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Tabletop Batching System Helps with Recruitment for PDA

Graduation can be an exciting and confusing time in the life of a soon-to-graduate student.  Whether they are advancing from high school, tech school, or a university program, they are striving to make good decisions at what can be an intimidating time in their lives.  Young workers strive to make good decisions which not only satisfy immediate goals but also start them on a trajectory that will provide positive results for an entire career.

Businesses exist which require little explanation as to what the company does or the eventual product output.  Beyond brands which are ubiquitous in daily life, the balance of companies must figure out how to appeal to people in this position in life.  This can be especially difficult when presenting the work involved with custom engineered solutions like software and controls integration as their products are nebulous and can vary considerably based on assignment.  Moreover, many of the projects they execute lack a physical component which easily shows what an employee would create.  At career fairs this can create a make-or-break situation for candidates even approaching a prospective employer.

Process and Data Automation (PDA) has been dealing with this situation for decades and their programs have evolved to provide regular success.  However, when interacting with prospective employees from lesser acquainted educational institutions, the problem still exists.  The company recently embarked on an internal project to provide an initial enticement to prospects and then to help them illustrate what the company does.  “We wanted something to have on hand which helped to pull people into a conversation and then provide a platform on which we could discuss what is involved with the type of work that we do”, says Jeremy Anderson, president of PDA.  “Frequently, when discussing the large-scale things we do each day, new folks’ eyes can glaze over as they struggle to make connections to things they’re familiar with.  Seeing something that is effectively a scale model made from components and technology that they understand is very helpful in getting them comfortable with this conversation”, Anderson continues.

The company developed a tabletop batching system to accompany their teams to career fairs, STEAM events, and other venues where people want to understand what the company does.  The solution illustrates on a small scale the type of projects that the company delivers every day. It is made from a combination of industry hardware which may not be completely familiar to passersby and off-the-shelf items which most every person has seen or even used. The result is an eye-catching combination of stainless steel, rotating LEDs, and moving components which work to create on-demand flavored drinks using standard 10oz water bottles and various concentrated syrups.

Visitors are drawn in initially based on aesthetics and the conversation frequently deepens once a discussion ensues about the familiar components and how they are leveraged in real life, large-scale automation solutions.  “We wanted strong optics that could touch off a conversation and provide an engaging speaking platform,” says Eric Williams, digitalization manager at PDA. “While we’re talking, we’re able to provide examples of how a system like this would scale to deliver products which they may be familiar with.  All the while we’re gauging them as prospects and collecting valuable information on their interests, abilities, and their educational programs’ strengths”, Williams continues. The attractive optics of the system are particularly helpful at early stage pipeline development events like STEAM fairs.

The system shows core control, human interface, networking, data logging using hardware like Rockwell Automation CompactLogix controller, iPads for human machine interface, Raspberry Pi for wireless routing to the iPads, and an industrial thin client PC running Inductive Automation’s Perspective software.  Visitors who have used these components in their studies or in other venues quickly relate what they’re seeing to how industrial control systems can be created.

In addition to physical control, the system provides a robust solution for data collection and reporting.  Using the iPad interfaces, simple information is collected from attendees and logged to a local database.  This functionality, along with the related transactions and report engines, can be shown onsite to appropriate prospects and this later provides the finished information back to PDA to use in targeted outreach.

The project provided additional opportunities for the PDA team beyond explicit community exposure and recruiting functions.  Company managers used the project to develop junior staff in the areas of applications’ design, programming, and overall project management.  The team was given a set of parameters for physical attributes, requirements for the applications’ functions, a timeline, and a budget within which they had to operate.  “It was imperative for the entire system to be portable and deployable by non-technical staff,” says Tyler Clemons, project coordinator at PDA and project manager for this effort.  “Some of the design requirements reflect that, from the single point of power connection and all finger-safe, low voltage wiring where most components were mounted.  It also influenced the user interface and reporting operations,” Clemons continues.

The overall solution was delivered in time for this spring’s busy recruiting season. The system became not only the centerpiece of the recruiting booths but also the primary way to log activity and eventually judge the quality of each venue for future fairs’ consideration.  The technical system also provides a foundation on which the entire operation can be expanded.  “We have some functional changes we want to make based on feedback from the field”, continues Anderson.   The PDA team intends to integrate bottle detection, flow meters, level probes, and enhanced data handling.  “The technical system can be expanded, revised, or rebuilt altogether as technology evolves and we have staff who could benefit from deploying an intense, small-scale solution”, he concludes.

Recruiting entry level employees directly out of learning institutions will remain a challenge. The PDA team will continue to evolve their approach to be successful in all areas of this critical aspect of their business. With tools like the batch demo, and training paths like those offered in developing scale models as well as full-size solutions, they will continue supporting the uneasiness and confusion that comes with new graduates, and support them as they develop successful careers.

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