Baxter Investing in the Future of Manufacturing Education and Training

Baxter has been a part of the Mountain Home community for more than 50 years. As one of Baxter’s largest plastics and manufacturing facilities, it produces high-quality disposable medical products that serve the essential healthcare needs of patients. The award winning facility has received the Arkansas Governor’s Quality Award for performance excellence and the Shingo Prize, a coveted global award for manufacturing operational excellence.

Central to our mission to save and sustain lives is our ability to manufacture and deliver high-quality products for patients. To support manufacturing innovation and to provide the next generation of manufacturing workers with the high-tech skills required, Baxter expanded our long-standing education and training partnership with Arkansas State University in Mountain Home (ASUMH).

Last year, Baxter partnered with ASUMH to expand its mechatronics program - a combination of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer control and information technology, to provide manufacturing employees with the education, skills and hands-on experience to operate and trouble shoot advanced manufacturing technology. Currently 85 employees are enrolled in the program.

This program has given me the technical knowledge and capability to be able to do what I do safely and more efficiently. This has been an amazing experience, and I encourage others with the drive and will to do their job more effectively to participate.

Austin Apple, a Baxter Mountain Home assembly employee and student at ASUMH

“Every day I come to work at Baxter, I know the devices I’m assembling are directly helping a person – whether that be my neighbor, a friend’s grandma or a stranger across the country,” said Austin Apple, a Baxter Mountain Home assembly employee and student at ASUMH. “This program has given me the technical knowledge and capability to be able to do what I do safely and more efficiently. This has been an amazing experience, and I encourage others with the drive and will to do their job more effectively to participate.”

Austin has been a part of the Baxter Mountain Home team since 2015, and will graduate the mechatronics program at ASUMH this May. Providing students like Austin with exposure to advanced training and technology will create a more skilled workforce and expand potential job opportunities for residents in the Mountain Home community.