Manufacturing : Innovation & Job News

Edward Kim and his team working on a new software program knew they had a commercial hit on their hands, but weren't quite as sure the corporation they worked for was the best place to develop it. So the group of seven pooled their money, bought the program and formed BEET Analytics Technology.

"We felt this software technology had the potential to be a breakout technology," says Edward Kim, managing director of BEET Analytics Technology. "However, it being a part of an industrial company isn't really compatible with developing software technology."

The Plymouth-based business provides diagnostic and analytic software for automation and manufacturing markets. Its software provides insight into manufacturing quality and maintenance performance, along with monitoring capabilities to component level activities. The one-year-old business recently won the Advanced Manufacturing category at the most recent Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest business plan competition.

BEET Analytics Technology has completed the Beta testing for its software and its team of eight people has begun to commercialize it. "We have purchase orders for our product," Kim says.

Source: Edward Kim, managing director of BEET Analytics Technology
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Boeing is looking for a few good suppliers in Metro Detroit, sending a corporate envoy to the Velocity building in Sterling Heights earlier this week to let the business community know it wants to do business in southeast Michigan.

"It could be a few or it could be in the high double digits," says Raul Alvarvo, a small business representative for Boeing. "We're looking for some good suppliers."

The Detroit Regional Chamber's Connection Point program hosted the visit and is helping direct qualified small, disadvantaged, and veteran-owned suppliers from across the state to explore partnership opportunities. Macomb County was a logical landing space because of its concentration of defense and manufacturing companies.

"Macomb County has made no secret about its proficiency in defense," says Trevor Pawl, director of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Connection Point program. "It's a great cluster in our state."

Boeing is looking for suppliers in the defense, commercial and global research areas. It is looking for companies that will take advantage of subcontracting opportunities, develop new technologies and facilitate collaborations with Boeing.

Source: Trevor Pawl, director of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Connection Point program and Raul Alvarvo, a small business representative for Boeing
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

MAHLE Industries is expanding in Farmington Hills location, consolidating another facility in Novi with the newly expanded campus. It's a move that is expected to lead to 350 jobs in Farmington Hills.

The 17-year-old automotive supplier acquired the former Nailco facility at 23200 Haggerty Road, which adjacent to MAHLE Industries current headquarters. The new facility provides the company with an additional 50,000 square feet of office space along with warehouse space that could be used for future growth.

"The building that was right next door was perfect," says Jeff Trent, director of marketing for MAHLE Industries.

MAHLE Industries specializes in manufacturing piston systems, cylinder components, valve train systems, air management systems and liquid management systems. It has hired eight people over the last year and has 13 open positions right now.

"The target is to have the move done by the beginning of 2013," Trent says. "We will begin renovations soon."

Source: Jeff Trent, director of marketing for MAHLE Industries
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

DASI Solutions is consolidating some of its operations in downtown Pontiac, taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in the wake of the recent recession and the city's fiscal crisis.

The 16-year-old tech firm is consolidating its Lake Orion office and its headquarters into a 20,000-square-foot building in downtown Pontiac. Most of the company's 30 employees will work in the new combined office.

"We were about to take advantage of the down real estate market in Pontiac," says David Darbyshire, partner with DASI Solutions. "We were able to purchase the parking we needed, thanks to the emergency manager Louis Schimmel."

The city's fiscal crisis prompted the appointment of an emergency manager to balance the municipality's books. Part of that effort has consisted of selling some assets the city owns, including downtown parking lots. DASI Solutions needed one of those lots to ensure there was enough quality parking for its customers and patrons.

DASI Solutions has been growing market reach, opening new offices in Cincinatti, Indianapolis and Canton. The Canton office is servicing the company's customers in Ann Arbor, Detroit and Monroe. Darbyshire adds that his company's rapid prototyping business has been "doing very well" and the company has watched its technology sales to defense contractors and military agencies increase.

That growth has allowed the company to hire four people in the last six months. It has three job openings now for mechanical engineers and expects to bring more interns on this year to fill out the extra space in its new headquarters in downtown Pontiac.

Source: David Darbyshire, partner with DASI Solutions
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Chase Plastic Services is not only growing its staff but its home office in Clarkston, too.

The 20-year-old thermoplastic distributor has hired a dozen people over the last year, expanding its staff to 85 people and a couple of interns. The company has six openings now for sales people and engineers, and expects to continue hiring at a similar pace for the rest of this year.

Chase Plastic Services also recently finished the first phase of an expansion of its headquarters. The additional 2,000 square feet will house its application and technical development department. The second phase of that expansion is set to begin later this year. That will consist of an expanded, state-of-the-art customer service center, as well as an employee training center and conference room.

Driving all this growth is an expanding bottom line for Chase Plastic Services. Its revenue is up 22 percent over the last year and a similar growth trajectory is projected for 2012. "We have basically doubled the business in two years," says Kevin Chase, president of Chase Plastic Services.

Chase Plastic Services is a distributor of specialty, engineering and commodity thermoplastics. Chase expects to continue adding sales staff to his team to continue adding new clients and growing the company's revenue.

Source: Kevin Chase, president of Chase Plastic Services
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

SERAPID is discovering more and more ways to use its principal product, a rigid chain linear actuator used to light and transfer big, heavy objects. It's happy coincidence that is allowing the Sterling Heights-based company to grow.

SERAPID's telescoping mast units utilize its Rigid Chain lift column, which is powered electro-mechanically. That allows it to avoid issues involved with hydraulics and pneumatics, and allowing for the smooth extension and retraction of the masts even in case of high side forces (wind) or in case of ice build up on the mast surfaces.  The masts can also be used in a temporary installation, and can be positioned fairly quickly.

