Kickstart: On PACE for innovations

Toronto-based automotive molder ABC Technologies is getting some attention for its work in cooling technology for large blow molded parts.

ABC won a 2022 Automotive News PACEpilot Innovations to Watch award Sept. 19 during the annual PACE awards presented by our sister paper.

I've been around the AN folks long enough to know that they don't always fully appreciate the technical aspects of molding parts, so winning for a system that uses variable cooling for "significantly reducing the production cycle time of large molded articles with minimum capital investment and design changes to existing molding tools and equipment," as ABC phrases it, stands out.

The system will allow ABC to "markedly increase production output for large molded products within existing … facilities," the company said.

ABC, with injection molding, blow molding and extrusion, wasn't the only plastic supplier to make the Innovations to Watch list. Plastic Omnium's 4D imaging radar, which integrates a radar system into large exterior plastic body panels, also won recognition. The full list of PACE supplier winners is here.

There's been a lot of discussion about the value of continuing "work from home" opportunities for office workers since the height of the pandemic. But a story from our sister publication Crain's Chicago Business about the 100 best companies to work for in the Chicago area brings up another office issue that hasn't been debated as much: meetings.

The Lactation Network, a breastfeeding-support company, now offers all employees the option to work from home but said that also entails valuing each worker's time. "This means a disciplined meeting culture," CEO Sarah Kellogg Naff told Crain's Chicago.

The default meeting length is 30 minutes. Employees are encouraged to inquire why they were invited to the meeting and can decline if they think their time can be better used elsewhere. Wednesdays are meeting-free days.

"The impulse to fill every day with meetings is real, especially when we're not all working in the same office," Naff says. "No-meeting Wednesdays give our team space to take a breath, catch up on emails and do deep-focus work."

Westlake Royal Building Products has marked a milestone in its work with Habitat for Humanity MidOhio: Its employees recently completed work on the 300th home built near Columbus using vinyl siding and trim donated by Westlake Royal.

Westlake Royal has been working with Habitat for Humanity for 20 years. The organization works with volunteers and the homeowners themselves to renovate and build new homes. The MidOhio group has provided more than 1,000 homes. The site of the 300th donation for Westlake Royal is just a few blocks from a production facility.

"Our partnership with Habitat MidOhio dates back through several company name changes and decades, but our commitment to this organization and the community of Columbus remains unchanged," Steve Booz, vice president of marketing and production management for Westlake Royal, said.

Westlake Royal is part of Houston-based Westlake Corp., with business units supplying materials and end products such as housing, pipes and other infrastructure parts.