About

About

T&T Legacy Metals is a metals service center in New York that deals in many types of metals, including angle, tube, beam, square, round, plate, etc. Materials include hot rolled, cold rolled, aluminum, etc. Processing capabilities consist of miter and band saw cutting, plasma and oxygen burning, drilling, water jet cutting and sheet/ plate/tube laser cutting.

The Challenge

The company opened a facility in the WNY area in 2020, operating out of a 4,000-square-foot warehouse in Tonawanda, NY. lnsyte Consulting, part of the New York MEP and the MEP National Network™, assisted in laying out that facility. Since then, the growth of the company forced management to consider expanding or relocating to a bigger facility. It was determined that the company should find a bigger facility and relocate. Management located an appropriate facility in Grand Island, NY which has 23,500 ft2 of shop floor space.

Working with lnsyte Consulting allowed us to manage the process of moving to a new building, while also helping us to focus on our day-to-day business. Having the proper plant layout allowed us to have the necessary infrastructure in place to complete the move, including all inventory and equipment, while simultaneously adding new equipment.
— Jack Heinz, Director of Operations and Quality

MEP’s Role

T&T Legacy Metals engaged lnsyte Consulting to layout the new facility. This new layout incorporated the building constraints (i.e., docks, incoming utilities, overhead and jib cranes, etc.), existing and new processing equipment, storage equipment and working around existing building tenants. A CAD drawing of the new facility, showing existing building constraints, was completed. Working in conjunction with operational personnel, alternative layouts were developed for machine and storage placement and a final decision was made. This layout facilitates the flow of material from order to shipment and best utilizes the existing cranes and docks.

Behind the modern-day jobsite are companies like neARabl, a startup that was spun out of the City College of New York Visual Computing Research Laboratory. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation through the Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC) Program and the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) Program, a partnership with Bentley Systems, Incorporated and a collaboration with Rutgers University and Lighthouse Guild.

The company has developed software that combines accurate indoor navigation with augmented reality resulting in more efficient project management.

The software also provides real-time updates to offsite stakeholders like project managers and building owners.

But this game-changing technology wasn’t meant for construction — at least not at the outset.

neARabl founders Jin Chen, Arber Ruci, and E’edresha Sturdivant knew they had a powerful technology application. Their precise indoor navigation solution brought real accuracy to indoor spaces — to within 1 centimeter — where traditional GPS systems were lacking.

At first, they saw their mobile application as a way to help people who are blind or visually impaired navigate indoor spaces. While the initial vision showed potential, there wasn’t any demand for the product to take off.

The company then pivoted to indoor navigation for first responders — a potentially life-saving application for its technology, enabling firefighters and paramedics to access, navigate, and ultimately, safely exit spaces that they have never been in before. Similarly, the founders learned that there wasn’t substantial demand in this sector, as safe building egress is a very small portion of first responders’ daily jobs.

Not to be discouraged, the company used the technology’s versatility to adapt to market needs, which were uncovered with the help of their partners in industry and innovation.

So neARabl began the process of transforming the infrastructure sector.

While taking part in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps’ immersive seven-week program, the neARabl team interviewed 113 potential customers, discovering the market that most needed its technology was infrastructure.

The feedback they heard was that infrastructure professionals could use neARabl’s technology to visualize their digital twins on the ground, keep multiple stakeholders updated in real time, visualize workflows, and save significant money on physical signage at job sites by going digital. And the response was strong. Today, the company’s software is deployed on five job sites including in New York City, while preparing to launch its technology at job sites in the western United States as well as overseas.

Through the entire process, the company has leveraged the expertise and support of 13 different centers backed by NYSTAR — Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Ruci, the company’s CEO, had experience navigating the NYSTAR Innovation Network, having led the New York City Innovation Hot Spot for five years.

“I knew the rich resources that were available throughout the state and how committed New York and NYSTAR are to cultivating collaborative innovation,” Ruci said. “And it’s not just in New York City. We received support from the Western New York Incubator Network, the New York I-Corps Hub at CUNY and Central NY Biotech Accelerator at Upstate Medical University.

“Key for us as well was the New York State Science & Technology Law Center, which is based at Syracuse University. They helped us ensure our technology didn’t infringe on any other company’s intellectual property.”

With solid grounding from the NYSTAR ecosystem, neARabl has partnered with Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Nasdaq : BSY) — an influential global infrastructure engineering software company. This partnership allows neARabl to adopt the iTwin Platform and earned the powered by iTwin designation, which serves as a channel enabler to a large ecosystem of architecture, engineering, and construction firms, developers, and Bentley partners building digital twins and the infrastructure metaverse.

