How to chart the best course for company improvements? It starts with understanding the emerging tech and where it can take you.

The one that’s gaining wide adoption right now is automation, a key driver for achieving reductions in resources and energy requirements. Automation can also generate robust volumes of data that can be applied to manage efficiencies in terms of raw materials, inputs and labor.

In fact, automation in manufacturing has been likened to the technologies available in today’s cars.

Business owners and management, much like drivers, need to decide what level of automation and technology they are most comfortable with. Is it a self-driving car or maybe adaptive cruise control? Or for the more hands-on individuals, it could be the time trusted standard transmission?

Whatever your preference, things are changing, and the impact will be profound.

Operation 2030

The World Economic Forum has created a program called Operation 2030. The objective is to lead emerging markets toward the United Nation’s sustainable development goals which focus on combating climate change, poverty and hunger. To reach these goals and the timeframe of these initiatives, the Forum revealed a $10 trillion investment program.

To provide perspective, $10 trillion is a sum larger than the size of all but two of the world’s economies.

The chasm between the simple pursuit of profits and profit-centric organizational efficiencies, developed by using fewer inputs and reducing carbon footprints, has begun to close. Modest reductions in electricity, heat, and water consumption can improve financial performance while at the same time boosting consumer and corporate relations.

And now corporate leadership is asking how to make products more sustainable and use less water and energy.

Going green has long been established as sound business practice but the UN’s sustainable development goals have made it clear that a focus on responsible corporate sustainability will guide capital spending for years to come.

On the other hand, many of the U.S. manufacturing facilities are aged, some more than 50 years old. Most have focused on operations and have predominantly designated capital resources for technology that can squeeze more profits by being more efficient.

No question, there are significant areas of improvement for manufacturers to progress on their green journey – most are still in the early stages and have set only modest targets.

Going big

The unavoidable upshot is that businesses must now begin to look at large investments to stay in the game. Changes in consumer demand, government policies, and corporate purchasing decisions are becoming fundamental to how businesses conduct their operations. Consumers are willing to pay premiums for sustainable products and this, combined with organizational procurement requirements for vendors, is pushing businesses to align with more sustainability.

The International Chamber of Commerce and leading business organizations issued a statement following a recent sustainability forum: “The sustainable development goals provide all businesses with a new lens through which to translate the world’s needs and ambitions into business solutions.

“These solutions will enable companies to better manage their risks, anticipate consumer demand, build positions in growth markets, secure access to needed resources, and strengthen their supply chains, while moving the world towards a sustainable and inclusive development path.”

Microsoft is one such company working to reduce its footprint while also helping other companies to be more efficient. The global tech giant has increased access to serverless, open-source software that reduces the need for ventilation, cooling, and even air conditioning, in large data centers.

Microsoft has also teamed up with Danish-based Orsted which owns and operates 1,000 offshore wind turbines. In 2020, Orsted was named the world’s most sustainable company. Microsoft’s advanced predictive software is embedded in Orsted’s turbines and is part of that company’s sustainable digital strategy.

As we know, the pandemic put the world in a tailspin, but the manufacturing reset has been remarkable. Consider the challenges of supply chain management and doing things in new ways.

Supersizing the supply chain

As Peter Georgacopoulos, a Canadian supply chain analytics guru, says, “I look at numbers differently from how a lot of people look at them. I don’t look at them from a finance perspective. I look at what the customer is trying to tell us. If you can get down to looking at a specific customer and what their needs are, that’s gold.”

Supply chain 4.0 will witness the use of robotics, sensors, and networks to automate and analyze everything, everywhere, and vastly improve performance and customer satisfaction while mining a treasure trove of data.

Essentially, supply chain and logistics have gone from an operational function reporting to sales or manufacturing about the supply of production line materials or customer deliveries, to an independent function focused on analytics and advanced planning.

These digital supply chains allow companies to address the needs of their customers, and also predict and address supply side issues and efficiencies. This predictive forecasting takes into account myriad data sets, including school vacation periods and weather and machine spare parts inventories, all the while overlaying a precise forecast of customer demand.

These forecasts are no longer quarterly or monthly, but daily, and in some instances predictive – predicting what customers will order based on past behavior.

The American faucet manufacturer Moen, as an example, has a structured methodology for modeling a variety of scenarios to support its operational activities. The company can predict its inventory and optimize product placement at retailers.

The focus on supply chain has led to new business models, like the “Uberization” of transport capacity. This provides more agility in distribution networks and keeps costs in check. Other new transport concepts such as drone delivery are also being used to expedite delivery in the last mile of the supply chain.

All of this is augmented with next-gen performance management systems providing real-time, door-to-door transparency throughout the supply chain. Information available through these management systems includes delivery service levels and real-time location of delivery vehicles – info that’s transparent and available to all partners in the supply chain.

New Materials, New Vistas

And what about exciting new materials in the industry?

The Materials Genome Initiative announced by President Obama in 2011 is just beginning to transform our world as scientists – aided by artificial intelligence – create new elements and materials. Obama hoped that this initiative would improve U.S. global competitiveness and could be a key in tackling the global challenges of energy, security and human welfare.

Among the best-known outcomes of this initiative is the ubiquitous lithium-ion, present in everything from smartphones to self-driving cars. The concept for these batteries surfaced in the 1970s but didn’t make it to market reality for 20 years. Over the years, lithium-ion batteries have seen an astounding drop in price while increasing energy-storage capacity eleven-fold.

Producing enough of these cells to meet consumer demand is an issue that is now being addressed. A company that has stepped up to the production challenge is Tesla, one of whose factories in Nevada is producing 20 gigawatts of energy storage annually. One gigawatt is enough energy to power 100 million LED lightbulbs.

CEO Elon Musk estimates that 100 such factories could create enough battery storage for the energy requirements of the entire planet. Others working toward similar capacity are Renault, BMW, Audi, Toyota and Nissan. Lithium-ion storage is considered the key in bringing the cost of wind and solar power into line with gas and oil.

“Solar power [with] batteries will be the primary means of sustainable energy production,” Musk told investors. “Solar power will be the single largest source of electricity generation by the mid-point of the century. People do not understand the magnitude of the business. It’s really very, very significant.”

Graphene is another new material that is changing manufacturing, essentially made from the same graphite as used in pencils. Graphene is a one-atom thick sheet of carbon. Although nearly weightless, it is 200 times stronger than steel and has the capacity to conduct electricity and can dissipate heat faster than any other known material.

In applications like sensors and transistors, graphene helps devices communicate. It has even been used successfully in damaged spinal cords where it helps neurons connect and communicate with the spinal cord. Graphene could also be used in automotive parts, making cars lighter, stronger and more fuel-efficient.

Perovskite goes solar

Another rising star is perovskite, a light-sensitive crystal. Currently, the conversion efficiency of solar panels is about 16 percent, a measure of how much sunlight is converted into electricity. Perovskite use in solar panels has the potential to increase that conversion rate to 66 percent. Put another way, one perovskite panel will have the output of four of today’s panels.

This will significantly reduce the cost of solar power.

These new materials are coalescing to solve even large-scale problems such as climate change. Scientists are working to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into ultra-strong carbon nanofibers. This technology at scale and powered by solar could reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels within 10 years.

The takeaway? Manufacturing is on the cusp of change for a better future – and we’ve got the tech to make it happen.

The post The Time is Now<p class="company">Investing in Next-Gen Tech</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“In the near future artificial intelligence will most likely replace tasks, not jobs. The good news is that it will also create new markets and jobs,” Laura Buckler aptly summarizes in ROBOTIQ. “We might need additional education and re-training for those jobs, but the opportunities will be there.”

An example of such a task replaced is any repetitive job on an assembly line – a job that has defined the industry since its innovative inception in the 20th century, starting in automotive. It could be picking out bad parts, or separating green tomatoes from red ones, or simply filling a box with items, or aligning items properly for the next task in the line. As these tasks are replaced with machines that can do them just as well or better, it doesn’t eliminate the worker, just the task.

