East/West puts $250G into machinery to fuel growthJAMIE HERZLICHBY

jherzlich@aol.com

Technology has changeddrastically since Ronkonkoma-based East/West Industriesopened its doors 48 years ago.

In order to thrive in the com-petitive global manufacturingenvironment, the firm, whichdesigns and manufactures air-craft seats and crew life-sup-port systems primarily for themilitary, has had to embracenew technologies to keep upwith growing demand.

Over the past two years the

firm has invested more than$250,000 in new machinery.Purchases included a $50,0003-D printer for prototyping, tohelp speed up design and im-prove efficiencies, bought inMarch with the help of an Em-pire State Development grant.

Other recent equipment pur-chases include a machinethat’s helped cut down the in-spection time of complex partsby more than 25 percent.

“Technology speeds every-thing along,” explains JoeSpinosa, vice president of busi-ness development and son of

founders Dom and MarySpinosa. “The rest of the worldis going through this same digi-tal transition, and if we didn’tdo the same, we’d be at a com-petitive disadvantage.”

The company’s in growthmode, seeing a 25 percent in-crease in sales this year alonewith several new federal andcommercial contracts, prompt-ing it to look for new, innova-tive ways to get its products tocustomers faster andmore effi-ciently, says president TeresaFerraro, Joe’s sister.

“In the manufacturing envi-

ronment it has to be done bet-ter, faster and cheaper [to re-main competitive],” says JimSmith, assistant vice presidentof economic development atStony Brook University, whoalso oversees SBU’s AdvancedEnergy Research and Technol-ogy Center. “You can’t com-pete without using these ad-vanced new technologies.”

Inparticular,whole newbusi-ness models are evolving be-cause of “additive manufactur-ing”methods such as 3-D print-ing, he explains.

“This is really a tool in thecompany’s arsenal of competi-tiveness,” Smith says.

For East/West, 3-D printinghelped reduce the backlog ofwork on its single machinist,says engineering manager MikeVetter. The firm has one dedi-cated machinist for prototyp-ing, and at any given time nineor 10 of the firm’s designerscould be giving him parts tomake. The 3-D printer helps re-lieve the bottleneck this cre-ates because it can work 24hours a day, even weekendsunattended, Vetter says.

It came in handy recentlywhen the firm had to proto-type a large 12-piece subassem-bly for a presentation pitch toSikorsky and the U.S. AirForce. The new printer wasable to make the parts overfour days, a task that wouldhave taken the machinist threeor four weeks, Vetter notes.

This doesn’t eliminate theneed for a machinist, companyofficials say.

“It’s not knocking down ourhead count,” Spinosa says. “It’sjust making us more efficientand faster.”

East/West has grown in thepast two years from 48 employ-ees to 70, and within the yearit plans to hire 10 more, Fer-raro says.

Due to its growth, it’s expand-ing from the 32,000-square-foot

See EVOLVE on A32

] COMPANY: East/WestIndustries Inc., Ronkonkoma] PRINCIPALS: PresidentTeresa Ferraro and vice presi-dent of business developmentJoe Spinosa] PRODUCT: Aircraft seatsand life-support systems forhigh-performance militaryaircraft and commercial aircraft,and ground support equipmentfor servicing such aircraft] EMPLOYEES: 70

At a glance

RECALL OF SAMSUNGWASHING MACHINES

New technologies,new opportunities

In another black eye for oneof the world’s leading con-sumer brands, U.S. authoritiesannounced a recall Friday ofnearly 3 million Samsung wash-ing machines following severalreports of injuries — includinga broken jaw — due to “exces-sive vibration.”

The recall comes a monthafter the South Korean manu-facturer recalled millions ofits Galaxy Note 7 smart-phones from consumersaround the world because thephones’ batteries can overheatand catch fire.

The current recall comesafter reports that the drums incertain top-loading washingma-chine models can become un-balanced and cause severe vi-bration, in some cases causingthe top of the machine to de-tach from the chassis.

Samsung was sued over thesummer by consumers inTexas, Indiana and Georgia,who say their washing ma-chines “exploded” while beingused.

In the current recall, the com-pany is offering consumers achoice between a free repairand a rebate toward the pur-chase of a new washing ma-chine. Consumers who pur-chased an affected model in thelast 30 days are being offered afull refund. — AP

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East/West Industries, led by Teresa Ferraro and her brother, Joe Spinosa, bought a 3-D printer tomake prototypes. They plan to move the business to a larger facility in Ronkonkoma early next year.

