I’m Ken McLaughlin, Director of Automation Systems at JMP Engineering.  I live in St. Thomas, Ontario with my family.  I’m driven by my desire to create and apply technology in new and innovative ways.

I started out my professional career designing and implementing “complex” industrial motion control systems.  We had a belief that cutting-edge technology didn’t need to be complicated.  It could be deployed in a way that was simple to operate, maintain, and troubleshoot.

In the early-to-mid 2000s, the manufacturing landscape started to change. Manufacturers needed more flexible equipment that was able to handle smaller volumes, more product changes, and more variability. This, coupled with the decrease in cost and increase in reliability of robotics, opened up a need in the marketplace for companies that could understand how to integrate different technologies and building-blocks into a solution. For this reason, we started JMP’s automation line of business, leveraging the company’s expertise in control systems integration and ‘keep it simple’ mantra. Over the past 5 years, we have evolved into the go-to resource for manufacturers across North America to automated previously unautomatable processes.

The goal of my blog is to educate people on:
1. How to apply robotics and automation to improve your bottom line.
2. Where automation is a fit and how to apply it successfully.

- Ken (kmclaughlin360@gmail.com)