OCONTO, Wis. — Austin Thome is one part of a larger team that designs and builds conveyor systems for Nercon in Oconto.
He’s a CNC machinist. Some of his work is focused on the small parts that keep the big systems running.
“All the parts they need out there, they come to us for them and then we make those parts to fit their needs,” Thome said.
He’s been with the company about two months.
“I take raw stock and turn the part into anything we need it to be,” Thome said. “A lot of our tolerances are less than a hair thickness, that’s pretty small and I have to hold to maintain that and set up a machine so rigidly that it can repeat that as well.” that it can repeat that as well.”
Nercon is a family-owned business. The company has about 70 people in production in Oconto and another 10 in the office.
Plant Manager Mike Ary said about a quarter of the workforce has been with Nercon for 20 years or more.
“We build conveyors for the food and medical industries,” he said. “When you walk down a grocery store isle, probably 80% of all those products have run on our conveyor systems.”
Ary said the company keeps an eye open for talent across several positions.
“If you look on the fabrication side, we’re looking for welders, press brake operators and CNC machinists,” he said. “A lot of our needs are in mechanical assembly and mechanical assemblers.”
Josh Cherney worked his way up from a job in the mechanical assembly side of the business to become an electrical technician. He’s been with Nercon for 14 years.
Cherney routinely works with customers setting up the systems.
“I see it all the way from panel construction all the way to the customers site for startup and debugging,” he said. “I enjoy going on the road, seeing the actual production run and starting it up for the customer.”
Thome may be new, but said he’s getting the hang of the job.
“It’s been a learning process. This is a new machine for me. It’s a different breed of animal. It’s one of the newest machines I’ve ever run,” he said. “Once you get her down pat, she’s pretty simple.”