Thanks to inventions like the Spinning Jenny—a revolutionary multi-spindle machine—it became possible to draw thread from eight spools at once. A vast improvement over traditional spinning wheels turning a single spool at a time, James Hargreaves’ 1764 innovation, patented in 1770, soon grew to 120 spools. Unlike the slow processes of the past, cloth could be made quickly, efficiently, and in greater quantities.

The decades to come saw the Industrial Revolution—earning its name from the rapid and revolutionary way it changed society—bring many changes. Landmark machines came into existence, such as the steam engine, powered iron mills, distilleries, paper mills and flour mills. Meanwhile, the rise of the steam locomotive and steam-powered ships made transporting goods faster and more economical than by horse or sailing vessels.

Power at a price
Although it introduced many benefits to the world, including increased innovation, faster and more economical production, and better methods of transportation, the Industrial Revolution created a new array of problems. These included appalling child labour practices, festering urban slums as people migrated from the country in search of industrial jobs, and often poor and dangerous working conditions.

Major cities saw untreated waste dumped into rivers and were blanketed daily in dense black smoke, the result of burning coal to fuel manufacturing.

Fueled by coal, the first Industrial Revolution made way for the second in the 1870s, powered largely by gas, oil, and early practical uses for electricity. Fast-forward 100 years and the third Industrial Revolution saw the rise of nuclear energy and electronics. Starting in 2000, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is notable for the Internet, cloud and digital technologies, predictive maintenance, and renewable sources of energy.

As manufacturing has evolved, our collective awareness of protecting the planet has grown as well. Worldwide, manufacturers, schools, and organizations are dismantling the outdated belief that manufacturing is “dark, dirty, and dangerous” through education. Bodies like The Manufacturing Institute and its founding partner, the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, are behind MFG Day. Open to students, parents and/or educators, MFG Day offers tours of manufacturing facilities, innovation centres, offices or other sites, information, career days or job fairs, and plenty of learning opportunities.

Now, manufacturing is undergoing another transformation with green sources of power, like wind and geothermal. It’s no longer unusual to see massive facilities with solar panels on rooftops, and even on the canopies covering parking areas, capturing free energy.

Across North America and Europe, well-known manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Owens Corning, and Del Monte Foods have solar arrays at their plants. Yet despite these initiatives, many factories worldwide are still powered by fossil fuels.

Room for improvement
Although safer and cleaner than in the past, manufacturing still needs to work on reducing harmful emissions.

According to UK-based Eco Experts, the biggest emitters of global greenhouse gas (GHG) by industry are energy (electricity generation and heating) at 15.83 billion tonnes, and transportation at 8.43 billion tonnes. At number three are manufacturing and construction, generating 6.3 billion tonnes of GHG emissions every year.

When measuring global GHG, five key kinds of pollution are examined: water, soil, air, noise, and light. Different greenhouse gases are emitted through activities such as deforestation, biomass decay, agricultural activities, fertilizer use, and many others.

Manufacturing and industry are responsible for GHG emissions stemming from burning fossil fuels for energy, along with chemical, mineral and metallurgical processes, waste management, and other processes. Depending on the sector, these gases can include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases (F-gases) and hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulphur hexafluoride. Black carbon, better known as soot, is created by burning fossil fuels and wood, and contributes to climate change.

Solutions great and small
As environmental awareness grows, so does the need among manufacturers for stricter regulations, limits on pollution, better use of resources, and transitioning from fossil fuels toward renewable sources of energy. Along with the benefit of reducing manufacturers’ carbon footprints comes cost savings and greater accountability to the company itself, its shareholders, and the public.

Best of all, many of the measures manufacturers can take to reduce greenhouse gases make economic sense, or are even free. Just as homeowners sign up for programs to monitor the amount of electricity they consume, manufacturers can take advantage of Smart meters, electronic devices measuring energy consumption, voltage levels, and more. Tracking power in near-real time, some meters also calculate when consumption is at its highest. Even minor changes, like turning off lights, computers, and machines that don’t need to be on standby, result in savings and fewer carbon emissions.

Many industries consume vast amounts of water for manufacturing and processing. Less of a resource and more of a commodity today, water can often be recycled and reused. Even hot, untreated water can be repurposed and directed through pipes to heat facilities in winter before it is cleaned. And much like electricity, water consumption is metered today, meaning the less manufacturers use, the lower the cost.

Some other low-cost initiatives include reducing the amount of packaging and minimizing office waste; reuse, repair, recycling, and remanufacturing (instead of disposal); and even encouraging ride-sharing programs to work. Manufacturers can also significantly reduce carbon emissions by switching to green energy suppliers providing power derived from wind, solar or other renewables where available. Finding lightweight, environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic packaging, such as biodegradables—especially in food and beverage manufacturing—is another great way to help the environment.

Although requiring upfront investment, acquiring the tools and technologies to reduce carbon emissions pays off in the long term. While purchasing cheaper machinery and parts may seem to make financial sense, this often ends up being more expensive, since poorer-quality components and equipment don’t last as long, break down more often, and need to be replaced, which creates more environmental waste.

Better machinery also tends to be more energy-efficient. Scrupulous maintenance of existing equipment also benefits manufacturers and the planet, extending equipment lifespans, enhancing performance, creating less heat, and using less power. There’s often a strong payoff in having fewer, better-quality machines than higher numbers of less-efficient ones.

Another recent innovation in manufacturing, 3D printing, is fast replacing traditional manufacturing methods like moulding. Also known as additive manufacturing (AM), this technique creates far less waste since material is not being removed and discarded—as sometimes is the case with subtractive processes—but added as needed. Substituting traditional materials with sustainable choices such as renewable bamboo instead of non-recyclable plastic in the manufacturing process is yet another way to offset carbon emissions.

For manufacturers seeking to upgrade or build new facilities, there’s the option of green building. Although a significant investment, structures made according to LEED specifications are simply better, improving efficiencies and saving money. LEED buildings are responsible for far fewer carbon emissions than their traditional counterparts and are healthier for the building occupants.

Although manufacturing can’t turn the clock back hundreds of years to the start of the first Industrial Revolution, much can be done with the technologies of today to make the world a cleaner, healthier place.

The post Clearing the Air<p class="company">Reducing Emissions in Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Through alliances with an increasing number of suppliers and by purchasing regional and national distributors—most notably Ingram & Bell Scientific in 1994—ESBE is dedicated to offering the scientific community high-quality goods and expert services at reasonable costs.

With an eye to environmental preservation, ESBE is also committed to collaborating with businesses that make energy-efficient machinery, develop environmentally friendly solutions for consumables and packaging, use environmentally friendly production techniques, and support Green programs in the workplace and the community.

In fact, in addition to minimizing, reusing, and recycling waste whenever possible, ESBE has solar panels installed on the roof of its head office and warehouse.

ESBE has a long and impressive history serving the Canadian scientific community. For more than five decades it has been bringing the latest innovations and technological advances, providing quality products and professional services at competitive prices.

“My dad bought the existing business of ESBE Laboratory Supplies in 1968,” says President Laurel Wiseman. “He was an engineer by trade, and he worked for a number of companies, the last one being Westinghouse.”

After he was laid off, her father went back to school and got into the law field, but he always wanted to be his own boss. When he and a colleague found ESBE for sale, it seemed a perfect opportunity. “My dad quickly realized he didn’t want to work with a partner, he wanted to work for himself. So he bought the partner out.”

Located on Bathurst Street, ESBE initially also had a retail store where it sold birthday gifts, says Wiseman.

