Fastems Heads to the Great White North

As manufacturing continues to expand in Canada, particularly in the aerospace and energy sectors, the company hires a new business development manager to grow its machine tool and factory automation business in that region.

Fastems, LLC (West Chester, OH), manufacturers of a wide range of flexible factory automation systems, recently appointed David Byrne as the business development manager for Canada.

“We are very pleased that David has chosen to join the Fastems team,” says Richard Bodine, the vice president of sales and marketing. “Canada is a very important market for us. Its manufacturing sector continues to expand, particularly in the aerospace and energy sectors, which are two of our biggest markets. David’s extensive machine tool and factory automation experience will serve our customers and prospects well.”

Byrne’s background includes technical sales positions at machine tool distributorships and OEMs. Most recently he was employed by A.W. Miller Technical Sales, Inc. Other machine tool-related companies at which he held managerial sales positions include MAG Canada, SMS Machine Tools, and Cincinnati Machine. He holds a degree in Business Administration from Vanier College.

Fastems is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fastems Oy Ab (Tampere Finland). The company established its Cincinnati-area North American headquarters in 2010 as an open integrator of flexible automation systems and now provides a variety of extendable and flexible automation systems and robots, including advanced MMS (Manufacturing Management System) controls, stacker cranes, conveyors, loading/unloading stations, single or multi-level workpiece, pallet magazines and assembly organizers, and raw material stations.

These “open” automation systems can be incorporated with virtually any modern CNC machine tool and auxiliary equipment brands. Typical applications range from joining two machine tools together with a Flexible Palletized Container (FPC) to highly sophisticated, factory-wide flexible manufacturing systems. Fastems currently employs 450 people in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. www.fastems.com