Tony — Entrepreneur

ABB was always my favorite and what I was best at because I spent the most time working with them. I spent two years working with some of the smartest programmers in the world at ABB Auburn Hills Michigan. Thank you to all who helped me!

I am a very good Mod Poser with Fanuc. I can not write KARL but can work with almost any automotive application package. I am decent with Roboguide but I have not worked with DCS.

I loved working with Kawasaki robots. S Logic was clumsy, but at the time they had a great spot welding interface.

Nachi was my first large robot install at Chrysler SHAP in 1999. Early to late 2000's, I worked on many Chrysler installs using Nachi robots. Mainly spot welding and material handling applications. I was able to do some ISRA Vision Guidance Systems for Warren Truck.

I integrated all of the components required for a laser brazing system to a Kuka KRC2 for the first time and worked with Kuka Roboter to develop their laser brazing technology package. Diverse Industries owns a Kuka KRC4 Agilis that I have trained many classes on.

This is my current focus and the development of this software is everything to me. I am using every experience that I have ever had to develop a community that improves the lives of millions. A free and fair market place for all labor. Matching skilled labor with work is one of the biggest problems in society and is the problem that we are solving here. Automate America is not just about Automation Professionals, it is for all professionals around the world, but for now, our customers and connections are in this industry and it is where we must establish our foundation. If you are reading this, you are already part of the community and I want you to know that you are a part of something bigger than all of us, bigger than automation or industry, this is about making the world a better place through an efficient and fair platform of all work and all professionals. You will get paid what you deserve and customers will find the people they need!

Diverse Industries was re-branded to Diverse Automation because we were strictly an automation focused company. We moved into Systems work and became known for our large Vision Inspection booths for Automotive Interior parts. Our reputation was great, so the opportunities were endless. We were having a hard time finding machining suppliers so we bought a HAAS V4 CNC machine and started building a machine shop. 2015 also marked the official start of Automate America. We went through many development strategies and suppliers until we found the current team. September 2016 we opened our new Michigan office in Troy. We never stopped doing work in Detroit, but we had not had brick and mortar there. October 2016 we moved into a new 14,000 SQFT facility in Greer SC. The problem was that I did not know how to say no. We spent too much time quoting work and did not have the capital to finance paying the best guys in the industry to sit and wait between assignments. The machine shop was covering its overhead but we could not make money without investing substantially in more machines and equipment, we were just outsourcing too much. January 2017 we changed our focus to Automation Service. We realized that Service was supporting our systems and machine shop efforts. Service has always been at our core, it is what we are best at, what we are known for and where we add the most value to our customers. May 2017 we started using Automate America Internally at Diverse Automation and inviting contractors to create profiles. August 2017 we moved into a new more professional office headquarters on the 5th floor of The Parkway.

Diverse Industries was formed in 2007 because the company was growing and we needed to lose the mom and pop name. Kuka, ABB, Comau, Valiant Machine Tool and FFT were my top customers. In mid 2008 GM walked through Kuka Systems shop floor in Sterling Heights and told me and 14 of my programmers to go home, the project was on hold. It was tough times, but I was able to keep a few of our top guys working and we survived until Valiant Machine Tool called on us to help with the BMW F25 Launch in Spartanburg South Carolina and the company was back on its feet. We did a great job for BMW, they gave us a free office for over 1 year and we were soon working for all of their suppliers in town, providing service and small turnkey systems. We moved out of BMW into our own facility in 2014. Soon we had 52 employees and contractors billable.

This is where it all began. Gonzalez was my first customer. The biggest Gonzalez projects were the F150 Hood Assembly at Ford Dearborn Stamping and the Decklid Project at Ford/Mazda AAI Flatrock Michigan. The next large customer was ABB in Auburn Hills. This is where I worked with several of the industries smartest engineers. The RA group that I was in was responsible for integrating all of the new True View / Braintech single camera 3D vision guidance systems. ABB had a partnership and was trying to sell a vision system with every robot. The majority of my work with ABB was on the floor in Auburn Hills or at one of the Ford Power Train Plants in North America. I completed a large install at ZF/Ford Batavia Transmission in Ohio, Ford Romeo Transmission, Ford Van Dyke Transmission and Ford Sharonville Transmission. During this time I continued to hire more independent contractors to work with me. Max independent contractors was 7.