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Why We Make Our Own Hardware

In order to meet the demands of both our customers and the tumultuous global supply chain, StrongArm has shifted manufacturing to New York State.

The global supply chain is on its heels. And its instability and unreliability are severely impacting consumerism in the United States, from inflation and higher prices, small quantities of available goods and longer wait times for purchases.

‍For businesses, a crippled supply chain trickles down into a number of serious potential consequences, mainly extended delivery delays and a necessary cut to production forecasts. And it’s only getting worse.

‍Protecting the world’s Industrial Athletes is not an easy task. In a fast-paced, unpredictable environment, our customers need safety technology that can keep up. As StrongArm rapidly grows our partnerships, we need our technology to be available and accessible as quickly as possible for our customers — because they deserve it, and because, quite literally, lives depend on it. 

‍That’s why we’ve transitioned to making our own hardware in the United States.

‍Moving forward, every aspect of StrongArm’s SafeWork System is assembled in the United States, and critical components are proudly manufactured in our home state of New York, introducing a host of benefits to our products, our services and our customers.

Employing state-of-the-art machinery and specialized engineers, we now build our sensors, docks and all accessories (such as the x-pack and harness, various mounting methods for the Flex, and adaptors) right next door to us in Long Island.

The PCB boards that power all components of the SafeWork System are printed and assembled here as well, along with the other inner workings of our technology, such as mechanical units, electrical components and jigs that we use in the manufacturing process to speed up assembly and increase the consistency and reliability of the hardware.

“We can’t depend on a supply chain riddled with instability,” says CEO Sean Petterson. “We need complete control over building our safety infrastructure in order to properly protect the Industrial Athletes of the world. They deserve it.”

Worker safety may be a global problem, but more and more, our solution is local.

The Benefits

For the product

Collecting highly detailed and highly accurate data in demanding environments is a substantial and knotty task. Off-the-shelf, stock hardware would not allow us to run the complex algorithms required to keep our Industrial Athletes safe.

‍Naturally, building our own hardware in a local facility is the only way we can ensure each aspect of the SafeWork System is of the highest quality and can perform to not only meet, but exceed the standards of our customers and Industrial Athletes. This transition enables us to provide higher quality and higher fidelity data, and to provide the most detailed and targeted actionable insights from this data.

‍Transitioning to manufacturing in the United States has enabled us to build a manufacturing line with quality and high volume in mind. It helps us ensure that every piece of equipment produced works reliably and consistently, every time an Industrial Athlete uses a sensor to every time a manager check data on the dashboard.

Furthermore, it facilitates our execution of a seamless integration with the dock and dashboard experience. It also allows us to install in our wearables’ specialized sensors measuring data specific to our target market, such as IE IMU’s that are capable of detecting small changes in angle (for something like a forward bend) versus IMU’s that can only detect large changes like step counting. 

Local production also advances the overall quality and standardization. Combining world class progressive quality models with fully automated assembly and inspection processes, our manufacturing partners employ highly skilled technicians and engineers to ensure the hardware at the heart of our data collection is built at the highest levels and delivered on time.

These manufacturers are the pioneers of the industry, trusted by leaders in aerospace, defense and the military.

In short, being so close to our manufacturer enables us to monitor and alter the production of each sensor so it is perfectly tailored for what our customer needs. The product becomes more reliable and more durable, and also more personalized.

For the customer

These developments extend into enhanced quality, reliability, durability and overall experience for the customer.

The transition to American-made enables us to be more agile and swift in a global electronic component market. For example, it provides us with the flexibility to help collapse manufacturing times due to electrical component shortages, and be more agile to meet the timelines of our most demanding customers.

Service issues are also handled directly with StrongArm now, meaning you get a real human on the phone when there is a problem, and there is no need to wait for other customers to warranty products via a distributor. We can easily make modifications or customizations to meet the most demanding customer needs.

For the customer, a locally sourced product means faster, more personalized and more comprehensive service, no matter the scale of their need. It means that Industrial Athletes are protected, managers are able to concentrate on productivity goals knowing their Athletes are safe, and it means that EHS is confident that the program is collecting reliable data to make actionable insights, to help guide training, policies and investment.

Looking Ahead

We are fully aware of the demanding needs of our customers and their Industrial Athletes. Designing our own hardware gives us complete control over the design, manufacturing, and testing of our products, meaning that we’re able to specify and build them to meet the most demanding customer environments, while maintaining high reliability and durability. 

To protect more Industrial Athletes, building our own hardware is an essential step – facilitating rigorous testing during design, certification, and inline manufacturing testing to ensure the highest quality product is delivered to customers every time. 

Tackling the problem of work-related injuries – a problem of global proportions – requires a full-fledged effort.

As we grow our company and customer base, we plan on scaling up our production more and more. In order to level up our manufacturing to get to the level our customers deserve and the standard we expect, we need this process to be local.

Moving forward, expect all StrongArm products to be designed, manufactured and assembled in America and we continue to work towards sending all Industrial Athletes home safe.

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Colleen Hufford | Director, Hardware

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