About eight years ago, Hartness, An ITW Company, recognized that it had outgrown its main facility. Accordingly, the company undertook an overall expansion achieved by moving some of its manufacturing to a second facility several miles from its headquarters.
As an unintended consequence of operating in two buildings, customers calling on Hartness would often end up in the wrong location or have to travel from one building to another for engineering meetings or FATS – Factory Acceptance Tests – of their equipment. To dramatically address such inconveniences and inefficiencies, Hartness made the decision to combine the two operations.
This waiting-and-ready building, while not entirely new from the ground up, has been totally renovated and is state-of-the-art, incorporating LEED & Sustainable Design. The building encompasses 234,000 sq-ft, exceeding by 14,000 sq-ft the 220,019 fsq-ft contained by the two buildings it will replace.
Having more functions gathered under one, larger roof will benefit customers who visit, and it will also allow Hartness to centralize sales, engineering, and manufacturing operations, improving both internal and external communication.
This new wide-open design gives Hartness the floor space to streamline its production, in-line its key equipment production areas and improve its parts flow.
Leveraging Improved Facilities with Strong, Savvy New Leadership
ITW Hartness’ current-and-newest VP & General Manager, Managing Director for Europe Tim Hudson, who started in July, brings a distinguished, and accomplished background to Hartness. Prior to joining ITW, Tim was General Manager of the Mechanical Systems Product Division of GE Aviation Unison. Tim has also held various positions as General Manager for the Industrial Products segment, as well as the Digital Leader for GE Aviation Unison. He was also a Director of Commercial Operations for GE Aviation Systems and held various positions in Sales Leadership and Engineering at Rockwell Automation.
Tim graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and earned an Executive MBA from Villanova University.
According to Hudson,“I looked at Hartness and how they’ve executed and proven the ITW Tool Box business model. I am an avid learner and I saw this as an opportunity to align with a company that has demonstrated global transformation in the Secondary Packaging Industry. It's an opportunity to take a really good company and do something great.
“I want to focus on three things, customer innovation, employee alignment and relentless execution.
“For customer innovation and technology, we will display new greater value-add products at Pack Expo. We’ll continue to look at technology investments to improve our positioning for the next 15-20 years. The Industrial Internet of Things is a focus of our innovation.
“The people foundation is here for employee alignment. We have a great history here with a lot of seasoned employees. Our employees are a wealth of untapped potential. Every employee is focused on the customer; however, I want to ensure it's a guiding principle by driving a culture of transparent and respectful candor. I also focus on developing a strong pipeline of talent that positions us for the future. We are currently hiring and looking for top talent that is a cultural fit. Bringing in the right talent is of paramount importance.
“We solve the toughest problems, the ones that other companies cannot. We execute in a way that helps our customers. Leveraging the new facility, we are streamlining operations and we will continue to provide the highest value for each customer’s investment we are entrusted with.
“Leveraging my past experiences and learnings will be instrumental in leading this company, as it exists today. While some may view my approach as disruptive, my goal is to make sure we are not only prepared but to excel in the (IIOT) Industrial Internet of Things revolution that is on the cusp of beginning.
“I come from very humble beginnings. I have faced many challenges in life, worked my way through school, and had kids in grad school. I’m just a down-to-earth, grounded, hard-working guy that wants to make a difference like many of my employees. I respect all people and I expect my senior leadership team to reflect that as well. I’m a huge proponent of developing talent, and a firm believer that there's more knowledge from a group than from one individual.
“Recently, I put out a challenge to our employees to come up with a slogan, something that reflects our business in today’s climate. A talented employee came back with ‘Magna Novi,’ which is Latin for a ‘Great New Era.’ We’re adopting this and going to run with it.”