"The rigid chain actuator has applications in heavy industry, tool and die manufacturing as well as the nuclear and medical fields," says Carol Herriges, marketing manager for SERAPID. "We're finding a lot of different ways to use this."

Those uses include everything from helping tool & die shops move heavy equipment to theater companies moving set pieces to aerospace companies moving heavy products. That diversity of uses is allowing SERAPID to grow, hiring three people in the last three months to its staff of 20 employees and one independent contractor. Most of those new jobs are in the executive or engineering ranks.

"We expect to continue our current growth, our largest need at present is for talented engineering and manufacturing professionals," Herriges says.

Source: Carol Herriges, marketing manager for SERAPID
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Jeffery Trumble spent 30 years working at Ford, helping manage factory floors and helping the automaker integrate technology into its manufacturing. In that time, he noticed the needs of the people on the factory floor weren't always being met, so he decided to meet them with his own start-up Trumble Inc.

The Livonia-based software firm is creating a platform that is more proactive than reactive. The idea is to spot problems early and help eliminate inefficiencies where the manufacturing takes place, on the factory floor.

"It's a floor tool for floor people," says Trumble, president & CEO of Trumble Inc. "We're very, very focused on the factory domain, specifically the factory floor."

Trumble points out that most manufacturing software platforms depend on users to query the system for answers before anything happens. Trumble Inc's platform will recognize a problem in the manufacturing process and alert the right worker to fix it.

"We have come up with a way to identify the responsible person and push that information to that person so they can take corrective action," Trumble says.

Trumble Inc has been developing this platform for five years, and is now working with some major manufacturers like Ford and General Motors to perfect it and prepare it for a broad launch. It recently hired one person, expanding its staff to 10 employees. It is also looking for an intern. Trumble expects his staff to double this year, hiring sales and project management personnel, as it targets OEM mnufacturers and other automotive suppliers.

"I see it growing very, very rapidly over the next 12 months to meet the demand," Trumble says. "We're getting a very positive response from suppliers in both the U.S. and Canada."

Source: Jeffery Trumble, president & CEO of Trumble
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

A123 Systems has some big plans for its Metro Detroit workforce now that the lithium-ion battery manufacturer has won a large contract from General Motors.

"We're talking about hiring 1,000 people in Michigan over the next few years," says Dan Borgasano, PR manager for A123 Systems. "Most of them will be in Livonia and Romulus."

A123 Systems, which calls Massachusetts home, develops and manufactures lithium-ion batteries, which are the battery packs that power hybrid-electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt. The manufacturer employs 1,000 people in Michigan, most of whom work in the company's Livonia and Romulus production facilities.

The contract includes advanced Nanophosphate cells and fully integrated electronic components. GM battery engineering teams have tested and validated the A123 battery chemistry at the automaker's Global Battery Systems lab in Warren. Teams from both companies will now work on developing calibrations and software controls for the battery system in preparation for production.

Source: Dan Borgasano, PR manager for A123 Systems
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

General Electric is ramping up its hiring at its Van Buren Township facility, hiring more than 160 people so far this year, and 660 since the fall of 2009, to staff its new Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Center.

"We could not be more thrilled with the quality of talent we have been able to bring in house," says Deia Campenelli, a spokeswoman for General Electric.

GE took over the former Visteon Village campus in Van Buren Township as part of a state tax incentive deal to create 1,100 IT jobs by the end of 2011. These new workers are conducting intensive IT work for a broad range of divisions of GE.

"They're covering the gamut of IT," Campenelli says.

The Michigan Economic Development Corp originally helped woo GE to invest $100 million into the largely vacant site originally built for Ford automotive supplier Visteon. The MEDC provided $60 million in tax incentives over 12 years to make the deal happen.

Source: Deia Campenelli, spokeswoman for General Electric
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Tor Hough, Robert Justin and Gary Morin are building a start-up, ELM Analytics, based partly on the region's old economy (automotive suppliers) and mixing it with the new economy (information gathering and management).

The Rochester-based company is gathering and organizing pertinent information on more than 20,000 automotive supplier plants. That information includes everything from part processes and material lists for individual factories to which ones are corporate-owned and which are independent. The idea is to offer an information service so automotive executives can make more informed business decisions.

"Decisions in the automotive industry tend to get made from a strategy standpoint using more intuition than facts," says Hough. "We want to be the go-to resources for supplier data in the automotive industry."

ELM Analytics' founder have years of experience in supply chain data management, prompting them to buy the useful assets of ELM International last December. Since then they have been overhauling the back-end technology and gathering more data with an eye for launching their service this summer.

Source: Tor Hough and Gary Morin, co-founders of ELM Analytics
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Acromag took its lumps in the recession like just about everyone else. But the Wixom-based high-tech firm has healed and grown strong again, adding to its staff as it ramps up production.

"We're very diverse," says Robert Greenfield, marketing communications manager for Acromag. "We have been able to weather a number of cyclical markets."

The firm specializes in high-tech computer design and manufacturing for measurement instruments in a variety of industries, such as aerospace. It also develops and builds Ethernet and network hardware. It has averaged 6-percent revenue growth over its lifetime.

An Internet sales manager was recently hired and there are open positions for application and design engineers. It is ramping up hiring in preparation for more domestic manufacturing and exporting.

Source: Robert Greenfield, marketing communications manager for Acromag
Writer: Jon Zemke