Burdened by an outdated Dickensian perception of being ‘dirty, dark and dangerous,’ manufacturing today bears little resemblance to the past, where factories were infamous for poorly lit workstations, soot-filled air, and the deafening clang of machinery. With clean, safe and modern high-tech facilities, manufacturing today is a stable, well-paying career choice. Like other disciplines, manufacturing requires ongoing education, hands-on training, dedication, and the ability to work with others in the profession.

Despite its many attributes, mistruths about manufacturing being unsafe and a ‘dead-end job’ remain. One of the biggest falsehoods is that manufacturing doesn’t present opportunities for women, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Recent years have seen manufacturers, various levels of government, and schools promote the many career opportunities available – from the shop floor to executive levels – all of them challenging, and providing personal and professional satisfaction.

Increasing Workplace Diversity

Perceived as a male-dominated career, manufacturing has suffered from a steady attrition of skilled workers for years. Combined with fewer and fewer younger persons entering the field, the situation has become much worse because of COVID. According to a recent report from multinational services network Deloitte, the pandemic cost American manufacturers a staggering 578,000 jobs in 2020 alone. The current situation is a conundrum: there are many jobs available, but where are the people to fill them?

In late December, the powerhouse Washington D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) – which represents about 14,000 member companies across America – released the Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey. Covering the fourth quarter of 2021, the survey revealed that although U.S. manufacturers remained mainly upbeat about economic outlook (86.8 percent, down from 87.5 percent in the third quarter), many remain “significantly concerned” with a host of issues, ranging from potential tax increases on manufacturers to inflation, and the crisis in hiring new staff.

“Manufacturers are working overtime to fill more than one million open jobs, including through our nationwide Creators Wanted workforce campaign,” stated Jay Timmons, NAM President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of the Manufacturing Institute in a media release. “On top of that, we’re grappling with a supply chain crisis. Despite the challenges confronting us, manufacturers remain bullish on the future. But if Congress passes legislation with taxes that hit manufacturers harder than other industries, our entire recovery will be thrown off course. If new taxes land on our shoulders, it will undo all the progress we’ve made since the 2017 tax reform law.”

Among the key highlights in the report were concerns over increasing material costs, supply chain challenges, and notably, 82.7 percent of respondents concerned about being unable to attract and retain a quality workforce, with 52.7 percent stating they lacked enough workers to meet their transportation and logistics demands.

Throughout the survey, the lack of employees and resulting challenges this presents to the supply chain (including port bottlenecks), is emphasized repeatedly. A full 85.2 percent of respondents stated they had “unfilled positions within their companies for which they were struggling to find qualified applicants,” requiring them to use internal training programs, temporary staffing agencies, and working with schools on skill certification programs. In 39.9 percent of cases, staff about to retire were encouraged to remain.

“Without having enough workers, nearly 45 percent of respondents were unable to take on new business and had lost revenue opportunities,” stated the report. “In addition, roughly 71 percent cited negative impacts on the timeliness of product deliveries and with production processes, and nearly 70 percent had increased compensation significantly at their company to remain competitive with local market conditions.”

Future-Proofing Manufacturing

According to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute Manufacturing Talent study, there will be about 2.1 million unfilled jobs in the sector by 2030. To ensure enough roles are filled in the coming years, manufacturers must embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and be open to digital changes, which will re-define how we work.

As with many other industries, technology has advanced manufacturing exponentially since the early days of the first Industrial Revolution, which transformed how goods were made by ushering in machinery powered by energy such as coal, steam, and electricity. The Fourth Industrial Revolution – characterized by artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other growing technologies – is fast making way for Industry 5.0. After experiencing two years of COVID-related lock-downs, some futurists believe the pandemic has been beneficial to manufacturing, compelling it to embrace bold new concepts.

Apart from slowing supply chains, COVID-19 saw some manufacturing facilities forced to slow production or close for a time due to safety concerns. According to a recent post from U.K.-based Oxford Economics entitled In the 5th Industrial Revolution, creativity must meet technology, traditional work practices must adapt, embracing not only AI, Big Data, and IoT, but create a balance between emerging tech and people. “Rather than humans competing with robots for jobs, as feared with the arrival of Industry 4.0, humans are now envisioned to collaborate with them,” states the post. “These cobots — collaborative robots — are to be integrated into industrial processes for more repetitive and mundane tasks, providing humans with greater opportunities to use their creative flair.”

The proposal is a sensible one, and in some ways, long overdue. COVID pushed technology and our behaviour forward, and there is no going back. Companies of all sizes have invested untold sums into logistics, and building e-commerce sites to stay in business during lengthy lockdowns. In just two years, consumers, even those on the fence about online retailing, are now eagerly buying everything from groceries to electronics and personal care products online. This will see manufacturers adapt how items are made, warehoused, packaged and ultimately delivered.

Just as manufacturing technology continues to advance, so will the need for the next generation of workers to control the machines. The term ‘skilled trades’ will evolve to include specialists in 3D modeling, programming, lean manufacturing, computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), and other digital disciplines. Traditional manufacturing courses will continue to exist, alongside classes in digital design and manufacturing specialization. And unlike the past where manufacturing jobs were aimed mainly at males, tomorrow’s jobs will see more women enter the field, and a generation raised on technology.

For the manufacturing sector, failing to get on board with technology to address retiring skilled workers is a recipe for disaster. Last July, the White House briefing room pulled no punches when it issued the media release, The Future of Our Economy Depends On Reinventing American Manufacturing and Innovation. A jumping-off point for President Biden and his Made in America order, the release addressed the pandemic and industry job losses, while it “also shined a bright light on deep and decades-old cracks in our supply chains that undermine our economy, our health, and our national security.”

North America became a global manufacturing powerhouse during the early days of World War II about 80 years ago. Embracing a diverse, tech-savvy workforce will see it regain that position once again.

The post Where Are The Workers?<p class="company">Addressing Shortages Through Diversity and Technology</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

IPS – with all its installation, integration, and technical support and maintenance capabilities – has the right people for the job.

From preventative, predictive, and corrective maintenance to line build integration and home line commissioning, the company’s cross-trained labor force helps automation industry clients reach higher levels of efficiency.

“Our core business is to provide supplemental maintenance and tech support personnel to industry, whether it’s automotive, aerospace, or general manufacturing,” says IPS President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Aliotta, Sr. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a widget or full-size truck; the equipment is automation.”

When he joined Macomb Township Michigan-based Industrial Plant Services in 2017, Aliotta brought decades of experience with him. Spending much of his previous career with a major auto manufacturer, Aliotta was in charge of launching new programs and the maintenance department at the company’s fastest-running plant, with all skilled trades and tech support personnel under his management.

Part of the challenge was getting internal skilled trades to accept overtime that was available to perform both preventative and corrective maintenance on equipment. With that, contractors came to fill the void in the system.

To address the issue, Aliotta devoted considerable time and energy to putting together presentations and showing contractors the ropes — including the fixing of machinery, and the sourcing of parts — which saw his team spending more time working with contractors than doing their own jobs.

In the past, the UAW (The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America) dedicated time to training apprentices through partnership programs, which have gone away. Seeing the number of skilled trades shrinking, Aliotta knew something had to change.

When he took over Industrial Plant Services, Aliotta wanted to provide a team of individuals rich in appropriate in-plant skills, and with good knowledge of how to operate primarily from a maintenance capability standpoint.

To accomplish this, he created a team of experienced automotive-industry personnel. This firsthand knowledge allows IPS to appreciate and address challenges the industry is going through on a day-to-day basis.

“We understand their systems very well and are really a part of their integrated team when we go in. That’s the way we like to approach our customer base, going in as a partner and a supplemental portion of their team, working on a common goal,” Aliotta says.

