Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • November 7, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com detailed, but repetitive finishing and assem- bly tasks, freeing workers to perform more value-added chores, like quality inspection. Co-bots are the new automation frontier, particularly attractive for smaller manu- facturers because of their more inexpensive costs — they sell for an average of $25,000, according to a recent analysis from Bar- clays Equity Research. "We're one of the more automated [manu- facturers],'' said Dave DeLacey, the plant's general manager since 2008. "We're above the curve, so to speak." The efficiencies and quality gains from the human-co-bot work chain at the Berlin facility, coupled with the company's constant push of lean-production strictures to control costs, has led to some Assa Abloy operations — and more than 230 jobs — being relocated to Berlin from other states in recent years, officials say. Born in 1994 through a merger, parent Assa Abloy has grown to include some 150 produc- tion facilities employing an estimated 47,000 people with 2015 worldwide sales of $7.5 bil- lion, said Marna Wilber, spokeswoman for Assa Abloy Americas, the U.S. arm. The com- pany is committed to 10 percent annual growth — half organic, the other half via acquisitions. "We have a well-thought-out corporate strategy,'' Wilber said. "One of those strate- gies is about cost extraction.'' Assa Abloy plows its cost savings, she said, back into research and product devel- opment, more hiring, as well as facilities upgrades. Savings also fuel the parent's penchant as an innovator that unabashedly embraces technology. Wilber and DeLacey say Assa Abloy's embrace of efficiency and cost-savings through technology hasn't come at the expense of workers. If anything, the company strives to promote the opposite. DeLacey says he encourages openness between him and his managers and members of his four "profit-center teams'' in Berlin as to what projects they are working on, and whenever new technology is being consid- ered. Indeed, he said ideas for automating parts of the production chain occasionally come from team members. "By and large, the workforce has embraced that,'' DeLacey said. "They understand we live in a competitive world and we have to use all the tools to our advantage.'' Co-bots in action Assa Abloy Berlin recently opened doors to its Episcopal Road plant, built in 1969, for a tour by some two dozen members of the New Haven Manufacturers Association (NMHA). NHMA Executive Director Jerry Clupper, who arranged and participated in the tour, said afterwards via email that it was "part of our program theme for this year — Evolving CT Manufacturing the 'Smart' Way." The visit, Clupper said, showcased for members how technology can enhance manufacturers' pro- duction and efficiency, rather than be seen as an employment threat. "Manufacturing, like other businesses, is adapting to the disruptive technologies now emerging in our economy,'' he said. The Berlin plant, Wilber says, is an inno- vation hot spot within Assa Abloy Americas. Berlin's engineering team accounts for more than a third of the U.S. arm's patents, she said. In all, Assa Abloy employs about 1,000 Con- necticut workers. Its other U.S. plants are in Mason City, Iowa; Monroe, N.C.; Rockwood, Pa.; and Memphis and Milan, Tenn. On the tour, NHMA members and other guests got to see up close the three dozen co- bots scattered at workstations around the production floor. One of the devices, resem- bling a disembodied arm, inserts delicate pins into Yale brand commercial door locks. Another "arm" repetitively etches custom- ers' logos and room numbers on thousands of doorkeys daily — work once performed by humans. Of the Berlin plant's staff of 31 engi- neers, six oversee production lines, including the co-bots. Co-bot is the term Assa Abloy and others use to describe the robotic devices' support role along the production chain. Co-bots are a relatively new technology, but are expected to significantly gain in popularity with their worldwide sales projected to jump from $116 million last year, to $11.5 billion by 2025, according to Barclays' estimate. As one of Assa Abloy's most automated, the Berlin plant's innovations don't end with co-bots. As workstations amass batches of completed product, or require key blanks or other fresh parts to keep production flowing, programmed "trucks'' and "carts'' — called "automated guided vehicles,'' or AGVs — whisk silently back and forth between sta- tions along designated "guideways.'' The AGVs are programmed so that if humans or objects block their paths, they stop and won't proceed until the way is clear. Assa Abloy Berlin, too, relies on sustain- able-energy technology to power its factory. In August, the plant more than doubled its ratio of electricity generated from solar to 53 percent, with the addition of a second solar farm on the plant's grounds. The first batch of 4,000 solar panels — each producing about 315 watts of electricity on sunny days — was installed in June 2015 by a third-party that owns the cells, providing just 20 percent of the plant's electricity; the rest comes from the conventional power grid, DeLacey said. There are now 8,400 solar pan- els in all on the site abutting Deming Street and Episcopal Road. Assa Abloy Berlin is weighing the possi- bility of expanding its sustainable power sup- ply, but no definitive decision has been made whether to do so, said DeLacey, an Army Reserve veteran who in 2002 did a six-month tour in Kuwait. In 1989, after several engineering stops, the graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Insti- tute joined historic New Haven door- and lock-hardware products maker Sargent Manufacturing Co., now an Assa Abloy unit. The Berlin plant is constantly expanding its production operations, yet it still has room to absorb more production capacity, DeLacey says. A pair of commercial tenants currently occupy about 16,000 square feet in one corner of the plant building. A year ago, Assa Abloy Berlin added about a dozen workers to weld, grind and assemble commercial door systems. In 2013, the par- ent relocated its Yale Commercial operations, and 185 jobs, from Lenoir City, Tenn., to Ber- lin. In 2007, McKinney Hinge and 45 jobs were moved from Scranton, Pa., to Berlin. Assa Abloy's focus on quality and efficiency enabled it to weather the Great Recession and position it to reap the benefits from the recov- ered U.S. economy, although company officials say pockets of softness remain among certain client industries and regions of the country. "The market's grown. It's a relatively healthy market,'' DeLacey said, "though we'd like to see it better.'' g from page 1 ▶ ▶ ' Manufacturing, like other businesses, is adapting to the disruptive technologies now emerging in our economy.' Jerry Clupper, Executive Director, New Haven Manufacturers Association. Berlin plant harnesses the sun's power (Clockwise from top): Assa Abloy Berlin's expansive solar array provides just over half the factory's energy needs; General Manager Dave DeLacey with Yale Lock worker Polly Kan; Corbin Russwin lock cylinders and keys are pinned to order; automated guided vehicles (AGVs) regularly haul completed orders from shop floor to shipping. P H O T O S | C O N T R I B U T E D

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