Stanley Black & Decker has officially opened its 23,000 square foot Advanced Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, called ‘Manufactory 4.0’ in Hartford.
The state-of-the-art facility will serve as the epicentre 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: Connected Factory, Flexible Automation and Advanced Analytics.
The centre 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.
"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 centre 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."
"We're also proud to build this facility in Connecticut, where our founder Frederick Stanley opened his first boltmanufactory more than 175 years ago," Loree said. "Through collaboration with local partners, the Manufactory 4.0 centre 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 revitalisation 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."