“This partnership is a gigantic step towards establishing our imprint on the infrastructure market. As an academic spin-out, integrating with Bentley’s open-source digital twin technology was a no-brainer for many reasons,” Ruci said. “Where we found the most value was in familiarity and ease of use for our end-users — we launched as a mobile-first application to great initial early reviews of our mobile visualization, but soon enough we realized that our end users were much more comfortable editing and changing neARabl mobile content on an iTwin desktop/web interface. We quickly integrated the process and have been deploying it in some cool places.”

neARabl’s solutions have served diverse audiences including not only construction site managers but digital tourists, people with low vision, and metaverse enthusiasts. To find out more about the technology, visit nearabl.com.

About

Pladis Global, located in Horseheads, New York, is a manufacturer of some of the world’s best tasting and loved snack brands. Pladis has approximately 200 employees. With more than 75 brands made with quality ingredients and appealing to a broad range of consumers their diverse portfolio helps customers enjoy life’s happy moments. With an eye towards new trends and evolving customer needs, their innovation is fueling exciting new products to deliver even more happiness in every bite.

The Challenge

Pladis Global’s Horseheads, NY plant requested assistance from AMT, part of the New York MEP and the MEP National Network, with a project to increase the OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) on one of their packaging lines. The OEE prior to the project was 20-30% and the goal was to achieve greater than 60% OEE.

AMT was very successful in kicking off a continuous improvement mindset which engaged our production team and delivered fantastic results. Our business has been on a growth path for some time and the lack of performance has been an obstacle that AMT was able to remove.

— Mitchell Kahn, Regional Supply Chain Lead, North America

MEP’s Role

AMT worked with Pladis’s operations, quality, maintenance, and sanitation functions with a focus on increasing OEE as well as increasing overall run time. AMT mapped out the critical process steps with a cross-functional team from the packaging line operations and developed a future state aimed at increasing OEE and overall run time.

AMT helped transform the current state into the future state with help from three cross-functional teams focused on improving separate areas of the line as well as looking at changeovers and the sanitation process. Lean manufacturing principles were used in this process.

How about some historical perspective? During the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. industry also faced a host of challenges. Some, such as high oil prices, feel familiar today. Others, such as concerns about imports from Japan (instead of from China), seem more remote. By the late 1980s, however, small-to-medium manufacturers had an ally in the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), which is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the U.S. Department of Commerce.

NIST MEP and the Baldrige Framework

Today, NIST MEP continues to help small-to-medium manufacturers who want to become more efficient and overcome barriers to growth. In addition to state and regional MEP centers, NIST maintains a partnership with the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the U.S. Secretary for Commerce from 1981 to 1987, the program established a framework and assessment tool for understanding organizational strengths and opportunities for improvement.

The Baldrich Framework has evolved since the 1980s, and today it has three main components. First, it seeks to identify and recognize role-model businesses in the form of Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. Second, the framework disseminates and shares best practices. Third, it establishes a criteria and model for performance improvement efforts. This model isn’t meant to replace Lean, Six Sigma, or ISO initiatives, however. Rather, the Baldrich Framework can reveal where these other initiatives should be deployed, and then support their implementation.

More Than an Award

After Congress passed the Malcolm Baldrige National Competitiveness Action in 1987, U.S. companies that won a Baldrige Award enjoyed considerable media attention. Winning this award is still a great honor, but the journey toward manufacturing excellence is where the true value lies. By helping a company’s leaders to identify key measures of performance, the framework enables manufacturers to allocate resources in ways that will increase profitability and reduce risks to business competitiveness.

In addition to the framework, there are several Baldrich products that manufacturers can adopt. For example, the Baldrige Excellence Builder is a self-administered survey with questions about work processes and operational effectiveness. Baldrige Resources contains a collection of best practices, a management framework, and guidance for continuous improvement and innovation. The Job Quality Toolkit, a new product, will be available later this summer.

How to Get Started

Small-to-medium manufacturers who want to pursue performance excellence can begin their journey online. The first step is to visit the NIST MEP website and download the Baldrige Excellence Builder. This self-assessment tool is available as a free PDF and contains a scoring system. In addition to questions about operations, there are sections about leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, workforce, and results.

About

Grand Slam Safety (GSS) of Croghan, New York, makes sports fencing and netting to keep players and fans safe. They have solutions for just about any sport and a variety of indoor or outdoor venues. Grand Slam Safety serves college and high school athletic departments, architects, sports facility development companies and parks and recreation departments across the U.S. The company currently employs 17 people.

The Challenge

Grand Slam wanted a measurable standard to prove that their products did improve safety and to build a culture around safety standards at every sports facility. The company believes an ASTM standard around these products will position them to become industry leaders. ASTM International is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.

