CHESTERFIELD’S CAMBRIDGE AIR SOLUTIONS UTILIZES MISSOURI ONE START’S TRAINING ASSISTANCE SERVICES
Cambridge Air Solutions in Chesterfield has been in business for over 60 years. The company is known for enriching the lives of its people, customers, vendors, and suppliers through innovative HVAC solutions. In 2024, Cambridge Air Solutions was experiencing financial constraints due to the ripple effects of COVID-19. As a result, it was a challenge for the company to keep effectively investing in its workforce.
“Like many manufacturers, 2024 was a difficult year for our business,” said Rebecca Jenkins, Project Manager of Technical Training at Cambridge Air Solutions. “One of our core behaviors is to invest resources in personal and professional growth, and we weren’t sure how we were going to continue that at the scale our business and employees needed.”
After conducting extensive research for solutions, the company discovered Missouri One Start’s training assistance offered through St. Louis Community College (STLCC). This partnership allowed them to provide training for 75 total employees. At one site, this training allowed everyone on the manufacturing leadership team to upgrade from manual production scheduling to an automated Manufacturing Execution System (MES), slated to go live in June. Additionally, the company was able to better support leaders and team members in pilot areas of the organization and send several team members to classes at STLCC, including Project Management Fundamentals, Microsoft Tools, and Industrial Maintenance Training.
Cambridge Air Solutions was financially assisted through Missouri One Start’s Customized Training program.
“Missouri One Start and St. Louis Community College have both been instrumental in allowing us to navigate this difficult time in manufacturing,” said Jenkins. “As a result of their funding and training, our Quality Manufacturing System (QMS) pilot areas have better standards that are more in line with our customer expectations, allowing us to create better training, problem solving, and continuous improvement strategies. We’ll be expanding this system across the entire organization over the next two years.”
About Missouri One Start:
Missouri One Start is a Division within the Department of Economic Development. Training programs are administered regionally by local education agencies (LEAs). In addition to meeting certain eligibility criteria, companies must be making a capital investment five times greater than the amount of training funds they receive.
