I am Abby Melcher, I graduated from Iowa State University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. I was an engineering intern at Agri-Industrial Plastics the summer after my freshman year in 2017.
Agri really took a chance on me, only having one year of schooling under my belt with little industry knowledge, but my experience there was the biggest stepping stone into my future.
I began by working one week on the production floor, which I wish was a policy everywhere because I learned so much about all the processes and got to be hands-on and begin thinking about my summer projects.
A big part of one of my summer projects was collecting data to then analyze the SPC results to ensure the machine was performing within specifications and we were not adding too much product to the part, thus resulting in more money out the door.
I was surrounded by amazing mentors and had so much encouragement throughout my summer. My internship at Agri and my experience there lead me to amazing internship opportunities throughout college. I also got experience working for a subsidiary of Toyota and at Boeing, but Agri really showed me how special family-owned businesses are which turned me away from these larger companies after graduation.
I now work at a family-owned manufacturing business in Des Moines that cares about their workforce and you are not just a number, just as Agri-Industrial Plastics does. Agri cares about you, they are there for you, and you are so much more than just a number there and it shows. I cannot thank them enough for the opportunity they gave me in the summer of 2017 and encourage anyone looking to get their feet wet in the manufacturing world to start at Agri-Industrial Plastics!
