Business View Magazine | August 2020

49 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 SPEC I AL PRODUCTS & MFG. , INC . of my customers. So, I’m working on a program to automate estimates that will be able to do those 472 jobs. We did 160 jobs in less than ten minutes a couple of weeks ago in the beta testing mode. That’s four week’s worth of work in less than ten minutes and it’s all based on artificial intelligence; we build AI into the system and it automatically does the work for us. That’s what’s coming. The frontend process in my business will become completely automated where a customer drops an order in and I should be able to spit something out in less than five minutes. And, if they place the order, I should be able to be out on the floor in less than five minutes building the parts. That’s a game changer for us – automation of process. “The other thing is connectivity. We have a real emphasis over the next three to five years in making sure our team is connected, our machines are connected, our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is connected, our customers, our suppliers, and our community are all connected. And when I say connected, I mean electronically. We’re communicating, we’re monitoring, we’re collecting data in, we’re putting that data back out through connectivity to all of our stakeholders. Our initiative is to double our business in five years and, only through automation of process, equipment, and connectivity, double our business with only 50 percent more people. That’s our goal.” “Our industry is going to change dramatically with automation robotics and artificial intelligence – Industry 4.0,” Grand-Lienard states, in conclusion. “You’re going to have those that adopt and those that don’t adopt in our business. The differentiation when that is fully implemented in five years: there will be the haves and have-nots. The have-nots will be on their way to be completely out of business and the haves will be picking up more and more market share.” And Special Products & Manufacturing, Inc. fully intends to be one of the haves.