machine operator

utility operator

maintenance technician

press operator

operator

American Packaging Corporation

As a Helper (Entry position) you will be palletizing and unloading primarily, and running the machine during the Operator's break. Be efficient and self-start, and you will be thought of first if an advancement opportunity presents itself. Learn all you can from your Operator, and from the others as well, and use those techniques that take you the least time while producing the best results. This is a job based on production, and how much you can produce in a shift. If (when) you advance to Operator, cover your butt; follow your paperwork responsibilities, watch the machine, pay attention to what your Helper is doing, and double check everything. Your name is on the label on the goods, and problems will come back to you if there are any. Train your Helper well, and they will appreciate that, and an appreciative Helper will work harder to get your machine to produce footage during your breaks.
That being said, you will have days where the material will not allow for you to hit goal footage. Those are hard, but if you have done your best the other days, the overage you should have gotten then should make up the difference, so just roll with it. Machines break down, power outages happen, and less-than-skilled helpers will be giving you breaks sometimes.
I enjoyed the high of smashing my footage goal, and would come home pretty grouchy after those shifts where everything seemed to go wrong. You may be reminded that there are others waiting in line to take your place. I found that it was not helpful to my shift to listen to that. Really, just show up to work on time, sober, and rested, and you will most likely do just fine here.

for the location; good pay, PTO, vision and life insurance are good. they just changed healthcare to Excellus Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and kinda sucks.  you will pay 100% up to the deductible, then copay starts. I would only work at the Story City Iowa plant as a last resort.  Management is focused only on numbers off machines. employees are only thought of when it affects their safety rates for the year. people have been fired for simple mistakes resulting in time lose. they have given points for not showing up to work in a blizzard (but you had better be safe when you're at work). there is a lot more customer returns we have to fix in the last few years due to quantity over quality.  Quotas are to high to get promotions as machine operator or helpers (there are operators that have been there for 15+ years and still not toped out on pay scale).  I worked and as a machine helper for almost three years, and never promoted to operator because I couldn't hit quota.  they also never gave me a machine helper; had to shut machine down any time I was away from the machine. it real hurt numbers.  very toxic management. range from lazy to clueless to verbally/physically abusive (a supervisor has been known to throw things and got in a shoving match with an employee before. also finds it funny when employees quit because of him) ideas are hatched and implemented without ever knowing how the process works out on the floor.  if pay and benefits weren't so good, I wouldn't be there.

The Company is always investing in production to increase sales. What they are failing to do is update their software to handle this kind of volume. They still use AS400 and everything is very manual and time consuming, and the system regularly crashes or causes issues. IT claims they are upgrading the current system (won't invest in a new one), but apparently they have said this for the last 3 years. 

There also appears to be few consequences for those who belittle other employees, blame their faults on others, and there is no sense of 'team' here at all. Some also must have exceptional PTO offerings because people miss 1-2 days a week at least sometimes and are still employed. Management is very passive about these issues, and employee concerns in general. 

Because of this, the culture is one of the worst I've seen. There is no cohesiveness among departments, and such a disconnect between the different divisions and corporate. The Company does nothing to engage or reward employees outside of pay and bonuses- no charitable work incentives, company activities, etc. This may have been ok in the past, but in order to attract (and retain) a younger workforce, these things must be looked into.

Let's start off with the good.
-good pay
-good advancement opportunities
-some of the coworkers are fun
-most of lower management(supervisors and leads) are down to earth and will work with you on most things
-pretty decent referral program.
-straight night shift for those that like night shift

The cons
-rotating first and second(still an improvement over rotating all three like they used to do)
-always short staffed, which leads to low moral in some departments since productivity is expected.
-schedule is not necessarily going to be steady. Sometimes when staffing is bad they put machines on 12 hour shifts so the 5 8s gives way for 4 12s, which is good for some but bad for others.

