Empowering Future Leaders in Manufacturing: The Impact of Our Interns at Liberty Precision

At Liberty Precision, we are committed to providing our interns with meaningful, hands-on experiences that directly contribute to our business and enhance our ability to serve our customers. This summer, Liberty’s interns contributed to critical projects across numerous departments. In addition, they gained invaluable insight into the world of advanced manufacturing, seeing for themselves what goes into producing complex machined components for critical industries. From programming AI pathways to generating complex reports, our interns are involved in meaningful work that not only matters to them but also drives our success in meeting customer needs.

How This Year’s Interns Have Made an Impact at Liberty

Every intern at Liberty tackled complex projects this summer, helping shape our operations. One of the primary goals of our internship program is to expose this young talent to multiple career paths within manufacturing so they can decide which direction they’d like to take while fostering a well-rounded understanding of our dynamic industry.

Data Analysis and Transfer 

One of the key tasks involved building Excel pivot tables to process much of the extensive data used in commission reports for outside sales. Every intern participated in this initiative, gaining a firsthand understanding of how we analyze data and make informed business decisions at Liberty.

Another intern tackled a significant challenge: migrating data from an outdated setup database into a new system, ensuring we didn’t lose critical information regarding machine setup sheets. This project was essential for maintaining our operational efficiency, which directly impacts our ability to deliver quality service to our clients.

Machine Maintenance

One of Liberty’s interns spent the summer with our maintenance team, gaining hands-on experience keeping our machines running smoothly—a vital component of our day-to-day operations. This knowledge is crucial in ensuring that we can meet production demands and deadlines.

Understanding Liberty’s UI Paths

A standout project this summer focused on our UI paths, a program we implemented to automate reporting. Our interns learned how this automation saves hours of manual work every day, generating reports overnight and emailing them to key team members before anyone arrives in the shop. This experience highlighted the critical role of automation in enhancing our business efficiency, allowing us to dedicate more time to strategic tasks and less on repetitive data collection.

Print Reviews 

One of the most valuable experiences for our interns is participating in customer visits and print reviews. This year, they had the unique opportunity to experience the print review process for an aerospace customer, gaining insight into the detailed and complex nature of reviews for this demanding sector. Our interns witnessed how vital cross-team collaboration is in resolving issues that may arise during this stage.

Expertise in Design for Manufacturability (DfM)

For our engineering interns, we emphasize the importance of designing for manufacturability. By observing print reviews and learning how tolerances affect production, they gained a deep understanding of how their designs can be optimized for real-world manufacturing. Whether they are operating machines on the shop floor or performing preventative maintenance, these experiences provide a comprehensive view of what it takes to design and produce complex machined parts.

An Unintended Benefit: Increased Morale

Having five interns join us over the summer had an unexpected but positive effect on our entire team. The energy and enthusiasm the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed interns brought to the company were contagious. Our staff truly enjoyed showing our interns the ropes. The presence of our interns motivated our long-standing employees to reflect on their own growth and mentorship. For some of our team members, this experience reinvigorated their passion and reminded them why our work is so important.

The Future of Our Internship Program

While our internship program initially started with students from New Berlin and our Wisconsin ecosystem, it has since expanded to attract young talent from across the country. Our goal is to continue to grow the program, extending it beyond the summer months and incorporating more opportunities for young manufacturing talent during the school year.

Building a Pipeline for Success

One of the best indicators of our internship program's success is that former interns have gone on to have long, fruitful careers at Liberty. In fact, one of our current engineers began as an intern and has now been with the company for 27 years! We hope to replicate this success by using the internship program to attract, train, and retain talent. 

What We Look for in Interns

When selecting interns, we seek out individuals with a passion for learning and a readiness to tackle challenges. Our hiring philosophy at Liberty is “hire for attitude, train for skill,” and this is particularly true for our interns. Whether they are mechanically skilled or tech-savvy, what truly matters to us is their eagerness to learn.

If you’re a student looking to gain hands-on experience in advanced manufacturing, we encourage you to explore the open positions on our website. Here at Liberty, we’re excited to see how future interns will shape Liberty and the manufacturing industry as a whole. 

And if you are looking to partner with a future-oriented precision manufacturer, be sure to contact our dedicated team. 

Seeking complex machined parts? Partner with Liberty Precision!