mold Tech and/or Process Tech. Continuously look for changeover process improvement.
• Develops and demonstrates a basic knowledge of all in house machinery – knowledge of machine safety, machine functions, molding machine vocabulary.
• Robotics – Change End-of-Arm Tooling (EOAT), load program, start and stop, step through program on multiple machines.
• Processing – Load predefined part recipes, verify to process sheet.
• Materials – Visually identify various material types and understand general resin drying parameters.
• Quality Systems – Demonstrates an understanding of molding defects, read blueprints, read and follow Quality Instructions (QI), demonstrated use of gauges, complete start-up checksheet.
• Maintains or improves the quality of the manufacturing process.
• Installs special functional and structural parts in devices.
• Observes operation of machine and verifies its conformance to standard.
• Insures that all machines are operating at standard cycle times and operating efficiencies, as well as producing quality parts. Notifies Process Technician or Supervisor when unable to attain due to elements outside of trainee’s control.
• Reads job orders for product specifications to include understanding of BOMs and Standard Work.
• Develops and maintains good working relations with other departments and all others that must interact with the department.
• Insures good housekeeping by taking ownership of the area in which they are working and removing unnecessary items when job is complete and returning them to a proper home location.
• Participates in Continuous Improvement programs including the Hayward Lean Production System, including Kaizen as needed to advance departmental, personal and company goals.
• Understands, adheres to and leads the way in all company policies and procedures.
• Adheres to all Company and Departmental Safety Policies, including identifying and striving for continuous Safety improvements.

Qualifications:

• Knowledge of mechanical systems demonstrated through mechanical aptitude testing is required.
• Must have the ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram or schedule form.
• Must be able to work a night shift.

Education and Experience:

High school diploma or general education degree (GED). One-year certificate from college or technical training in machine setup preferred. Work experience in plastics and/or injection molding environment strongly preferred. Hydraulics or programmable logic controls a plus. Robotic experience with EOAT is a plus.

Physical Requirements:

Must be physically able to lift up to 50 pounds frequently. Other physical tasks required include pushing, reaching, climbing and stooping during mold changes. Must also be able to operate an overhead crane on a regular basis.

Work Environment:

The work environment is generally noisy and dirty, and the employee regularly works around dust, oil, electrical devices and mechanically moving parts. Safety glasses, hearing protection and safety toe shoes are required while on the plant floor.