Optimation Blog

Are Robots the Answer?

During this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our customers, both new and longstanding, have been rethinking how they deploy their employees, and how they utilize process automation to manufacture their products. Mask wearing and social distancing have become the norm for the foreseeable future and guaranteeing the safety of people in their workplace has become a primary concern. With these new pressures as catalysts, our clients are considering automation as a means to space out people on the production floor, with the added benefit of substituting machinery to do mundane tasks so employees can be moved into new roles where they can add more creative value.

Optimation creates some of the most unique and innovative manufacturing processes and machines in the world. In order to do this, Optimation employees about a hundred engineers in a variety of industrial specialties and employs about a hundred tradesmen engaged in the industrial trades. Recently, I have been blogging about a few of our favorite projects in a variety of industries. Some of these projects were done for large established companies while many others have been completed for small startup companies. Some were totally new technologies, some to improve existing processes, and some simply to increase capacity. Optimation has hundreds of clients and completes over 1,000 different projects each year. A large percentage of what Optimation designs and creates includes research and development. Our passion at Optimation is to grow the manufacturing base in the United States. Yankee ingenuity and American creativity provide the innovation that can make this happen. Optimation engineers create the designs. Our skilled journeymen bring these designs to life.

Optimation employees about a hundred engineers and a hundred tradesmen to create some of the most unique and innovative manufacturing machines in the world. I’ve been blogging about some of our favorite projects in the past. Some of our projects were done for large established companies while many others have been completed for small startup companies. Optimation has hundreds of clients and completes over 1,000 different projects each year. A large percentage of what Optimation designs and creates includes research and development. Our passion at Optimation is to grow the manufacturing base in the United States. Yankee ingenuity and American creativity provide the innovation that can make this happen. Optimation engineers create the designs. Our skilled journeymen bring these designs to life.

Do you remember the beginning of 2020?

At Optimation we design and fabricate manufacturing equipment. We have about a hundred creative and inquisitive engineers and another hundred hard-working and talented tradesmen. Collaborating as a team, they can design and build almost anything. Our passion at Optimation is to grow the manufacturing base in the United States. We have a very diverse client base and the ideas and concepts they want to bring to realization are just as diverse. Imagine being part of a team who provided design support for the world’s largest 3D printer, fabricated vaccine delivery machines, built a test system for a new transatlantic cable, or helped with the creation of systems to reduce or eliminate food waste. Coming to work every morning at Optimation is exciting and each day holds new challenges not yet confronted. Projects are large and small and include pharmaceutical, food and chemical process as well as high speed assembly machines for automotive, military and commercial applications. During the past month Optimation has received several hundred contracts from over 50 different clients. The variety is vast. Recently Optimation was selected by the Rochester Technology Manufacturing Association as a finalist for the Manufacturing Innovation Award, Large Company Division. It is hard to pick preferred clients or most unique projects, but I’ve picked a few of our favorites to tell you about in this blog. I’ll add more blogs in the weeks to come to share other favorites. Optimation engineers create the designs. Skilled journeymen craft workers bring these designs to life in Optimation’s 100,000 square foot fabrication facility.

The first Friday of October every year has been designated as National Manufacturing Day. That day is set aside to proudly celebrate goods and services made in America.  This year, more than ever, we are proud to celebrate American innovation. American manufacturers have led the world in technical development for the past two centuries and have enabled us to unlock new technologies that grow our economy.

Process Monitor (PM) has a long-term track record of eliminating production variability and saving manufacturers millions of dollars a year.

“The core principle of the latent defect theory is that variation in manufacturing processes is the main culprit for defects, and eliminating variation will help eliminate defects, which will in turn eliminate the wastes associated with defects, saving money and increasing customer satisfaction."

As we continue business operations, Optimation has been actively working on fabrications for manufacturing COVID-19 related medical equipment. This has been a boost in our pride of American manufacturing and its continued comeback over the past few years. Measured, steady, and decisive. This is what we’ve told ourselves at Optimation throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. From the very beginning our team is thinking critically about preventing the spread of COVID-19; all while maintaining business operations vital to our clients and community. We have more than accomplished our primary goal of keeping our teammates and their families safe. There continues to be different perspectives on COVID-19 response and what the best option is when considering all stakeholders and complicated issues. This is a healthy debate and will likely allow us to strike a good balance on decisions moving forward. As an Environmental, Health and Safety professional, I must look at risk from the perspective of what is, or is not, an acceptable level. Optimation is a supplier of industrial fabrication, construction, and engineering services to critical infrastructure such as food production, pharmaceuticals/medical devices, and aerospace/defense.

On several previous occasions I have been given the opportunity to blog about one of my passions; capital project execution and the application of a Phases and Gates methodology. As we have previously articulated, Phases and Gates is a shared approach to achieving a business goal, usually involving installing or upgrading manufacturing assets, shared between an end user (the owner) and the chosen solution provider. The beauty of working under a method where the project objectives, technical exploration, definition, and then execution are scripted, and the individual steps with respective deliverables or work product are described as part of the contractual agreement, is that the work process framework promotes clear communication, crisp expectations, and a means to collaborate and manage project risk.

My passion for all things mechanical and engineering go back to my early childhood. Whether it was trying to sell my mom on the idea that modifying a borrowed moped to go just a few MPH faster really was a good idea, or, convincing my brother to convert his skateboard into a street luge; I’ve been tinkering with things, and getting buy from others, from the start. The reason? Growing up with two competitive brothers who both have a similarly strong mechanical interest. It was a boiler room of ideas, where the best ideas, or the most persuasive brother, won out.