Industrial Plant Services is not a manufacturer but provides skilled maintenance technicians for work in facilities, such as installing equipment and kits for program changes and engaging in the manufacturing process with the owner, including planning and continuous improvement items.

With much of the world focused on reducing greenhouse gases by 2030, many industries are shifting towards electric power, which is true for automotive in particular.

This transformation involves updating and re-tooling some existing machinery, and the purchase and installation of new technology including robotic systems and conveyors. The result is growth in the automotive sector for IPS as manufacturers plan for downtime to strategically address current developments in their production systems.

The location of IPS in Michigan, at the heart of American auto manufacturing, has its advantages.

“We’re in the Motor City, and there’s a lot of manufacturing here,” says Aliotta. “All the major automotive manufacturing integrators are here. From a service perspective – if you’re tied in with the integrators and the major domestic automotive – even though the plants are spread across the U.S., everything for the domestic auto comes out of Michigan.”

Even with the increase in automotive, Industrial Plant Services is focused on broadening its customer base to diversify its portfolio and revenue stream.

When Aliotta came on board, one of his goals was improving total revenue 20 percent year-over-year, a goal which was exceeded last year by about 60 percent, much of it due to automotive.

Despite the increase, the company perceives the industry as cyclical. As equipment is updated it will require less attention, until it deteriorates and requires a change of components because of wear and tear.

From a staff perspective, IPS runs lean, typically with 15 to 20 employees. However, since the company is a signatory to skilled labor, numbers fluctuate from 20 skilled tradespeople to 250 during a shutdown.

For the aerospace sector, the company takes on projects tied to automated processes, like robotic paint shops or robotic assembly systems. “Whether it’s a truck or a widget, it doesn’t matter. Automation is automation, and it requires attention and service from both a preventative and corrective maintenance perspective,” says Aliotta about IPS, another of whose clients is a large company making powersports and off-road vehicles.

At IPS, the safety of skilled laborers working in construction-type activities is an overriding priority.

The company’s motto is ‘no project is so urgent or important that we cannot take the time to do it safely.’ With a strong safety program in place, safety tasks are implemented from the moment IPS takes on a project, which provides multiple benefits.

Not only does this compel the team to look at the work from a safety perspective, but it also helps clarify the order in which the company should perform its tasks, streamlining the whole process.

Through conversations about safety and engagement with employees – which can include pre-task plans or Safety Failure Mode Effects Analysis (SFMEA) – IPS ensures that plans match the work that people will perform, that all potential hazards have been identified, and that all steps are taken to eliminate identified hazards.

“If we run into something that we didn’t foresee we immediately stop, pull everybody back, look at what this newly identified hazard might be, and get everybody shaking their heads in the same direction about how to approach things before we step into it,” says Aliotta.

“Safety planning is key, and when you drive a culture of safety, you get folks engaged. It also drives efficiencies automatically.”

To further ensure protocols are in place, the company has a full-time safety director who came out of General Motors, which is known for having the most stringent safety mandates in the industry. As a result, IPS is ISNetworld A-rated, with zero injuries or recordables.

Helping clients in automotive, aviation, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, metals, plastics, food and beverage, and other sectors, IPS is addressing rapid changes and growth in automation.

One solution the company is working on is the ability to assess and address issues with machinery and equipment remotely. “Everybody wants to use the iPad and the iPhone nowadays and not get up to go and see or touch the real issues, so I’m looking at the future of automation having that remote capability to operate, which is important,” he shares.

“Whether you are a restaurant that has some of your machinery down, like a McDonald’s ice cream machine, or you’re an auto manufacturer, we are working on solutions to go into facilities remotely and have the capability to operate or tie in to a particular machine and break that machine down into levels, whether to order parts or to point a technician at what to repair and how to do it. We are looking at doing that remotely as we speak.”

The post Overcoming Automation Industry Hurdles<p class="company">Industrial Plant Services</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

iAutomation is expanding both organically and through strategic acquisitions. In 2017, private equity Saw Mill Capital acquired iAutomation – which includes Action Automation, Automation Solutions, Integrated Motion, Piedmont Automation and other brands – taking the company to the next level.

Continuing to expand its portfolio of automation businesses, in December 2020 Saw Mill acquired Florida-based RND Automation, a company which engineers, designs, and manufactures equipment used in robotic packaging, assembly and automation.

“We are excited to now have a formal partnership in place in the Saw Mill family that will allow us to leverage our combined capabilities and build expertise in all three of the critical industrial automation disciplines: motion control, vision, and robotics,” said iAutomation’s Chief Executive Officer Gregg Holst in a media release. “Together we will be able to deliver best in class capabilities and services to our respective customer bases and beyond.”

Best in class
The President of RND Automation, Sean Dotson, was equally enthusiastic about the new business relationship and its potential. “We have been partnering with Saw Mill’s portfolio company, iAutomation, for the last couple of years and are impressed by the expansive enterprise Gregg Holst, CEO of iAutomation, and his team have built with Saw Mill.”

For Michael Rainville, iAutomation’s Director of Strategic Projects and Marketing, the recent acquisition represents the company’s tremendous relationship with ownership group Saw Mill Capital as it welcomes another company to the iAutomation group.

“In addition to giving us geographic expansion in the southeast, they are outstanding in the packaging, robotics and vision space,” he says. “We are very excited to have this talented employee base as part of the family. We are always evaluating companies and searching for organizations that will help round us out.

“The emphasis will continue to focus on portfolio expansion, geographic expansion, and capabilities expansion.”

With eight years at the company, Rainville has been a part of the company’s growth, which is planned to continue over the next three years and beyond.

This will see the company expand organically and through acquisition, increasing its revenue and number of employees, while remaining true to its roots and providing customers with a competitive advantage.

As a distributor, the company must observe territory restrictions; as an integrator, iAutomation can operate without boundaries, and has worked with companies across the United States and worldwide.

“We’re always going to be that high-tech, value-add distributor,” says Rainville, “and are really expanding our engineering and integration capabilities right now.”

Expanding capabilities
This need for increased robotics and vision-type capabilities led to the acquisition of Florida’s RND Automation. “In addition, the iAutomation side of the business with distribution and electrical control-panel building is also growing, so we are always looking for acquisitions in that area. It’s an exciting time.”

Since 1985, the pros at iAutomation have worked with clients across America, transforming their visions into reality. Designing and delivering unique products and services to the marketplace, iAutomation’s proven solutions helps clients to focus on improving core competencies and operational efficiencies.

And with two offices in the northeast located in North Attleboro, MA and Franklin, MA along with two in the southeast located in High Point, NC and Lakewood Ranch, FL, the company’s skilled staff help clients – many of them in packaging, semi-conductor, warehouse automation, pharma, food and beverage, and robotics – make the perfect automation choice for their project.

Together with the distribution, integration and engineering services it provides, iAutomation also carries products from leading industry manufacturers, including ABB, B&R, Festo, Banner, Balluff, Weidmuller, Rittal, Kollmorgen and Apex, to name a few.

From actuators and stages to enclosures, feedback devices to motion control, pneumatics to robotics, the company supplies everything customers need to take charge of their automation destiny.

And through its monthly MVP Program, iAutomation showcases dynamic new products and innovations from some of the world’s most respected suppliers in industrial automation markets.

Creating opportunities
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to every business, it has provided opportunities for growth for both iAutomation and its customers.

While lockdowns forced in-person businesses to shutter, they spurred a dramatic spike in online purchasing, and increasing emphasis on same day or next day delivery. This resulted in a spike in greater demand for warehousing, automation, logistics, and related services.

“That full warehouse-automation space is expanding very quickly,” says Rainville, “and we are heavily involved in that, whether it be the engineering or the assembly side. We are 100 percent engaged with companies operating in this space… we see this growth continuing for five-plus years, and we will continue to offer our assembly, manufacturing, and engineering/integration services. It’s an exciting time. Everyone needs automation right now, and it’s right in our wheelhouse.”

