Month: January 2021

Dave is a Senior Technical Solutions Coordinator and has been with PMG for more than 5 years. He is also the Commissioner of our annual PMG Fantasy Football League and the organizer of our (pre-COVID) weekly trivia contests!

About Dave R…

I was born in Illinois, and raised in Minnesota, so I am a Midwestern boy at heart.  I was a teacher for much of my life before coming to PMG. I am still an avid history nerd.  I enjoy outdoor athletics of all kinds, but love going to movies in a theater.  I am married, for almost 4 years, with our first child on the way now. I could not be happier to see what 2021 will bring us!

What do you like most about working for PMG?

PMG is a smaller company but we do big things every year.  We work as a team, top to bottom, and everyone buys into the process.  It’s nice to work with people who are great at their jobs, and share the same passion as I do.

What are your main responsibilities as a Senior Technical Solutions Coordinator?

As a Technical Solutions Coordinator, I am responsible for finding new, qualified technicians to work projects for our company.  On a daily basis I am responsible for interviewing candidates, sourcing job search engines, contacting references, working through logistics/travel items, and other assorted communications, meetings, and paperwork.

What do you like most about your job?

Every day I work for a company whose goal is to find quality jobs for people looking to travel (and to find quality people for those jobs).  In a sense I ‘sell’ people jobs and I stand behind the positions we offer.

What did you do prior to working at PMG?

I taught middle school/high school social studies for years. I originally took a part-time job here for a summer and that ended up turning into a full-time opportunity. Almost six years later now and I’ve enjoyed all of it.

What advice would you give to a recent new hire at PMG?

Listen, take notes, and don’t be afraid to do outside research.  Much of our work is based on knowing the positions we offer, inside and out, so industry knowledge is highly important!

What are some career lessons you’ve learned thus far?

I’ve learned that there is definitely more than one way to get something accomplished. Also, you need to listen and take advice as it is given.  Working as a team makes it a lot easier to think as a team, and that is where we find success.

What did you want to be when growing up?

I wanted to be a paleontologist.  I loved dinosaurs growing up, but actually went to school for engineering originally.

What animal best describes you at work?

A moose.  I am a Northern creature. I am stout and steady. And, when I’m on a roll, it’s a good idea to get out of my way!

What are some hobbies you do in your free time?

I am an AVID sports fan! I like to read (usually history), love live music, and I like to cook too.  You will often find me at various beer festivals occasionally as well.

Where is the best place you’ve traveled and why?

For me (and my wife) it’s Kona, Hawaii, also known as ‘The Big Island’. It’s our favorite place on Earth, and we have traveled a LOT together.

What celebrity/inspirational person do you admire the most?

Nelson Mandela.  He was imprisoned for 27 years due to apartheid in South Africa and, when he was released and then elected President, he ONLY spoke of healing and unity rather than revenge and bitterness.  I don’t know if I could do that, but he did and the world is a better place for it.

You’re happiest when…

I am laughing with my wife.  She and I are expecting out first child this spring, so any time we get together is literally the happiest moments of my life.

What’s your favorite restaurant and your must-order there?

I love good Mexican food but, since moving back to Minnesota from Arizona eight years ago, I have not found a good (great?) spot yet!  So, I stick to local foods. My personal favorite is the 5-8 Club.  They are the home to the ORIGINAL Juicy Lucy (a cheeseburger with the cheese stuffed inside and melted). But I say what you MUST get is actually their Poppa’s-style wings with blue cheese.  If you don’t like it, it’s on me!

Sunday January 24^th, 2021 is National Compliment Day. In honor of that, I challenge you to compliment just one person and see how their reaction to your compliment makes YOU feel.

The key to any compliment is to be sincere. If the receiver of your compliment knows you don’t mean it, it won’t have the same effect (for them or for you).

Struggling to come up with something to say? Find something you admire about someone and go from there. Here are some examples to get you thinking:

• Your smile makes me smile.
• The world seems a little bit brighter when you’re around.
• You have incredible manners.
• You’re so brave to be able to do what you do.
• Your perspective is refreshing.
• Your creative potential seems limitless.
• You’re a great example to others.
• You’re wonderful.
• Work is a better place because you’re there too.
  • For more work-related compliment reading, out PMG’s article about Love & Appreciation at Work

Don’t be afraid to personalize it a bit too. My family knows that when I say something like ‘Your smile makes me happier than all the cheese in the state of Wisconsin could make me’ – that’s straight from my heart and quite possibly the nicest thing I could ever say. ?

There’s something about making someone else smile that makes your heart happy, so don’t hesitate.

