Vanguard Magazine

42 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 www.vanguardcanada.com GAME CHANGER See the full interview online Q What is your role at your organization today? As President of Armo and Abuma, I am responsible for the vision of our compa- nies to keep us as successful in the future as we are today. By engaging our 180 team members we bring maximum value for our customers. Working closely with customers we create terrific opportuni- ties for our team members to grow their careers and support their families. Q What was your most challenging moment? Getting familiar with the needs and structure of the defence industry has been a challenge. By leveraging the pre- cision machining, design and integration experience in our organization we are improving results for customers. At the same time, we learned to manage trace- ability and record-keeping that wasn't required to design and build machin- ery. I have also had the fun challenge of building a network in an entirely new industry. Fortunately, the industry has been very welcoming and receptive to the value proposition that we bring. Q What was your "aha" moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our reader? Tell us that story. We all know the sales cycle in the defence industry tends to be quite long. This can make it hard to impress potential cus- tomers and move relationships forward. At a trade show, I met a company that had a problem with 50 obsolete assem- blies that were needed for a contract. These assemblies had been built to old engineering revision levels, had been damaged in field trials, and needed to be refurbished and leak tested. The assem- blies were also relatively large so space was an issue. Abuma took delivery of all the assemblies, assessed, repaired and quality tested them. Solving this head- ache provided the means for us to get recognized and gave us access to more opportunities. Q What is the one thing that has you most fired up today? Bringing more talented young people into manufacturing is my passion. I take every opportunity to introduce students and parents to the exciting opportuni- ties in modern manufacturing. I am es- pecially passionate about the opportu- nity of Ontario's Take Our Kids to Work Day program. Not enough companies use this day as a natural bridge to their workforce of tomorrow. It is far too easy to let students play on their phones in a conference room rather than engaging them. Q What is a habit that contributes to your success? I often focus on the parts of our organi- zation that I want to improve and chart the course ahead. I now make a habit of taking a little time each day to have grat- itude for the progress and good things that are happening in my life, both at work and at home. We all need to ac- knowledge and enjoy the obstacles we have overcome in order to have the en- ergy and enthusiasm to meet the chal- lenges that are still in front of us. Q What people or organizations do you believe best embody the innova- tion mindset? For many years Armo and Abuma have supported local high school teams in an international robotics competition called FIRST. The students are called upon to build a robot from scratch each year to meet a new set of challenges. Watching these young people learn about manufac- turing, wiring, programming, fundrais- ing, project management, and team build- ing has been inspirational. Going to one of the competitions and seeing over 50 teams, each with a different approach to solving the problem is a great lesson in in- novation. It also reminds me of the enor- mous potential of even our least experi- enced team members. Please go online and check out this amazing organization! Q How has innovation become engrained in your organization's culture and how is it being optimized? As a low volume manufacturer, we are constantly starting new projects. This al- lows us to innovate every day. The chal- lenge is to see the similarities between projects, so we improve processes and em- bed systemic improvements. Q What technologies, business models, and trends will drive the biggest changes in your industry over the next two years? Two years is a relatively short window, but we see a push for lighter, stronger assem- blies. This is pushing new materials into the supply base. With the experience we have had in light-weighting coming from the automotive industry, we are well-posi- tioned to support this trend, whether it is new grades of steel or aluminum or more exotic metals like titanium. Q What is your parting piece of advice? What got you here may not get you there. Keep learning and support your team members to do likewise. Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Even learning things not directly related to our careers, helps us develop new per- spectives and communication skills. Ben Whitney President ArMo ANd ABuMA

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