As for many companies, finding workers has presented challenges. Despite this, over 100 new hires came on-board at iAutomation and RND Automation in 2021.

Now at over 200 employees up and down the east coast, the company has staff covering many disciplines including electrical, mechanical and software engineers who are experts in the motion, vision and robotics sectors, along with industry veterans leading the electronic-tech and assembly-tech teams. Over the past few years, the company has strengthened its engineering services offerings both organically and through acquisition, especially in the areas of robotics and vision.

A team of automation experts with over 500 years of combined automation know-how is dedicated to ensuring clients get the latest technology, solutions, and service – just some reasons customers keep coming back to iAutomation.

Whenever possible, the company gets involved in the design stage when planning fit and function. This can entail recommending a particular component, brainstorming the machine or panel layout, or assembling the full machine.

“The earlier the better, but we want to assist our customers in any capacity they require,” says Rainville. “If we happen to miss the window of designing the customer’s machine, we also work tirelessly helping them revamp for speed, efficiency, and more.”

With the goal of acquiring additional companies in strategic locations across the U.S., iAutomation strives to become the best high-tech value-add distributor with engineering and integration capabilities in America. “We are looking to evolve ourselves into the hybrid distributor that OEMs and EUs need if they are to effectively increase their success in this ever-changing marketplace.”

The post Innovating the Future<p class="company">iAutomation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Feedall was founded in 1946 and, for over seventy years, was run by the Winslow family. In 2017, current chief executive officer (CEO) Jon Cocco acquired the company from the founder’s grandson, Roger Winslow Jr. Before the purchase, Cocco had run several businesses through private equity, most notably rubber manufacturer Veyance Technologies (now Continental Tire), serving as vice president and general manager for a variety of its business units.

After these endeavors, Cocco wanted to focus on small-to-middle-sized American manufacturers such as Feedall and spent a year acquiring the company. Now in his fourth year of serving as its head, Cocco knows what the company brings to the automation sector and what it can provide that others cannot.

Before Cocco acquired the company, he had three criteria for any prospective purchase based on his experiences as an engineer for the likes of GM and Goodyear. These criteria were that the company had to be an engineered product company with complex designs to solve customer problems; it had to have a good reputation and brand recognition in its market and that its market segment had to be inherently under-served and in need of investment.

Feedall, a niche business in its field, checked these three boxes while having much to offer its customers. “What we do nicely is to work with plant managers, maintenance managers, and plant engineers at facilities to help them solve their parts and automation issues,” Cocco says. With seven engineers on staff, the company is known as a design house which resolves feeding and automation issues of every kind, whether an issue is related to labor shortages or increasing efficiency and safety of a factory’s dirty, repetitive, or unsafe processes.

As an automation company with several decades of experience and reputation, Feedall is constantly improving its internal procedures and approaches. Cocco outlines three major areas of focus for the company that have undergone remarkable leaps forward recently.

The first is improvement in its digital marketing and lead generation, as many businesses of its size often fall short in this area because of a lack of digital footprint. These processes have been improved by better understanding a typical customer’s journey through Feedall, which, in turn, allows the company to put necessary information where customers can see it, whether through search engine optimization or increasing its social media presence. Cocco notes that YouTube videos have been a unique and popular way to communicate the brand’s value.

The second focus concerns improving the company’s sales structure and practices, which began in 2020 with the implementation of a data-driven sales method. To this end, Feedall began using a new customer relationship management system through the platform Salesforce.com, giving even greater data management. Cocco also cites a sales methodology called “Baseline Selling”, which means that Feedall now prioritizes customer inquiries based on the highest probability of their success. Cocco believes that having sales resources interact directly with customers at their facilities helps with understanding and addressing their problems immediately, which these days seems like a lost art of selling.

The final focus point is to implement modernization in company operations. The goal is to build the businesses’ front end before investing in capacity. Feedall can manufacture ninety percent of its equipment with very little outsourcing, so it can control its own quality, cost, and lead times, which are often at the forefront of what a customer wants. “A lot of value is created within our walls,” Cocco describes. “We try not to depend on other suppliers when we can do it just as efficiently or even better.”

Cocco defines the internal structure of Feedall as being as disciplined as a Fortune 500 company but as flexible as a startup. He brought a philosophy of discipline without bureaucracy, the latter of which he believes to be a big downfall for larger companies. The internal workings are much more entrepreneurial, as workers are encouraged to embrace failure and the lessons that come with it on the way to finding new ways to please the customer. This permits fast decision-making and flexibility, which is key in the daily addressing and solving of challenges across the company.

“In a manufacturing environment,” Cocco says there need to be, “people in authority that are comfortable with the decisions they make,” thus great care is taken to empower employees to make these decisions.

The company touches upon many different industries at once because of the nature of the services it offers. This diversity has resulted in its focus on general manufacturing as opposed to catering to an individual market segment. As establishments deal with issues like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and various supply chain issues, Feedall’s business fluctuates depending on how money is being spent in different sectors and how effectively labor is being managed.

Cocco feels there is pressure for companies to be even more productive than ever before, noting the challenge in this but asserting that Feedall possesses compelling solutions that provide customers a good return on investment.

As 2022 begins, Feedall continues to make internal improvements, including a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that will aim to support internal productivity goals. New product launches are also on the horizon, especially in the realm of robotic bin-picking, a more complex area of robotics and machine vision. Thanks to forming a new partnership, the company will be introducing a new turnkey solution that will be compelling for several sectors.

As Cocco explains, the engineering team will be developing new products to meet newer marketplace needs. This year will also see the introduction of products centered on automated devices to load and unload machines, i.e. CNC machine tending. Beyond these modernization endeavors, the company’s focus will be on improving engineering breadth.

Feedall Automation has over seventy-five years of history to draw upon for its continued success. Cocco feels that quality is the reason. “It takes years to develop a great reputation in the marketplace, but it takes just one time to ruin it with unacceptable quality.” Cocco and the company’s workforce are very aware of its legacy of high-quality automation and feeding equipment, thus the goal will be to continue to improve on that further. With a solid mixture of knowledgeable veterans and fresh faces with new ideas among its staff, Feedall intends to retain its reputation.

The post A Long-standing Business with a New-School Approach<p class="company">Feedall Automation</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Now employing more than 200 knowledgeable individuals who contribute to the company’s enduring growth and success as an industry leader in automation systems, Prodomax specializes in the design, build and commissioning of turnkey automated manufacturing solutions.

With the team capable of manufacturing a wide range of systems for a variety of industries, including automotive, electronics, consumer goods, telecommunications, and construction, Prodomax’s clients are largely Tier 1 automotive manufacturing companies that supply significant assemblies directly to OEMs not only in North America, but around the world. Solutions are based on a core Technology Portfolio that includes automated assembly, welding, material handling, as well as laser cutting and laser welding processes.

The company is owned by Jenoptik A.G., a globally operating technology group where optical technologies are the very basis of the business, with the majority of its products and services being provided to the photonics market. Key target markets primarily include the semiconductor equipment industry, medical technology, automotive and mechanical engineering, traffic, and aviation, as well as the security and defense technology industries. Headquartered in Jena, Germany, Jenoptik boasts production and assembly facilities throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia, employing more than 4,000 people globally.

A renowned manufacturer of metrology, laser processing, and production automation solutions in the automotive industry, Jenoptik is capable of creating 3D laser processing systems and machines for customers to integrate into their production lines as part of process optimization and automation. Their laser systems are widely utilized for efficiently and safely processing polymers, metals, and natural materials.

“When Jenoptik first met with Prodomax, both companies quickly realized they shared common values and cultures embracing ‘best in class’ ideals and principles,” says Scott Young, Director of Sales, Prodomax. “Much more than their corporate logos resembling each other, both firms value an ethical, equitable, transparent, accountable, and sustainable workplace.”

