AMHERST, Va. - Custom hospitality maker 1922 Commercial Furniture Company has received a grant from Virginia Career Works and the Central Virginia Workforce Development Board to provide additional training and workforce education for its employees.

 

To earn the $8,500 grant, the company vowed to teach employees "new skills that promote advancement within that business and help promote job security." They must train all production leads and managers on the company’s manufacturing software, according to a news release.

 

"As 1922 Commercial grows within the hospitality furniture industry, we need to streamline efficiency in our manufacturing process in order to continue on our path of success in 2020 and beyond," said Chad Eby, president of 1922 Commercial. "We are very excited about this grant and want to extend our sincere appreciation towards the Central Virginia Workforce Development Board for being able to give small companies like us the opportunity to provide our employees with the training that they need to stay competitive."

 

The software training will help the employees maximize their capabilities in an efficient, streamlined process from start to finish, according to a release, saving their employees time while continuing to meet or beat their pledge of an 8-week turnaround on manufacturing orders. International manufacturers are unable to meet that timeline, the release states. The training is set to take place the first week of April.

 

“1922 Commercial prides itself in its ability to create custom furniture for our customers’ needs,” said Darlene Etheridge, vice president of finance and the applicant for the grant, said in the release. “That means we almost need to completely start over with our entire process with each new project that we undertake. Having the training to fully use this software will be a tremendous help; we’ll be able to tell it what we’re trying to make, and it can create purchase orders to send to our materials vendors, help our in-house engineers with the design process, and even interface with our machinery to eliminate as much manufacturing waste as possible.”

 

1922 manufactures hospitality furniture for the commercial market out of a 90,000-square-foot factory at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.