Already said to be one of the top three tool and mold firms in North America, Windsor’s Integrity Tool and Mold announced on Dec. 16 a multi-million-dollar, multi-year partnership with U.S. software company Palantir Technologies that will help accelerate growth and the digitalization of its business.

Reported by Windsor Star, the deal makes Integrity the first Tier 2 firm in Canada to partner with Palantir, which specializes in software and big data analysis for Fortune 500 companies, healthcare, the U.S. military, and counterterrorism and intelligence agencies. In the automotive sector, Palantir counts Stellantis, Martinrea International, Forvia and Ferrari’s F1 program among its customers.

“We’ve been planning for this for the past five or six years,” Integrity’s director of operations Kevin Booker says. “From our standpoint, we’d maxed out our current system and growth patterns. This platform will allow us to provide the maximum utilization of our people and assets.”

Integrity is currently building its seventh facility in the Windsor area to go with its two plants in Tennessee and one in Mexico. About 600 of its roughly 700 employees are based in Windsor.

With automakers pushing innovation and the search for cost savings further down the supply chain, Booker says the new software platform moves Integrity closer to being a complete Industry 4.0 operation capable of meeting those challenges.

“It’s pretty clear what the OEMs want,” Booker notes. “They want results faster and more competitive pricing. This is part of our motivation. We want to stay ahead of our competition and this will help do that.”

“We want to be seen by potential employees as a leading company and make it easier for employees in the company. We want to be a company that employees want to go to.”

According to Palantir Canada’s lead on commercial business, Hanna Tomory, the timing is also right for the Denver-based firm to explore partnerships with smaller companies. “This is a beachhead for us,” Tomory explains. “The software that works in the belly of an Airbus is worthwhile being put to use to support the global manufacturing sector. It also can support other companies in a number of Tiers in this sector (besides OEMs and Tier 1s). All companies have the challenge of dealing with large data and how to use it.”

Tomory says Palantir, which has 3,000 employees with revenues of over $1.5 billion in 2021, is selective in its parnters. The company doesn’t view its software as a vehicle for replacing workers.

“Palantir tries to partner with executive leadership that shares its values,” Tomory says. “We use technology to augment humans, not replace them.”

Booker says the roots of the partnership with Palantir were planted after Integrity’s founder, Paul DiGiovanni, spotted the company’s poster featuring Ferrari’s F1 team in an airport. An avid F1 fan, DiGiovanni knew such software systems could also be applicable to his own firm, so he snapped a photo of the poster and sent it to Booker with instructions to contact Palantir. 

“We’ve had [Palantir’s Foundry] platform in place six to eight weeks and we can see the difference already,” Booker claims. “Everything is faster. The data is more accurate. We’re recovering data we couldn’t access before that our management team is now using in decision-making.”

He adds that the platform is also compatible with Integrity’s existing systems, enabling an easy transition. Integrity plans to use the software across all its production sites, gathering data on every aspect of the company’s operations ranging from information gathered from machines on the shop floor to scheduling and required maintenance.

“We want to create a better employee experience,” Booker says, noting that the software wasn’t purchased with just improvements in productivity and quality in mind, but its offering of human resource benefits. “We want to be seen by potential employees as a leading company and make it easier for employees in the company. We want to be a company that employees want to go to.”

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Originally sourced from Windsor Star