Robotic technology has overtaken some of the major functions in manufacturing once delegated to human workers, namely the repetitive, routine, mundane and often dangerous tasks. And this technology is no longer exclusive to large factories; smaller businesses are utilizing automation solutions to their advantage as well.

This trend will only increase with evolving IoT and digitalization. The robotic revolution is proving to be safer, reliable and cost-effective with manufacturers seeing a great return on this investment in a year or less. Automation technology allows manufacturers to turn their focus toward innovation that will not only create more jobs, but create jobs for a more educated and highly skilled workforce.

According to a Statistic Canada report from 2020, manufacturing companies that invested in and employed robots hired 15 percent more human workers. And according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) President Jeff Burnstein “Factory automation has allowed companies to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S. that would otherwise go overseas” he told Investor’s Business Daily. “Robots may take over certain tasks but workers get reassigned to other jobs. If you’re doing some dull, dangerous or dirty job, maybe a robot is doing that now and you’re doing some more productive thing for the company … And in the overall scheme, jobs are growing.”

Supporting this conclusion, Gustavo Sepulveda, process automation business head at Panasonic told Design News “Automation reduces the cost of manufacturing goods, it helps to produce with more quality, efficiency and safety. That generates revenue and more jobs … It is proven that countries with the highest automation density have lower unemployment rates.”

For many companies, a sudden shift to a fully automated line is a daunting change, but Sepulveda claims that such change can – perhaps should – be gradual. It may be possible to initiate automation gradually in one aspect of a company’s tasks and increase the complexity over time. And as new technology becomes available, there are certainly advantages to being flexible to upgrade.

According to a recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers (Pwc) report, close to 60 percent of manufacturers are utilizing some form of robotics technology. That percentage is expected to increase.

Humans and robots working together

The worrisome idea was that robots would replace workers, but the truth we see today is that people and machines working together yields better results for many applications. While robotic technology is set to operate on the repetitive and often dangerous tasks, employees are free to make decisions and handle tasks that require more analysis or creative thought. While a machine is handling the mundane, the worker might see potential problems before they become disasters, or be able to reason out a better way of doing something. Of course it depends on the environment and the tasks, but the human-robot relationship should be symbiotic, not competitive.

As MIT professor and economist David Author stated in an article in Manufacturing Automation about the introduction of robotics in factories “Most managers thought they were turning workers into unskilled machine tenders,” But rather the result was “A higher demand for people who could do abstract reasoning and control those machines.”

And those companies that invest in and train their employees to work together with and manage utilized robotic technology will benefit from a safer, more efficient and productive workforce ultimately creating better job satisfaction and a long-term commitment.

As with many industries, labour shortages are of major concern in manufacturing (far from that prediction that we’d have jobless workers who’ve been replaced) and many companies are investing in internships to help develop STEM skills specific to their needs. Many firms have partnerships with high schools and community colleges for individual internships. Others are working in conjunction with government agencies and career assistance organizations or taking advantage of economic development funds in order to establish skilled-trades apprenticeship programs.

According to a study published in the World Economic Forum – The Robot Revolution: Managerial and Employment Consequences for Firms, co-author Lynn Wu, professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that “Any employment loss in our data we found came from the non-adopting firms. These firms become less productive, relative to the adopters. They lost their competitive advantage and, as a result, they had to lay off workers … The story is really about how do you leverage technology better to become more productive, to become more competitive? And how do you change your managerial firm practices so you can get the most out of your robot technologies?”

In conclusion, the manufacturing industry is in constant transition with newer technologies replacing the older technologies of the past, but these advancements are not killing jobs. Quite the opposite is true, as firms adopting innovative technology are thriving and growing, hiring skilled workers in jobs that are far more rewarding and healthy than ever before in the manufacturing industry.

The post The Robotic Revolution in Manufacturing<p class="company">Dispelling the Job-Killer Myth</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Serving customers around the world, this aluminum casting company is the trusted partner of big players in industries as diverse as medical, military, robotics, power electronics, and instrumentation. Andy Renkey, President, explains why quality aluminum casting takes more expertise than often imagined and how the company’s V-Process (vacuum molded casting) system provides significant advantages over other casting methods.

Based in Harmony, Pennsylvania, this company knows that casting aluminum to world standards results from achieving the highest tolerances possible. Using the latest in advanced Industry 4.0 technologies like additive manufacturing, robotics, automation, and more, it provides clients with minimum variation and guaranteed pattern life.

The company has grown with its customers, continuously expanding its facilities and improving its capabilities as demand for its services and products has increased. It gives customers the advantages of speed to market while achieving budgetary constraints, an excellent surface finish, and metal quality that end-users expect.

Integrity is a mainstay that guides Harmony Castings towards ever greater heights. It also prides itself on its long-term relationships built on teamwork, reliability, and accountability. “There are many methods to obtain near-net-shape metal products,” says Renkey. Near net shape manufacturing allows the initial fabrication of a component to be as close to the finished product in size and shape as possible, in order to lower production times and costs and times.

“Our goal is not just to sell castings. We help customers find the correct solution for their parts, even if that solution is not through us. Our manufacturing space continues to expand, as our revenues have increased by over 67 percent since 2014,” he adds.

Geography is never a hurdle because Harmony always goes the extra mile. “We have instrumentation products that are cast in Harmony, CNC machined in Ohio, painted in Connecticut, and assembled in Singapore,” Renkey continues.

Because its systems and capabilities allow the team to be nimble and responsive, Harmony Castings delivers top-quality castings consistently and fast. On the odd occasion that the company cannot execute any aspect of casting at its facility, it can arrange that almost any additional function or component be procured from a third-party provider. There is always a way where there is a will to succeed.

Collaborating with the team is easy. “Our pattern materials and designs allow for relatively easy changes during the earlier stages of a new project. Not only do we provide the casting; Harmony will also subcontract and complete all the computer numerical controlled (CNC) machining, finishing, and light assembly needed to make the procurement of your part as seamless as possible,” Renkey adds. This one-stop-shop service delivery has garnered the favor of several international giants and boosted the company’s word-of-mouth popularity amongst clients.

The company welcomed its first customers in the eighties. Times were challenging, and foundries were as expensive to run and maintain back then as they are today but that did not deter the two founders from Connecticut, who ensured their presence on-site by living, during the week, in the space that houses the current boardroom.

As economies organically wax and wane, another chapter arrived as the COVID-19 crisis introduced a huge opportunity for growth. “Many products manufactured in China were suddenly unavailable in the United States. From 2014 through 2019, Harmony increased revenues by 58 percent,” Renkey says proudly, and the upward trend continues as aluminum casting returns to American soil. As a result, 2022 promises to outshine the past five years’ growth rate with another twenty percent growth in revenue.

This success, however, comes amid a host of additional challenges cited by the company. “Let’s start with strengthening fair trade laws and Section 301 tariffs. The United States has a great workforce with unparalleled ingenuity. On a fair playing field where import/export laws do not hinder us, we will excel. Subsidized or state-owned companies selling products below market value create unfair trade. We need our government to strengthen and continue enforcement of these laws,” Renkey says.

Renkey points out that strengthening local supply chains will also go a long way to securing materials and that vulnerable infrastructure and energy supply ought to be attended to on a national scale. He also includes the need to assess and boost the solidity of the trucking industry as a whole to improve the transportation of goods, components, and critically important materials. Through increasing self-sustainability in terms of national energy supply and ensuring that natural resources are extracted and obtained ethically, the company believes that the American casting industry can potentially regain its former vigor considerably.

The Harmony Castings management team is acutely aware of the incredible value its outstanding employees bring to its offering. “Our response to our customers throughout the pandemic has been amazing. A company’s success is measured by its employees,” says Renkey.

“Whether it is their generosity in participating in an annual Christmas gift tree or their selflessness in working extra hours to ensure our customers receive their products on time, our employees always rise to the occasion. At Harmony Castings, our employees are truly our success,” he continues. A particular point of pride is the ease with which the team adapted to the new working conditions during the critical COVID-19 emergency period, considering that its service during this time to the medical and military industries kept its casting facility in full production mode.