“Then my father hired some really good people, which I think was really the key for him, particularly his first sales manager, a woman, who, for that time in the late 60s, was really quite interesting. My dad couldn’t care less what the gender was, as long as they were great at what they did.”

A medical technologist who wanted to get out of the lab, she got the business off the ground, expanded it and spent her entire working career with ESBE, says Wiseman.

“I think this speaks to the culture of being a family, and the inclusiveness of the place,” she adds. Wiseman herself joined the company in 1986 and has since expanded the business “by leaps and bounds” across both its product mix and customer base. Part of its success over half a century, she says, has been the company’s trust in and commitment to its long-serving, highly knowledgeable salespeople, earning in return loyalty and dedication. That continues unchanged.

“That speaks to who we are and the culture we are,” Wiseman says.

In terms of innovation and technology, Wiseman’s father was also innovative in his way, adds Michael Ratos, Vice President of Sales & Marketing.

“He created moulds for some of the urine tubes currently used in the market. He saw a need and he created something,” Ratos says. And when the company early embraced environmental issues, ESBE was the first to put up solar panels, long before sustainability became an industry-wide credo.

Along with its commitment to energy-saving green practices, the company’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system—the brain and nerves of a distributor—saves time and money for the company and its customers.

“A lot of our customers are in a fast-paced industry,” says Ratos. “They require things fast and our system allows us to do this.”

Some examples include Punch-Out, a digital system that enables clients to browse the company’s product catalogues online before making purchases through the client’s e-procurement system. “Currently, we’re integrating a lot of the universities and other accounts with Punch-Out,” says Ratos.

With its perspective on innovation and organizational excellence, ESBE had moved its phones to a VoIP system even before the pandemic. “We were a bit ahead of the game with that,” says Ratos.

In the same way, ESBE chooses to partner with innovative companies, including PHCbi (formerly Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd.), a leader in incubation and preservation, Hettich, a German company that has won numerous awards for innovation globally, and Irish company Randox, a longtime key supplier in the diagnostic division.

Then there’s Montreal-based Galenvs, the only company in Canada producing magnetic bead technology, which was highly in demand during COVID for PCR extractions.

“We’re excited to work with them because they developed everything in Canada, and with us being a Canadian company, the partnership and the synergies were there for the market,” Ratos says, adding that a lot of these companies are at the forefront of their technologies around the globe and that it’s ESBE that’s bringing them to the Canadian market.

“One of the reasons they pick us over the large multinationals is they know we’ll treat their products with respect, as opposed to the larger companies who put them into their portfolio and maybe they’ll get to it,” Wiseman says. “They know we’re going to focus on it, that our salespeople are going to focus, and they know their customers want their product. I’m honoured when they pick us versus someone else.”

ESBE continues to look for suppliers that embrace sustainability and has brought on board many that have a record of reducing a large amount of wastage in the community. “When you look into the scientific industry, there’s a lot of wastage in consumables, so we do our best to look for suppliers that reduce that as well,” Ratos says.

This results in dollars and cents for customers, and as a Canadian company, ESBE is always very sensitive to taxpayer dollar waste, says Wiseman. “If we can do something in our own way to save them money, then we’re for it.”

These are all recipes for success, but there’s more to ESBE’s story.

“The engine behind us is our people,” says Ratos. “It’s a family-style kind of operation, but we’re very corporate in how we manage our business. We treat people like they’re part of the family, but they know at the end of the day we have to produce the numbers and results for ourselves.”

Ratos adds that three legs support the organization and keep it rock-steady, the first being customer-centricity. ESBE continues to make decisions based on the customer and how every aspect impacts the customer.

“That’s important to us because that’s how we drive loyalty,” he says. “We do have a lot of loyal customers, and that customer-centricity is driven across the entire organization from our salespeople to our operation, even to our finance people.”

The second leg is supplier engagement. For instance, ESBE won’t be a company that takes on a million suppliers and loses sight of what matters to customers. “We don’t want to create too much competition among suppliers, but at the same time we want to give our customers choice,” says Ratos. “We actually reduced the number of suppliers so we could form stronger partnerships with them.”

In addition, offering too many choices can be overwhelming. ESBE handles this by reducing the number of suppliers it has to key suppliers only, and who are making quality products.

“Anything a customer buys from us, we stand behind, from a service and quality perspective,” Ratos says. “We’re one of the few companies in our industry that have in-house service, giving our customers peace of mind that whenever they buy anything from ESBE, there’s a service team that stands behind it.”

The third and last leg of the three-legged stool is operational excellence. The company’s Vice President of Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Ari Pires, does a “phenomenal” job in management, promoting customer focus, including the ERP system. Operational excellence, Ratos says, involves doing what the customer wants, delivering when they want, the accuracy rate, the timings, and reducing the number of errors.

“It’s also going that extra mile for a customer. If a customer calls and says they didn’t get their shipment, most other companies will put them into the queue and get to them whenever. Not here. We take it personally, and I think our customer loyalty reflects that.”

Part of ESBE’s dedication to providing quality products lies with its five product managers and two agents that work globally, allowing the company to source the world for products that meet customer needs. Product managers and agents bring quality products to ESBE’s table where they go through an internal vetting process, validation, and quality control before they’re sent to customers.

“Once we’re happy with a product, before launching it or introducing the market, we’ll pick customers we know very well that will help try out the products we’re going to onboard,” Ratos says. Once products pass the customer test, ESBE starts launching into the market, confident they have achieved their high standard of quality.

Ratos adds that the high-tenured service component of the organization is also a critical part of the company, bringing vital reassurance to customers.

“These guys are phenomenal,” he says. “I can’t overemphasize the quality of our service technicians and our service team in providing peace of mind for our customers.”

Ratos also praises the company’s sourcing team, which tackled numerous challenges during COVID, including the stoppage of testing kits from U.S. vendors.

“They chose not to supply Canada with critical products we needed for testing and protecting ourselves,” he says. “Our global sourcing team was able to find the product, and we were able to comply with the government requests and provide them with the kits they needed to do all the testing required during the pandemic—even the provincial and federal governments.

“It was key for us. That’s one of our biggest competencies—that we were able to help the Canadian government when they needed us. We all take pride in that.”

ESBE also helped track down cold storage units for the vaccines when they were initially developed. “Again, it just goes to show that as a Canadian company, we bend over backwards for our customers.”

In late 2020, Wiseman was interviewed by Global News following an announcement by The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence and former Minister of Public Services and Procurement, that ESBE Scientific had been awarded a contract to supply Canada with PHCbi -86°C freezers to be used to store COVID-19 vaccines. ESBE answered the call and delivered over 30 freezers (-86°C and -30°C) to the Public Health Agency of Canada without any delay. These freezers were delivered to every Province and Territory in Canada in preparation for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

As ESBE is a distributor, not a manufacturer, it scours the world for products, but there’s always the risk of doing too good a job, prompting offshore suppliers to decide to sell products direct.

“There’s always somebody looking over our shoulder,” says Wiseman. “If you don’t have a proper partnership with your major suppliers, there’s always that risk and it’s happened once or twice to us. Our job is to make sure the manufacturers understand the value we bring that they can’t do on their own if they want to go direct.”

What does ESBE hope to achieve in the upcoming years? The company is heavily focused on the clinical market and is doing an extremely good job there, says Ratos, but it’s looking forward to expanding into the academic and biotechnology markets.

“We offer great products and great service, we’ve just never gone full force into these different market segments,” he says. “Those two areas will be my next challenge and milestones.”

