NEW BRITAIN, Conn.,
April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) today announced the
opening of its 23,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center of
Excellence, called "Manufactory 4.0," in downtown Hartford at One Constitution Plaza.
The state-of-the-art facility will serve as the epicenter for
the company's global Industry 4.0 "smart factory" initiative,
housing a team of approximately 50 Industry 4.0 experts focused on
accelerating the company's adoption of advanced manufacturing
technologies and building upskilling programs to help prepare the
company's workforce for the digital-led manufacturing environment.
The site will focus on three value streams including Connected
Factory, Flexible Automation and Advanced Analytics.
The center will also be an innovation hub for the local region,
helping Hartford continue its
evolution as a leading market for advanced manufacturing in
the United States. For example,
the Manufactory 4.0 is the home of the company's STANLEY+Techstars
additive manufacturing accelerator program, which is bringing some
of the world's most exciting advanced manufacturing startups to the
city of Hartford.
"We are living in an era where the impact of technology has
begun to exceed the ability of society to absorb the pace of
change, and to succeed, companies and individuals need to be able
to expand their capacity to absorb rapid change and adapt faster
than ever before," said Stanley Black & Decker President and
CEO Jim Loree. "Our new Manufactory
4.0 center will serve as the heartbeat of our company's Industry
4.0 efforts, helping our manufacturing operations rapidly adopt
leading-edge technologies and ensuring our global workforce is
prepared for this new world through upskilling and re-skilling
efforts."
To commemorate the new center's opening, Stanley Black &
Decker is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. today, which features remarks by Loree,
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and Hartford Mayor Luke
Bronin.
"We're also proud to build this facility in Connecticut, where our founder Frederick Stanley opened his first Bolt
Manufactory more than 175 years ago," Loree said. "Through
collaboration with local partners, the Manufactory 4.0 center can
help build on the state's manufacturing legacy and establish it as
a leading hub for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We chose
Hartford because we see the
potential for revitalization in this city and state."
"Connecticut has some of the
best educational institutions in the nation and we've specifically
been tailoring the curriculum at our schools so that innovative,
advanced manufacturing companies like Stanley Black & Decker
have a talent pool of workers available to them in order to compete
in a world-class, 21st century market," Governor Ned Lamont said. "We're proud that generations
of Connecticut workers have been
employed by the company and remain committed to working with them
so that many more generations of our state's residents can consider
themselves a part of the Stanley Black & Decker family."
"Stanley Black & Decker made a big statement about
Hartford's future when it launched
an additive manufacturing accelerator last year, and today's
announcement is another major step toward making our Capital City a
hub for innovation in our core industries," said Mayor Luke Bronin. "Hartford was at the forefront of the
19th century's industrial revolution, and today a global
manufacturing leader made Hartford
the center of its work to reinvent manufacturing for the 21st
century. I want to thank Jim and the entire team at Stanley Black
& Decker for their vision and commitment to Hartford. We are very grateful for their
partnership."
The event will highlight examples of Stanley Black &
Decker's Industry 4.0 success to date, including how the company
has improved collaboration between humans and automated technology,
leveraged connected machines to improve how plants collaborate and
problem solve, and utilized analytics to improve productivity and
expand its U.S. manufacturing base.
"The opening of our world-class Manufactory 4.0 facility is an
important part of our commitment to becoming a global leader in
advanced manufacturing – both in terms of enabling our own
company's Industry 4.0 evolution and enabling innovation across the
industry," said Sudhi Bangalore, vice president of Industry 4.0 at
Stanley Black & Decker. "From this center of excellence, we'll
be able to more rapidly test and deploy technologies at our many
manufacturing facilities and deeply engage with a wide range of
public and private partners."
Stanley Black & Decker currently operates approximately 30
manufacturing facilities in the United
States, including three in Connecticut, with more than 100 manufacturing
facilities globally. The company has three locations designated as
"Lighthouse Factories" that have partially implemented Industry 4.0
across their facilities from manufacturing execution systems (MES),
to 3-D printing, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. With
the support of the Manufactory 4.0 initiatives, the company plans
to update an additional 25 facilities to "Lighthouse Factories" by
the end of the year.
For more information on Stanley Black & Decker or its
Industry 4.0 initiatives, visit stanleyblackanddecker.com.
About Stanley Black & Decker:
Stanley Black &
Decker is a $14 billion revenue,
purpose-driven industrial organization. Stanley Black & Decker
has 61,000 employees in more than 60 countries and operates the
world's largest tools and storage business, the world's second
largest commercial electronic security services company, a leading
engineered fastening business as well as Oil & Gas and
Infrastructure businesses. The company's iconic brands include
Black & Decker, Bostitch, CRAFTSMAN, DEWALT, FACOM, Irwin,
Lenox, Porter Cable and Stanley.
Stanley Black & Decker is a company for the makers and
innovators, the craftsmen and the caregivers, and those doing the
hard work to make the world a better place. Learn more at
www.stanleyblackanddecker.com.
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SOURCE Stanley Black & Decker