For Jenoptik, corporate behaviour isn’t limited to implementing business targets; rather, corporate culture is essential to the company’s success, nurturing a place where bright ideas are born and where an adventurous spirit can lead to changing the world.

Not only does Prodomax work hard for its clients, it also places equal importance on a healthy work-life balance and supporting active community involvement. For instance, Prodomax employees reflect a broad and diverse variety of interests and activities, including mountain bikers, road bikers, skiers, golfers, runners, amateur chefs, video game heroes, care-givers, musicians, community volunteers, kayakers, race-car drivers, fitness enthusiasts, hockey players, and outdoor sportspeople.

Prodomax embraces a positive and progressive workplace culture, and now celebrates 50 years in the industry—no easy feat, and one the company is proud to acknowledge.

“Prodomax transformed itself from a small engineering company that built its first production machine in the early 1970s to an industry-leading robotics system integrator specializing in automotive production systems with over $1.2 billion of automation systems delivered globally,” says Young. “From the mid-1990s, the company focused upon robotics systems integration for the North American automotive market.”

Today, Prodomax has in place a highly competent, professional and experienced staff of more than 200 people, each of whom is responsible for ensuring the growth and success of Prodomax as an industry leader of automation systems.

Throughout its impressive history, the company has been entrusted with the successful integration of cutting-edge technologies into its manufacturing systems that international customers continue to rely on. In its ongoing quest for innovation, in the mid-1990s Prodomax achieved the first automated robotic YAG laser cutting system in Canada of hydroformed seamless steel tubes used in vehicle underbody and chassis structures.

“This experience later opened the door for more laser cutting and remote laser welding applications, which is still one of our core technologies today,” says Young.

Although 2020 was a very challenging year, with the start of the pandemic followed by supply chain issues which continue into 2022, the company’s ERP and project management systems have enabled Prodomax to monitor supply delivery challenges and plan contingencies to minimize disruption, due in part to the commitment of its employees.

“Prodomax is very proud of our employees who are composed of professionals with diverse individual backgrounds,” says Young. “As a vertically integrated systems supplier, our strength derives from their collective skills and experiences. Our clients know and trust our employees will provide excellent service and support for their business-critical projects, ensuring best-in-class automation solutions delivered on time and on budget.”

During 2021, the company’s Quality Management System not only received ISO 9001:2015 certification for the design, manufacture, and installation of automated manufacturing systems, it also saw some strong upturns compared to the previous year. The company is now planning for annual growth of 10 percent year-over-year, which has created demand for additional employees; in fact, Prodomax currently has new open positions in technical, engineering, production, assembly, and administrative roles.

Moving forward, Prodomax remains dedicated to a shared vision and long-term partnership that it hopes will last another 50 years as it continues to embrace change and innovation in an ever-changing industry. “Prodomax’s value proposition is simply stated as our ‘Commitment to deliver with complete customer satisfaction,’ and we strive to fulfill this promise to our customers,” says Young.

The company’s uniqueness in achieving this goal is best represented in three points, which include always being ready to listen to customers and discover the best answers to their problems. With a long-term perspective, Prodomax pursues this shared vision, which is the corporate culture of Prodomax Automation.

From tooling to enterprise, the company delivers best-in-class operational performance and reliable technology. “Our complete solutions assist companies in achieving long-term profitability and growth,” says Young. “We’re committed to providing safe and stable operations for the long term. On the basis of sound project management, a secure integration can be achieved.”

With a team of seasoned project managers and engineers capable of delivering integrated automation solutions of any size and complexity, Prodomax’s core competencies, culture, community involvement, and vertical integration capabilities all combine for an integral segment of a large, publicly traded corporation active in 80 countries globally.

The post Common Cultures: Two Companies, One Community Vision<p class="company">Prodomax</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With a team of competent, respected employees and partners, Septimatech collaborates with customers to address changeover difficulties and develop container handling solutions that maximize the performance and profitability of packaging lines while supplying innovative solutions and increasing efficiency on a global scale.

“Septimatech’s name itself, pronounced Sep-TEAM-a-tek, has an emphasis on team, and that represents what we do for our customers makes us stronger together,” says President and CEO Sharron Gilbert. “We do business with Fortune 500 Blue Chip multi-national companies and boutique single site companies, and we have strong partnerships with those customers, with some averaging over 29 years of service since the inception of our company in 1993.”

With a focus on packaging machine and line changeover solutions, the company works with customers to develop new products and solutions based on a collaborative approach that Septimatech has always embraced.

“We help our customers overcome container handling challenges so they receive maximum value and productivity from existing machine assets. Complex container positioning, transfers, geometries, and flimsy, pliable containers are no problem. We have developed solutions for over 2,700 makes and models of packaging machines that consistently deliver better container handling, more efficient changeovers and high value,” says Gilbert. “By having solutions oriented and proactive conversations with our customers, we ensure the supply of the proper product solution that overcomes the challenges they are experiencing.”

Septimatech works across a variety of industries, including the personal care, home and fabric care, beverage, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries, dealing with any kind of product in a glass or plastic container. When customers add a new product to a packaging line or reconfigure their packaging line, container or cap, Septimatech works with the customer to efficiently implement these changes onto their existing machinery. Septimatech’s extensive experience in working on several makes and models of packaging machines results in the customer having a standard and repeatable changeover experience, no matter the equipment make.

Flexibility is key, adds Gilbert, as the industry has a variety of container shapes and sizes, composed of ever-changing application requirements, production demands and resource skill needs.

“As we’re getting more into sustainability and protecting the environment, the packaging industry in general is responding with new product and package innovations,” she says. “That means our customers need greater flexibility in their machines and packaging lines to readily adapt to new types of container materials and geometry.”

Septimatech’s niche is faster, repeatable changeovers, increased throughput and up times, reduced labour costs through time savings, improving container or product handling, and providing innovative changeover and product handling solutions.

“The biggest differentiator is our customer service and supporting our innovative solutions,” says Gilbert. “We stay with our customers every step of the way until they’re up and running. We have a really strong culture that’s customer facing to ensure we achieve superior quality, responsive delivery and strong customer support.”

The company also boasts lower lead times and competitive pricing.

“We always take ownership for the customer experience,” adds COO Quinn Martin. “We’re committed to doing everything right the first time for the customer. Our customers appreciate the fact that… we stick with them to make sure they have a successful product in the end, so they’re able to meet their deliverables and goals within budget and on time.”

As a full-service company, Septimatech designs and manufactures products in-house, enabling a time-sensitive response and quick delivery to meet customers’ needs. It also reduces company lead times while allowing greater collaborative solutions with employees and customers.

“Sometimes we have to make up a prototype or prove out a concept, and with in-house skills here, that’s a leg up for us to quickly respond,” says Martin, adding that Septimatech also relies on its invaluable vendors who provide any services they can’t. “There’s the odd component of the manufacturing process that we do farm out, and we partner with vendors that have the same belief and philosophy that Septimatech does.”

To that end, the company does as much in-house testing as possible to mimic clients’ production environments. “This means utilizing proprietary software and technology, or doing 3D CAD virtual simulations to gain an understanding amongst the customer and ourselves of how the proposed design will perform prior to going to production and shipping,” says Martin.

“Our strength is our people,” he adds. “If it wasn’t for our employees and the culture we have, we wouldn’t be able to deliver everything we’ve mentioned.”

People are the foundation and heart of the company’s success, Gilbert agrees. “Our culture is because of our people and our investment in them and their families. We take care of each other. There’s a lot of respect here.”

The company also strives to promote events and activities with employees to build stronger relationships and promote a safe and trusting place to work. Its low turnover rate is a testament to that resolve.