Despite this change in demand, the company was forced to temporarily lay off some of its personnel but that did not mean goodbye. Staff who were waiting to be reemployed received a monthly letter to keep them up to speed with developments and a $150 gift card to a local grocery store to help relieve the financial burden of being unemployed.

Today the original team of sixty-five has grown to ninety-two people and is growing stronger by the day. “Once employed, many team members stay with us for their entire career. Our most senior employee, Gary Dindinger, has worked for Harmony for 39 and a half years, and we have over a dozen employees with more than twenty years of service,” says Renkey.

Creating such a thriving work environment is due to hiring the highly-skilled people who contribute to the overall effectiveness and happiness. One of the company’s guiding principles when it comes to employing new candidates is: ‘If you hire for skill alone, you will end up firing for behaviors.’ This wisdom is followed up with a rigorous onboarding program that closely follows behavior over three months with various milestones and markers being carefully monitored during this time. The result is a team of professionals who cooperate like a healthy family system, bolstered by the knowledge that everyone has each other’s backs.

This generosity of spirit is extended to its greater community with staff needing little to no motivation to match one another’s donations to the American Cancer Society and other charitable organizations. There is also a Christmas Toy Drive that has everyone chipping in and contributing together to make the giving season one of delight and joy for many underprivileged kids. There are also volunteering opportunities like the Connoquenessing Creek clean-up initiative that the team supports with great enthusiasm.

It is with this same potent energy and motivation that the Harmony Castings team embraces the challenges thrown at it by the realities of the current economic climate, complications caused by the Ukrainian War, and continued supply chain obstacles. Its leaders remain positive about its position and its future, however.

“Harmony Castings is in an excellent position. We are a market leader in our industry, with great employees and a terrific customer base,” Renkey says. With the team’s resolve to leverage its strengths alongside continued improvement, the next two years are looking good.

The post Top-Class People Delivering Top-Class Castings<p class="company">Harmony Castings, LLC</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Through innovation and years of research with some of the best engineering and machining talent on the planet, the company has created manufacturing techniques and proprietary tooling systems that are unique in their efficiency, competitiveness, and cost-effectiveness.

An engineering, design, and manufacturing company with a focus on aerospace, healthcare, and defense sectors, 5th Axis has a team of experienced engineers and machinists whose remit is to better customer expectations with creative, profit-improving solutions.

Committed to reshoring strategies, 5th Axis also proudly sources American companies to aid in the revival of American manufacturing.

Going 5-Axis

Boasting numerous advantages including a single setup, as opposed to multiple preparations necessary for 3-axis machines which could lead to inaccurate alignments and extra costs, 5-axis CNC machining simplifies the production of complex forms, which increases productivity, saves time, lowers costs, and eliminates operator error.

This procedure not only allows the machining of complex parts that would otherwise need to be cast, but also eliminates wait months for the casting to be completed if only a few prototypes or small runs of parts are needed. These advantages have led many industries to embrace this production method—but it’s one that 5th Axis has focused its formidable abilities on perfecting.

“5th Axis products are built for machinist by machinists,” says Aaron Huber, Marketing Manager.

Founded by Chris Taylor and Steve Grangetto, two mechanical engineers and friends who worked for a large company with a basically outdated machine shop, the duo recognized that 5-axis machining was the wave not only of the future, but the industry. The challenge was all the spark their entrepreneurial spirit needed, bringing to life their vision of increasing machining efficiency and creating a forum to dream up and design unique ideas.

“After six years of operating a successful machine shop for the aerospace, medical, and military industries, they realized there was a lack of well-designed work holding to accommodate the 5-axis machines’ usually smaller work envelopes,” Huber says.

“The duo collaborated with their talented machinists and programmers to design robust, compact and precise work holding to further increase efficiency and maintain competitiveness.”

This is when the “lightbulb flashed on” and their original dream of invention was resurrected, he adds. By the end of 2010, Taylor and Grangetto offered their first product to market – the dovetail fixture.

With machinists in mind

“This offering flowed into more tooling innovations, automation solutions, and modular systems that are adaptable and easy to use,” Huber says. “To this day, all our designs are created with the machinist in mind.”

Pioneers in automated manufacturing, production, and machining, today 5th Axis’ team of experts are committed to product development, milling, turning, assembly, plating, finishing, and logistics. They provide turn-key solutions for aerospace / defense, medical devices, consumer products, manufacturing processes, 3-, 4-, and 5-axis manufacturing, automated production, and project engineering.

5th Axis’ goal has always been to utilize the most cutting-edge software, equipment, and available technologies with the “best of the best” 3- and 5-axis high-speed machining from Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. All are exclusively programmed with hyperMILL® CAM software from OPEN MIND, a consequence of the company’s commitment to only use software that leads the field.

When Grangetto and Taylor started working on programming machines, they quickly saw that their existing CAM software was severely under-performing, unable to leverage the speed, power, and potential of their new high-end machines because of unforeseen machining collisions.

The path to hyperMILL®

For the purpose of testing out new CAM software for their high-end machining centers, the duo exhaustively viewed 5-axis demonstrations and interviewed manufacturers of 5-axis machines, and without fail, hyperMILL® was used to program every single 5-axis demo.

They used a challenging 5-axis object to investigate hyperMILL® and were satisfied with the reliable collision avoidance and effective tool routes. This demonstration of the software’s inherent ability cemented their decision, and encouraged by the positive feedback, they made the decision to use hyperMILL® themselves, which allowed them faster run times, better surface finishes, and overall greater part quality.

Additionally, they found that hyperMILL® CAM software from OPEN MIND offers a powerful module called MAXX Machining. By carefully managing material removal and, where appropriate, using smooth trochoidal tool path motion, hyperMILL® MAXX Machining creates very effective roughing tool paths, and permits feed rates to be regulated for the ideal cutting conditions rather than the most challenging cut, such a corner condition.

All of this attention to detail and precision aids in the goal of continually creating the products required to stay competitive, efficient, and profitable in today’s market, with machinists needing to look to automation that is not only reliable but affordable and locally sourced.

“If you look at the supply chain issues that face the industry, you have to ask yourself about costs of goods increase and skill gap,” says Huber. “What if your cutting tool, coolant, and raw material costs keep going up? What does your process look like if your lead machinist leaves? We need to own the availability of options in our processes and get in front of challenges.”

Modular work holding and automation will help offset and stabilize these variable costs because the company already possesses in spades one of the most valuable tools that a company can have, and that is continuous improvement, he adds.

In fact, what sets 5th Axis apart from similar companies is its dedication to building and providing the tools machinists need, built by those who know the industry best.

Comprehensive solutions

“5th Axis offers the most comprehensive modular work holding solutions,” says Huber. “Our products focus on interchangeability. When we started as a job shop, we had other systems that didn’t work together—open-source universal solutions that came out of the job shop. We had the perspective that we were using remarkable technologies, but we wanted them all to work together.”

Utilizing internal specialists, OPEN MIND postprocessors are built as a corporate core technology. To give the user the necessary control for their individual environment, postprocessors are customized and contain programmable parameters.

When 5th Axis programs really complex parts, having a staff of incredibly skilled technical support experts on hand, high-quality tool paths, advanced CAM software capabilities, and postprocessor support, these factors all work together to give them the confidence to take on increasingly challenging assignments. Because of OPEN MIND, 5th Axis says, it never wastes money by becoming bogged down in a task and in fact, their involvement has been crucial to the growth of the business.

When it comes to choosing between 3D printing, 3+2-axis machining, and 5-axis machining for overall quality and efficiency, there’s little doubt about choosing 5-axis machining, with the primary difference between the two being that while 3D printing is an additive process, 5-axis is a subtractive method.

When these two production strategies cooperate and strengthen one another, they perform at their peak. One method really cannot be substituted for another. 5-axis will always work best if you have complicated parts, a variety of materials, and a lot of labor required.

While 5-axis machining has many benefits, including better productivity, longer tool lives, and shorter lead times, these advantages depend on the quality of the workmanship and skill available to make it happen.

Finding the right people to set up the tool and manage the process to obtain these advantages requires more than just machining a part necessary to achieve the desired outcomes. It necessitates the right staff, training, and communication, all of which 5th Axis reliably provides.

