Author: Mike
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Where to Start?
It all starts with Business Development. You’ve had a great idea. You’ve created an excellent Business Plan. With some effort, you’ve captured solid business financing. Now roll this video forward, imagine you have product in hand, how do you develop your customer base? While this varies from market to market, some universal fundamental steps do…
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Testing and Qualification Protocols
iPolymer, ENIDINE, CCI, and Enertech all had a corporate policy to aggressively performance test their products. Well-structured Qualification Protocols and Production Test Procedures can save companies and their customers tremendous downstream headaches and stress. The time to find problems related to components, designs, material selections, and assembly methodologies is early in the product life cycle.…
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Leverage Products into Solutions
Here is where Agile Job Shops and Entrepreneurial businesses shine: their nimble structure allows them to enhance their business topline by extrapolating their own product offering into system solutions for their clients. While developing our iPolymer business strategy, we elected to enhance the system and fabricated solution portion of our business. For example, if, as…
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Supply Chain & Material Handling
Supply Chain Development and Management are always challenges at smaller manufacturing companies. Frequently we are working with departments of one, two, or three individuals. Both while at iPolymer and ENIDINE, I found myself deeply involved in Supply Chain Development. The best approach is to create a Cross-Functional Team that brings to the table procurement, production,…
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Product Family Launch
When possible, launch new products as a product family. Families appeal to a larger audience. While at Enertech, we launched the new ASME Pipe Snubber product line referred to as the Phoenix Line. The family designed to restrain power piping during emergency events, included various sizes and stroke-length pipe restraints. The advantage that a family…
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Product Marketing – 101 Basics
While growing iPolymer, we expanded our product overing fourfold. We combined BECO Manufacturing and TEQCOM Industries, two smaller players in the market space, combining their product lines, and drove an across-the-board upgrade/update redesign process. We then expanded our newly formed iPolymer High Purity Fluid Handling product line with key manifold products desired by the semiconductor…
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Lean Cellular Assembly Process
iPolymer and ENIDINE both heavily emphasized Lean Cellular Assembly in their manufacturing businesses. With low volume and high product variation, our Assembly Cells were configured for one to six employees. Each Assembly Cell was equipped with a full complement of assembly tooling, fixtures, and free-issued consumable goods. Frequently, Operational Management must be supported and inspired…
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Acquisition Successes
May 2022: White Knight, a wholly owned subsidiary of GRACO Corporation, acquired iPolymer. iPolymer was created from the merger of BECO Manufacturing and TEQCOM Industries. Lee Capital Acquisition LLC acquired BECO in 2010 and TEQCOM in 2011. My merged team of managers helped relocate BECO and TEQCOM to our Irvine, California facility. We named the…
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Structural Projects
Advanced Engineering Services supported design, engineering, and project management support for Structural Projects throughout California. Padre Dam’s reservoir valve vault was seismically isolated with wire rope isolators. The actively controlled main shutoff butterfly valve will close in the event of a major earthquake. The Oakland Hills Firestorm of 1991 was a devastating fire event in…
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Seismic Projects
Seismic Dampers were retrofitted on the Coronado Bridge between the piers and superstructure over the shipping channel to add strategically located energy dissipation. Twenty 300-kip by 18-inch stroke hydraulic dampers were utilized. ENIDINE Seismic Dampers were 100% tested dynamically on a special high performance test bench. The King County Court seismic retrofit included ninety-six 150-kip…