“We also have a significant investment in training and development each year that gives employees the opportunity to build their skills, to move into other areas,” says Gilbert. “They can work toward programs or courses that would help them transition into new roles.”

Septimatech also promotes a ‘Power of Our People’ reward program open to any employee to share accolades about continuous improvement activities, innovative products or solutions, or serving customers in ways that are above and beyond. “That has a lot of synergies in terms of employees recognizing one another that’s not necessarily coming from the managers,” says Gilbert. “The employees are recognizing each other for their accomplishments. It serves as a great motivator, encourages camaraderie, and increases engagement.”

That increased engagement has been vital throughout the pandemic, with efforts to stay connected when face-to-face meetings have been impossible. When Septimatech was deemed essential to the supply chain, the company decided to “divide and conquer,” setting up an emergency response team to tackle three key business elements, the first being health and wellness of its employees.

“The other element was making sure we had uninterrupted flow of work to ensure our customer orders were shipped on time and that we could keep their facilities running,” says Gilbert.

Gilbert credits the company’s vendors and business advisors with being instrumental in navigating cross-border efforts seamlessly. One example is Cowan Insurance providing guidance on insurance travel coverage and benefit protection.

While COVID has definitely been a challenge for Septimatech, embarking on becoming more digital in 2019 proved to be extremely beneficial, says Martin. “That helped us be prepared for March of 2020 when the pandemic hit. We had a lot of technologies in place so we could reach out and work with our customers or acquire new customers.”

Gilbert agrees, stressing the team had to become more productive and rethink how they did business when their major in-person trade show was cancelled and went virtual instead.

“A lot of work, time, money and investment went into digitizing our customer orders, digitizing how we did business with customers in terms of communication and flow of that information,” she says. “Our website had to have up-to-date information on our product solutions and how we could help them.”

This also led to ensuring information was easily retrievable for people working from home without losing sight of important customer orders through that process.

“It really made us become more proactive to rethink about what could be coming and to be prepared for it,” says Martin. The company focused inward to help overcome adversity for its customers as the pandemic changed the face of almost every industry.

“Consumer habits and the types of products they purchased changed overnight; essential products on grocery shelves were bare. Our role was to help customers increase productivity and capacity so they could get more products produced quickly,” says Gilbert

The supply chain issue continues to be a challenge, including for Septimatech itself trying to obtain materials to make products for customers to meet the ever-growing market demands. Customers are feeling it as well as they experience delays with materials, including bottles and caps, that then impact the project timeline.

Despite the ongoing challenges of the past two years, Septimatech remains dedicated to not only supporting its customers, but its employees as well.

“Families needed flexibility because school children were at home; we quickly adapted and supported our employees in working different hours so they could help their children with schoolwork, an outcome of the pandemic,” says Gilbert. “It’s not back to nine to five, and we’re still supporting families and providing that flex time as needed.”

Septimatech’s customers are also a part of the Septimatech family, which is acknowledged by all employees, adds Martin. “To see the relationships develop with our customers from the initial project through the subsequent projects over the years, and these relationships foster into friendships, is truly a rewarding experience.”

septimatech.com

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Like astronauts, biomanufacturing specialists are rare birds. Manufacturing and commercializing cell and gene therapy products – commonly referred to as advanced therapies along with vaccines that are currently dominating news headlines – requires a sizeable investment of time and resources in training qualified workers.

“COVID had the weirdly fortunate impact of really putting a spotlight on cell therapy and gene therapy manufacturing. We saw this increasing trend before the pandemic, but it has exponentially increased,” says Craig Hasilo, Chief Scientific Officer of the Canadian Advanced Therapies Training Institute (CATTI).

The coming of CATTI
CellCAN, a Canadian knowledge mobilization network in cell and gene therapies, and CCRM, a Toronto-based leader in developing and commercialising regenerative medicine-based cell and gene therapies, incorporated CATTI in March 2021 to respond to the global industry’s challenge of keeping up with talent requirements.

As everyone made the shift to digital, CATTI was ahead of the curve, with a mandate to deliver e-learning modules to train next-generation workers, scientists, and technicians. More than 170 people have already been trained by CATTI through several out of the box solutions to onboarding new talent and reskilling the workforce.

As the pandemic restrictions wax and wane, the institute is now rolling out plans for in-person training campuses to offer hands-on instruction in Montreal and in the greater Toronto area to begin with. All this happens in consultation with an education development committee of global subject matter experts from academia and industry.

“It takes a lot of reskilling and upskilling,” says Hasilo of biomanufacturing workforce development. “Much like you can’t take just anyone and send them up to the space station to be an astronaut. They’ve got to follow stringent regulations, policies and very strict protocols.”

Bucking the trend
Where most industries have been adversely affected by the global pandemic, biomanufacturing is experiencing a new high. The search to find treatments or preventative measures for COVID-19 has brought intense focus to this industry. Media and public attention, combined with government investment, has reinforced the growing interest in biomanufacturing. The time to act is now. Globally, the biotechnology market is anticipated to reach US$2.4 trillion by 2028, according to a new report by consultants Grand View Research. Here in Canada, the federal government has invested $1.2 billion toward increasing the country’s capacity and infrastructure in response to the pandemic.

CATTI, in fact, came about through an identification of a major skills gap, along with the realization that current methods of training were inefficient in developing the skilled workers needed to develop and manufacture these new therapies within reasonable timeframes.

Hasilo brought his own bona fides to this new training institute. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be on the frontline as a person responsible for training a workforce to produce cell therapies within cleanroom settings. I know the pain points well from experiencing them,” he says.

There’s also change to the sets of regulations, initially created at a time where we weren’t giving people living cellular products or genes as the drug. “Regulations were more or less created for the pill era. We have to give tremendous credit to the regulators and the government, that our ecosystem has evolved completely in the last several years.”

The primary concern is implementing novel training methods that address critical operating procedures and their governing regulations. Many people already working in the field, for example, were trained in a research laboratory but did not have the advanced training programs needed to begin mass manufacturing to get products to market. Instead, they learned from trainers and mentors largely through job shadowing and studying protocols, a slow process that takes months to years to perfect techniques.

A cleanroom is a necessity for pharmaceutical manufacturing, whether it be in pill, cell or gene therapy form. As the name suggests, a cleanroom manufacturing process includes environmental controls which filter out aerosols like dust, microbes, and other potential contaminants. The air quality is controlled, and all surfaces and equipment are routinely cleaned and decontaminated to a high set of international standards of cleanliness.

“We’re helping those we’re training to understand why they can’t take the standard practices learned in laboratories, in research settings, and translate those skills directly into cleanroom production,” says Hasilo.

“Ultimately, when you work under cleanroom manufacturing practices, it requires a very stringent set of guidelines. Good manufacturing practices require not only initial training, but also ongoing retraining,” he explains. “For example, operators must demonstrate minimally twice a year that they have the appropriate qualifications. Our aim is to establish common standards under the best practices in our industry and help open up the lines of communication.”

Bridging the gap
CATTI is designed to accelerate the market readiness of trainees while decreasing the allocated funds, per employee, for training. The focus is maximizing efficiency and bridging the gap between academic qualifications and job-ready qualifications.

As Hasilo explains, going from research to mass production is fraught with potential problems, and ensuring that a trained workforce is in place is essential to be successful and competitive. What’s more, many of the ancillary materials used in producing these advanced therapies must also be manufactured under aseptic conditions in carefully monitored cleanroom environments. This can lead to supply chain issues and production bottlenecks.

Unforeseen production delays can happen in any sector, but Hasilo stresses that industry safeguards are vital so that every single person taking a prescribed drug or advanced therapy is assured of receiving the safest, highest quality product.