By continually focusing on quality, experience, skill, and innovation, 5th Axis remains head and shoulders above the competition.

“Our products are designed based on industry standards and are even compatible with competitor solutions,” Huber says. “Our core focus is providing open-source solutions to make it work for the customer.”

The post For Machinists By Machinists: A Celebration of Innovation<p class="company">5th Axis Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“We are an exporter to China,” explains Vice President of Business Development Chris Inzinga. “We do not import anything.” This surprising fact has brought Omega TMM national attention, particularly after being featured on Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid as an ‘American-made story.’

“You always hear about products coming from China to the U.S.,” Inzinga says. “We are a company that actually sends our presetter and our tool measuring solutions to China.”

Omega TMM employs a team in China to distribute these products throughout the Asian market. “We play that key role in taking our technology and sending it throughout the globe,” Inzinga says. He credits long-term, deep relationships for making this possible.

“The ability to even just get into China and to sustain yourself in China takes years in the making,” he explains. “We did that a long time ago, and now, we’re pretty much reaping the rewards.” He adds that this team is made up of “great people who understand the marketplace very well, understand the industry and the business very, very well.”

In addition, this team in China is committed to staying with the company long-term. The managing director has been on board for nearly twenty years, and the other employees are equally dedicated. The lack of turnover “is absolutely outstanding,” says Vice President of Global Sales and Product Development Ryan Meleg. “Most people have tenure of ten years plus. It is an unbelievably well-run organization… They are almost fifty percent of our revenue and a very, very important part of Omega TMM.”

Active throughout the globe, Omega TMM is “the number one in tool measuring and management solutions within the United States and in other parts of the world as well,” Inzinga says.

Meleg adds that this fact makes the company “not only the market leader, [but] also the market setter, and what I mean by that is we lead the market by example. We are very progressive. We do some very cutting-edge things. We use a lot of different technology in our machines.”

This sets a high standard for other companies in the industry. “We actually create the challenges for our competitors. It’s very unique being in our position, specifically in the U.S. and in China, being the one that creates the way the market will operate,” Meleg says.

So how has the team managed to accomplish all this innovation? “It is a team effort,” Meleg says. “Every single department is interconnected, and every department has a say in everything that goes on, and that’s how you get the creativity.”

Management is open to anyone’s ideas and feedback, from the janitor to the CEO “and everyone in between,” Meleg says. “We don’t silence any voices. [We listen] and select the best choices that will propel us forward. It is a true team effort from every single department at Omega TMM.”

Omega TMM is committed to its people and strives to make the workplace a positive, supportive environment. As a result, the company has been named a ‘Top Workplace’ by Democrat & Chronicle three years in a row, currently ranking eighth out of sixty companies to make the list.

This supportive culture also filters down to the customer. “We form true partnerships with our customers, and there’s a trust factor between our customers and Omega TMM that you don’t see anywhere else,” Meleg says. “They rely on us and understand that we will always do the right thing in their best interest, not necessarily our best interest.”

To ensure they are serving customers the best they can, the team has a meeting every morning to discuss the latest developments. “Everybody in the company comes up [to the office] and we talk about our customers, and we talk about how we can improve our own internal processes but also any issues that our customers may have,” Inzinga says. “We’re talking about it together as a company, and we each participate in that. [We have] a goal of really a hundred percent customer satisfaction, and that is top-of-mind.”

The customer experience has improved even more with the recent launch of the John F. Nuccitelli Center for Customer Excellence. The state-of-the-art center provides high-quality virtual demonstrations to showcase the company’s portfolio of presetters and tool inspection systems.

Its opening coincided with the fortieth anniversary of Omega TMM’s first presetter release, as well as with the pandemic. When COVID shut down the world, “We took a forward-thinking approach,” Inzinga says. “With our customers closing shops and basically moving toward a home environment during that time, we wanted to [take] a proactive stance. So, in a very short period of time, we created the John F. Nuccitelli Center for Customer Excellence.”

The center has been a runaway success, already exceeding expectations and offering more services than originally planned. “It has really become the hub of our company,” Inzinga says. “We’ve gone beyond just doing virtual demos in the center. We do virtual training with our customers… as if we were right there with them. So this center really has developed and grown. We even use it for employee events, customer meetings, and now that we’ve moved more back to in-person, we have several customers that come here—not just local [customers], they actually fly in to see our center, and they love it.”

The center is named after CEO Mike Nuccitelli’s father, John, “who was a real legend and brought innovation and growth throughout the industry over the last sixty years,” Inzinga says. “So the center has really become a tribute to him [and a] tribute to many others who have come through the industry.”

Omega TMM has managed to weather the pandemic remarkably well. “Surprisingly, we haven’t had the challenge that most companies have based on supply chain issues because we don’t source things from overseas other than certain things you have to [such as] computers,” Inzinga says. “We haven’t had an issue there.”

Careful planning was another factor that kept the company ahead when supply chain issues hit America. “We pivoted when we realized that this was going to be an issue,” Inzinga says. “A couple of years ago, we decided that we would increase inventory levels during the pandemic even though, obviously, business was down at that point in time… We did increase our inventory levels by up to 30 percent so that we have had absolutely zero supply chain issues. We are still on the exact same delivery time schedule as we were three years ago, and we don’t see any issues going forward, being that we own most of our intellectual property and can multi-source pretty much everything that we don’t manufacture in-house.”

Omega TMM already has a major presence around the globe, but the team does not plan to rest on its laurels. “We have machines and software in pretty much every country,” Meleg says. “We are all over the place but we are on an expansive growth path. Our goal is to double in two years, which is quite an aggressive path. It’s pretty exciting.” The team is busy preparing. “We’re aggressively engineering new machines and new software to make sure that we hit all the hot points for any geographical expansion,” Meleg says.

The expansion will require the same teamwork that has brought success to Omega TMM thus far. “It’s going to take a whole village to raise this child,” Meleg says. “Our team that we put together—our software engineers, our mechanical engineers—they’re going to be the real backbone to all of this to develop all these new things that are required for market penetration.”

Some of these groundbreaking products will be unveiled at this year’s International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago. “We are going to revolutionize the way people view the measuring and management of tools at IMTS 2022,” Meleg says. “We have multiple product releases that are going to change the landscape of this industry.” After decades of leading the presetter and tool measuring industry, it certainly will be exciting to see what market-changing technology Omega TMM brings to the market next.

The post American Made<p class="company">Omega TMM </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Dedicated to boosting the local economy since its inception, PRI has grown impressively and continues to expand its varied workforce to meet the burgeoning demands of the mining, aggregate, pulp and paper, oil and gas, and municipal industries.

Progressive Rubber was founded in Kamloops in 1997 as a manufacturing-division expansion of Lynum Progressive Industries.

In that time PRI set out to develop a program of collaboration with Thompson River University and its in-house training programs, culminating in some of the best educated technical professionals around working at PRI.

These are the skilled and experienced staffers who create solutions for issues simple and complex in steel fabrication, rubber lining and molding, ceramic lining, on-site lining, on-site measurements, wear dynamics analysis, application analysis, and design services.

Along with earning its ISO 9001 certification in 2021, PRI also has the production capability to expedite and deliver emergency orders, as well as to store crucial custom products on consignment on-site.

“We’ve grown through starting as a wear-solutions provider in the mining industry as a much smaller company,” says Mike McLeavy, President of Lynum Progressive Industries.

“Over the last 25 years we’ve mainly worked in the western Canadian mining industry, but we branched into OEM and custom manufacturing, also within the same industry. In the last five years we’ve really grown in the energy sector.”

What differentiates PRI from others in this growing industry is exemplary customer care paired with expert skills, abilities, and a wide range of manufacturing services.

“We have very broad manufacturing capabilities, so where a lot of shops will do just steel or just rubber, we do steel fabrication, rubber lining, molded, vulcanized, cold bonded, ceramic, materials, and polyurethane,” McLeavy says.

“So we’re able to take on work that can be refurbishment work or new part bills, and we can utilize a lot of different materials to produce quality parts without having to sub out to a variety of different companies.”

