Description

West Michigan engineering and design firms have embraced the mentality that “it takes a village” when it comes to innovating and producing new products.

While it’s feasible that one person may come up with a groundbreaking technology, the sheer amount of foresight, research and funding required to see a new product to market makes collaboration all the more necessary to commercialize innovative ideas.

“The more that you partner, the better the team you can have,” said Bill Dykstra, president of Rockford-based engineering firm Temper Inc. “The days of when you can have the one guy that knows everything and he’s in the back someplace and can create it out of his head are long gone. You cannot do it alone.”

Temper embraced the idea of collaboration when it developed a portion of the technology that could shave up to 80 percent off the cost of manufacturing traditional titanium components for the aerospace industry. The process converts less-expensive titanium powder into “pucks” of the metal using another technology developed at Northwestern University.

To commercialize the technology, Temper partnered with 11 different organizations including Boeing, L3 Combat Propulsion Systems, General Motors and others.

For a small firm like Temper, having those partnerships enabled the company to use more sophisticated research and simulation technology than it would be able to do on its own, Dykstra said.

“Our partners have fantastic simulation capabilities in induction heating,” Dykstra said. “Instead of us having someone we’re going to use every four months for a couple hours, we get to have someone who is at the cutting edge of doing these simulations and get them done quickly and relatively cheaply.”

The company also received a $1 million grant in late July from the U.S. Department of Energy to support the project.

In addition to its titanium technology, Temper also developed a process to reduce the energy and the time required to form and cure thermoplastics. The company’s thermoforming technology incorporates magnetic induction to manage the precise flow and temperature of composite resins as they enter the autoclave.

“We don’t manufacture products (but) innovation is what we do when we answer manufacturing problems by creating,” Dykstra said.

Grand Rapids-based Light Speed USA LLC also relied heavily on industry collaboration to develop its version of interior greenhouse LED lamps aimed at more efficiently growing fruits, vegetables and other plants.

The company partnered with Wyoming, Mich.-based Lumenflow Corp. to manufacture optical and reflector components that project more uniform light across a growing area without producing “hot spots,” said Anthony Cairo, president of Light Speed.

“Lumenflow was very helpful in allowing us to do what no one else has been able to do and that’s putting the light where we want it to go,” Cairo said.

Since different plants require their own specific spectrum of light to grow, the new lamp technology also allows growers to remotely change the spectrum emitted from the bulbs and grow multiple species without changing out bulbs.

Light Speed’s technology recently won Detroit-based nonprofit NextEnergy’s lighting competition for Recovery Park, a community of businesses in Detroit focused on sustainable urban farming.

Light Speed plans to commercialize its technology and begin low-volume production of approximately 25 units per week in the next two months.

“I’m a serial entrepreneur (and) I’ve worked with people who have kept their cards very close to their vest,” Cairo said. “What I find when you build a trust relationship up with partners in similar fields, there’s a lot to be gained.”

WIDESPREAD INNOVATION

For Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place Inc., the success of companies such as Temper, Light Speed and others represents a larger trend for manufacturing companies in West Michigan that have adopted both innovative product designs and manufacturing processes to remain competitive.

“If you walk today through any one of our manufacturing firms, you can see the innovation,” Klohs told MiBiz. “They realized that … for them to survive in this environment, they have to stay at the leading edge of innovation or they will have somebody from particularly another country come along and take away what they have been doing for years.”

The number of patents from companies in Michigan approved annually by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has grown each year following the Great Recession. In 2014, the USPTO approved 5,822 patents in Michigan, up from the 4,997 patents approved in 2012, according to data published by the organization.

In particular, Klohs points to the automotive industry as one of the leaders for innovation in West Michigan.

“When you look at what is happening technology-wise in the automobile industry and where it intersects with the information technology industry, you’re looking at innovation that is truly just amazing,” she said.

BUILDING FROM WITHIN

While there are many factors that play into the success of a startup technology such as Light Speed’s LED growing lamps, Cairo believes that it comes down to the effectiveness of people working within the organization.

“The real factor and key for success is the willingness of the team to put it all out and be prepared to lose it all,” Cairo said.

That same mentality doesn’t necessarily change as companies mature past the startup phase. To avoid stagnation as a company ages, management experts say that executives should integrate a culture of innovation within their operations.

One way to build a culture of innovation as operations mature is to constantly teach and remember, as an organization, the values and strategies that made the company successful in the first place, said Josip Kotlar, the 2015 scholar in residence at Grand Valley State University’s Family Owned Business Institute (FOBI). Kotlar also works as an assistant professor at Lancaster University’s Management School in the United Kingdom.

“The first step is for the leaders of the company to appreciate the value of knowledge of their past,” Kotlar told MiBiz following a presentation on innovation for family-owned businesses. “Secondly, it’s important to create an environment that creates cultural closeness between that knowledge and the employees.”

To grow that culture of innovation, Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc. encourages employees at its design center in Kalamazoo not only to work on their current projects, but also to propose their own ideas, said Nate Young, vice president of design and innovation at the company.

“The ultimate thing is how you grow a culture of innovation inside your company,” Young said. “The truth is that the whole company has to say, ‘What is my part in making the new happen?’”

Staff Writer Nick Manes contributed to this report.

- See more at: http://mibiz.com/item/22925-west-michigan-firms-leverage-industry-partnerships,-talent-to-innovate-efficiently#sthash.sQDElQqf.dpuf