It’s all about meeting clients’ needs for different products, sourcing them, bringing them to market, and keeping customers happy, all of which ESBE excels at. “We’re proud to be Canadian, and proud to be female-owned,” says Ratos. “I don’t know too many companies in our industry or in the market that are female-owned.”

The company’s succession plan for the next few years includes Wiseman passing the torch to her daughter. Until then, Wiseman will continue to uphold ESBE’s commitment to quality and customer service across the board.

“It reflects the positive culture of our workplace,” she says. “Gender doesn’t matter here. We’re all colleagues working together to get the job done. But I agree with Mike that our culture is truly special and unlike any other.”

The post Innovation, Sustainability, and Customer Care<p class="company">ESBE Scientific</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Although competition is fierce within the industry, this sector is reaping the rewards of coming together to advance its interests in the interests of all Canadians through an active national medtech association.

With a history going back 50 years, Medtech Canada is the sole national trade association in the country focusing exclusively on the medical technology industry. Governed by a board of directors representing the unique perspectives of members nationwide, Medtech Canada represents about 120 medtech companies, from small and medium-sized Canadian-owned businesses to multinationals.

Working closely with various levels of government, health professionals, patients, and stakeholders “to deliver a patient-centred, safe, accessible, innovative, and sustainable, universal healthcare system supported using medical technology,” according to the association, Medtech Canada’s mission remains steady: developing and advancing the country’s dynamic medical technology industry.

When it was created in 1973, Medtech was originally called the Canadian Association of Manufacturers of Medical Devices (CAMMD).

“It was founded primarily to engage with the Canadian government on matters relating to the regulatory environment for medical devices,” says Gerry Frenette, Vice President of Public and Member Relations. “It was beneficial for the government and industry to be able to engage through a single body, and the association was born out of that.”

From 1987 to 2019, the Association was called MEDEC (Medical Devices Canada). In 2019, it was rebranded as Medtech Canada, “a brand identity that better reflects the evolving nature of the industry, including the growing digital health offerings from the industry,” says Frenette.

Although regulatory affairs remain an integral focus of the Association to this day—especially engagement with Health Canada—Medtech’s mandate expanded, with the Association striving on behalf of the industry “to optimize the environment in Canada for medical device / technology adoption and the growth of the industry in Canada.”

With five membership categories—full members, allied members, associate members, emerging medical technology (EMT) and honorary members—it makes sense for anyone associated with the industry to join Medtech Canada.

All membership levels (full, allied, associate, and emerging technology) receive weekly e-Pulse bulletins with valuable news and information on important industry issues, stakeholders, advocacy and other industry information, along with member savings programs, business solutions, discounts on Medtech Canada educational seminars and conferences, and much more.

Many of Medtech’s Canadian members and multinational member companies have manufacturing facilities in Canada, making every conceivable product used in the delivery of healthcare. These include pacemakers, MRIs, glucose monitors, wound care products and orthopaedic implants, to name a few.

“In addition to our medical technology company members, we also have membership categories for allied business members, which are companies that provide services to the medical technology industry, and associate members, composed of organizations that are partners to our association,” says Frenette.

Medtech’s mission is “to develop and advance Canada’s innovative medical technology industry.” Some of the many ways the Association speaks for the industry are through advocacy, regulatory affairs, education and information, and Medtech Canada committees.

By working closely with its many members through committees, Medtech learns their needs, develops positions, and promotes their interests to federal and provincial governments, health care organizations, and other stakeholders across Canada.

“We’re an advocacy association which allows members to get involved in improving the environment for the adoption of medical technologies in Canada and ensuring the business environment is conducive to a vibrant industry through engagement in areas such as regulatory and supply chain,” says Frenette.

“Medtech Canada’s staff, often in concert with our members, regularly engages with government officials to ensure that government policies and investment are taking advantage of the benefits offered by medical device technologies to ensure the health of Canadians, create health system efficiencies, and grow this sector that provides meaningful employment to thousands of Canadians.”

Medtech has addressed and provided advice for some of the regulatory issues about the nation’s medical device regulations. These include medical device funding and reimbursement, the performance of the therapeutic products directorate, and other areas.

“We pride ourselves on taking a highly collaborative approach when we engage with government,” says Frenette, “aligning many of our initiatives to help achieve the goals they’re seeking to achieve.”

Through whitepapers, position papers, and government submissions, Medtech Canada informs others about information essential to the medical technology industry in its Whitepapers, Position Papers & Government Submission section (medtechcanada.org/our-work/whitepapers-position-papers-government-submissions.html).

The past few months have seen pre-budget submissions made to Alberta, Ontario, and other provinces, along with position papers and white papers including Innovation and Medical Technology Adoption to Address Medical Services and Surgical Backlogs in Canada, Wound Care in Ontario – Call for Collaborative Action, Addressing the Global Supply Chain and Shipping Crisis, and other important subjects.

Medtech Canada’s advocacy efforts are wide-ranging, with the association working on multiple fronts. On the supply chain side, according to Frenette, Medtech continues advocating that healthcare purchasers allow for increased flexibility in contracts with medical device companies to allow for situations where manufacturers are facing significant cost increases. “We’re pleased that some purchasers have now done this,” he says, “but there’s more that can be done.”

Medtech keeps pressing for increased data from healthcare systems across Canada, which would allow medical device companies to better plan for surgical and procedural volumes. “This is crucial for our members to be able to ensure that the Canadian healthcare system will have the necessary products to enable the delivery of care,” he says.

“We’re optimistic that the recently announced 10-year funding deal between the federal government and the provinces will address this, given that the deal includes a data transparency element.”

Medtech continues to advocate that procurement in Canada be improved. This would shift purchasing away from a disproportionate focus on the lowest price to focusing on the broader value a technology brings to patients and the health care system (value-based procurement).

“Our industry provides immense opportunities to make healthcare systems more efficient and reduce burdens on a strained Canadian healthcare workforce and we’ve highlighted examples through a microsite at www.medtechinnovation.ca/medtechsolutions.”

All industries faced shortages and supply chain issues during the COVID-19 crisis, including members of Medtech Canada.

In the early days of COVID, governments and healthcare systems across the nation were woefully unprepared with regard to stockpiles of necessary pandemic-related products. Nations, including Canada, were competing with other countries for products in short supply. Still, companies and governments alike quickly mobilized and worked together to address these challenges.

“Domestic medical device manufacturers increased their production or adapted their product lines and multinationals brought pandemic product-related manufacturing to Canada—in many instances with the financial support of the government,” says Frenette.

“From a regulatory perspective, Health Canada showed tremendous nimbleness in adapting regulatory pathways for these products to help ensure sufficient supply.

“From Medtech Canada’s perspective, we worked tremendously hard to facilitate connections between companies and governments as they sought products. We helped convey information on regulatory matters, and acted to ensure that medical device company representatives had ongoing access to healthcare facilities to ensure that products were supplied and technical / clinical support was maintained.”

Today, three years after the start of the pandemic, global supply chain challenges and product shortages continue to affect the industry. Still, there is growing recognition of the vital importance of the sector, and Medtech Canada is pleased to be a part of a product shortages group at the federal level seeking to address some of these issues, according to Frenette.

“We also welcome recent investments from the federal government in transportation infrastructure to help address some of these challenges,” he adds.

