Curiosity, Creativity, and Problem-Solving
“It’s very much about unlocking what a challenge looks like and then wrapping engineering skills in a virtual team around that founder, that team, that company, to move them into the right direction,” explains Alf Trower, Enginuity’s director of business development.
Established in 2003, the Halifax-based Canadian engineering and design firm is the brainchild of Ben Garvey, whose interest in all things marine began during his childhood.
After his English mother, a fine artist, and Irish father, a psychiatrist, left the U.K. for Canada, they purchased a 96-year-old wooden sloop although neither had any sailing experience at the time. At the time, Garvey was just a lad.
Trower describes the company founder as “an interesting cat,” who is still the guy to talk to when it comes to creative engineering.
“He’s not your average engineer,” says Trower. “Ben’s childhood was very much growing up in a kind of sinking, chaotic marine environment. So, after studying mechanical engineering, he kind of joined the two together – marine and engineering.”
Diversity
Not long after its inception, Enginuity caught a break. Working with Clearwater Seafoods, it developed a high-profile innovation that helped make the fishery company a seafood harvester with global status.
“That kickstarted our growth – when I joined there were about seven people, now we’re up to about 55 people, so that’s some impressive growth,” says Trower, adding that the company both designs and builds on behalf of its clients.
Now, more than two decades later, Enginuity continues to offer industrial solutions for the harsh environmental sector, the fishing industry and marine sciences. But that’s not all.
Lunenburg Shipyard – Marine Railway
Enginuity at Industry Tradeshows
Enginuity recently upsized its production facility by adding an additional 12,000 sq.-ft. of integration space.
Along with its marine interests, the firm also services three other core areas – aerospace and defense; manufacturing and automation; and product development.
The company’s diversity can be challenging. But Trower says involving the right people and the right processes is key to maintaining project velocity and meeting client requirements.
“At any one time we have maybe 25 to 30 projects on the go. Our shining stars are always our busiest people, so it’s important to develop a strong mentorship process so that you’re bringing in junior resources and growing them into experienced resources as the company develops.”
Discovery
If there is a common thread running through all Enginuity projects, it’s that they nearly all start with the company’s Discovery program.
“We’ll get a call that someone has a problem, sometimes still undefined, and that they haven’t had the time to write a statement of work or write a technical specification, and they ask if we can help,” says Trower.
“We put that into our Discovery program, which is about creatively unlocking what it is the client is trying to achieve. Sometimes it’s easy, but other times it might be a founder with an idea for a new whiz bang gadget. They know what they want to achieve, but they just don’t know how to get there.”
“It’s important to be curious. We want curious people. We want people asking a lot of questions. We want to dig in to better understand more of the client’s challenges. We want to understand more about what the supply chain is capable of producing.”
Teams at Enginuity can vary in number from two people to as many as 15 depending on the life of the project.
Bassey — Enginuity Team
Gleb — Hands-on Engineering
Projects
Industrial and Marine (Marine Railway Survey and Inspection)
- Lunenburg Shipyard
- Marine railway inspection, surveying, shipyard inspection, maintenance, upgrades
- Inspection and assessment led to a new, safe operational working load limit, which allowed the operator to satisfy insurance requirements and start work on generating returns on investment.
Aerospace and Defense (Tackling Mission Critical Electronics Obsolescence)
- Client name withheld due to security agreements
- Electronics engineering, firmware design, obsolescence engineering, PCB design
- Restored operational capability and provided foundation for future enhancements such as speed, memory and expanded peripheral support
Automation (2X Production with Food Packaging and Production Automation)
- IMO Food Ltd
- Conceptual design, design validation & analysis, design for manufacture (DFM)
- Work resulted in less overhead; a 10–20% increase in overall factory efficiency
Working with Protocase
Although Enginuity and Protocase have both been around for more than 20 years and are based in Nova Scotia, the two entities did not collaborate until the outbreak of COVID in 2020.
In a joint partnership called the Nova Scotia Ventilator Project, that also included Advanced Glazings, Nova Scotia Power’s Makerspace and Cape Breton University, Protocase built the device using Enginuity software.
More recently, Enginuity has engaged Protocase to supply enclosures and related assembly rails and parts for its projects.
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Learn more about Enginuity: https://www.enginuityinc.ca/
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