Names in the News: Awards and accolades for Intek Plastics, IQMS and Fischer/Unitec; SPE names plenary speaker

(Hastings, MN) its Supply Chain Award in the sustainability category for successfully decreasing its electrical consumption by more than 1 million kilowatt hours (17% of its total consumption) in 2010, and reducing its material scrap by 24% in the same period. Steve Kirby, vice president, supply chain services for Andersen, presented the award to Intek's energy steering committee earlier this month. 

The Supply Chain Awards stem from an Andersen Corp. initiative to promote innovation and sustainability that would create advantages across the supply chain. Andersen recognized six suppliers in this first year of the awards - three for innovation and three for sustainability  

"Not only did we do right by the environment," said Mike Kinning, president of Intek Plastics, "we also did a lot of right things for the company and the bottom line, which is really important in this economy. Our energy steering committee is to be applauded for their great leadership and direction in identifying and implementing improvements in the plant and office." 

In Paso Robles, CA, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software supplier IQMS announced it has been ranked by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. Listed at No. 4723, the recognition is for IQMS's three-year organic sales growth of 11%. This is the ERP system supplier's first time on the Inc. list.

"Despite the tenuous economy, the past three years have been exciting for IQMS," said Randy Flamm, president of IQMS. "We could not have achieved placement on the list without the support of our loyal customers whose constructive feedback every step of the way has allowed us to create a superior manufacturing ERP system."

Also named to the list, at number 4975, was FISHER/UNITECH (Troy, MI), a reseller of SolidWorks 3D CAD software, and Stratasys 3D printers and rapid prototyping equipment for product design, development and manufacturing.
 
The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE; Newtown, CT) announced that Ashish Kulkarni, VP of technology and innovation at plastics supplier Ticona, will deliver a plenary address at the upcoming EUROTEC 2011 conference and tradeshow. EUROTEC will be held November 14-15 in conjunction with the Equiplast exposition in Barcelona. This will be the first time SPE organizes EUROTEC, the European pendant to the annual ANTEC event in the U.S.

Kulkarni will make a presentation on "When the Worlds Collide: Plastics & Applications." He intends to discuss the differences in how engineers in the plastics world and those in the applications world operate-their time scales and processes are different.  When these worlds "collide," the differences impede innovation.
  
More information on the SPE EUROTEC Conference is available at www.4spe.org.