Smart Business Magazine, February 2021

36 Smart Business February 2021 2 0 2 1 E V O L U T I O N H O N O R E E S The Gent Machine Company was founded in 1927 by Richard Gent Sr and his father Arthur Gent They operated out of a barn until WWII when they were called upon to produce grenade fuses and firing pins for the recoilless rifle In a short time they built a factory in South Euclid and hired over 50 people to work 24 7 After the war Richard ran the company joined by his brothers and in the 1960s Richard Gent Jr joined purchasing Gent Machine in 1977 He set out in an aggressive modernization plan renovating the building and upgrading equipment In the 2000s Richard Jr s sons Rich and Adam joined the business as the fourth generation before purchasing it In 2009 the company was awarded the IATF 16949 quality certificate and in 2012 it started producing all of Tesla Motors fasteners for the Model S X And in 2013 Gent Machine moved to Collinwood more than tripling its building size and allowing for years of growth Near the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic all automotive sales stopped and two companies called on Gent Machine to produce ventilator parts It ramped up quickly to set up eight ventilator parts purchased a new piece of equipment and by August had shipped over 1 million ventilator parts Adam Gent President The Gent Machine Company Chip Gear President The Technology House Over the last 10 years The Technology House has grown from a job shop to a production aerospace and medical device manufacturing company With the help of EDGE and the Burton D Morgan Foundation it participated in Scalerator a sixmonth program that helped leadership focus on the internal workings of the company and create a strategic plan It modernized and automated its network ERP program and internal audit processes It also partnered with innovative additive manufacturing companies to unlock new products using new design software technologies and materials with the ability for 3 D printing at scale In 2020 The Technology House team led by President Chip Gear was forced to pivot due to COVID 19 That was made easier by the companys flexible manufacturing fleet of services and employees with additive manufacturing urethane molding injection molding and CNC machining experience allowing it to launch into production builds in days not weeks or months Its vertical integration with these processes plus engineering allows the company to design develop and manufacture full products In support of the COVID 19 relief effort it ran and shipped over 10000 parts per day making 3 D printed ventilator parts face shields and nasal swabs maintaining social distancing by working in teams across multiple shifts to support production