In that respect, the company is nicely vertically integrated in terms of capabilities, he adds. In addition, the company’s location in Kamloops is favourable for the mining industry as it’s central to getting materials to sites quickly, a definite bonus.

A market leader in cold-bond rubber lining, PRI has rubber-lined thousands of parts and components over the last quarter century, including piping systems, grinding mill components, pulp dischargers and trunnions, ion-exchange vessels, pump components, tanks, boxes, chutes, hoppers, slurry hose, floatation parts, dart valves and seats, and part rebuilds.

PRI provides flat, wave, and curved wear-liners, as well as a variety of attachment methods, based on what expert crews deem to be the best fit for customer needs.

Mining sector service conditions are harsh, and to avoid damage, rubber lining reduces noise and vibration while also protecting tanks from corrosion and impact damage. Rubber linings for base items not only provide abrasion, impact, and corrosion protection, but also extend product life and lower repair costs. Because rubber lining is simple and inexpensive to repair, it also decreases overall operating costs.

“Our capabilities, our location, the fact that we have a solid, trusted reputation, and that we’re able to collaborate between the end users, means that our customers and our supply chain are solid. Having those positive relationships also differentiates us from some of the competition,” says McLeavy.

PRI is respected for working tirelessly on behalf of its customer base, with the support of its well-established supply chain and sub-vendors ensuring that it can meet every requirement.

To its clients, the company also offers a variety of molded rubber solutions, using various rubber compounds and rubber/ceramic composites, thanks to a dedicated molded rubber manufacturing facility and nine hydraulic presses up to 72″ x 72″.

With these, PRI produces screen panels, rubber ceramic impact panels, chute liners, rubber and ceramic composite, curved and custom panels, dart valves – single and double taper darts – actuators and components, pinch valves, and bushings, to name some.

With its molded panels, PRI offers magnetic, T-bolt, stud weld, and counterbore holes as attachment options, but if customized items or bulk production are required, its in-house skills are expandable to meet almost any need.

“Both mining and energy are growing in tandem at the moment, so it’s a bit unique from a market perspective,” says McLeavy. “And we’re growing in terms of opportunity, so the biggest challenge we have is not getting the work but getting enough people to do it. We have the capabilities, we have the facilities, and we have the tools, but our challenge is getting enough people.”

Along with labour shortages, there are supply-chain issues which contribute to ongoing challenges. “Supply-chain volatility is also a challenge, but we have very good partnerships with our vendors, and they’ve been a contributing part of our success,” says McLeavy.

PRI isn’t just about rubber, however. The company also manufactures high-quality steel products with all areas of production and quality control under the supervision of its fully integrated facility.

Working with mild and stainless steel, as well as a variety of alloys and finishes, PRI has a team of welders and fabricators who can bring equipment back to life, along with the skills to manufacture and repair a wide range of structural shapes and sizes.

Just some of these are: industrial components, structural steel, OEM contract fabrication, custom solutions, large project work, in-house detailing, and custom-designed products such as mill-discharge trunnions, feed chutes, pulp lifters, and split tanks.

PRI welcomes complicated custom plate-work requirements, rebuilds and repairs, guaranteeing that its products are manufactured to customers’ exact specifications and delivered on schedule. The company also has the in-house capability to restore equipment to new condition thanks to a team of qualified experts adept at structural repair on all shapes and sizes of equipment.

Ceramic lining – meant to extend the life of equipment and protect it from costly repairs and unnecessary downtime – is also available from PRI in a variety of materials, including ceramics, rubber, metal, polyurethane, and mixtures of these materials.

The company can analyze customer process data and propose a design that incorporates various forms, sizes, and layouts of ceramics to fulfil the unique requirements of any business.

PRI has traditionally applied ceramics on their own or with a rubber backing, which enhances wear characteristics while also reducing vibration and noise in operations.

PRI’s rubber ceramic molded liners are the best option for increasing durability, reducing noise and downtime, while extending equipment life.

The abrasion resistance of PRI’s rubber ceramic molded panels is unrivalled, while the elastic qualities of other materials, such as rubber, effectively absorb shock impacts.

According to PRI this is an important factor, as ceramic lining has a longer product life and superior resistance in fine applications compared to rubber compounds.

Depending on application needs, custom ceramic lining with pre-engineered and standard tiles is available, with the option of using a single or double row depth of ceramic. PRI can make process pipework and equipment in any shape or size, and common applications for ceramic lining include cyclone clusters, hoppers and chutes, pipe lining, distributor boxes, and transfer point lining.

PRI piping systems include mild and stainless steel, plain end, Victaulic advanced groove systems (AGS) or original grooved systems (OGS), and rotating flanges.

PRI has a wide range of piping systems available, enabling a match for any custom requirements, and is able to control every element of the production process since they build all of their piping in-house. As a result, customers can be confident that the quality of components will be of the highest standard, from design and manufacture to assembly and paint.

PRI’s design team will take customer’s piping ISOs for piping replacement or wear problems and create – to schedule – an accurate system with connection points, rubber, colour, and features all available in many variations.

PRI stands behind its services and the quality of equipment it supplies to both the energy and the mining industries, but is aware that the pride and commitment to best practice of the latter doesn’t always translate to the public at large. When it comes to the perception of the mining industry, McLeavy says that while perception is changing, in some ways it’s becoming more negative.

Familiar with the industry as he is, his opinion is quite different. “In fact, we’re proud that we supply equipment and manufacturing to an industry that’s growing our future, including the green future,” he says. “And I would like to highlight that we’re proud to be contributing to the future.”

In keeping with that, McLeavy emphasises that PRI strives always to do its best, follow best practices, and adhere to the highest safety and quality standards in its work.

“We also provide a lot of local Canadian jobs in manufacturing and professional services,” he adds. To that end, he says PRI would hire on the spot any person with a good attitude who’s looking for employment and has the drive to learn how to rubber line. “We’re putting a sign on the side of the building, ‘We’re hiring,’” he says. “And it will be permanent. We’re always hiring.”

PRI works hard to champion cultural diversity and fairness and is proud to operate on T’kumlups Band Land in Kamloops.

“We also support the local community by funding an annual scholarship in trades at Thomson Rivers University; by sponsoring a variety of charities including ‘Basics for Babies,’ in addition to being an active member of the Canadian mining community,” says McLeavy.

As the industry continues to flourish and welcomes and embraces change, PRI is determined to stay ahead.

“We’re doing exciting things and we’re busy with good things,” McLeavy says of present and future activities. “We want to continue servicing our mining customers. We want to maintain that while growing in energy. That’s going to be a challenge because the mining industry in western Canada is growing, and we need to grow proportionately.”

The post Making the Best Parts for the Worst Conditions<p class="company">Progressive Rubber Industries Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“We refer to our business model as a three-legged stool, meaning that control systems are needed to support mechanical systems, and then data collection and data systems gather the information from each of those areas and provide more of a turnkey type of solution,” states General Manager and President Peter Graham.

“We are what’s called a systems integrator but we’re as much a systems integrator as we are an [original equipment manufacturer]. We build and design our own machinery from the ground up,” he continues. “We build custom machinery… and that’s generally why clients come to us. They have a need, and they either have a footprint that doesn’t allow for a commodity type piece of equipment from an [original equipment manufacturer], or they have a speed they need to hit or a product range that isn’t a standard range. That’s where we come in.”

ProVantage will perform pre-engineering studies to determine the scope and scale of a client’s needs. “From there, we collaborate with them to design this special purpose piece of equipment. We have the in-house capability to do all that from initial concept through to full design, manufacturing, assembly, installation, start-up, production support,” he says.

ProVantage has earned a reputation as an industry leader when it comes to complex motion control. As a Rockwell Automation Recognized Systems Integrator – Silver level, the company has commissioned over 500 servo axes and thousands of drives all over North America. ProVantage’s team of motion experts will size the appropriate system and ensure it performs to deliver maximum throughput. When it comes to industrial robots for its systems, the company partners with ABB and Yaskawa Motoman.

