I have often said that Joel Neidig of ITAMCO is the rock star of manufacturing.
Here is a very nice article on ITAMCO and what Joel is up to that was written by
Mark Albert, Editorial Director for Modern Machine Shop, titled,
In this article, Mark brings out:
"ITAMCO, a manufacturer of
precision-machined components and high-precision gears in Plymouth,
Indiana, has a history of integrating its machinery and equipment with
networked sensors and software. Many of these connections are powered by
software applications for mobile devices—apps developed in-house by its
own technology team. In 2012, the company implemented an
MTConnect-enabled machine monitoring system. Soon after, key pieces of
machinery were connected to the company's enterprise resource planning
(ERP) system. Now ITAMCO has developed a communication system for its
forklifts, citing this connection as a good example of how the
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will benefit manufacturing. In this
case, it has made forklifts, the workhorses of the plant floor, more
valuable than ever at ITAMCO."
Joel uses MTConnect extensively at ITAMCO.
What is absolutely worth watching is the 13 minute video at the end of the article where Joel discusses what ITAMCO does, including building the gears for a pump that was designed for New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina that can pump an entire olympic size swimming pool in 6 seconds! That's right, 6 seconds.
