Cascades Employees Complete Training for Process Improvement

Six Cascades Tissue employees at the Rockingham facility recently completed Six Sigma Green Belt certification through Richmond Community College’s customized training program.

Earning their Six Sigma Green Belt certification were Craig Knight, Jake Elder, Corey Wyand, Anthony Nessell, Mike Kopel and Michael Hurst. These employees are on process improvement teams that analyze and solve quality problems.

To earn their certification, the employees completed 64 hours of classroom training and eight hours of coaching for completion of projects. At the end of the course, each employee presented the process improvement project and took a certification test.

“It’s not very often that everyone who takes this training completes it and passes the certification test, so this is a testament to the commitment and dedication of these employees,” RichmondCC Director of Customized Training Lee Eller said.

The two projects completed in the training provided Cascades with an estimated yearly savings between $300,000 and $400,000.

“We appreciate the excellent training program that Richmond Community College provided Cascades,” Jake Elders, maintenance manager for Cascades Tissue Group, said. “This training provides a special infrastructure of people at Cascades who are experts in process improvement and quality management, making Cascades a safer, more productive workplace.”

Last fall, RichmondCC secured nearly $65,000 in state-funded training to support capital improvements at the Rockingham plant, which included the Six Sigma Green Belt certification training.

“It is our goal at Richmond Community College to help local companies like Cascades be a competitive manufacturer, so any time we can provide state funding for industrial and workforce training, we’re going to make it happen,” said Dr. Dale McInnis, president of RichmondCC.