To increase awareness, Medtech Canada both participates in and hosts regional events across the nation—often in partnership with its regional life science association partners—along with hosting educational webinars throughout the year, some of them open to non-members. The Association will also host its annual Medtech Conference (May 11 in the Greater Toronto Area), and a Regulatory and Quality Medtech Conference this fall.

This year marks Medtech’s 50^th

The post Getting More Done When You Do It Together<p class="company">Medtech Canada</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Addressing every sector of the pharmacy market, including health systems, hospital inpatient pharmacies, outpatient pharmacies, long-term care institutions, and government pharmacies, ARxIUM offers comprehensive and scalable pharmacy solutions by rethinking and redefining how pharmacies operate within healthcare ecosystems, ultimately contributing to better patient care and improved healthcare outcomes.

ARxIUM offers customers in all pharmacy environments a comprehensive selection of pharmacy technology available by combining resources, products, and expertise in an effort to increase patient safety, boost workflow effectiveness, and lower operating costs.

With the goal of making medication dispensing easier and safer, ARxIUM RxWorks™ Pro software helps pharmacies operate more efficiently and effectively by tracking medications across the enterprise. This means the software can handle inventory management and replenishment, packing, storage, and accounting / transactions, allowing hospitals and health systems to view, track, monitor, and act upon their inventory of medications within one hospital or across the entire health system.

“It’s a very difficult operational environment for pharmacy leaders who are trained to be clinicians, not supply chain experts, to keep track of all the medications—what they have, where they’re located, how much they have on hand in terms of quantity and dollar value for each drug,” explains Nhat H. Ngo, Owner and Chief Executive Officer of ARxIUM. “It’s a real challenge every day and is too much for anyone to manage well without the right technologies. Making matters worse are the severe staffing shortages hospitals and health systems are experiencing today.”

RxWorks provides users enterprise-wide visibility to see where medications are located, enabling pharmacists and their teams to create orders to replenish inventory at any given inventory-carrying location.

“It’s a sophisticated system that’s much-needed in the health system today,” says Ngo. “Sometimes it’s a life-and-death situation if you don’t have the right medication on hand when you need it.”

He recounts a story of a set of twins who urgently needed a drug that, due to a lack of enterprise visibility, couldn’t be found within the health system. This situation required the medical team to choose an alternative medication which led to a very serious adverse patient outcome. The hospital later learned that one of its sister hospitals, just a few miles down the road and part of the same IDN (integrated delivery network), had the medication.

“If they’d had enterprise-wide medication inventory visibility, this could have been prevented.”

In short, RxWorks improves patient safety by ensuring medication availability, having the right drugs when needed while also helping to manage and deliver on the five rights of medication management.

“The five ‘rights’ are the right patient getting the right drug at the right time, at the right dose through the right route,” says Ngo. “And this system enables the inventory management required to ensure the availability of the right drug, and particularly at the right time.”

Connected to RxWorks is a system of smart conveyance solutions to support a fast-growing trend in healthcare, the growth of Consolidated Service Centers to consolidate and centralize pharmacy operations to better support the enterprise. Think of hub and spoke—such a system is particularly effective for central fill and mail order prescription fulfillment operations. The idea is when you have a large health system with multiple hospitals and clinics, you need to be able to procure drugs on a consolidated basis. “Doing so optimizes the supply chain while ensuring that medications are distributed more efficiently,” Ngo says. “But more importantly, it’s the idea that you can optimize the entire medication distribution process from beginning to end.”

If a large health system has 10 hospital sites, for example, and each location procures a very expensive drug that comes in a box of 10 vials, and each vial is $1,000, it’s $10,000 per box. Each hospital buys their own box, but not all of the vials will get used by the expiration date.

“They use maybe half, and the rest goes unused and expires, and then they buy the next batch—so a lot of waste,” Ngo says. “But if you buy at a central location—a Consolidated Service Center (CSC)—and you distribute vials to the 10 hospitals, you can monitor the usages. Hospital A gets six, hospital B gets two, hospital C gets eight, depending on their usage, rather than each hospital buying individually and wasting the rest.”

Drug expiration is a big issue as health systems are very inefficient at managing expiration dates, resulting in many wasted drugs, he adds.

With RxWorks, users connect to a smart conveyance system that operates the entire central distribution process. Not only is there visibility to the drugs, but the clinics and hospitals can create requisitions for more drugs with the CSC filling those orders. The required hardware is the combination of a conveyance system and OptiFill™, a principal high-volume vial-filling solution that can handle over 20,000 daily prescriptions at each site. While OptiFill technology plays a significant role, the ARxIUM specialized software makes it work. Referred to as PPS, it acts as the “brain” of any OptiFill system configuration, managing workflow.

“It takes in different types of drugs and fills the drugs into vials and sends them to inventory carrying locations,” Ngo says. “You can do it for inpatient CSC for self-distribution, outpatient central fill, or mail to home operations.”

At the enterprise software visibility level, you’re able to see the orders and work to fulfill them with elegant workflows embedded in RxWorks, he adds. Then the pharmacy technician acts on the orders, with the pharmacy manager approving the order and a pharmacist verifying the fulfillment, as a safety check, all in RxWorks.

How do we get more pharmacies to move to this system? Is it cost or simply creating awareness of the benefits it could bring? “I think there’s certainly awareness,” Ngo says. Called a centralized pharmacy service center, consolidated pharmacy service center, or CPSC, the concept has been talked about since 2015, but only recently gained more traction.

“I’d say in the last few years, health systems [have been] thinking about setting up the CSCs,” Ngo says. Why? The drugs are very expensive, arguably the most expensive in a hospital operating budget, and costs have been rising by double digits over the last five years. “The idea of the CSC mainly has been driven by the need to deliver on important clinical initiatives, improve efficiencies, and reduce costs,” he says.

Certainly, there’s a lot of cost pressure on a health system. 2022 was a very tough year financially for many health systems—their performance was down 38 percent relative to 2021—and the forecast for 2023 is that approximately 70 percent of health systems are either going to break even or will be operating at a loss.

“That’s where the need for ARxIUM RxWorks, OptiFill, and smart conveyance systems come in,” says Ngo, “to design, set up, and run these CSCs. Combined, our connected solutions and expertise in pharmacy workflows help health system leaders achieve their vision for a CSC.”

On the patient safety and precision side, the RIVA™ system has become the standard when it comes to robotic sterile IV compounding. A fully automated IV compounding system created for hospital pharmacies, RIVA consistently and precisely produces IV syringes and bags, solving patient and pharmacy technician safety concerns, overall pharmacy efficiency, and ongoing regulatory environment obstacles by automating a significant part of the sterile compounding process.

“We’re very proud of our RIVA system,” says Ngo. “What sets the RIVA system apart and differentiates it in the marketplace is its accuracy and reliability. RIVA has accurately and safely prepared more than 14 million doses across all installations. It’s just very reliable.”

Finally, the MedSelect™ automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) from ARxIUM—together with a wide range of additional technologies intended to expand functionality—improve fulfillment accuracy and boost overall facility efficiency, lowering medication errors, controlling costs, complying with regulatory bodies, and boosting employee productivity. “It’s for pharmacy and nursing, to make sure medications are placed throughout the hospitals so nurses can take care of their patients by having access to the drugs when they’re needed,” Ngo says.

Think of ADCs as an ATM, says Ngo, where a nurse puts in their ID to access the medications. “You click on the patient whose drugs are due at noon, and cabinet drawers open and the bins open,” he says. “The nurse takes the medications and administers those medications to the patient.”

These ADCs can be placed on the surgery floor, in the ICU, and in the ER. “It’s another way to deliver on the five rights of medication management, having the right drugs available to the right patient,” says Ngo.

