CLEVELAND, OH—November 6, 2018—Pridgeon & Clay, Inc., Grand Rapids, MI, has received the 2018 A.R. Hedberg Training and Education Award, as part of the Precision Metalforming Association’s (PMA) Awards of Excellence in Metalforming. Founded in 1948 in Grand Rapids, MI, by John Pridgeon and Donald V. Clay, the company is a family-owned, global manufacturer of complex stamped, fineblanked parts and welded assemblies. Pridgeon & Clay is a Tier-Two supplier to the global automotive market.

Pridgeon & Clay (P&C) won the award for its CORE training program, developed in 2017 by a team of subject matter experts, the training department and executive leadership. The group was guided by an outside consultant that specializes in training specifically for automotive-stamping companies. The objective of the program: Emphasize that P&C is a metal stamping company and that each person and process within the organization has an effect on output. 

CORE training consists of nine basic courses that showcase specific gears of the organization—P&C Business Overview, Metallurgy, Energy, Presses, Dies, Welding, Quality, 5S and Lean Thinking. Courses are taught as a two-day, seminar-style training session in the company’s renovated training room. Sessions are comprised of small groups of approximately 16 attendees from different areas, departments and shifts within the organization. Each one-hour-long CORE course includes Q&A and a short test, with the exception of the CORE P&C Business Overview course, which is two hours long. Training ends with verbal feedback, takeaways, Q&A and a graduation ceremony.

CORE training is designed for all employees. Each session includes a mixture of individuals from all levels of the organization, and all shifts and roles. At the end of every CORE session, executive leadership presents each graduate with a certificate and gift.

The CORE training program has yielded a many benefits, including employee growth and development, an enhanced understanding of the business, a heightened focus on quality and safety awareness, increased collaboration with different areas of the organization, positive morale, continuous improvement, and a skilled workforce. 

Currently, CORE is offered in P&C’s Grand Rapids plant, which consists of 973 of the company’s 1,469 global employees. The company plans to roll out the CORE program to its other sites in the future.

The Training and Education Award is one of eight Awards of Excellence in Metalforming presented annually by PMA. It recognizes an outstanding achievement by a company in employee technical education through a comprehensive training program. The award is sponsored by HPL Stampings, Inc., Lake Zurich, IL, in memory of A.R. (Ray) Hedberg, a leader in employee training.  As the winner of the award, Pridgeon & Clay will receive a $1,500 cash prize, which will be presented to Wyoming High School Robotics Program, Wyoming, MI.  

PMA is the full-service trade association representing the $137-billion metalforming industry of North America—the industry that creates precision metal products using stamping, fabricating, spinning, slide forming and roll forming technologies, and other value-added processes. Its nearly 800 member companies also include suppliers of equipment, materials and services to the industry.  PMA leads innovative member companies toward superior competitiveness and profitability through advocacy, networking, statistics, the PMA Educational Foundation, FABTECH and METALFORM Mexico tradeshows, and MetalForming and 3D Metal Printing magazines.