Overall:

I would say they are a pretty decent company to work for, but the pay to B.S./stress ratio isn't always great. The pay is pretty decent, they used to stand above most other companies in the area by such a margin it was hard to get in, but they have allowed others to catch up. They will try to work with you on scheduling at times which is nice when they can, but with perpetual short staffing there are a lot of times they can not.

Moral of the story, there is a lot of positive and negative tradeoffs.

production and maintenance employees work a rotating eight and or twelve hour 24/7 schedule, with production usually off for holidays, maintenance taking those days as needed to do large scale projects.

The maintenance of the extrusion and finishing machines requires a spectrum of related mechanical and electrical disciplines, all those aspects are needed to varying degrees for routine repairs.

management swears by safety, as an OSHA VPP site.They do not kid around with this area.

Co-workers are all highly skilled in their areas of expertise, and the variety of backgrounds brings a well rounded approach to operations and issues.

the rotating shifts are the tough part, but it can be endured as the efforts are recognized and rewarded generously.
 
the most enjoyable part of the job is the professional and personal interaction with a high grade of people throughout the plant.

The culture overall is good for a manufacturing environment. The majority of managers are friendly and respectful.  Safety is very important and a lot of effort is put into that. Like most companies in the US, the people at the top make millions while the workers struggle to get ahead. The company could solve their employee retention problems by simply paying better wages, but greed stands in their way.  The job can be very hectic at times.  What makes this worse is that the stress that comes with an avalanche of testing work is practically all for nought; often when a test fails, production continues anyways and the product still ships. The facility in DeForest is relatively new, so it is modern, clean, and well organized. A nice manufacturing environment to spend one's shift.  If you work here, you will end up working overtime hours. You have to decide how much of your life you are willing to trade away for work.

Overall the company itself is good. Good safety program, in that respect they care about their employees. But the way HR/ management handles situations is poor at times. They have a tendency to pacify and sweep things under the rug and cater to those with seniority- and at times the job culture can be toxic. Great pay & benefits.. however there is the issue of dealing with job bids. Successful advancement can be difficult.  Say there’s not enough available job bids to be given but you’re asked to perform a job that’s much higher pay- without securing a job bid you’ll be doing a harder job without being compensated for it and with no job security in that role. 

I Loved working for American Packaging, As one of the first black females to work on the press I wanted to make good impressions and make it far to see me, A woman of color in the company books, The management is slight racist and all  the people of color sees it, Instead of focusing on the job they focus more on the co workers beneath them not making it to last in the company and its sad, They are like crabs in a bucket at this company, If they dont like you they will tear u down until  you quit or get fired, Its sad because it is a really great job.

If you want a home life this place isn't for you. If you enjoy happiness then again not for you. Management is poor and indecisive to an extreme. Absolutely no consistency to any policy. HR is a joke to deal with at the best of times. They like to say how well they're always doing but work keeps constantly running low because of how much bad material they send as OK. Workers have no moral because of how terribly everyone is treated. If you want to advance good luck because they won't pay what you're worth no matter how much extra work you do. Be prepared to deal with yelling bosses and supervisors no matter how well you do because they enjoy it. They change their policies to match a New York company and that messed up everything for everyone here in Iowa. Overall a horrible company to work for and if you have any sense please do not apply here.

This place wonders why they can't keep good people... Well I'll tell you. There is zero accountability in this place except for safety. As long as you show up and don't damage anything/person/yourself, anything goes. There are a handful of people that actually know what work is and how to do it. The majority of people that work here are lazy and don't do much and that gets very tiring to watch. Hour long breaks are the norm and they are priority over most everything else. The supervisors walk around with their hands in their pockets once every couple hours and do nothing. The place is a joke and I'm surprised anything actually gets accomplished. Like I said, decent pay/benefits but that's it. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 2 salaries reported	$28.08 per hour
Utility operator 8 salaries reported	$23.52 per hour
Maintenance technician 11 salaries reported	$33.98 per hour
Press operator 5 salaries reported	$30.68 per hour
Operator 3 salaries reported	$24.93 per hour

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