IEDA awards $22 million in Manufacturing 4.0 funding
Summary
These grants are geared toward Iowa manufacturers with 76-250 employees across locations investing in Industry 4.0 technologies to address workforce issues exacerbated by the negative impacts of COVID-19. I2TECH, a leading custom plastics injection molder and supplier of contract manufacturing services based in West Des Moines, will be using their $500,000 in grant funds to purchase robots to install on their presses. The robots will eliminate repetitive tasks, elevate their employees’ skills, and make it easier to accept new and complex projects. FRM Socks, a leading domestic producer of superior quality socks located in Osage will be using their $340,000 in grant funds to replace an outdated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with a more capable, modern, cloud-based ERP. This will allow the company to automate the flow of data throughout the entire value chain, improving interactions with suppliers and customers.