ProVantage performs turnkey safety upgrades on a regular basis. “This involves our engineering and applications team to conduct pre-engineering and risk assessments, and ultimately gain a good understanding of the operation and how our client will interact with the equipment,” explains Graham. “Safety solutions range from custom physical guarding to safety interlocks, light curtains, safe speed monitoring, and area scanners, all monitored by a Safety PLC. Making sure everyone goes home at the end of the day is priority.”

A solution for a food and beverage client might involve a retrofit or a new system like a palletizer, casepacker, vision inspection systems, and material handling equipment. For paper converting—the term refers to transforming a large parent roll of tissue grade paper into a consumer product such as bathroom tissue, facial tissue or household kitchen towel—solutions from ProVantage might incorporate upgrades to winders, wrappers, diverters, case packers, and palletizers.

At present, business is split evenly between customers in Canada and the United States. In addition to the head office in Brantford, ProVantage has a branch in Asheville, North Carolina that does sales and applications development.

While the company is always open to expansion in the United States, “continuing to grow within Ontario, at least grow the head office in Brantford [is our current focus]. We’d probably do another expansion in Brantford before we establish a facility in another country or another location in Ontario,” Graham says.

The company complements its automated solutions with excellent customer care. Client support “ranges from twenty-four-hour field service, whether it’s local or throughout North America, whether it’s a breakdown situation or it’s for a machine installation or an onsite, in situ upgrade. We send our team of engineers, technicians, project managers to the site… [we do] removal, installation, start-up support, training, and production support,” he states.

For all its achievements, ProVantage is determined not to rest on its laurels. The goal is to remain forward-facing and always be thinking of ways to enhance existing operations. Staying ahead of the technological and regulatory curve is one way it fulfills this goal. Among other things, this means keeping atop new safety legislation and manufacturing and electrical standards.

Safety is always “taken into consideration when designing a piece of equipment that operators and maintenance staff are going to be interacting with when it leaves our facility. Having [a safety] mindset right at the beginning of the design is key and understanding legislation and safety requirements is critical,” notes Graham.

Interestingly, given ProVantage’s wide range of services, the company’s focus was considerably narrower in the early days. Founded a decade ago by Peter Graham and partner Alex Shalamov, ProVantage was mostly concerned with controls engineering at the start. The business grew and its focus expanded.

“As we continued to develop, we noticed that we needed to build a team with some mechanical engineering competencies as well. We went from a controls focus to adding mechanical designers and engineers. It seemed that in order to grow with our clients, we needed that mechanical engineering facet of our company, to better support motion control and packaging machinery,” recalls Graham.

ProVantage has just over thirty employees at present. “It’s still about two-to-one when it comes to the ratio of controls engineers to mechanical engineers. We still are very strong and heavy on the controls side, but we still have a very well-rounded mechanical engineering team as well,” states Graham.

Growth has been accompanied by a commitment to values. After five years in business, the company introduced something called the STAR system. STAR stands for safety, trust, accountability, and respect—the core values that drive the firm.

“It comes down to, ‘How do we want to be treated? How do our clients want to be treated? What helps us make good decisions as an organization?’ If you look at STAR, the expectation is that every employee of ProVantage would make the same decision if you take into consideration those four key aspects of our culture,” he says.

In a space where tech companies come and go, ProVantage has thrived in part because of its culture, and its focus on building relations with staff and clients alike. The basic formula has been to “hire quality staff that you can trust and do business with clients you can collaborate with,” Graham notes.

Graham and Shalamov also make it a point to take an active role in day-to-day operations. “We don’t have absent management; we’ve got a really hands-on management team. Our clients trust that, and our staff respect it,” he affirms.

Technical skill is a prerequisite for new hires, but other traits including positivity, self-motivation, honesty, and taking initiative, are valued as well. If you want a job here, it also helps to have an even temperament; “you learn pretty quickly you don’t want to take on drama,” says Graham.

While he wants to increase personnel numbers, he cites “staffing shortages,” and “availability of technical staff,” as the biggest non-COVID-related challenges facing the firm. To overcome these difficulties, ProVantage actively participates in online job fairs and advertises for new staff on social media platforms.

Graham is looking to enhance the company’s proficiency in data collection and data system integration. This might entail more emphasis on automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). AGVs and AMRs are used to retrieve and handle materials in warehouses and other settings.

As for the future, he is optimistic, but also realistic. “We want to continue to grow with our clients, continue to grow the team. There’s no real aspirations that says we have to be at fifty people in five years. That’s not how we operate. It’s, ‘Let’s work on sustainable growth, let’s work on equipment and solutions that help grow our brand.’ That’s one of the things that are going to be more of a focus over the next five years. Now that we’re at the ten-year mark, let’s start focusing more on what’s important to the ProVantage brand and [promote] that messaging to clients,” he states.

The post This Unique Systems Integrator Celebrates a Corporate Milestone<p class="company">ProVantage Automation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Knoll America Inc., a subsidiary of KNOLL Maschinenbau GmbH, is an international supplier of metal chip processing equipment that separates, cleans, reduces, and transports metal into manageable chips for easy storage and further processing. The comprehensive product range offers systems for decentralized or centralized applications.

In addition, KNOLL’s Automation division provides major global manufacturers with solutions for their complex assemblies and logistics tasks. These include stationary transport systems with chain and roller conveyors. Flexibility and practicality are achieved in KNOLL’s systems with the integration of handling units (robots, cobots) and transport robots (AGV).

Its quality equipment seamlessly plugs into existing production systems. As a result, the company is known in the manufacturing industry. Unique to KNOLL America is the fabrication of specialized drum unloaders used in the food and chemical industries. This product is currently only available in North America.

The company’s current local facility of 12,000 square feet is in Madison Heights, Michigan, while its global headquarters is in Bad Saulgau, Germany. These two bases are supported by facilities in Asia and Poland and distribution representatives around the world. KNOLL America’s ingenuity and vast resource pool of its German research and development department routinely help the team outperform its competition. Thanks to its diverse selection of products that boosts its clients’ environmental stewardship performance, the company is the preferred go-to solutions provider for large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and end users alike. KNOLL filters, conveyors and high-pressure pumps are found in many applications such as the sawing, milling, drilling, turning, and grinding industries, among others.

KNOLL America’s new, 35,000-square-foot headquarters is soon going under construction in Dallas, North Carolina. “With the purchase of our own land and the establishment of our new state-of-the-art… facility, we like to show our long-term commitment to our local employees, customers, and vendors,” says Lothar Burger, Chief Executive Officer.

Despite global economic pressures, there are several reasons why its market share is expanding. One reason is its powerful innovation capabilities. KNOLL’s latest conveying, pump and filter technology harness next-generation design ensuring that systems optimize the separation of coolants from metal chips as early in the process as possible. Its machines also distinguish between different metals, separating iron, aluminum, and the like at the right moment for every process.

Once metals are removed during the machining process, they are processed into chips to minimize their volume for easy storage until reprocessed at a foundry. “We want to make sure that we have an environmental solution to recycle as best and as efficiently as we can to repurpose what are sometimes very expensive materials,” Burger says.

KNOLL also recently introduced a range of new products. First is its KTSL screw spindle pump, an economical, high-performance alternative to the existing model KTS. This ultra-modern displacement pump auto-lubricates with low-abrasion coolants, offering improved longevity and enhanced return on investment.

The second recent addition to its impressive stable of top-performing products is its HydroPur filtration system. Here, a fleece filter acts as an independent cleaner to remove debris and fiber from lubrication agents during grinding, milling, and other machining operations. The smart design also comes with several other improvements to outshine and outperform traditional flatbed filters. These include higher volume flow, lower fleece use, and reduced accumulation of filter fibers, resulting in cleaner lubricants, easy installation and operation access, and more.

A custom booster trolley has been designed for a turning machine tool original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the United States. This booster trolley increases the pressure on a KNOLL system already in use, significantly improving its chip-breaking action. “These reduced-sized chips are easier [to handle] and take less volume in the chip cart,” says Burger.