“There is some leniency early in the clinical trial phases,” he says. “Requirements get very tight and stringent by the end of the clinical trial phases. As you get toward market authorization, instead of treating a small group of patients as you would in a clinical trial, you want to be able to treat any patient in the general population. The requirements that come with this bring stringent guidelines and present unique challenges.”

Getting there first
Still, pharmaceuticals, like many consumer products, are highly competitive in terms of being first to market, and countries like China and India play a significant role in the industry landscape for the supply of pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs. It’s important to get products researched, manufactured and approved quickly, with a critical eye on quality and safety.

Hasilo points out that there are really two drug categories – one which includes preventative types of therapies, like vaccines, and a second that includes life-changing or life-saving therapies. Those that are purposed to save lives typically receive approval faster as the benefit to risk ratio skews in favour of getting these products to market expeditiously.

As Vanessa Laflamme, CEO of CATTI, says, “I think the most worrisome element right now is that the field has grown exponentially, so you need to put in place this training capacity across Canada. However, training is often seen as the last element you’ll tackle – a very risky proposition that often results in missed targets and timelines.”

CATTI will be a game-changer, she says, as Canada is poised to be a global heavyweight in biomanufacturing with an upskilled workforce driving it forward. Get ready!

The post Upskilling Canada’s Biomanufacturing Workforce<p class="company">Canadian Advanced Therapies Training Institute (CATTI)</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“One thing that makes us unique is that, when we say we’re turnkey, we have everything in-house, literally, except for making bottles, blowing the plastic, and things like that. We have an in-house [research and development] lab, and we create all formulations from scratch,” states Co-founder and Principal Jordan Erskine.

“We have in-house project managers, packaging engineers, and a marketing team that we’re splitting into an agency. We can take someone’s idea for a skincare product or an oral care product and create it from scratch, get them a formula, and register it with the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] if that’s what the client chooses to do. We can walk them through that whole process,” he explains.

Dynamic Blending’s main services include product innovation, research and development, and manufacturing with additional services consisting of marketing, fulfillment, and brand design. The company specializes in hair, skin, oral, lip, and body care products, among other consumer goods.

“We do a lot of lotions and products in [the cosmetics] category. We also do OTC—over-the-counter—products. Fluoride toothpaste is OTC; sunscreens are OTC. We can do that as well,” says the company’s other Co-founder and Principal Gavin Collier.

The company does not have its own product line, preferring to develop products for clients instead. Customers sometimes hire Dynamic Blending for product research, while other clients already have a finished product they want to put into production. The manufacturing process can entail branding and design work.

Dynamic Blending has some huge clients. One notable partnership was with Tropicana, makers of orange juice and other beverages. Tropicana required assistance to remedy the well-known issue of the incompatibility of toothpaste and orange juice. Thanks to a common cleaning agent in most toothpastes, orange juice tastes awful after brushing your teeth. Given this, Dynamic Blending developed a unique product called Tropicana Toothpaste. It contained all the attributes of traditional toothpaste but was created without the ingredient that ruins the taste of orange juice.

Tropicana released this toothpaste in limited-edition format on November 1, 2021, to mark National Brush Day, an American event that follows Halloween and is intended to encourage healthy dental habits.

The Tropicana Toothpaste project garnered lots of publicity. Dynamic Blending was cited in Food & Wine magazine and other media outlets, further raising its profile.

While proud of the work with Tropicana, the company co-founders are quick to point out that Dynamic Blending serves a diverse clientele. “We work with companies on the Fortune 500 down to the moms and pops. We work with brands that are in Target and Walmart and brands that are up-and-coming,” notes Collier.

The company’s reach and capabilities are particularly impressive given the rather humble origins of the firm. Founded in 2015, it initially did research and development on formulations for cosmetics and skin-care products. Much of the company’s early work was conducted in Erskine’s basement. The business grew, and the co-founders added new services. They also sensed a lucrative market niche.

“We saw an opportunity to start offering what no other manufacturer was offering—low minimum order quantities. That opened up the door to not only smaller brands, but also to bigger brands looking for [that service],” recalls Collier.

Dynamic Blending will accept orders “from 1,000 to 2,500 units—which is extremely low in this industry,” adds Erskine.

The company’s rise was also facilitated by its full-service approach and culture of innovation. It helped that the co-founders were deeply involved in day-to-day operations from the start.

“There’s no red tape. I think our team members like our drive, our motivation to innovate in this industry. We’re there every day. We’re owners/operators. People can come into our office and ask us questions. Innovation is one of the hugest core values we have, and that’s what drives everybody forward,” he states.

Innovation “starts at the research and development level. We’ve designated specific chemists that work within our laboratories to create formulas that are innovative. We’ll send sample packs to major brands across the country, so they can see what we’re developing,” Collier adds.

This innovative spirit was also behind the company’s recent decision to enhance production by using robots.

“On manufacturing, we’re going to add robotics to our lines. In this industry, robotics is kind of rare. A lot of people [rely on] hand and manual labor. We’re always trying to set the bar higher,” says Erskine.

The company also likes to think outside the box when it comes to offering new services. As mentioned, the firm plans to create an in-house agency that will do marketing and design work for clients in the dietary supplements/food sector.

In addition to being innovative and nimble, Dynamic Blending adheres to very high quality standards. Having such high standards helped establish the company as a major player in the contract manufacturing sector.

“Even though we manufacture cosmetics and OTCs, we created our quality system to the drug standard. Every process and procedure we have is at that standard. We have a full quality management team and directors of quality and personnel that come from pharmaceutical, drug backgrounds,” states Collier.

Drug manufacturing standards are extremely stringent since faulty pharmaceuticals can cause death, disability, or other harm. Dynamic Blending currently has ISO 9001:2015, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and NSF Organic certification, among its many accreditations, and is an FDA-registered facility. To maintain certification, it is routinely inspected by third-party examiners.

“Yearly, we’re audited by ISO and all those certifying bodies. One of the reasons we’re getting so many new customers coming to us is that they see and hear what we’re doing. I don’t know of any other cosmetic manufacturer that manufactures to the drug standard,” he says.

Clearly, Dynamic Blending is on the right path. Employment has risen from roughly 140 personnel last year to a little over 160 people. The company’s workspace has also expanded, from 60,000 square feet to roughly 126,000 square feet.

Whereas the company lab was once housed in a room that was “maybe twenty feet by fifteen feet,” the company now boasts a 12,000-square-foot research and development facility, according to Collier, who adds, “Huge things are happening.”

Such growth has attracted notice. In 2020, Dynamic Blending was listed in seventeenth place on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America, as compiled by Inc. magazine. It had a reported growth rate of 11,491 percent. That same year, it placed twenty-second on Utah Business magazine’s 2020 ‘Fast 50’ list of well-performing businesses in the state.

MountainWest Capital Network, described by Erskine as “a local network here in Utah, full of capital partners and equity groups,” also tabulates a list of fast-growing companies within the state. In 2021, Dynamic Blending topped this list, which compared the growth rate of Utah firms for a period of five years through to 2020. “We were number one on the list. That was really good for us,” he says.

Such recognition comes as Utah is increasingly viewed as a business powerhouse. One region in the state has been dubbed ‘Silicon Slopes’ due to the presence of so many technological businesses.

“Techie companies are investing billions of dollars into Utah, moving headquarters or opening locations here—Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe. Everyone is flocking here, but it’s cool to see us, a contract manufacturer, climbing the ranks,” notes Erskine.

As with every business across North America, Dynamic Blending had to cope with the COVID virus. When it began spreading in March 2020, the company instituted masking and gowning requirements and developed its own FDA-registered hand sanitizer which it gave to employees and first responders.

“Early on, we identified a supply chain risk associated with COVID, so we began sourcing domestically over two years ago—before COVID was even really a big thing. We quickly changed directions on how we were sourcing and who we were sourcing from,” adds Collier.

