Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • July 23, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 11 FOCUS among so many manufacturers in Connecticut? A. The digital transformation of manufacturing is creating an urgent need to recruit, train and retain a workforce that is proficient in technical systems support and software main- tenance. More and more manufactur- ers are investing in capital equipment such as the machines tools and lasers we build here at TRUMPF to drive direct and indirect costs out of their manufacturing operations so that they can remain competitive in the global market. The new tax law is favorable to the purchasing of capital equipment in the form of accelerated depreciation. Q. TRUMPF recently announced it was expanding its paid parental and family leave for workers, which is a benefit rarely offered by manufac- turers. What's the new policy and why is it being offered? A. TRUMPF now offers its eligible employees a paid parental bonding leave, as well as a paid family leave. The parental bonding policy offers fathers and same-sex partners up to four weeks paid leave to care for their new child, whether by birth or adop- tion. This also allows mothers an ad- ditional four weeks paid leave to look after their child in addition to eight weeks maternity leave. We want to support our employees work-life bal- ance when adding to their families and we feel that offering a parental bonding leave to fathers and same- sex partners could be a great help. The family leave policy now offers our employees two weeks paid leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition. With TRUMPF being a family owned company, it is important for us to offer our employees an oppor- tunity to care for their family members during a difficult situation. PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. TD Bank | Wallingford, CT PDS Engineering & Construction served as General Contractor for the latest, freestanding TD Bank facility. The original goal was to obtain Gold-level certifi cation; however, the rating was ultimately updated to LEED Platinum due to the sustainable credits relating to the site, energy and materials. This fast-tracked project was completed on schedule in only 119 days after receiving notice to proceed. Project Features: - Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing - Millwork - Metal Fabrication - Aluminum-Framed Entrances 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfi eld, CT 06002 (860) 242-8586 | Fax (860) 242-8587 www.pdsec.com DESIGN BUILDERS • GENERAL CONTRACTORS • CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS SPOTLIGHT ON: S LEED PLATINUM PDS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, INC. THINK • PLAN • BUILD Learning curve Like a dog in training, Zinn and his staff use cattle feed while training cows to walk in and out of the robots. After three weeks, nearly half of the school's 200 cows learned to migrate into the robotic milkers, he said. Prior to harvesting milk, the robots begin by sterilizing a cow's udders before a laser-guided mechanical arm places the machine on the cow's teat. With robots, cows are milked any- where from six to 32 minutes a day producing between 30 to 50 pounds of milk; at parlors where humans place milking machines on cows, rather than robots, it can take up to three to five hours daily to milk an indi- vidual cow. UConn's robotic milking units are able to distinguish between each cow to improve speed and automatically release them from the station when they're ready. On average, a cow milking two times per day, producing 40 pounds each time, would produce more than 29,000 pounds per year. "The cows are using their feed more efficiently and we are going to be able to manage them more ef- ficiently," Zinn said. Leading the herd UConn's "precision dairying" efforts are a major victory for the school, which has been working to bring the technology — developed in the 1990s — to Storrs since 2015. Although dairy herds at Michigan State University and Alfred State Economic Impact of Robotic Milking From 2011 to 2015, upper Midwest farms using robotic milkers recorded higher milk production and gross margin. But they also had higher overhead costs that reduced net income. Item Robot Parlor Difference Milk/cow/yr 23,532 lb 21,528 lb +2,004 lb Gross margin/cow/yr $4,564 $4,254 $310 Feed cost/cow/yr $2,251 $2,206 $45 Direct cost/cow/yr $3,261 $3,190 $71 Overhead cost/cow/yr $899 $581 $318 Net farm income/cow/yr $185 $230 $(45) Source: University of Minnesota Laser-guided robotic milkers can distinguish between each UConn cow to improve milking speed. Continued on next page >>

• Cover