Building Partnerships Through Comprehensive Understanding

At PEKO, a strong emphasis is placed on comprehensively understanding customers’ objectives and challenges. During initial meetings, pertinent questions are posed, and attentive listening is employed to gain insight into customers’ short-term and long-term goals. While technical aspects hold significance within PEKO’s scope, inquiries extend beyond to encompass the overall business, team, history, and other relevant facets, fostering a robust partnership. Through these interactions, including Q&A sessions and discovery efforts, a solid foundation is established for a productive and mutually beneficial relationship.

PEKO leverages its extensive range of operations and engineering capabilities, bolstered by its Quality Management System (QMS), to wield a flexible toolkit tailored to meet each customer’s unique needs or project requirements. Drawing from decades of experience spanning various industries, PEKO has amassed a rich portfolio of best practices, which are selectively applied to new projects as appropriate. Rejecting a one-size-fits-all approach, PEKO meticulously evaluates each customer and project to determine the most suitable strategy on a case-by-case basis. This dynamic approach fosters true innovation, enabling the utilization of requisite resources and leveraging past experiences to deliver optimal value to every customer served.

Enhancing Client Engagement Through Customized Solutions

To provide tailored solutions to clients, prioritizing activities aimed at understanding the customer and their project expectations is essential. At PEKO, a set of tools has been developed to facilitate the breakdown of diverse specifications and requirements into a more manageable format. One highly effective method involves categorizing these requirements into “wants,” “needs,” and “shalls.” This approach offers a clear distinction between the customer’s preferences, functional necessities, and legal requirements. By prioritizing and organizing these specifications, PEKO can adeptly navigate numerous requirements and deliver bespoke solutions that align precisely with the needs of its customers.

Navigating Challenges

Throughout his 20-year tenure in the industry, Mark Frosino has embraced the dynamic nature of his work, recognizing each day as an opportunity for growth and problem-solving. At PEKO Precision Products, where the emphasis lies on providing tailored solutions rather than proprietary products, Mark has honed his expertise in addressing intricate engineering and manufacturing challenges. Clients rely on PEKO’s innovative approach to deliver groundbreaking solutions, often venturing into uncharted territories to surpass conventional limitations.

Mark has come to understand that adaptability is paramount in navigating the diverse landscape of projects encountered at PEKO. As problem solvers, the team thrives on out-of-the-box thinking and continual adaptation to devise creative solutions that align with evolving client needs. While drawing from past experiences, Mark acknowledges the uniqueness of each project and approaches them with a fresh perspective, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration. Working closely with internal teams and clients alike, Mark ensures that every solution meets the highest standards of excellence.

Project Maturity Assessment

At PEKO Precision Products, a structured approach is adopted to assess project maturity levels, ensuring comprehensive understanding and mitigating risks. Aligning with industry standards like Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRLs), PEKO employs a phased strategy encompassing Discovery, Concept, Design, Prototype, and Qualification stages. Through this method, technical and commercial risks are minimized for both clients and PEKO, supported by tools such as Critical Parameter Worksheets, Compliance Matrix, and design reviews tailored to specific project needs.

Emphasizing the significance of early definition of technical requirements, PEKO collaborates closely with clients to establish clear project parameters. While clients often provide detailed design documentation, PEKO offers collaborative solutions for cases where such documents are unavailable, ensuring alignment and clarity throughout the project lifecycle. Recognized for its effectiveness, PEKO’s phased approach garners appreciation from clients, enabling proactive risk management and adaptability. Collaborative efforts facilitate necessary adjustments, culminating in accurate scoping and quoting for subsequent project phases. For streamlined processes, PEKO offers tailored solutions, including training initiatives and pre-production builds, aiming to expedite project timelines while ensuring client success and operational stability.

Building Strong Relationships Through Custom Solutions

Establishing Strong Partnerships

To initiate enduring relationships built on mutual benefit, PEKO employs a comprehensive assessment process to ascertain compatibility. This approach aims to foster robust partnerships grounded in shared values and sustained success.

Key Evaluation Factors:

• The project’s commercial viability and alignment with margin expectations are analyzed to gauge market feasibility.
• The suitability of the technology is assessed, considering core scientific viability, understanding of critical parameters, novelty, and strength of intellectual property.
• Cultural alignment between organizations is examined, emphasizing the potential for seamless collaboration not only for the current project but also for future endeavors.
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Tailoring the Experience

At PEKO, every project is approached with a personalized touch. The team collaborates closely with clients to comprehend their specifications, requirements, and end-users. Leveraging existing prints, BOMs, and tribal knowledge, the experts develop customized manufacturing processes aligned with quality standards, lead time, and performance objectives, ensuring the highest level of service.

Promoting Transparent Communication

Recognizing the pivotal role of effective communication, PEKO assigns a dedicated program manager to new clients. This individual works closely with clients to coordinate quality, purchasing, and manufacturing aspects, providing progress updates, addressing queries or concerns, and offering support throughout the project lifecycle. This approach fosters transparency and accountability, facilitating open and consistent communication.

Navigating Challenges Together

In the realm of pioneering technology development, challenges abound. PEKO acknowledges that not all news may be favorable but embraces difficult discussions as opportunities for continued collaboration and growth toward success.

Delivering Exemplary Value

By consistently surpassing expectations, PEKO demonstrates a commitment to customer success, nurturing enduring relationships. Collaborating closely with clients’ engineers, PEKO offers valuable feedback and recommendations to enhance design for manufacturability and assembly (DFMA), thereby improving product functionality, reducing costs, and enhancing efficiency.

Navigating Complex Designs

In a recent project with an emerging alternative energy start-up, a notable demonstration of flexible and innovative solutions significantly contributed to its success. While the start-up focused on developing its core science module, PEKO was entrusted with designing a substantial portion of its Balance of Plant.

The challenge involved integrating all critical components, pipework, and instrumentation essential for their process within an exceptionally small footprint. Moreover, the design underwent frequent modifications concerning component locations and specifications, occurring on a weekly, daily, and even hourly basis.

To ensure seamless collaboration amidst this dynamic environment, PEKO’s engineers actively participated in the start-up’s Slack chat group, facilitating real-time updates and communication between the two teams. Additionally, a “journal” method was devised to transparently share completed work and assess the risk of rework upon requirement updates. A multi-stage design process was also implemented to prevent progressing too far ahead, minimizing the risk of new updates.

Maintaining transparency and clear communication with the customer was paramount throughout the project. Both parties acknowledged the necessity for rapid changes and comprehended the impacts of those alterations.

Ultimately, PEKO’s adaptable and innovative solutions, combined with robust communication and collaboration, successfully accommodated all required components within the confined footprint. As the system undergoes commissioning, this project exemplifies how adaptability and effective communication drive the success of intricate and dynamic designs.

Fostering Growth

At PEKO, a strong emphasis is placed on talent development, with several strategies in place to nurture the growth, development, and creativity of team members. The company boasts a robust co-op program within its engineering groups and accredited apprenticeship programs in various mechanical, electrical, technician, and operator disciplines. These initiatives ensure a continuous influx of fresh talent into the operations, complementing the existing skilled workforce. PEKO prioritizes internal talent nurturing, collaborating closely with employees to devise comprehensive plans for short-term and long-term growth. Additionally, there are plans to integrate a state-of-the-art Learning Management System (LMS) to further enhance and optimize employee development initiatives. By investing in the growth and development of team members, PEKO aims to cultivate a skilled and motivated workforce, contributing to the organization’s ongoing success.