Holistically it all works together, from the supply chain to the RxWorks software and the smart conveyance CSC solutions that receive the drugs from the wholesaler. If you need a drug, you can see where this particular dose is located at your 10 hospitals or 300 clinics.

“I think what makes ARxIUM special is our single technology platform, and all hardware products, even competing solutions, can connect to this platform,” Ngo explains. “Having a connected system work that works well together is a beautiful thing, and RxWorks is the brain and backbone to make that happen.”

Along with the best-in-class RIVA, ARxIUM believes its combination of RxWorks and the smart conveyance system uniquely positions the company to partner with health systems as they implement consolidated service centers in the coming years. “We believe we have a game changer,” Ngo says. “Given the financial pressures facing health systems, pharmacies can utilize ARxIUM solutions to reduce cost while repositioning strategically as a revenue and profit center.”

Eight to 10 percent of a hospital’s annual drug budget is being wasted due to drug expiration or diverted. For a $100 million annual drug spend, for example, the cost of waste is substantial. With the ARxIUM systems, “you can ensure that significantly more of the drug budget is actually used for patient care. When I visit hospital pharmacies, they have waste bins for expired medications,” Ngo says. “There has to be a better way. It’s a huge opportunity to automate and optimize manual workflows, eliminate operational headaches, and make sure medications are available when patients need them.”

Ngo says he’s particularly proud not only of having the solution and technology, but the ARxIUM ability to support clinicians to provide quality patient care, while doing so at a reduced cost.

“We do that through our people, and our people have very deep knowledge and expertise and understanding of pharmacy workflows,” he says. “I’m super excited about the positive impact we’re making in healthcare. ARxIUM is delivering compelling next-generation solutions that are taking pharmacy operations to the next level.”

The post Game Changer: Making Medication Dispensing Easier, Faster, Safer<p class="company">ARxIUM</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The iWALKFree is an FDA-registered crutch alternative offering unmatched mobility and releasing users from the grind, pain, and hassle of traditional crutches and knee scooters.

Whether you have a sprained ankle, Achilles injury, fractured foot or ankle, lower leg amputation, or any other non-weight-bearing lower leg injury, iWALKFree is a crutch substitute that offers an unparalleled level of movement, carrying out daily tasks and regaining freedom.

In 1999, a farmer from Ontario fell from his roof and broke his ankle. There’s no time off in farming, so, unable to do his chores on traditional crutches, he propped his knee on a stool and continued working. That was when the idea that it would be great if the stool could just move around with him popped up.

He built the original iWALKFree prototype from wood in less than an hour after his moment of creative insight. It allowed full use of his hands and arms, along with support for his injury, granting him unique independence and activity throughout his recovery.

Sunnybrook Health Science Center in Toronto, one of the top North American centers for orthopedic research, took note of the device, leading the company to pursue clinical trials and patent protection.

They next developed and refined the design with the help of experienced technical and medical advisors, and Health Canada’s Therapeutic Goods Program granted the iWALKFree crutch a Medical Device Establishment License.

The Canadian Minister of Health gave the iWALKFree crutch its approval in 1999 and it was released to Canadian customers in June 2000, followed by CE certification in Europe and registration with the FDA as a medical device in the U.S.

“Like a lot of different companies, the iWALK started by accident,” says President Brad Hunter, referencing the founder’s fall and ankle break. “And from those humble beginnings, we’re now where we are today.”

When Hunter came on board, he himself had just hurt his ankle and was on crutches for the first time in his life. “I had no idea just how limiting they were,” he says. “I couldn’t even get through my day. I couldn’t do anything.”

With a background in manufacturing, Hunter recognized both the opportunities and challenges of the product and also how to scale it out. Since his involvement, iWALKFree is now available in over 35 countries around the world.

“If you’ve been on crutches, you know how hard it is. Every little thing is difficult whether just trying to get through a door, go up and down stairs, cook in your kitchen, walk your dog, push a shopping cart, or work. Everything is difficult or impossible.”

The iWALK crutch recruits the uninjured part of the affected leg, essentially acting as a healthy lower limb. When walking, you’re using the same muscle memory and walking mechanisms you’ve used your entire life, says Hunter, as has been proven through clinical research. Once you grasp how to use it by adjusting your gait slightly, you learn and adapt very quickly.

The company also provides instructional videos to help users make necessary height adjustments, along with a range of other considerations including leg shape and stance. “But it’s way easier than you think it’s going to be and it’s amazing,” Hunter says.

“There are a lot of things you’ve never thought about: for example, are you knock-kneed? Or bow-legged? You probably don’t know,” he says. “We’ve designed it so that you have all those controls, and you can tailor it to mimic your own leg’s geometry.”

While traditional crutches or a scooter may appear to provide stability, the iWALK is easier to balance on, as was proven through university research. It may look unfamiliar and call for minor adaptation to your existing skill set for walking, but in practice, the iWALKFree crutch boasts an impeccable safety record. In fact, it’s proven to be safer than either crutches or knee scooters.

“There are preconceived notions that this might be unstable or difficult to learn, or hurt your knee,” Hunter says. “We have to dispel these myths because none of these things are happening.”

Not only does the iWALKFree provide excellent physical benefits, but also mental ones as well, he adds, with the obvious one of simply being able to perform all necessary daily tasks without the inhibitions created by crutches or scooters.

Of course, the medical benefits are also tremendous. The company’s considerable clinical research has shown using iWALKFree allows for better muscle activation, which translates to less muscle atrophy as well as improved blood flow, which is critical in healing. “We can’t emphasize this enough,” Hunter says.

In simple terms, your heart sends the blood out, and muscle activity sends the blood back. Without muscle activity, the blood will pool, particularly in the lower leg which is the furthest from the heart.

“When you’re using an iWALK, not only are the muscles of your upper leg activated because you’re walking on it but because it’s so much like regular walking the lower leg muscles are activating in the same sequence as they would for normal human walking,” says Hunter.

Better blood flow not only reduces the risk of DVT—deep vein thrombosis (blood clots)—but also pushes healing nutrients to the affected area, resulting in faster healing, higher compliance, less fatigue, and fewer re-injuries. Hunter adds that, “when the medical community learns of this, it’s going to make the iWALK crutch the go-to device over crutches or knee scooters.”

Of course, this depends on patients using the device properly and for the medically suggested length of time, another reason why iWALKFree’s ease of use is so beneficial—users are less likely to take shortcuts.

“Most people on crutches will cheat, and they risk the potential of reiinjury, which is not uncommon,” Hunter says. “The reason they cheat is that they can’t function on crutches—not even to get a cup of coffee and carry it across the room—so they hop on one foot and wind up putting weight on their leg and reinjuring themselves. Compliance is much higher with the iWALK, which is a big thing.”

Despite these advantages, one of the company’s challenges is raising awareness of the device’s existence and what it does. Educating the general public and the medical community and making iWALKFree more available and visible is a long haul, but one the company is willing to tackle through doctors, word-of-mouth, personal research, and digital marketing.

“If you go on Google and type in crutches or something related to your injury, it’s very likely that one of our ads or a link to our website will appear, so you can find out if the iWALK is right for you,” says Hunter.

The company also does a lot of medical outreach, corresponding directly with physicians, but the competition—large, well-established big pharma companies in all fields also vying for doctors’ time and attention—is formidable.