In addition to its planned marketing agency, Dynamic Blending might also expand into perfume and cologne manufacturing as moving into new markets is part of an overall growth strategy.

“We’re probably going to double our production lines within the next six months or so. We’re adding millions of dollars of new equipment over the next few months onto new lines,” says Erskine.

The co-founders have very ambitious goals. When asked to predict what the company will look like five years from now, Collier says, “I see us being over $150 million a year and one of the powerhouses in the West as far as manufacturing cosmetics. Jordan and I have experience with another contract manufacturer. We were there when they started. We want to be bigger than them. We know we are already growing much faster than they grew. The potential is there.”

The post Utah Contract Manufacturer Enjoys Breathtaking Success<p class="company">Dynamic Blending</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Launched in 1999, this Toronto-based, award-winning, ISO 9001:2015 design company provides a variety of services that include project planning and regulatory strategy, concept development, functional prototype development, test validation, regulatory compliance oversight, and ongoing support for contract manufacturing.

As a product-development manufacturing and investment firm, Cortex looks for clients and partners who have identified a key novel technology with commercial potential.

“Our clients have generally identified a market and de-risked their technology to the point of a working proof of concept or bench-top prototype,” says Dylan Horvath, Founder, President and CEO. “Cortex steps into the picture to connect the dots between the humans who will use their product and the technology the client has identified. We carry that through manufacturing as well to ensure the promise of the experience we designed is delivered from end to end.”

The company also makes early investments in companies that have both strong teams and growth potential—companies whose products offer real opportunities to improve people’s lives.

“When we talk about the human experience, we’re looking for technologies whose value lies in the way people will use them,” says Horvath. “We don’t typically do unseen equipment or parts of machinery; we develop technologies that humans interact with, and add value by making those interactions seamless and delightful.”

Cortex’s major focus is on medical and life science-based products. With a huge push to democratize access to health care and level the playing field in terms of who has access to human-health products, there’s also a push to fix the delivery of healthcare, which right now is largely institutionalized.

“You have to go into a building, sit in the waiting room, and then your whole day is shot for about five minutes with a doctor. That’s an awful experience,” says Horvath. “Many of our products are remote diagnostics or patient care and monitoring systems that bring health care into the home,” he explains.

“It could be diagnostic systems that sit in your kitchen rather than in a doctor’s lab,” says Horvath. “The benefit to humans there is pretty clear: Keeping them comfortable, and aging at home. These products allow people to stay in their homes longer before moving in with relatives or a long-term care facility,” he explains.

“The data is clear; health outcomes and standard of living drop off dramatically when people are no longer able to function in their homes,” says Horvath. “The longer people can stay out of hospitals and institutions, the higher the quality of life they get to experience. We want to extend that as much as we can, and there are a lot of opportunities to do so.”

One such example in Cortex’s portfolio is the Karie medication dispensing system. This product was designed for Cortex client AceAge, a company that envisioned a dispenser simple enough for use at home, to increase medication adherence and data tracking. Cortex chose to invest, delivering a production-intent design with the ability to dispense pre-packaged medications directly to the user as per their doctor-prescribed and pharmacy-prepared medication regimen. Although originally intended for use in at-home clinical trials, it turned out to be suited to private use both in private homes and in long-term care facilities, increasing patient adherence to prescriptions and making caregivers’ lives easier.

“The use of technology to allow people to live independently for extended periods of time has been accelerating,” says Horvath. “While there’s been some scepticism or lack of acceptance in the past, COVID accelerated a lot of these trends by making it very clear that remote patient care and monitoring is a powerful way to scale health services while keeping patients safer,” he says.

“The standard of care for medication dispensing right now is that a nurse comes to individual homes and watches people take their medication, which is wildly inefficient. During COVID, it also leads to opportunities for transmission,” says Horvath. “Systems that can dispense medication in the home with a high degree of accuracy and a great user experience can reduce this risk, and lower the overall burden on the health care system.”

Cortex also joined a multidisciplinary team that includes Raytheon, Purdue University, PortaScience, and LaDuca LLC., for work on an innovative COVID-19 test for humans that stems from the work of Raytheon BBN Technologies researchers to identify respiratory sickness in cattle.

Their lateral flow molecular assay-based LAMP test for POC COVID-19 detects the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in saliva or nasal swab specimens. This technique offers the high accuracy of PCR tests, combined with the low cost of antigen tests, all without the need for an intrusive nasopharyngeal swab.

C-FAST is the result: A passive microfluidic cartridge with a simple clinical process that gives reliable test results from a saliva sample in less than an hour, without need of a lab. Cortex brought its microfluidics expertise and user experience design chops to the project, which has the potential to increase testing accessibility in an era where diagnostic resources are stretched to the limit.

COVID, of course, has wreaked havoc around the world by seriously disrupting supply chains and creating manufacturing issues, forcing companies to rethink how they’ll do business, both now and in the future.

“Offshore manufacturing isn’t going away anytime soon and it’s silly to think that it might,” says Horvath. “That being said, what’s globally obvious is that relying on a foreign supply chain is very dangerous when fuel costs are rising, when demand is increasing, and when delivery is threatened by health risks to people who have to work in factories and shipyards.”

It’s important to understand this and be flexible with supply chains right now, he adds, because what’s working today may not work tomorrow. “It’s good to have a couple of options. Just like diversifying your portfolio is a good idea, diversifying your supply chain is too. Having both onshore and offshore options is important.”

Where that gets most difficult, he says, is with tool parts, injection molding, die casting, and with extrusion, to a certain extent. Traditionally tooling has been more expensive to do onshore, sometimes five to ten times more.

“Certainly, for pilot runs and shorter runs where there still may be tooling changes after the first tool is released, it’s very difficult not to do that offshore, In those cases, having a really strong offshore relationship is important,” says Horvath.

“Relationships are everything when it comes to offshore manufacturing,” he says. “It’s very difficult to motivate contract manufacturers with a purchase order; it’s much easier to motivate someone who you’ve already been in the trenches with. When you need something to be manufactured, you can’t ignore the relationships and the strength of those relationships. It’s relationships and flexibility that we’re focused on.”

In Q1 2022, Cortex will conform to ISO 13485, a quality standard for medical device manufacturing that will allow the company to further enhance its ability to design and produce medical products for clients under FDA and Health Canada certification.

“In order for a medical product to come to market, there has to be someone in the chain certified with ISO 13485,” says Horvath. “We design and document everything under our Quality Management System (QMS), or our clients’. But if they don’t have one, we can support them by building their own QMS. We can run it, populate it, and transition it over to them.”

This is a differentiator for the Cortex team: they work to build and launch their clients’ products, but are increasingly focused on equipping their partners to run projects themselves.

“I think the real differentiator for us is how we use design to guide decisions from the top. It’s difficult for design firms to be human centered and also do the manufacturing, because sometimes those things are at odds with each other.”

When he founded the company, Horvath coined the name “Cortex” around the image of both sides of the brain, to reflect a focus on two key competencies: human factors and technical excellence. Today, the company’s goal is to use design thinking to put the user first, from the beginning of the client’s engagement all the way through to manufacturing.

“We’ve designed an integrated system of service delivery that puts that front and center,” he says. “Human experience is great, but it can’t come at any cost. So at the beginning of the process, we understand what the client’s constraints are. We plan out and risk-mitigate the form of engagement that’s going to be most commercially successful for a client, while keeping human factors as a North Star for the types of products we want to introduce,” says Horvath.

“We believe that ultimately what makes you successful is market acceptance, and market acceptance is about considering the human at every stage of design, engineering, manufacturing, and commercialization.”

The technology can be great, and can address the market and be priced right, but ultimately if the person receiving that care or using the device doesn’t like it, all the work upfront is for naught, he adds.

