Garlock Flexibles

The Client

Beginning in 1987, Garlock found success printing high-quality, impactful graphics on paper tissues, helping consumer brands protect and elevate their products and image with creativity, elegance, and style. In 2001, Garlock expanded into flexible films and continued to grow, applying the same principles.

Today, they are a multi-site operation and a leader in flexible fresh food packaging including pouch, lidding, and roll. Garlock’s focus on freshness helps the largest produce brands make a great impression by delivering the crispest leafy greens from field to table, trap the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans, and keeps the crunch in healthy snacks.

The Challenge

Garlock runs a 24/5 shift schedule from Monday to Friday. Garlock wanted to get all shifts trained as a team in equipment and electrical maintenance without disrupting production.

The Solution and Manufacture Nevada's Role

With Garlock's assistance, Manufacture Nevada identified the areas desired for upskilling and helped develop a custom, on-site program over the course of 6 Saturdays with Western Nevada College (WNC). As part of the Nevada System of Higher Education, both Manufacture Nevada and WNC regularly partner to provide training to manufacturers in Northern Nevada. In this case, the two were able to provide WNC's fully equipped mobile lab/trailer, parked on site at Garlock, and supplement that with in-class and on production floor training, making this a powerful hands-on experience that fulfilled Garlock’s training needs to 8 technicians.

With $8000 invested in the training, Garlock was able to: ensure the continued safety of their employees; eliminate production disruption during the training period; reduce downtime going forward due to the new skillsets learned; and benefit employees by adding 3 credits towards their associate degrees within the Nevada System of Higher Education system with company paid training.

Garlock's Testimonial on Manufacture Nevada's Impact

"Garlock has turned to Manufacture Nevada for various training needs for its employees. Manufacture Nevada has always been quick to respond to our needs, meet with us to determine desired results, formulate a plan, and deliver on those expectations. This has allowed us to increase our overall knowledge base and competence in areas previously lacking and laid the strong groundwork for continued advancement in these areas. Manufacture Nevada has really made the process easy for us and easy to navigate the different training courses through different institutions. This was a one stop, cost-effective arrangement that was very beneficial for us. These types of training have allowed Garlock - Reno to have its best production year ever in 2024." -Christopher Torres, Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager

NIST MEP Success Story