“But more and more doctors are learning about the benefits of the iWALK and recommending it to their patients,” says Hunter. “Once you’ve seen somebody on iWALK, you can’t unsee it. It’s really memorable.”

Customers are often the best, least biased salespeople: Not only are they seen using the device in public, they share their experiences with those using crutches, and while 50 million crutches are sold each year for below-the-knee injuries, says Hunter, only one company creates the iWALK crutch.

“Market potential is 50 million units per year. Because we were first to market, we were able to identify design elements essential for proper functioning of the device, so we patented them,” he says.

Patented worldwide, iWALKFree is poised to challenge traditional crutches that are the status quo and at the same time are universally hated.

“It’s just bizarre that the iWALK is not more popular than it is,” Hunter says. “It will be, but it’s a matter of time. I’m surprised it’s taking as long as it is, but two things come to mind. They say if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. It turns out that’s no longer true. The other one was Rome wasn’t built in a day. That one is true.”

All this means the marketing component is key. The product is fantastic, it’s scalable, and the manufacturing is in place, Hunter says. “But part of the challenge of marketing the iWALK crutch is that we’re not really relevant unless you need crutches—then we become very relevant.”

The product may be simple in concept, but it boasts numerous selling points.

The first-generation product was a breakthrough, but it was large and heavy, making it costly to warehouse and ship—and of course, relatively heavy to wear. It lacked many of the necessary adjustments to make it work efficiently in a one-size-fits-all scenario. But it proved the concept and launched the company.

Competing with crutches at $50 a pair meant pricing was extremely important. So while it’s never easy to manufacture something, the manufacturing cost is an even bigger challenge, says Hunter. The company realized early on that when the product started kicking off all by itself at some point, without proper planning, scalability would become a problem.

“From the get-go, it was manufactured with all of those things in mind,” Hunter says. “It had to work and have all the functionality so that customers could get what they needed, but it had to be economical. It had to be compact where possible, and scalable, because if our sales doubled, or tripled, or quadrupled, which is entirely possible at some point, then you have a manufacturing problem.”

To combat some of these issues, iWALKFree uses commonly available materials, such as polypropylene and nylon six in the thermoplastics and 6061 and 6063 alloy aluminum extrusions, which are available from multiple manufacturers anywhere in the world. The foam and fabrics used are also common materials, combining to create an economical price point of $159. And it now weighs a mere 4.8 lbs. (2.1 kg), which is on par with a standard pair of crutches.

The device is also compact: It fits into a shoe-sized box, requires no inner protective packaging and snaps together without tools. It’s extremely strong and durable, especially for its light weight. The iWALK had to pass a full regimen of laboratory tests to ensure that the device is safe.

“It was pretty obvious from the get-go that the success of the device was going to be largely dependent on how we manufactured it,” Hunter says.

Now the challenge lies in gaining recognition around the world as well as working on health and workers compensation insurance. While the iWALKFree is reimbursed by many private insurance companies, the goal is to make it an across-the-board, consistent policy. But, Hunter says with all the red tape involved, both innovation and patients end up suffering.

“There’s absolutely no reason why it won’t become the universal standard of care. With every unit that we sell, we’re helping somebody in a significant way at a time when they really need it. And that’s the part for me that’s just so enticing about this entire thing.”

The company receives many unsolicited testimonials from customers grateful to have their lives back, whether a parent looking after a child or someone in danger of losing their job due to an accident. The team also has many high-profile celebrities who have used and endorsed the iWALK. Eleven world champion athletes and Olympic gold medalists have also used and praised the iWALK—and iWALK has never paid for an endorsement.

“When you’re on crutches you get your whole life taken away from you, and then all of a sudden, with the iWALK, unexpectedly you get it back. It’s a really big deal,” says Hunter. “It’s so cliché, but we hear it all the time from our customers—and they use the words game changer.”

The company understood early on that changing a paradigm of thought would be one of its biggest challenges, with crutches having been done much the same way for thousands of years and scooters having a 20-year head start, Hunter says, but his confidence in the product is unwavering.

“I hope you don’t ever need an iWALKFree, but sometime, maybe, you’ll be glad that we exist,” he adds. “I’ve researched it thoroughly, and I can’t think of any reason why the iWALK won’t become the standard of care. There are just too many benefits. It’s for sure the future of mobility.”

The post Walk This Way – Taking Injuries and Accidents in Stride<p class="company">iWALKFree</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“We feel like we can make an impact not only to our customers but on a global scale by providing services around industrial automation,” states company Founder and Chief Executive Officer Bobby Cole.

For all its technical expertise, the fledgling firm—Think-PLC was founded in June 2019—excels at relationship building and helping people under difficult circumstances.

“We’re all pretty innovative. The difference is how we manage our systems and how we look at people,” he says, reflecting on his competition.

As befitting the company name, programmable logic controller (PLC) devices—the core elements of industrial control systems—are central to its mission. PLCs are used to monitor performance, collect, and transmit data, and control automated machinery, robotics, and processes.

“Programmable logic controllers are industrial computers… People have programmable logic controllers in their factories running machines; they have them in jails keeping the doors closed; they lift and close bridges. The electrical controls and programmable logic controller itself is what we specialize in,” explains Cole, adding, “We are ‘controls’ guys.”

Think-PLC contracts out some duties but self-performs most of its own work, with manufacturing and fabrication performed at the North Carolina facility. Specializations include panel building, cable assembly, and machine shop services. The firm has certification from both UL and National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). Based in Illinois, UL offers audit-based certification. Headquartered in Massachusetts, the non-profit NFPA sets national codes for ‘safe electrical design, installation and inspection,’ in its own words.

UL “is the quality standard for control panels we manufacture here. We provide a design that is to UL and NFPA spec,” states Cole.

Think-PLC also maintains a branch in East Tennessee staffed by “house engineers for local deployment in that territory,” he says.

With twenty-two employees, the company wants new hires with certain qualifications. “Eighty percent of the time, what we’re interviewing for is a controls engineer, so we’re looking for someone with some kind of tech school background in the industrial automation sector.” The company employs a multi-step ‘slow hire’ process that involves interviews, a written test to gauge an applicant’s awareness of industrial standards and industry knowledge, and a remote test with “a real-world system,” he continues.

It also uses a profile test called ‘The Working Genius’ developed by business writer Patrick Lencioni, to gain a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of people who want to join the staff. Once hired, Think-PLC staff members receive complete medical benefits and unlimited, paid time off.

Being empathic and able to work well with others are additional qualities that might help get one hired. The company is proud of its stellar service and will dispatch technicians around the world to update, repair, and maintain client systems or provide training.

“We’re definitely, believe it or not, in a relationship business,” states Cole. “When you need help, and you’re in dire straits, we’re the last-ditch service that gets your livelihood back.”

By this, he is referring to Think-PLC’s role in providing end-of-life care for legacy automation controls. As he notes, buying a new manufacturing machine or industrial system can be enormously expensive and disruptive. “It’s a big deal. It’s like why we keep a car for ten years: you don’t want to spend money on a new car,” he points out.

At “a tenth of the cost of a new machine,” and a fraction of the hassle, the company can provide upgrades in the form of new controls, new capabilities, and technical support to keep industrial automation systems in good working condition, he says.

In another example of relationship building, Think-PLC formed a partnership with Siemens, which makes industrial automation controls and a slew of other sophisticated products. Siemens solutions are used around the world in sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, industry, healthcare, and infrastructure.

“A big reason we are a Siemens solution partner is because of the lifecycle they offer for their products. They go way longer than their competition,” Cole adds.