Cortex’s future includes increasing capacity to manufacture onshore and in-house, and not just rely on external partners, while continuing its human-centered approach – from the assemblers to the designers to the engineers.

“We’re really a team of interpreters,” Horvath says. “We need to know both sides of the coin. We need to use ethnography and research to develop a deep understanding of the user’s needs, and we also need to understand the technology that our clients have deployed. Our value lies in bridging that gap.”

The post Designing a Better Human Experience<p class="company">Cortex Design Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Headquartered in Madison Heights, Michigan, with operations in the United Kingdom and France, the company provides engineered solutions for precision tooling and assembly work in aerospace and other sectors. In keeping with its heritage of high-profile assignments, it continues to take on massive projects.

“In recent years, we’ve been involved in all the major aerospace programs of record: the Boeing 787 program, the Boeing 777X program and the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program—the largest industrial project ever undertaken by man. That’s pretty significant. We’ve been heavily involved in [the JSF] project from early stages,” states Rob Beardmore, President. “We’re seeing a demand from our customers for standardized, off-the-shelf, fast solutions, and we’re uniquely placed to deliver that.”

BoxJoint, a tooling product that offers a simple, inexpensive way to build flexible assembly jigs for automotive and aerospace plants, is one of the company’s more popular solutions. Assembly jigs have traditionally been “big, welded structures. They’re very inflexible,” says Rob. “If there are design changes to the product or the customer wants to make some improvements or tweaks, it’s very expensive because they have these big, welded, fixed assembly structures that they have to try and modify and adjust.”

BoxJoint, by contrast, consists of a framework of beams and joints that can be connected without welds as friction keeps the parts together. This distinctive solution offers stability, flexibility and speed. “Our new BoxJoint tooling product allows the customer to put tooling together with bolts and fasteners, so it can be done much more quickly, and it can be changed and reconfigured,” says Rob.

“We like to [compare BoxJoint] to Lego pieces,” adds Dale Beardmore, Project Consultant, and brother of Rob. Just as a building block kit contains standardized blocks that are easy to put together, BoxJoint features “standard, commercial, off-the-shelf parts,” that make jig building simple.

BoxJoint technology can reduce hard tooling costs by up to eighty percent and lead times by fifty percent, according to the company. The system is a boon for another reason: “One of the big trends we’ve seen in the industry over the last five to ten years is that a lot of the talent when it comes to certified welders and jobs like that is slowly disappearing,” notes Dale.

BlackBoard and Captive Products are two other innovative solutions. BlackBoard enables direct-to-part tooling for the composite tool industry. Captive Products are a line of hand knobs, bolts, and pins that “precisely align everything” says Rob, “and keep everything together,” on assembly jigs. Captive tooling eliminates the need for lanyards and the presence of foreign object debris in jigs, he adds.

Harcourt has ISO 9001:2015 certification and strict quality control protocols. The team self-performs “some of the higher-tech manufacturing,” in Madison Heights and subcontracts other work to trusted manufacturing partners, says Rob. It primarily serves the aerospace, automotive and heavy equipment manufacturing markets, including customers such as John Deere and Caterpillar. Of these markets, aerospace dominates, with this sector bringing in an estimated eighty-five percent of revenue.

The company is held in high regard, having won Boeing supplier relations awards in 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019. This honor is given to firms in the top one percent of Boeing’s supply chain. Boeing works with thousands of suppliers, so winning this award on multiple occasions is “quite an accomplishment,” notes Rob.

Harcourt also works with other aerospace manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, Spirit AeroSystems, and Northrop Grumman. The company handles civilian and military projects alike and has entered into an agreement with NASA to develop tooling solutions for a rocket.

While Harcourt Industrial was founded in the U.S. in 1999, the firm can trace its lineage to the nineteenth century and a company that was founded in the late 1800s by Scottish shipbuilder, Sir William Beardmore (great-great-uncle of Rob and Dale).

Originally called William Beardmore and Company, this “was the largest employer in Scotland in the First World War. It did defense work, building naval ships for British Royal Navy, then dabbled in aircraft and things like that as well,” says Rob.

William Beardmore and Company helped build a cast steel rudder weighing more than fifty tons for the H.M.S. Hood, a battleship that famously tangled with the Bismarck, a German warship. The company also worked on H.M. Airship R34 (an aircraft like a blimp) that made world headlines for a double-crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 1919. The company eventually changed its name, but the Beardmore family retains ownership.

Rob believes that Harcourt’s longevity can be attributed to its culture of innovation and engineering excellence and that maintaining this innovation culture is a “top-down” effort. Engineers and designers are encouraged to think creatively and are supplied with cutting-edge tools. The company has embraced two-dimensional and three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design software, business information modeling programs, 3D product visualization, and augmented reality. It is also moving into robotics—anything that makes design, measurement, and manufacturing more precise.

“[New] industries pop up, then grow very quickly. What you’re seeing is the pace of time to market is getting much shorter. We have a lot of digital tools these days to help with design and engineering. From starting a project to having a finished [product] roll off the line is becoming a much shorter time frame. This is pushing pressure down into the supply chain—customers need tooling much quicker,” states Rob.

While Harcourt prides itself on staying ahead of the curve when it comes to new technology and manufacturing processes, its enduring success can also be attributed to an old-fashioned business ethos. Instead of doing one-off projects then moving on, the firm prefers to form long-term, collaborative relationships with clients.

The company “likes to work closely with our customers—customers like Lockheed Martin, for instance. They have their own research and development team, famous for producing products such as the Blackbird and U-2 [high-altitude military reconnaissance planes]. We work very, very closely with their research team. We’re the tooling people, so they don’t have to worry about the tooling. They can focus on inventing the next greatest aircraft. We’re there to help them with their manufacturing technology,” explains Rob.

Harcourt takes an equally forward-looking approach with its staff. The company has thirty-five employees around the world.

When the COVID virus struck last year, Harcourt was already in an advantageous position “from “a worker safety standpoint,” he says. “We were already paperless and digital. Having our team be able to work remotely was easy for us. We adapted to that very quickly.”

Despite this quick, comprehensive response, it had to withstand an aerospace industry slowdown. The pandemic drastically curtailed airline travel, which reduced demand for new aircraft.

“The airlines took a major hit, and while we don’t work with airlines, it had a trickle-down effect on Boeing and Airbus, the commercial part of our business. Right away, we noticed a sales impact. Thankfully, defense stayed very strong throughout COVID,” says Rob. “That helped keep revenue stable throughout.”

Harcourt is not just about technology and high-level aerospace projects, however; community involvement is very important for the company. “We like to give back to the community. We’ve been heavily involved with some private schools and giving to the American Red Cross. We like to make sure we’re donating to worthy causes, education being a big one,” Rob declares.

Harcourt’s involvement with educational initiatives is particularly relevant given the looming, continent-wide skilled labor shortage. Baby boom-era workers are retiring, and not enough young people are entering the sector to replace them.

“There are a lot of older people in the workforce that are leaving. I think that’s one of the challenges we’re seeing now, with labor shortages. We need to inspire the younger generation to get involved with aerospace and STEM projects. If we can invest or gift into something that’s going to help the industry, we’re all over it,” affirms Rob.

Rob says that, in addition to the skilled labor shortage, which is affecting all manufacturers, the nature of the aerospace industry itself can be taxing for companies such as Harcourt.

“I think the biggest challenge we’re encountering right now is that aerospace is slow. When I mean slow, I mean it takes time to make a decision. Nothing happens quickly in aerospace. It’s very risk-averse, for good reasons,” he states. “In aerospace, you’re playing a long game.”

He envisions a bright future for the firm. “We see some significant growth in front of us. We’re seeing it with our BoxJoint project. Five years from now, we see our product offerings growing substantially and revenue along with it,” says Rob. “I also see us more working as our customer’s [research and development] arm.”

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