_________________________________________________________________________________________________ Eck
Industries
“ That ’ s still what Eck Industries is about today ,” he continues . “ I ’ m in charge of the engineering group , and there ’ s definitely areas where we could save a bit of money , at the compromise of our quality , but we don ’ t go down those paths . That isn ’ t the Eck way . Despite being generally conservative , our grandfather still made some significant leaps throughout his career ; whether it was the acquisitions or new processes and developments , he was always chasing that next big thing , which is something I ’ m sure he ’ d be proud of us for maintaining .”
Working smarter
With Kiley and Tyler ’ s generation at the helm , the organization has embraced the shift towards modernizing certain processes , with a keen focus on automation . Unlike many businesses in its situation , Eck Industries has taken a self-sufficient approach to integration .
“ A lot of the other manufacturers we speak to choose to work with external automation integrators ,” Tyler explains . “ We , on the other hand , made the move to bring all of the necessary technologies and staff in-house . For the last five years or so , we ’ ve steadily employed three automation engineers so that we can fully manage the transition ourselves . This approach allows our teams to overlap , which means automation knows exactly what the manufacturing and engineering segments require .
“ We ’ ve found that we get far more suitable ideas this way , as opposed to hiring an outside entity who will naturally have a much narrower scope of understanding . It also means that the team can take a greater level of ownership over their work . They built it , so if there ’ s a problem , they ’ re right there to fix it , and can take a longer term view of the project and its maintenance . Contractors get in their cars and leave once they ’ ve finished , it ’ s just not the same as having a dedicated team who live it every day .”
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