Beth Bangtson, HR Manager

Today is National Cheese Lover’s Day! As a result, our How It’s Made article is about the making of cheese!

Ingredients

1. Milk
2. Salt
3. Starter Culture
4. Rennet

These four ingredients are quite magical. Through the use of chemistry and processing operations they can come together in a wide variety of combinations!

How It’s Made

1. First and foremost, we start with fresh, quality milk stored in a refrigerated tank at the farm then shipped to a processing facility for testing, weighing, heat treating, and pasteurization.
   • For some cheeses, processors may add in more fat, cream, or protein, as well.
2. The next ingredients added are starter cultures (good bacteria). This starts the pasteurization process. This ultimately determines the flavor and texture of the cheese. It also removes harmful bacteria found in raw milk and ferments natural sugar found in milk (lactose) into lactic acid.
   • Different types of cheeses require different types of cultures.
   • In this stage processors may also add color to the cheese (for example: orange coloring for Cheddar cheese).
3. Next up is the rennet. This is a milk-clotting enzyme which coagulates the milk, making it more custard-like or gel-like in format than liquid.
4. After dialing in specific times, temperatures, and humidity levels, our ingredients have now turned to curds (solids) and whey (liquids).
5. A cutting step determines the end size of the curd.
   • The smaller the curd, the more dry the cheese.
6. When stirred and heated, curd releases the desired amount of whey. After this, one of two things happen:
   • Curd and salt are pressed into form (like Cheddar or Colby cheese).
   • The curd is pressed into a hoop then brined (like Mozzarella or Swiss cheese).
7. Affinage is the final step for some cheeses. Affinage requires storing the cheese in a separate room, at very specific humidity levels and temperatures, for a certain amount of time. As long as 10 years in some cases!

It sounds simple, no? But it’s not. The equipment used, the recipes followed, and the determined parameters are part of a a very careful, scientific, and detailed process.

Want to see it in person?

For a visual of this process, take a look at this How is Cheese Made Video!

Now go celebrate National Cheese Lover’s Day with something cheesy!

Kim Mooney, Technical Manager & Coach

PMG provides labor solutions to American manufacturers. That’s what we do in a nutshell and we take the “solution” part of that equation seriously. As a result, all of us here end up asking a lot of questions to make sure we find the right way to solve the real problem. But, in that process, we end up getting asked a fair amount of questions ourselves. This blog will try its best to provide the answers to the things PMG employees get asked the most.

What is a supply chain and why is it important?

The term supply chain is fairly self-explanatory but its importance to businesses of all kinds may not be as apparent. A supply chain is the entire process of making and selling commercial goods. This includes every stage from the supply of materials and the making of the actual goods to their distribution and sale. Supply chain management, or SCM, is the management of that process by which goods and services turn from raw materials into products sold to consumers. It includes the methods of moving and storing the materials used to produce goods, storing the finished products until they sell and tracking where sold products go. This information drives future sales. SCM seeks to streamline every part of the chain and the processes involved. This maximized profits and minimizes product defects. The success of a business is linked to the efficiency of its supply chain. A business with a well-managed supply chain may significantly reduce all of the operating expenses connected to that chain, which contributes to a greater profit.

The full scope of changes to our modern American supply chain, as a result of COVID-19, are still hard to fully predict. However, there are three root movements you will likely see to some extent in most companies’ chains going forward.

1)           A move from globalization to regionalization

Logistics hubs will re-emerge at the regional level to eliminate single-source dependencies. Efforts to establish a flexible and adaptable   supply chain will cause those involved at all levels of production and distribution to source, assemble and deliver from their own backyards as much as possible.

2)           Supply chain stress tests

To assure balance sheets and cybersecurity mechanisms are prepare for system shocks, financial institutions and technology companies perform stress tests. In a post-COVID-19 world, supply chain stress tests will become a new normal as well.

3)           A human touch

Big and unexpected changes in volume make most statistical models useless. These models assess events like the pandemic as “outliers” and, therefore, discard them from the data. Although we need statistical data for people in the supply chain to be able to make decisions, most decisions should be made manually due to these outliers. Meaning, technology can provide the information but humans still are best at applying it to reality.

We sincerely hope this helped grow your understanding of supply chains and their importance to all industries. If you’re looking for more insider info on the processes involved in production, consider watching this PMG webinar Mapping Manufacturing. Interested in helping PMG provide solutions to the supply chain problems of companies across America? Send your resume to recruiter@pmservices.com to learn more about our positions and projects. Finally, if you have your own question for PMG we have an answer, and we’d love to share it, so send it to writingteam@pmservices.com and look for it in our next FAQ blog!

Josh Erickson, Retool & Technical Associate