JOHNNYMILANO

Number of jobs inSeptember in Long

Island’s couriers andmessengers sector,

which includes workerswho deliver smallparcels and docu-

ments, up 400 fromSeptember 2015

Source: New York StateLabor Department

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Ronkonkoma facility it has occupiedfor two decades and moving to a50,000-square-foot facility nearby inRonkonkoma by the beginning of2017, she notes.

Co-founder Mary Spinosa saysshe’s pleased with the growth, not-ing, “The company started on mydining room table. . . . We’ve beengrowing all along.”. Her husband,Dom, died three years ago.

The firm haswon significant new-buildmilitary jobs that have contrib-uted to its growth, including secur-ing the contract to make crew chiefseats and troop seats for the CH-53Khelicopter for the Marines and theCH-47 helicopter for the Army, aswell as pilot, co-pilot and operatorseats for the E-2D aircraft for theNavy, Joe Spinosa says.

Branching outOver the last four years East/West

has branched into the commercialmarket to diversify. For instance, it’ssupplying 1,000-plus seats for theBell 505 Jet Ranger X program, Bellhelicopter’s new five-seat aircraft, hesays.

The firm has gotten some assis-tance to help with its expansion,Ferraro notes.

Besides two ESD grants for tech-nology purchases, it has receivedtax incentives from the Town ofIslip Industrial DevelopmentAgency to help with the new facil-ity expansion and discounted elec-

tricity from New York Statethrough its ReCharge New YorkProgram.

“The expansion is a big undertak-ing, and without town and state as-sistance a lot of this wouldn’t bepossible,” Ferraro says.

The company said it may con-sider purchasing additional 3-Dprinters down the line.

There are many different direc-tions to go with 3-D printing, ex-plains Dr. Gary Halada, associateprofessor in the department of ma-terials science and chemical engi-neering at SBU. “You can start tothink about doing things in waysyou never could before.”

You can create complex and un-usual shapes and structures thatwould have been impossible to dousing traditional machining tools,he explains.

And the industry is developingnew materials all the time such asnew composites and polymers that

are stronger than what presently ex-ists, Halada says.

“As they advance the materials,we’ll be able to take 3-D printingfrom prototyping to actually mak-ing production parts,” Spinosa says.

Outsourcing optionBut such high-level equipment

purchases require careful consider-ation, Smith says. For instance, de-pending upon volume, it may payto outsource work to a 3-D printingservice provider rather than mak-ing a large investment into owningyour own.

Commercial/industrial sectorprinters can range from $20,000 forsimple printers that only print inplastic to $750,000 for a high-endmetal printer, Smith says.

East/West will consider its op-tions down the line.

“We continue to advance and im-prove our capabilities to keep ourcompetitive edge,” Vetter says.

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Walmart sets bold sustainability goals

MANUFACTURERINVESTS TOKEEP CURRENT

A worker at East/West Industries assembles a seat for a military aircraft.The Ronkonkoma company plans to add 10 more workers within the year.

JOHNNYMILANO

The Associated Press

Walmart is laying out its environ-mental map for the next severalyears as it tries to satisfy customerswho want green products at afford-able prices.

The world’s largest retailer saysit will seek to reduce emissions inits own operations by 18 percent by2025, and work toward adding nowaste to landfills in key marketslike Canada and the United States.It also plans to be powered by 50percent clean and renewable en-ergy sources.

Walmart’s goals, announced lastweek by CEO Doug McMillon, fol-low a plan set in 2005 as the com-pany sought to deflect criticism ofits practices and burnish its image.

Walmart has extended its effortsince then into its supply chain,which because of its size — morethan 10,000 stores globally — givesit outsized influence on the overallindustry.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-basedretailer is under pressure from con-sumers, especially millennials, whowant environmentally friendlyitems. Walmart is looking at tech-nology that will let shoppers scanfood to learn its origins and otherinformation, beyond just taggingproducts with “green labels.”

Walmart says it will be the firstretailer to have an emissions-reduc-tion plan approved by the ScienceBased Targets initiative in partner-ship with the Paris Climate Agree-ment in December 2015. The Sci-

ence Based Targets initiative is apartnership with the WorldWildlife Fund, the World Re-sources Institute and others.

The retailer said it will work withsuppliers to scale back emissions byone gigaton by 2030, which it says isequivalent to taking 211 million carsfrom the road a year.

Walmart says it hopes to beadding zero waste to landfills inCanada, Japan, the United Kingdomand the United States by 2025. Itplans to refine how it buys food soless of it goes unsold, and any thatdoes is converted topet foodor fertil-izers or diverted to charities.

The company wants its private-brandpackaging to be 100percent re-cyclable. It also plans to double salesof locally grown produce by 2025.

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