Hello Chanhassen and welcome to the local. As October is manufacturing month, I am pleased to be joined by Haley Schubert, general manager, and Wendy Agres, owner of Quantum Controls. Thank you for joining me for this episode. Can you each tell me a little bit about Quantum Controls and how the company was started? The company was started by my husband and he started it at our dining room table um 35 years ago, 37 years ago. Uh and he saw a need for a company that could design and build controls that control motors. We moved to a couple of different locations and then finally decided that Chanhasson was where we wanted to build and stay. And so we built this building and have been here >> 25 years >> 25 years now. >> Can you tell me about quantum controls? What products do you make here? >> So we are kind of a very unique manufacturer uh where we can take someone that has an idea of something they want to do. So they need a motor to run but they don't know how to make that happen. They come to us and we are able to design that motor control which is a circuit board assembly from the ground up to help them do what they need to do. We also have people that come to us that have the engineering background and they say we just need this to be built and we're able to take those drawings and build the circuit board assemblies here as well. You have one product that you're really known for. Not necessarily that we're known for, but one of our bigger customers uh came to us almost 10 years ago saying they had been building all of their product in China and were becoming very unhappy with the quality they were receiving. They came to us. We were able to design redesign the control and then we've started building it and it started with a remote and a power board and now it has grown to about eight different um different products for this company and so they're in the agricultural trucking business. So when you see those grain trucks driving down the road most likely one of our controls is on that. >> That is so cool. So it sounds like you have a wide variety of products that you make and manufacture here in Chanhassen. >> We can make boat lifts move. We are helping with treadmills. We are helping with senior living aids and um different aids to help people in wheelchairs make their lives more easy um within their vehicles. I guarantee everyone has seen a product or used a product that has our control in it. >> Can you tell me one way, especially as women, that you're trying to contribute to the industry of manufacturing? >> Women in STEM has always been an issue and it's been growing over the years, which is wonderful. Uh I have my degree in math so I focused on a STEM subject as well in school. Um one of our main design engineers is a woman right now too which is awesome. And there is jobs for everyone and every woman at any level of education and so anywhere from you know helping put parts in boards and assembling the circuit boards to being a design engineer or being the president. Lastly, is there anything that the community of Chanhass can do to help quantum controls? >> Well, I can just say is, you know, embrace manufacturing. Um, every time manufacturing is in a community, it helps bring even more jobs to that community. Um, a lot of our employees are going to the grocery stores in Chanhasson, going to Target, going to the local um different shops and stores over their lunch breaks. they're, you know, putting money back into our community by bringing people in to work here. We have a great partnership with Eastern Carver County School District. And so we have gotten a lot of students as a work study program or within different programs within the school district to come in and they get to try out the jobs and see what manufacturing is and see that, you know, a 4-year degree isn't always necessarily the thing that they have to do. They shouldn't be felt like they have to be pushed into it. you know, a technical degree or coming and working on the floor for a while and learning things and then having that help them further direct where they want to go. Um, has been really wonderful. And so I just think we have great relationships within the community whether people know it or not. Um, and always looking to employ more people that live within the community. Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Local. And please remember, being local is more than just your zip code. Being local means supporting local. Until next time, Shan Hassen.