KNOLL has a long and proud legacy. It was founded as an engineering firm in 1970 by Walter Knoll, father of Jürgen Knoll, Chief Technical Officer, and Matthias Knoll, Chief Executive Officer. Despite the distance, these two second-generation owners remain a crucial part of its North American operation. “For us, it is [crucial] to have owners who support the subsidiary. It is super helpful to have a specifically assigned team to support purchases and shipments to the U.S.,” Burger says.

Along with its international presence come international customers and the responsibility to provide the best quality machinery available today. In response to this mandate, Knoll is regrouping its American outfit. To date, its existing warehouse space and spare parts division have seen significant expansions, securing a solid base from which to deploy worldwide support services.

In addition, the company introduced a new sales team and more service technicians to serve its customers better. “Even though this is not always easy on employees… it amazes me how we overcame the obstacles and became a great team. It brought us closer together,” Burger says, noting that because the company’s communication is transparent everyone strives to achieve its goals. “It is nice to see this new culture established. Secondly, the uninterrupted support in the background of our owners, Matthias and Jürgen Knoll,” has been incredible and much appreciated by all the company employees, he adds.

Perpetual improvement of its product longevity and efficiency is central to its business ethos; therefore, both progress and innovation are led by internal measures, customer needs, and feedback. KNOLL America’s eighteen local employees form part of its international team of more than 1,000 people. This tight-knit group handles everything from sales, service, and field support to accounts, human resources, logistics, and product assembly. The company aims to expand its team to around fifty people in the next five years.

KNOLL America employs people who fit its positive culture and team spirit. Adaptability and the ability to compromise when necessary are two characteristics this employer values. “We strongly believe in cross-training our employees to work efficiently and to have the most flexibility available. Our mantra is to hire employees fitting to our culture and beliefs. Everything else can be trained. Here, in North America, being a startup, we need a ‘doer mentality,’ good customer service, and an open-minded attitude.”

The team’s efforts are rewarded with tangible appreciation, enhanced by KNOLL’s continued investment in its people’s personal and professional development. Apprenticeship programs like its upcoming collaboration with Gaston Community College are just one way that the company contributes to employee growth and development.

To this end, its new headquarters promises to provide people with a healthy work environment, complete with flexible hours when possible. The team started exploring this new way of working during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place period and has experienced great success with it.

It also used this time to expand its range of spare parts available locally to ensure same or next-day delivery while providing its clients with its full complement of services, including field service, during that challenging time. As a result of the challenges presented by COVID-19, the company also set up a new vendor network of local suppliers that continues to strengthen its North American presence while larger shipments of KNOLL know how parts from abroad secure that aspect of its business.

In the future, “Most of our purchasing parts will be sourced directly in the USA. All service towards our products is performed by local, KNOLL-trained employees,” Burger says. These measures contribute to the company’s long-term commitment to its machine tool manufacturer clients’ and end-users’ success.

Looking at the markets, Burger foresees a fair expansion for the KNOLL’s conveyors, high-pressure pumps, and filter systems in the United States to complement its drum unloaders’ upcoming market presence. It is also implementing several measures to lighten its load on the environment.

“KNOLL stands for the environment and its sustainability; therefore, we will add a solar system to our production roof, a cistern to catch the rain, and surface water to be reused for watering our landscape,” Burger says.

This came in tandem with installing enough insulation to exceed local building codes and low-energy lighting throughout its new headquarters. The company also reports going above and beyond to curb the waste volumes its new facility sends to landfills. Its focus, however, remains on its clients and its employees because, as Burger puts it, “a great workforce makes all the difference in the world!”

The post Post-Fabrication Metal Reimagined<p class="company">KNOLL America Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“Everything that we sell, we add proprietary value to,” explains President Dan Kaplan. “We’re kind of agnostic to the pump end; if the customer wants a Cornell pump or a Pioneer pump, we’re very familiar with those products, and we will spec the pump and source that but the actual platform that we build the pump into is all proprietary. Patriot owns the IP.”

Patriot builds pump packages for equipment rental companies, among other clients. These rental firms in turn supply pump systems to a wide array of end users. “By association, the verticals we end up in are oil and gas, industrial, mining, and a lot of sewage and municipal bypass and infrastructure applications. That’s the fleet piece. But a large part of our business—and really the key part which will allow us to diversify and grow—is distribution, so we’ll develop relationships with engineering firms and regional pump system resellers,” states Kaplan.

Patriot self-performs some services and subcontracts out other duties, depending on the nature of the assignment and the amount of work involved.

“We have in-house fabrication. We cut metal; we bend it; we weld it. We can support a certain volume of business doing that, but when we get busy, we leverage subcontracting and third parties to do set assemblies for us,” explains Kaplan.

Patriot Products was founded in 2018 in Arizona. It retains a branch in Chandler, Arizona but is now headquartered in Woodburn, Oregon. There are fifteen employees at present—up from ten this time last year—many of whom are industry veterans, like Kaplan, who spent over a decade in the pump sector before joining the company in 2020.

Kaplan is joined by Vice President, Sales, Josh Standridge, who brings 22 years of industry experience to the team. Standridge’s understanding of complex hydraulics, familiarity with a wide variety of pumps from a range of manufacturers, and strong interpersonal skills make him a key part of the leadership team. He has been key, Kaplan says, in developing a strong sales team, as evidenced by his track record of systematically increasing sales year over year and seeing revenue growth from $45 million to $107 million.

Standridge believes that “people buy from people” and that the relationship between the seller and buyer is the most important aspect of selling.

“A lot of companies who package pumps and systems, they are just buying peripherals and putting them together. They don’t really know what the equipment’s used for or the hydraulic properties of the pumps. A core competency of ours—and what sets us apart—is that we have very knowledgeable people working for Patriot,” agrees Kaplan.

The company has earned a reputation for taking on complex projects that often involve a great deal of customization. For example, it recently received an order for ten pump packages to “flush coolant lines in data centers. Social media and search engine firms have huge server farms and data centers, and they have to have a way to flush large coolant lines,” Kaplan says.

Patriot has developed its own pump-priming solution called “Patriot Prime.” The system offers a suction spool made from stainless or carbon steel, a priming chamber made from the same materials, a vacuum pump constructed of corrosion-resistant aluminum or cast iron, a discharge check valve, and other features.

“Most pumps need to have some kind of priming system. We designed our own priming system comprising a diaphragm pump and priming chamber which has been designed for ease of field service. Our priming chamber is patent pending. You can take our system, and you can connect that to any other pump in the market,” explains Kaplan.

Pump packages and pump-related products are not the only things Patriot builds. The firm also makes water bridges, for example. These products, which resemble speed bumps, are placed on top of roads during pumping applications. Fluids are pumped through a pipe in the water bridge, which is made from heavy-duty materials, allowing cars to safely pass over the structure. The company’s water bridges are available in different configurations and lengths and can also be used on sidewalks to accommodate pedestrian foot traffic.

To complement its product line, Patriot offers stellar customer service. Client support extends to companies and people who are not even customers.

“We get calls from [people] who haven’t bought our product—we just know them from time in the market. They will call with a problem, and we’ll help them sort through system issues or hydraulic performance issues. It’s a way to grow a relationship. We’ll fly out and review systems. We have a professional engineer on the team… We provide on-site service when needed,” states Kaplan.

COVID did not have much of a direct impact on Patriot Products, as it had only a handful of employees at the peak of the virus, “which for this business, was the end of 2020 and early 2021,” he recalls. As an essential business, it stayed open but adhered to social distancing, masking, and other COVID protocols. As COVID receded, the economy roared back to life and the company flourished and grew.

“To give you a point of reference, in 2019, I think there was probably $380,000 of revenue pushed through the business. In 2021, we did almost $4 million in revenue. This year, we’re on track to do $10 plus million. So, we’re scaling,” says Kaplan.

Due in part to COVID-related supply chain issues and other factors, the company’s entire sales focus has been somewhat altered.

“I think in a normal year, most of our sales would be in the Western U.S. That said, this year, we’ve shipped equal amounts [to other regions]. We have a customer who opened new branches in Pennsylvania and Maryland. We’ve shipped several trucks there. We’ve shipped into northern Canada, Mexico. We have two packages going on Friday to Vietnam. We ship everywhere,” says Kaplan.

