A Machining Retrospective of 2022

2022 has been an exciting year of growth for Innovative. With the widespread effects of a lingering pandemic, supply chain issues, and talks of economic recession on the horizon, at a glance you’d think that the start of 2023 would be doom and gloom. And while the year has been filled with challenges, the team here at Innovative Machining is looking forward to starting the new year running at full speed. 2022 brought a lot of opportunity for Innovative Machining to expand skillsets and equipment, refine processes and procedures, and ultimately improve as a business. As the new year approaches, we’d like to take the time to reminisce and recap some of our achievements and expansions from each month of this year.

January

The beginning of 2022 saw a new Hexagon Metrology Global S CMM install within our Quality Lab. With this latest install, our quality lab is outfitted 3 CMM’s. The new Global S boasts a travel 47″ x 118″ x 39.4″ which allows our quality lab to perform quality assessments on larger parts. A probe with scanning capabilities was also acquired to further expand our metrology skillset.

Quality Control Equipment

February

Innovative Machining strives to give back to our employees as much as we can. February marked a new annual effort to give back to our employees by providing free branded apparel and everyday items for the work environment. This new initiative has been an amazing way to increase morale among our team.

March

In another effort to give back to our team for their hard work and efforts, Innovative Machining started hosting a local food truck to cater lunch to our team. Nothing brings people together more than food!

April

5S is vital system to implement in order to sustain lean production. In April, Innovative Machining underwent small additions to our 5S system by adding new safety lines throughout our production floor. This change not only improved safety for our forklifts, but it also came with the addition of several new staging areas. These new staging areas were strategically placed around the production floor to maximize workflow and efficiency by reducing job queue and staging times.

May

May marked the promotion of our team member, Jeanette Larson, from Quality Supervisor to Quality Manager. Jeanette had the tall task for taking over for Joe Corbeille who retired in 2022. As Quality Manager, Jeanette oversees all aspects our Quality Lab, from operations, staff, equipment and more. Quality is of the utmost importance for us at Innovative Machining and Jeanette has done an impeccable job of upholding that company value.

June

Due to the requirements of an incoming project in the month of June, Innovative Machining expanding its capabilities by adding a Colonial Vertical Pull-Down Broach Machine to our facility. Since the addition of this broaching machine, it has allowed us to take on more projects where efficiency and high volume production is critical.

July

July saw a major change to upper management as General Manager, Marc Jankowski, was promoted to President of Innovative Machining. Marc has done a fantastic job of leading by example and as a byproduct, improving company culture, leadership, efficiencies, and processes. Marc’s go-getter attitude has been pivotal in additional changes, project acquisitions, and recent machine additions.

August

August saw the relocation of wet paint booth to its new prep and paint area. This area is fully equipped with a walk-in blasting booth, wet paint booth, powder coat booth, oven, and part staging and finishing. The height of the paint booth was increased by an additional 2 feet to accommodate larger parts, assemblies, and fabrications. The relocation and larger space made for more efficient workflow and increased capacity and capability for our in-house paint processes.

September

September brought two new elements to Innovative Machining. At the beginning of the month, Innovative Machining hired Marketing Manager, Seth Johnson, to spearhead Innovative’s marketing efforts. Along with a new Marketing Manager, Innovative Machining acquire a new vertical machining center from Mazak. The New Mazak VTC-250D is a 50 taper, vertical workhorse. Equipped with Mazak’s SmoothG Control, high pressure coolant, large travel ranges, and accommodating table, this new vertical has been critical for new billet prototyping jobs.

Vertical CNC Machining

October

Innovative Machining welcomed 2 new team members in the month of October. Kyle Palmer was hired as an experienced Machinist to assist in our lathe department. Kyle comes from an extensive machining background with the ability to run and learn a variety machines as well as program and design CNC programs through CAM software or on machine controls. Casey Boulware was hired as an Assembly Technician to assist in our assembly and welding department.

November

November marked the first of two new horizontal machining center deliveries for Innovative Machining. The first machine was a new Mazak HCN-6800 NEO along with a 240 capacity tool hive. This machine will eventually become part of our Palletech system as a third machining station. The tool hive will make for a great addition to keep more tools on hand for various production projects. Details about this new machine acquisition can be found in this prior blog post!

December

In mid December, Innovative capped of the year with its last machine delivery of 2022! A new Mazak HCN-5000 with MPP was delivered and is currently being installed. The MPP (Multi Pallet Pool) system is a self contained pallet system with 6-18 pallets (6 in our case) all within a carousel style setup. This carousal minimizes floor space while providing the added benefit of semi autonomous operation. We are currently on track to have this machine operational in January of 2023!

Final Thoughts

It has been a crazy year for all of us at Innovative Machining. It was a year full of change, but it came at a time when it was right and needed. Many of the changes made throughout 2022 have helped maintain Innovative Machining’s core values and goals. They have also aligned the company to start the new year with a fresh slate of new goals, challenges and aspirations! To our incredible crew, thank you for all the hard work and dedication throughout 2022. We wouldn’t be here without our team. To our vendors, suppliers, and customers, thank you for the partnerships and the support that have helped us to make 2022 a year to remember. We look forward to working with you all in 2023!

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