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By Colles Stowell, Globe Correspondent, 02/25/98
Their grandfather, Percy Spencer, was a well-known engineer who at Raytheon helped develop the technology behind the microwave oven in the 1940s. Now that Rod Spencer is in fact a rocket scientist, he still waves both hands when greeting family, to show he hasn't exceeded the limitations of his ingenuity. Like his grandfather, Spencer, 45, is an engineer at Raytheon, and he has developed a new technology he hopes will revolutionize automated manufacturing processes. ''It may not take a rocket scientist to automate a factory, but it doesn't hurt,'' Spencer says with a grin. What he's created is an automation system that enables manufacturers to coordinate real-time control of factory equipment using computers and the Internet. Spencer says his system costs less, is simpler, and promises more flexibility than other products, since it is designed to readjust itself to changes in machinery. From his home on the outskirts of Merrimack, N.H., Spencer is working to secure the $4 million in capital he says he needs to launch the product. He has incorporated Spencer Integration Inc. to develop and market the product. Systems integration, the process of developing and programming computerized automation systems in a factory-type environment, is a $22 billion-a-year industry, comprising thousands of engineering houses, according to Spencer. Those engineers are contracted for programming and maintenance of what is known as the programmable logic controller, a device that controls a system of codes that tells the machines in a plant what to do. Spencer says a typical programmable logic controller costs about $12,400, 90 percent of which goes toward programming and assembly. Additional costs depend on systems maintenance. The problem, he says, is that only about 5 percent of factory-oriented companies have a solid enough business and the financial means to afford programmable logic controllers as well as the engineering expertise required to run them. The remaining 95 percent of such companies don't have factory wide automation, he says. Spencer sees a clear need for his product. From simplifying the process and making it more affordable, ''the cost benefit is automation at one-tenth of the cost and complexity,'' he says. Brad Lehman, professor of electrical engineering at Northeastern University, says, ''What this product tries to do is use all the available knowledge that we already have about data from components in the manufacturing line. With all this data, we ask, `How do we use it?' ''They [Spencer Integration] are trying to integrate the data into an easy form so that it's possible to automate factories ... so that you could replace a piece of equipment and you would not have to reautomate the whole factory.'' Phil Pash, Spencer Integration's vice president of marketing and sales, likens the benefits of Spencer's technology to the benefits automation brought to the computer floppy disk manufacturing process. Pash, who spent several years working for a company that produced disks, watched as their individual cost dropped from one dollar to 20 cents. ''We made the robots to make those disks, and we made them faster. In the late '80s the mechanics was the limiting factor. In the mid '90s it was the software that was limiting. By shortening the design cycle and reducing the costs, we improved our efficiency,'' he says. In 1996, Spencer was part of a team at Raytheon that was trying to develop a new type of factory automation using systems integration. As part of a test, they built a 4 -foot, table-top factory, complete with a butane-fired boiler, a steam engine, and electric pumps, and operated it with software. In a demonstration of the project, Spencer and his team set the integration software to run the equipment in the factory. They then downloaded new equipment specifications from the Internet and reconfigured how the small table-top factory would perform different functions as if a new piece of equipment had been installed in the factory process. They were also able to alter the parameters of how each piece of equipment would operate within the entire system. Looking to divest itself from commercial product lines, Raytheon backed away from putting any more money behind the project, and Spencer acquired the rights to the technology last year. He says the test simulated what a machine operator or manufacturing manager in some plants might be able to do with his system if a machine broke down or if a new machine were installed. Because Spencer's system can be used to build a database that catalogs how different equipment in a factory has reacted in the past to different situations, the system can effectively teach itself to solve problems on its own. Spencer comes from a long line of engineers and inventors. The family's list of notable inventions dates back to the Civil War, when in 1860 Christopher Spencer created the Spencer carbine rifle, the first practical repeating rifle commissioned by the US government. Aside from the microwave, Percy Spencer also developed a manufacturing process that accelerated the production of the magnetron tube used in Allied radar systems during World War II. Rod Spencer excelled in developing engineering design work for various companies, ending up at Raytheon, where he worked on real-time controls for the guidance systems for both the Hawk and Patriot missile systems. That experience helped him develop the idea behind Spencer Integration. Now he devotes much of his free time - when not working as a senior development engineer for Raytheon - to getting Spencer Integration off the ground. He says once he has funding in place, he has the team lined up to develop the product and have it ready for market in 18 months. Initial cost estimates for the hardware and software combined are about $4,500. ''I'm obviously nervous,'' he says of the anticipation of securing funding. ''This is a new solution to an old problem.'' Brian Gilmore, executive vice president with Associated Industries of Massachusetts, agrees. ''Anything that increases productivity and increases quality is a welcome product,'' he says of Spencer's technology. ''It's a natural progression from old-time mechanical control systems into smart systems. It can be used in any number of industries, from mechanical, to chemicals, to paper and food. And not only domestically but internationally as well.'' Spencer is counting - on all 10 fingers - on the company's success. He and Pash believe that within a year of the product's release, Spencer Integration would employ 15 and could see $1 million to $5 million in sales, with a specific focus on the semiconductor and printed circuit board industries. They envision 100 percent growth over the next few years. This story ran on page F04 of
the Boston Globe on 02/25/98. © Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper
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hen Rod Spencer greets his brother or one of
his cousins, he waves with both hands, to show that he still has 10
fingers. It is a ritual rooted in his childhood, when Spencer and the
younger members of his family would build rockets and detonate homemade
explosives outside their grandfather's house in Bradford, N.H. 