APPLETON, Wis. — CMD Corporation may not be a brand name familiar to households across the nation, but there’s a 98% chance the trash bags in those homes were made on the machines it builds in Appleton.

What You Need To Know

  • CMD Corp. makes machines for trash bag and packaging much production
  • It has open positions from CNC machinists to assemblers and an electrical engineer
  •  The company spotlights its team culture

 

CMD specializes in machines that make draw-string trash bags and packaging pouches. It also makes equipment for the alternative energy sector.

Cody Abel has been with the company for about four months. He’s an electrical assembler working on the elecrtrical panels vital to the machines.

“You start off with a sheet of metal and you get to see the full circle of how from nothing it becomes part of the machine and it’s integral to making it run,” he said.

Abel is attending Fox Valley Technical College. CMD is helping him through a tuition reimbursement program and he’s also getting hands-on experience in his chosen field.

“I can really see what I’m contributing to the machine,” he said. “Once the machine is finished, it has to run for 100 hours just to make sure it’s running well and you can see your cabinet in there and say, ‘This machine wouldn’t be running if it weren’t for me.’”

CMD is hiring for jobs ranging from electro-mechanical assemblers to CNC machinists to an electrical engineer and a systems administrator.

Tim Lewis, vice president of global sales and marketing, said team culture is an important part of CMD’s workplace.

“We’ve got a lot of long-time employees,” he said. “There are a lot of employees who have been here a lot longer than I have. We don’t have very high turnover.”

Lewis has been with CMD for 27 years.

John Krueger has been there just shy of 25 years. He’s worked his way up to an electro-mechanical lead assembler.

“I’m not the kind of person that likes to do the same thing over and over, day in and day out,” he said. “That’s probably, more than anything, what has kept me here at CMD.”

Evolving technology also keeps his interest.

“Everyday I’m doing something different. Everyday you’re learning something new,” he said. “Some people would say, ‘Yeah, we build a lot of the same types of machines,’ but each one has its own little twists and turns.”