Being involved with Siemens also helps Think-PLC stay on top of technological trends. Over the past few years, there has been much buzz about the internet of things (IoT), connectivity, remote monitoring, and artificial intelligence (AI) within manufacturing and industrial circles. Siemens has already been experimenting with solutions that use AI.

Information gathering is central to all these trends. “I think getting data is ever so important to manage your business,” he states. “All the manufacturers that make the control equipment we use have added some level of analytical data collection or connectivity to their product.”

Previously, he was involved with another company that offered similar services. That firm had three owners, each with a different viewpoint on how to run the business. This proved unworkable, so he, along with some colleagues from the older firm, split to launch the new company.

Cole put all his finances into Think-PLC but had a sense of confidence about the business, born of his long experience as an entrepreneur and his skill in building relationships. In 2020, he joined a corporate leadership organization called Vistage which offered further inspiration. The global organization offers CEO coaching and advisory networks made up of fellow executives.

“It’s a C-suite-level peer group. I’d always asked for that in the past. The other business partners were not vulnerable enough to talk about finances and struggles with other people. I wanted that peer accountability,” says Cole.

Vistage “has become a big part of my life now. It’s not just about being the best controls engineer anymore. Now it’s about being the best leader I can be. To create the best company that somebody else would want to be proud of,” he continues.

Membership in Vistage helped guide him through the COVID crisis. He was in Melbourne, Australia “when COVID started to be a thing in March 2020,” he recalls.

Cole was urged to get home quickly by colleagues who feared that he might not be able to return to the United States given increasingly strict travel restrictions. He made it back to headquarters and had to cope with the virus’ impact on his workforce and the bottom line. As part of Vistage, he was able to share insights, advice, and suggestions with fellow corporate leaders, which helped immensely during the upheaval.

Business-wise, Think-PLC did well during the pandemic, doubling its staff in 2020. Many of the company’s clients have connections to the food and beverage sector, which experienced booming revenues as housebound people stocked up on groceries or ordered in more frequently.

Just before COVID struck, the company received a huge assignment. “We had one of the largest projects in my career on the horizon going into March 2020,” says Cole.

The project involved donut maker Krispy Kreme, one of its largest customers. The donut chain wanted to build a flagship store in Times Square in New York City. Construction was delayed because of the pandemic but Think-PLC did not throw in the towel and continued to work on the project.

“We spent most of [2020] hunkered down working on that project. Me and my team spent time in downtown New York City helping facilitate Krispy Kreme donut machines being installed,” he says. The Krispy Kreme Times Square flagship store eventually opened to great fanfare in mid-September 2020 and now serves donuts around the clock.

While Think-PLC flourished on the business front during COVID, the virus is still causing headaches. Cole cites pandemic-related supply chain issues as his biggest challenge at present.

“It’s all we talk about. Four hours a day, I am chasing parts down. We have meeting after meeting about what are we going to do because we’re not getting parts on time,” he states.

Supply woes aside, the company continues to do extremely well. The company currently does about $7 million in revenue a year, all without salespeople or active promotion, as the firm is “a largely word-of-mouth business,” according to Cole.

The company would like to open new branches down the road and might take a more proactive approach when it comes to promotion and sales. Recently, it hired its first mechanical engineer and now has a staff machinist to broaden the company’s service offerings.

“Five years from now [I see] organic growth. I can also see over the next five years finding a strategic acquisition,” Cole states. “I think I’ve made it clear what’s important to us. It’s not sales, sales, sales. It’s not profit, profit, profit. It’s people, people, people,” he says.

The post Automated Control Systems, Human Relationships<p class="company">Think-PLC</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Until recently, he worked exclusively for Systematix, a company that custom-designed and built automation systems for manufacturers. In 2021, it was acquired by Samuel, Son & Co. a ‘leading metals and industrial products manufacturer, processor and distributor,’ in its own words. Founded in 1855 and based in Oakville, Ontario, it boasts a global presence. Samuel joined Systematix with CAID Automation and RAMP, two other automation and technology companies it owned, and the group was born.

Custom design work remains the norm at the new company. “Our customer always brings the process they want done and, typically, provides some form of user requirement specification. We call it a URS. Some customers leave it up to us to specify the hardware,” says Lague.

Samuel ASG’s automation systems are used for testing, inspecting, components assembly, packaging, and robotic handling. Solutions often contain camera systems or vision sensors as well as data collection tools. Automation solutions developed by the company are intended to increase productivity, streamline operations, and identify flawed parts. Some solutions also feature remote monitoring capability, so clients can scrutinize the performance of their systems.

Most of its work is self-performed although the company does buy equipment from outside companies, including robotics from FANUC, ABB, and other original equipment manufacturers.

Its main markets range from automotive and transportation to life sciences and consumer products. Within these categories are specific sub-markets; life sciences, for example, includes medical devices and pharmaceutical wares, while consumer products include window and door automation solutions.

As far as Lague is concerned, the creation of Samuel ASG has been a boon for everyone involved.

“Prior to being acquired by Samuel, Systematix had been in business for just over thirty years providing complex assembly solutions to a wide variety of customers. We had a very high percentage of repeat customers, and our customer base was relatively stable. Samuel gave us visibility to a larger customer base, and at the same time, the Samuel brand has created some additional exposure in the marketplace we didn’t have before,” he asserts.

Mutual assistance is one of the benefits of being under the Samuel, Son, and Co. umbrella. “We’ve begun working with the different Samuel companies, helping them find automation opportunities to improve their quality, production throughput, that sort of thing. So, we’ve done a number of smaller projects, and we’ve got one bigger line for a plant about an hour away from us here,” says Lague.

“We’ve capitalized on the companies’ ability to work with each other. For example, CAID Automation has engaged in design efforts for Systematix on a project where we needed extra resources. CAID has also helped on an installation in the U.S. for RAMP. They had people who were local they could send in and help with that install at the customer’s site.”

Sales teams for the three companies “now have a larger range of capabilities that they can sell to customers,” he adds.

Customers have also benefitted. Whereas in the past, a client might have had to work with several automation firms to complete a project, the entire assignment can now be handled by Samuel ASG depending on the skill sets involved.

While the individual companies within the group have become stronger, the company remains nimble and quick on its feet. “Across our business units, we have financial stability, processes, and expertise that is similar to the largest automation companies in the world, but we’re more agile and can provide lower cost solutions because we don’t have the overhead some of these really big companies have. We operate three independent companies that communicate well,” Lague states.

Samuel ASG has roughly two hundred employees. Experience is preferred in new hires, but it appreciates other traits as well. “Seasoned automation professionals are one of the things we’re always on the lookout for. We want self-starting, team-oriented individuals—people who like to problem solve and work with technology. Someone who likes to learn would fit very well into our organization because we’re constantly doing new stuff. We hire from both streams as far as college or university are concerned. We also have apprenticeship programs in different areas of our business. We can intake team members at all sorts of different areas,” he says.

In fitting with this innovative culture, it has a strong online presence, with profiles on social media platforms, but this is augmented by old-school promotion. The company regularly attends trade shows such as the upcoming Automate conference in Detroit this May.

In addition to innovation, Systematix and its sister companies have a reputation for doing quality work.

Systematix is ISO-certified and Samuel ASG has developed business best practices for “all areas: project management, shop floor, and design. These have been established and rolled out to each of the business units. As we grow and we add a new company, we compare our current standards with what the new company brings, and then we’ll try to make everything better. This has all been done in collaboration with the three businesses, and as we grow, we’re going to see if we can continue to improve our processes,” Lague explains.

