Montevideo Technology Inc. designs and manufactures high-performance precision AC and DC motors.

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Montevideo, Minn.-based SL Montevideo Technology Inc. (SL-MTI) designs and manufactures high-performance precision AC and DC motors, amplifiers/drives, controllers and windings for the aerospace, defense and industrial markets.

Montevideo Technology Inc. prides itself on being able to perform exceptionally even in a down economy by operating lean and partnering with its customers. “In conjunction with almost 50 years of manufacturing experience, SL-MTI is a high technology development firm in the motor and control industry,” the company says. “Our research and development staff is among the finest in the motor and drive industry. We have published many technical articles and have numerous patents in the motor optimization and power electronics fields.” 

The company’s engineering and development department is prepared with a variety of design tools, including:  3-D modeling software; finite element software for magnetic, thermal and mechanical analysis; BLDC, BDC, hysteresis, synchronous and induction motor design software; Microsim Spice circuit analysis; various DSP and microprocessor development tools; and electronics circuit auto-routing software.

The company’s design engineering staff utilizes CAD, as well as finite element analysis and its proprietary nonlinear successive quadratic motor optimization program to assist with design analysis, it says.  

“We are capable of designing AC, DC, brushless DC motors and drives and controllers that meet our customers' requirements,” it notes. “Our staff of engineers and technicians offer the broadest line of motor design capabilities in the motor industry.”  

SL-MTI’s engineering and development departments are active in product concept, design engineering, prototyping and pilot production of:

• High-power density BLDC motors;
• AC and DC motor designs;
• Digital processor-based motor controllers with vector control and space vector PWM; and
• High-power level Sensorless AC and DC motor controllers.
  

In addition, the company says, its R&D staff is “among the finest in the motion control industry. “We have published many technical articles and have numerous patents
in the motor optimization and power electronics fields,” it adds. “We also have several electronic systems ex­perts and a staff of motor design and magnetics experts.”   

Manufacturing Today recently spoke with Vice President of Operations Dave Scott, who discussed the company’s expansion of its Mexico facility, as well as other important company initiatives.

Manufacturing Today: What are some recent developments at SL Montevideo?
Dave Scott: We have been qualified on new, exciting commercial aerospace, defense and medical applications. With these new growth opportunities, we are expanding our Mexico facility for the sixth time in the last 10 years by adding an additional 4,000 square feet, bringing the total to 21,000 square feet and 32,000 square feet in Minnesota. In addition, we have a number of key customers that want to move operations into this facility because we offer them outstanding quality at a lower cost.

MT: How is the economy affecting your company?
DS: Before the market collapse, we were looking at about 5 percent growth in 2009, where now we are facing a flat to down revenue year. In the first quarter of this year, we saw significant rescheduling of orders related to the commercial aerospace market, where customers were moving out orders anywhere from six months to 18 months. We are currently in a more stable period.    

We are hopeful to see some recovery in this market next year with new commercial aerospace product launches and defense industry related products. We’ve always had a contingency plan to help mitigate financial risk in the event we see a drop in orders, which we have employed. This includes reductions in spending, lowering utility and travel expenses, accelerating cost reduction project activities, while focusing on inventory management by working closely with our supply chain.

MT: What are you most proud of re­garding your operations?
DS: The MTI team. Our lean organization and the implementation of lean manufacturing and our ability to reinforce the partnership with our customers has allowed us continued growth and success.  We have maintained year over year performance improvement. We’re a very agile organization. We adapt easily to rapid customerdriven demand, and that ability has helped us maintain and win new business opportunities. Over the last nine years, we have developed redundant capabilities in our Mexico and Minnesota facilities, which gives us the flexibility and the opportunity to compete in new markets.

Our customers demand lower year-over-year prices, and in order for us to meet this challenge, we have done it through design and manufacturing, as well as reductions in labor cost, utilizing our Mexico manufacturing facility. We’ve also continued to lean up all of our product lines to reduce waste. Lean manufacturing has been a key to our success over the last eight years; we’ve really, aggressively gone after waste reduction through value stream mapping, 5S and the use of the Six Sigma DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) approach to problem solving.

MT: What sets the company apart from your competitors?
DS: We strive to exceed our customers’ expectations by providing the best total value for our customers. We never lose focus on the customer, and that has helped to foster our partnering relationships with them. We’ve been able to come up with custom designs with a high reliability factor on performance, and they are price-competitive and meet the requirements in our industry.

MT: What are your plans for the future?
DS: One of our key initiatives is to develop relationships with our customers, maintaining certified supplier status, while continuing to offer them value-added opportunities. We will continue to develop cutting-edge designs for manufacturability while continuing to invest in innovative new manufacturing technologies. We are seeing more requests from our customers for more value-added activity from us, which we are happy to provide. We build electric motors and powered electronics, as well as flight director panel-related electro-mechanical components. Demand from customers is the reason for the expansion in Mexico.