In the future, the company would like to open more branches, in part to cut down on long-distance freight costs.

“If we’re shipping from Oregon to Baltimore, that becomes a detractor for customers. They don’t want to pay for that freight; they don’t want to wait for that product. In the long term, having regional assembly and distribution would be ideal for the business so long as revenue supports those brick and mortar operations,” Kaplan says.

At the same time, he is eager to continue increasing staff numbers. “I would say, right now, we are knee-deep in what I would call building a foundational team,” he states. “I am looking for people who are highly mechanical, even if all they are doing is quote-unquote assembling. It’s still a very skilled position in my opinion.”

It is a bonus if new hires are flexible problem-solvers with a creative spirit, given the company’s embrace of specialized solutions. As Kaplan notes, “There are so many different ways to customize a pump.”

Not counting COVID, delivery delays and the rising price of raw materials and parts, are the biggest challenges currently. To cope with costs and delivery headaches, the company maintains a diversified supply chain, buys large amounts of supplies when available, and builds some sub-assemblies in advance.

To promote itself, Patriot relies on a combination of social media and old-fashioned networking. The company has a very active LinkedIn account and frequently posts photos of staff and products. This online content has generated work leads and inquiries from new customers. Referrals also play a huge role in expanding the business.

“We have a large network. We know a lot of people in the market. We keep in contact with people we know. We also have partnered with several pump OEMs. We buy pumps from them, but they don’t always build packages, so, when they have a customer who wants a package, they refer a lot of those people to Patriot,” says Kaplan.

“There are companies that make some attenuated diesel and electric pump packages, but there aren’t a ton of them,” he adds. “So, we tend to have a lot of [opportunities] relating to those product lines, and we also get good referrals from the pump companies we represent.”

In addition to new products and new markets, Kaplan is looking to “get into consultative services around system design. For companies who buy a pump package, there’s a lot to understand about how the pump fits into a system. We have a good feel for that, and the expertise through our partner, who is an engineer.”

There are plans to rent more space in the building that houses Patriot Products and upgrade the company’s enterprise resource planning system. These moves fit in with Kaplan’s highly upbeat forecast.

“I would say, in five years, we’ll have a meaningful distribution network in North America. We’ll have increased our fleet business by fifty to sixty percent. I would say we’ll be a $20 million business,” he says.

As he makes very clear, however, he and his partners are not building the company up just to sell it for a quick buck. Rather, they are in it for the long haul.

“What I want to be is a service-oriented, value-add business that is looking at being a long-lasting force in the market. I don’t have a lot of interest in growing this thing to X amount of dollars to dump it. I want to have something that lasts,” states Kaplan.

The post Technical Skills, Customization Expertise, and Big Ambitions<p class="company">Patriot Products Group</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Thanks to adopting lithium-ion at an early stage, Inventus Power has a wealth of experience with the technology compared to some competitors in the battery space that are either only just getting into lithium-ion or are expanding to it from legacy technologies.

Inventus Power has roots dating back to as far as 1960, but its current name and identity came to be in 2015, after the two largest battery pack manufacturers in North America at the time—Palladium Energy and ICCNexergy—united to form one large manufacturer. Along the way, the company acquired engineering and technology experts to bolster its already considerable power solutions.

Company President and Chief Executive Officer, Pat Trippel, feels the company is unique among others in the power solutions industry as it has diverse end markets and extensive experience across a wide range of applications.

Inventus Power has considerable market presence in medical, military, and commercial / industrial segments and is increasing its capabilities to support more burgeoning industries like light electric vehicles (LEV) and EV-adjacent fields. The company has applied its patented technology and products to a variety of applications. Trippel cites battery-dependent products like golf carts, utility vehicles, commercial cleaning equipment, aerial work platforms and other material handling equipment as just a few examples of this.

The company has developed a very flexible battery management system which can be customized to the end customer’s need, across a variety of sectors. By taking a ‘standard’ product and integrating it seamlessly into a customer’s application, Inventus Power makes lithium-ion technology less challenging and more accessible, attracting and keeping customers.

Lithium-ion can be a tough adjustment for customers transitioning from lead-acid batteries or internal combustion, so Inventus Power works on the transition from a design and engineering development standpoint to customize software and integrate into specific applications, and it provides field application support.

The company was one of countless operators and businesses that continued production through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, instead of buckling under pressure, it accelerated, as it is a critical supplier to the medical industry—Inventus Power is one of the primary suppliers for ventilator batteries in North America. This meant that the company worked around-the-clock in its North American operations in 2020 while, fortunately, incurring no shutdowns.

Trippel remarks that the business has grown considerably year-on-year in top-line and profitability over the past few years. As the largest U.S. manufacturer of medical battery packs supporting a global customer base, the company found that 2020 was one of its busiest years. He notes that a large business increase has also occurred in the light electric vehicle (LEV) and EV-adjacent markets with accelerated growth ongoing.

“We’ve developed products with our [intellectual property] that are unique and are gaining market-wide acceptance,” Trippel says. Inventus Power was also recently awarded a $1.25 billion contract from the United States Army for its conformal wearable battery, a patented product produced specifically for military usage.

As it is chiefly involved in the battery and power market, sustainability is a value that Inventus Power holds close to its practices. “We are at the forefront of the greening of the world,” Trippel explains of the company’s vision on sustainability. “We’re electrifying many applications around the world [and] we’re making sustainability work.”

The company’s work with light electric vehicles is one aspect of this philosophy that is often focused on and Trippel believes that there are so many applications that can benefit from electrification. These could be anything with an internal combustion engine (ICE), where the benefits of transitioning to Li-ion battery technology have an environmental impact. Inventus Power helped to electrify the first commercial zero-turn radius lawn mower from ICE to Li-ion battery power for a large outdoor power equipment provider, helping to reduce noise and eliminate harmful CO₂ emissions.

The company has recently embarked on a new branding campaign, featuring the slogan, ‘Electrified by Inventus Power.’ The initiative began its rollout in late 2021 with Columbia Vehicle, maker of electric-powered utility vehicles, being the first customer to be part of a joint marketing release. The announcement concerned Columbia’s Utilitruck, its first lithium-powered utility vehicle.

Previously, Inventus Power has offered custom solutions for specific needs, often in cooperation with some of the world’s biggest brands; however, this meant that Inventus Power itself was not as well-known outside of its customer base. Now, the company has branded products going out to the market to display and has begun to assert its own identity.

It will be working with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to help them electrify their products and processes, with the new campaign showcasing the success stories of both OEMs and after-market customers. After a history as developer and manufacturer, Inventus Power is now getting its intellectual property and identity out into the world. “We are the system underneath that greener and more sustainable drive,” Trippel states.

Trippel sees the battery industry right now as very interesting but also rather challenging, especially with ongoing difficulties of various intensities within the supply chain. As Inventus Power uses the same or similar components as other electric-based companies, the company has experienced effects from these supply chain troubles, but it has also been able to increase its strength due to the efforts of its supply chain team, plus its worldwide operations and not being shutdown at critical times for customers.

The company boasts manufacturing capabilities around the world that have enabled it to help its customers, even in difficult circumstances. Trippel identifies Inventus Power as the largest and most global battery company in America. A big goal within the industry, and for Inventus Power itself, is to further regionalize the company’s supply chain.

Work has already gone into that process for some time now, as the company has made significant investments in its U.S. and Mexico supply chains, and it will be both working with its suppliers to localize production on a bigger scale and investing in its supply base across the North American market.

Looking ahead to the second half of 2022 and beyond, the company will continue to significantly build its development capabilities, as it has effectively doubled the size of its R&D department in the last two years. Further investment will be made in product development and field engineering, expanding manufacturing capabilities with automation and advanced technology, and a strong focus in the North American market and the company’s capabilities within the region.

There are a lot of exciting and diverse opportunities for Inventus Power to make itself more of a household name in Li-ion batteries, and it has all the advantages it needs to make a go at becoming one of the foremost names in battery and power.

The post Leading Clients through Lithium-ion Electrification Transitions to Success<p class="company">Inventus Power </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.