Meet Tom Panzerella:

MANUFACTURING VETERAN TALKS ABOUT INNOVATION, QUALITY AND COMPETING IN TODAY'S TOUGH MARKETS

Tell us a little about your background and your current role with Cook Technologies, Freedom Lift and Freedom Sciences.
I'm what most refer to as a “seasoned” manufacturing/ engineering professional or in other words someone with over 35-plus years of experience in the industry. My educational background consists of undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and business administration. I've worked for GE as an engineer for 10 years at various U.S. locations and have been President/CEO of Cook Technologies for over 25 years. My first spinoff, Freedom Lift Corporation (www.freedom- lift.com), was in June 2002 and my most recent start-up company being Freedom Sciences, LLC (www.freedomsciences.com), in July 2005 is located at the Philadelphia Navy Base in a PA state KIZ (Keystone Industrial Zone).

I serve as CEO and business development person for the companies mentioned. I look at my role now more as a true visionary and the person responsible for providing the financial ability and collaborative network of industry/academia/government individuals to allow the Freedom Lift/Freedom Sciences operational management and technologists to commercialize innovative products and grow market share. Our main focus is on durable medical equipment (DME) products and integrating robotics-based technologies to introduce industry-changing, disruptive technologies into the field of assistive technologies. We strive to provide innovative, independent, personal transportation for the disabled, elderly and those with limited abilities.

Innovation has played a major role in your companies' success. How have you been able to drive innovation through your organization?
Our 60 year-old parent company, Cook Technologies, Inc., has always focused on innovation and exploring the use of breakthrough technologies, but it has been mostly relegated to manufacturing processes and/or industrial/commercial-enabling technologies like robotic welding, solid modeling, CAD to component capability, ISO compliance, Kanban and Lean manufacturing techniques. By staying on top of these enabling technologies and innovative approaches to removing waste and driving-down costs, we were able to continually reengineer ourselves as a highend, innovative, value-added contract manufacturing firm. It has served us well and will continue to provide us with leading edge manufacturing capabilities. However, in a globally competitive environment, it is not sufficient to create scalable growth and maintain a consistent, loyal customer base. Because of the ever-changing technological developments (i.e. analog to digital, etc.) it is very difficult to determine who the next leading- edge companies are to target and offer your services. Eventually, everything gets commoditized and it erodes your profit margins. You need to rapidly and continually re-tool you company and hope you made the correct choices in firms that you are committing your limited resources.

We made a concerted effort over the last 10-12 years to look for markets with a growing demographic population that we could serve better than a firm located in Asia, where we would own the intellectual property and control the quality-driven manufacturing supply and to use the Internet and our ERP system to integrate global sourcing. The innovation we apply today extends into product design and development and creating patented products. We use our core competencies of robotic welding and advanced manufacturing techniques to build high-end electromechanical devices utilizing our wellestablished industrial applications knowledge. The educational component and inhouse mentoring of our workforce promotes innovation. Conceptual thinking combined with knowledge of the current technologies translates into providing proprietary products with innovative user applications.

Hand in hand with innovation, quality control has been at your companies' forefront, too. How has achieving ISO standards taken your operations to the next level?
Maintaining quality-driven manufacturing disciplines and creating the quality culture is incumbent upon any firm desiring to be a successful company and survive in this global environment; therefore, meeting the ISO quality management system standards is a given. Our firm is both ISO 9001 and QS 9000 registered. At minimum, companies should be compliant to the ISO standards. The quality standards extend well beyond the factory floor, they penetrate all aspects of one's business, including customer service, technical support and other non-factoryrelated areas. The results of a quality management system must translate into value to the customer, both internally and externally. Continuous improvement activities and the goal of removing waste from all areas is a survival necessity.

What is your biggest challenge running a manufacturing outfit in Pennsylvania and how are you overcoming it?
The obvious issues of affordable healthcare, rising energy costs, increased products liability costs and the threat of litigious outcomes that dissuade entrepreneurs and innovators to venture into providing breakthrough products are some that immediately come to mind. The need for an educated workforce to utilize current technologies and to drive the growth of innovative companies is right up there as a major impediment to success and survival. The need to foster better math and science studies in our schools is a continuous necessity. The need to compete globally requires emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math. It is also important to provide an accessible means for industry/academia/government collaborations.

It is an arduous process for small- and medium-size firms to obtain access to technologies and/or expertise found in our military labs and universities so they may be applied to non-military, industrial/commercial applications. The Internet has provided the research tools required, but the bureaucracy in both government and our academic institutions is stifling. The agendas for the entities involved are not conducive to building a strong industrial base of companies and a solid employment base. The state and federal funds and/or grants allocated and made available to academia and other governmental agencies never really make their way to forprofit companies or those entities providing the jobs and a solid tax base.