When it comes to noteworthy projects, he mentions a jumbo-sized assignment involving an assembly line for truck transmissions. “The finished product was over seven thousand pounds when completed,” he notes, adding that the solution was shipped before the Christmas holidays.

As with every industry in North America, Samuel ASG had to cope with COVID. When the virus spread in early 2020, the company went into action. Desks were separated, and an employee temperature check-in system was established. The company tried to encourage remote work but discovered this model was not a good fit.

“Because a lot of our work is based on innovation, we like people being closer together so they can talk when they have ideas… We’re a workforce of problem-solvers. Our people are curious about team things. They thrive in the team environment that we need to complete our systems,” says Lague.

The company’s bottom line was not battered by COVID as some of the clients with which it works supply masks and testing devices so it was “actually very busy during COVID,” he recalls. Still, it has experienced virus-related supply chain woes.

“The stuff you’re hearing about all over is happening to us too. The chip shortage has caused us a lot of problems. The backlogs, because of the shutdowns in China that are affecting everybody’s supply chains and the components that we buy, that’s really affected our deliveries,” he says.

The company has been known to improvise in the face of supply chain delays. If commercial semiconductor chips are not available, a lift-locate unit might be fabricated in-house as a temporary stand-in for testing during the construction of a conveyor system.

Not counting COVID, Lague says hiring is the biggest challenge. “Finding talented people with a thirst for knowledge and experience in our field, it’s tough to do. We’re always looking. We’ve got postings on LinkedIn and Indeed. We attend college and university recruiting fairs. We host job fairs where we open up our facilities and invite candidates to come in and see what we do.”

In the future, growth, new services, and a continued emphasis on innovation are all on the agenda. The company has hired a new service manager to create “some new after-sales service offerings,” and is participating in pilot projects involving artificial intelligence (AI), says Lague. These projects were started by the parent company before the birth of the ASG.

“Now that we’re working with them, we’re going to do two or three test projects this year to actually put [AI] on equipment we build for Samuel and then be able to run it in-house so we can learn what it does, what its capabilities are, what the worth is to our customers, and ultimately, get out of that something we can offer to the marketplace,” he explains.

While each location within Samuel ASG is growing organically, the company is also keeping an eye out for “strategic acquisitions that can give us more of a technical capability and greater regional support throughout North America,” he continues.

Moving forward, “We are actively planning the Samuel ASG to have more business units in it and for these to be in regions mostly in the U.S. [That’s] where we’re looking to grow and to gain more technical know-how in the process,” Lague adds.

The post Stronger Together<p class="company">Samuel Automation Solutions Group</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

At home in Neenah, Wisconsin, Innovative Machining offers contract machining and fabrication solutions with assembly and paint shop capabilities, rapid lead periods, all-week fabrication output, and fast set-up strategies. The company’s wealth of third-party relationships also means that everything from anodizing, gear cutting, grinding, heat treating, painting, plating, and much more is performed to top standards under the watchful eyes of its knowledgeable industry professionals.

This, in addition to its ISO 9001:2015 certification, makes the company a favorite amongst equipment leaders in the medical, defense, marine, and automation industries, and even off-road recreational vehicle fabricators with on-demand component requirements. The team is proud of its considerable, diverse customer base and justifiably so. It is trusted to deliver high-end components when and where customers need them most. While the company has a strong presence in the Midwest, it serves all of the United States and Mexico.

This powerhouse is also well-known for prototyping parts. The company has become especially known for hard-wearing metal frames for MRI scanning equipment used in the medical industry.

“Having all services under one roof sets us apart from competitors. We can offer lower-cost products because we don’t have to keep on sending parts to another supplier to complete another part of the process,” says President Marc Jankowski.

The fabricator’s 125,000-square-foot facility’s capacities are breathtaking, handling parts that weigh up to 44,000 pounds, with computer numerical control lathes capable of turning material measuring around 22.8 inches in diameter and 80 inches in length. It also does four-axis machining with rotary tables and palletized manufacturing.

As its founder had instilled such a sense of self-reliance into the company’s culture, it sailed through COVID-19 with comparative ease and remained as in demand as ever. Despite being retired, the founder/owner visits the plant regularly to keep an eye on things and ensure that its culture continues to go from strength to strength. As the company’s vast range of capabilities continues to grow, adapting to whichever industry is most robust within any given economic timeframe is easy. This astute approach to business also won the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award in 2010.

The expertise of the roughly eighty staff members is, of course, a necessary addition to achieving a customer’s goal in the way they had envisioned it. Innovative Machining employs people with diverse skills and knowledge to ensure that, no matter what a client needs, there is an expert at hand to assist.

A dedicated quality manager monitors specifications, ensuring that these meet standards. To guarantee good communication, contributors meet in-house to discuss the goals and specifications and map the most appropriate plan of action at the beginning of new projects. These meetings are followed by weekly meetings to keep projects on track.

The proactive team never stops evolving, and neither do the machines. One machine in particular enables creators to set up six, independently-run projects instead of only two, which was the maximum capacity on the older model of this specific machine.

“Not many shops can say that they have as many skilled machinists as we have,” says Jankowski. In January 2022, the company installed a Hexagon Metrology Global S coordinate-measuring machine, bringing its fleet of these workhorses to three. The new arrival allows its quality laboratory to assess much bigger components. Alongside this, a new scanning probe has also been installed and adds improved sophistication to its measuring capabilities.

In addition, it installed a Colonial vertical pull-down broaching machine that significantly increased its output volumes. This machining process uses a toothed tool to remove material. The company also bought a vertical machining center last year. The Mazak VTC-250D is a 50-taper with Mazak’s SmoothG Control and will reapply to billet prototyping projects. “All our new equipment generates a lot of excitement from all our employees, especially those who have been with us for over ten years,” says Jankowski.

As well as its recent investment in modern equipment, the company continuously welcomes new talent to its floor. To draw the best people possible, the shop floor is kept as clean and comfortable as possible, and the fabrication facility is air-conditioned in the summer.

“We worked a lot on organizing our shop, making sure everything is orderly and people have a clean work environment. It has come to be a good company culture that we’ve built here,” Jankowski adds.

People earn good money here and overall remuneration packages are attractive. Salaries are in the top quarter across the region, and its benefits rank in the top ten percent in the same geographic area. The company also offers a 401(k) plan with a company match. In addition, it adjusts salaries annually according to its financial situation, at a minimum always covering inflation.

Innovative Machining is also affiliated with a local college, where novices are sent to gain more education once they have finished their apprenticeship program. Based on their performance, the company pays for that too. With as many as six apprentices currently concluding the apprenticeship program, the approach is proving successful and worth every dime.

These investments reflect in the quality of work that constantly brings in new customers and keeps old customers returning. Recently, a customer in the medical equipment trade even brought over work that was half-finished by another firm that could not deliver on the specifications.

“It was quite a success story in that we are delivering them a better product now… and it was a good team effort internally to provide them with a superior product,” Jankowski says. At Innovative Machining, employees’ voices matter, and everybody’s ideas are always considered.

In the eyes of the company’s leadership, the team’s work ethic is second to none. “Our people take their work seriously. They want the company to succeed. It is amazing how involved they want to get in making sure that the projects succeed,” he continues.

This commitment has translated into very steady growth. By continuing to grow its team, its equipment, and its capabilities, Innovative Machining is setting itself up for considerable future success.

The post 28 Years of Top Quality Machining<p class="company">Innovative Machining</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.