FirstSpear TV

Archive for the ‘Industry’ Category

Ops-Core to Resume Operations

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

In an agreement with the City of Boston earlier this week, Ops-Core will have 45 days to do assembly work, but no painting, in its space at Fort Point Studios. Simultaneously, it will move its operation to a new facility in Boston. This comes after recent tensions with artist-tenants at Fort Point Studios. I feel this is great for America and great for Ops-Core and great for their employees who will be back to work.

Personally, I hope the remaining tenants of Fort Point get exactly what they asked for. That mean old corporation (Ops-Core) that employs people and pays taxes and rent and stuff will go away. Now all that needs to happen is for the owners of the facility to get their tenants to step up and pay fair value for their flats. I hope they enjoy actually pulling their own weight.

www.Ops-Core.com

WPRC Announces New Members

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Today, the Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition (WPRC), a non-profit organization of industry leaders that make and distribute organizational clothing and individual equipment (OCIE), announced that five additional companies have joined the group. They are: ArmorSource, LLC, Ceradyne, Inc., Gerber Gear, Glen Raven, Inc. and Survival Armor.

The WPRC is an advocate for the warfighter clothing and equipment industry whose primary mission is to provide a unified voice for sustained funding of the mission critical gear and equipment that allows warfighters to complete their missions safely and successfully. Each WPRC member company is creating domestic manufacturing jobs, maintaining a critical supply chain and providing American warfighters with the equipment they need to execute missions safely and effectively.

In a press release provided to SSD, WPRC’s Executive Director David Costello related, “The five new Coalition members demonstrate the industry’s commitment to ensuring our men and women in uniform has sustained access to the best mission-critical equipment available.” He went on to say, “The diversity in our new members represents a strong cross section of an industry vital to national security and American manufacturing. We’re thrilled to have ArmorSource, Ceradyne, Gerber, Glen Raven and Survival Armor on board with our mission and we look forward to having those organizations be a part of our increasingly successful advocacycampaign.”

The WPRC membership includes: ADS, Inc., ArmorSource, LLC,Bates Footwear, Benchmade Knife Company, Bluewater Defense, Brookwood Companies, Inc., Ceradyne, Inc., Darn Tough Vermont, DuPont, Duro Textiles, LLC, Eye Safety Systems, Inc., ForceProtector Gear, Gerber Gear, Glen Raven Inc., Insight Technology, Inc., International Textile Group, Inc., Leading Technology Composites, Inc., London Bridge Trading Company, Milliken & Company, New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc., Otis Technology, Inc., Outdoor Research, Pelican Products, Inc., Polartec, LLC, Silynx Communications, Inc., Smith Optics, Surefire, LLC, Survival Armor, TenCate Protective Fabrics, W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Wilcox Industries Corp., Wild Things Tactical, and Wiley X, Inc.

For more information on the Warrior Protection & Readiness Coalition, please visit www.warriorprotection.net.

Otis Technology Recognized

Monday, March 19th, 2012

Otis Technology is the recipient of the 2012 Productivity Achievement Award by Modern Materials Handling (MMH). Each year the MMH publication recognizes the achievements of three of the facilities that they have featured in the magazine within the past 12 months with a Productivity Award. Otis was announced as the Productivity Award winner in the manufacturing and innovation category for their use of mobile robots in their manufacturing operations. The award was announced in the February 2012 issue of the publication.

Otis relies on RMT Robotics ADAM™ autonomous mobile robots for on-demand random origin to random destination transport of work-in-process materials between Otis’s manufacturing and AS/RS based storage and final assembly operations.

Otis’ Director of Operations, Harold Philbrick says, “Otis has never been afraid to use technology as a means to help make our operations more efficient. We identified excessive amounts of material transportation within our process during initial stages of lean implementation and have since utilized the ADAMs to move material throughout the facility. The benefits of this implementation were recognized immediately. More output has led to shorter lead times and higher on time delivery, while improved operating efficiency has led to inventory accuracy. Being recognized with this Productivity Award shows the success of our implementation in a different aspect. We are very honored.”

www.otistec.com

Warrior Assault Systems Adds A-TACS

Monday, March 19th, 2012

Warrior Assault Systems has announced that they will be adding the A-TACS AU camouflage pattern to their lineup.

www.warriorassaultsystems.com

The Artists Strike Back

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

This morning’s issue of the Boston Globe featured a prominent picture of Ops-Core front man David Rogers calmly standing in front of racks laden with protective helmets. Just below his picture was a small inset photo of a rather irate, finger pointing artist tenant of the Midway Studios facility also occupied by Ops-Core. The issues at hand seem to be bigger than Ops-Core. Really, it’s all about money. Many of the artist tenants of the facility signed on with the understanding that they could rent and then purchase their spaces. After developer Bob Kuehn died of a heart attack they began to find out that they couldn’t purchase their spaces after all. To further exacerbate matters, the building came at risk of foreclosure if the developers couldn’t find a renter for the large “theater” space in the basement. The nut was $3 million over 10 years and Ops-Core came in and offered to place their helmet assembly operation in that space. Their rent would come close to covering the needed funding. But, rather than looking at Ops-Core as a savior of their rent controlled apartments, they’ve decided to take out their frustration on them. Granted, their was an isolated incident when a work crew hired by Ops-Core to refinish floors failed to properly vent the space. Some of the residents chose to leave their spaces overnight due to the polyurethane fumes. But, that isn’t likely to happen again.

Ultimately, the Boston Globe story, “At Fort Point studios, artists feel betrayed” is really just gasoline on a fire. It doesn’t solve anything but rather fans the flames of discontent. Furthermore, it fails to mention the impact of the Ops-Core closure. 80 employees are collecting unemployment and it has caused a hiccup in the assembly of helmets. Finally, I doubt but few of the tenants have considered their actions. If Ops-Core leaves, it may well result in the closure of the facility altogether. Assuming that much of a loan would require guaranteed income. While there are numerous tenants at Midway Studios, it is doubtful that they would band together and form the business entity required to acquire the building and manage it. After all, they’re artists, if they wanted to manage real estate portfolios they wouldn’t be living in rent controlled spaces.

Overall, it’s a lot of venting, and posturing and well, “Occupy Ops-Core.” In the end, the artist tenants will turn their outrage elsewhere. Hopefully, it will be before any more damage is done.

BHI Launches Commo Website

Friday, March 16th, 2012

Blackheart International has launched a new website intended specifically for communications requirements.

Primarily informational, the new BHI commo site is great for contracting officers and other procurement personnel. It’s easy to use and presents all of the critical information on the top-selling commo brands in one location. The site also includes part numbers and descriptions on those hard-to-find components and sub-assemblies and all part numbers are designated as “GSA schedule” where applicable, so there’s no confusion as to whether an item is on BHI’s GSA schedule or not.

www.bhicommo.com

McNett – Who Knew There Was So Much There?

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

I’ve been familiar with the family of McNett brands for years but it’s hard to really see how far they reach until you see something like this video. They truly do make things better.

“Gear Aid. M Essentials. Camo Form. Outgo. Aquamira. – We are McNett.”

www.mcnett.com

NavExFor – Tidewater Tactical

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

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Tidewater Tactical is on hand with a couple of tricks up their sleeve including a new version of their Dual Assault Pack developed for Navy Riverine. Look for a full write up soon.

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www.tidewatertactical.com