The current facility has the capacity for a fourfold increase in volume. However, company leadership identified a bottleneck in the quoting system that stalls their ability to grow. For help they turned to CITEC, part of the New York MEP and the MEP National Network.

Working with CITEC was a great experience for Grand Slam Safety. Their access to grants really helped move this project across the line. Great improvements have been made in several key areas of the facility, and we have identified our next areas of focus. The continuous improvement mindset has caught on with the team and we look forward to our next focused areas.

— Robert Lyndaker, President

MEP’s Role

Grand Slam Safety worked through the MEP to have their products evaluated through the labs at the University of Tennessee. Several tests were performed to replicate a potential safety incident and Grand Slams Specto products outperformed all of the competition. Creation of an ASTM standard has met some resistance but the team has used the data to market the products to new and potential customers.

Next CITEC and the Grand Slam team worked through a value stream map of the quotation process. The team identified two product families: baseball/softball fencing systems and indoor containment systems. The major impact on the lead-time is waiting for the exchange of communication/information between GSS and the client, so the team developed specific countermeasures: expand on the intake questions; ensure questions link to contract template and design files to reduce in-house processing time; train the sales team to have more knowledge of the quoting process; and move toward more seamlessness between quoting and design.

The Grand Slam Safety team has continued to use what they learned from working with their MEP. Once the company learned to use the value stream map process a similar process was used to evaluate the company’s invoicing system. They have made many improvements on their shop floor in the welding, sewing, curtain and storage departments. Grand Slam has identified 3 areas of focus for this year and requested assistance from the MEP.

The Challenge

Due to COVID, many long-term clients are out of business and the emerging designers Quality Patterns usually worked with had disappeared. Orders were unpredictable and addressing customer acquisition was a top priority. Quality Patterns had to find new clients, but without word-of-mouth referrals, they had no systems in place to attract new business.

We were nonexistent in the modern ways of doing business, but now our website is bringing in an average of five new leads a week. Sign me up for any future projects!

— Maria Lipari, Director of Operations

MEP’s Role

Prospective customers needed a way to discover Quality Patterns and get educated on their services. Partnering with ITAC, part of the New York MEP and the MEP National Network, Quality Patterns developed their first website and established a digital footprint. The website showcases their services, builds social proof by sharing an impressive list of past clients, and offers simple methods of getting in contact with the Quality Patterns team.

The website was SEO optimized with a content strategy to help Quality Patterns rank well on Google searches, without any paid ads. A new Google My Business page displays positive reviews and quick links with contact information. With this inbound digital marketing strategy, future customers can easily find Quality Patterns and identify them as the best solution.

Digital marketing has provided Quality Patterns with increased awareness and a new, consistent lead source. On average, five new prospective clients are reaching out every week to learn more and schedule consultations. Even international designers are filling out the web form to initiate projects.

These new customers help replace past clients lost to COVID, but also smooth out the ebbs and flows of business from top customers who traditionally follow the seasonality of the fashion industry. The team at Quality Patterns remains positive as business picks back up, with much more work from smaller ateliers and emerging designers, who learn of their services thanks to their digital presence.

Results:

• 13 created or retained jobs
• $5,000 in cost savings
• 5 new leads per week

About

Electro-Metrics Corporation is a leading designer, producer, and integrator of antennas, sensors, and systems for broadband RF communications and testing. The machine shop and fabrication division manufactures precision machined products and provides contract manufacturing services. The Electro-Metrics manufacturing facilities support both our RF and Precision Fabrication divisions. Our capability to in-house manufacture and fully test our products allows us to meet quality expectations and provide rapid response to urgent needs.

The Challenge

Electro Metrics was in need of cybersecurity assistance in order to meet NIST 800-171 guidelines required by their customers in the Department of Defense supply chain. Electro Metrics did not have the resources to gather the information required to meet these guidelines within their offices, so they reached out to AIM, part of the New York MEP and the MEP National Network, for assistance.

Becoming NIST 800-171 was a very detailed but necessary process in today’s ever changing technological world and the increase of cyber attacks. We have now been able to prove to department of defense agencies that we can meet and maintain the requirements to protect our network and data and provide us with increased opportunities for contracts. Working with Paul LaPorte and AIM was a very smooth process and their knowledge of NIST 800-171 specifications made obtaining our certification that much more easier.
— Margaret Pace, Information Technology Director

MEP’s Role

AIM provided Electro Metrics with consulting and assessment services via their cybersecurity coordinator Paul LaPorte. Paul conducted an assessment according to the NIST 800-171 guidelines and provided a full report outlining what needed to be done to meet the requirements. Additionally, AIM also facilitated the purchase of a new server for the company that would be compliant with these guidelines. Funding assistance was provided for both of these projects, which AIM facilitated as well.