“Solve a big problem” -JAKE LOOSARARIAN
PITTSBURGH—As part of his college coursework, Jake Loosararian worked on a team project involving a local power plant. The focus was on making inspections of its plant assets safer, faster, and less costly. “The cost of shutting down the plant [for inspections] is $1 million per day,” explains Jake. This experience led Jake to start Gecko Robotics (Ig Gec koRobotics.com), a company devoted to robotic industrial inspections.
Jake’s robots climb the walls of boilers, tanks, and scrubbers of power companies. The robots work 10 times faster than humans and reduce injuries. “They collect so much more data than humans,” says Jake. With these data, companies identify areas of weakness and perform key repairs. This extends the lives of plant assets and impacts capital budgeting decisions.
“I practically lived at power plants to find out their needs,” admits Jake. With that information, Jake explains how his robotic data aid management in key investment decisions on asset planning. “We wanted to make a great impact,” says Jake. His customers agree, as his sales increased by over 500% in the past year and his employee numbers went from 10 to over 100.
In your textbook, read the chapter opener about Jake Loosararian ad his company, Gecko Robotics. Suppose Jake’s business continues to grow, and he builds a massive new manufacturing facility and warehousing center to make the business more efficient and reduce costs.
Propose 2 management tools that Jake can use to evaluate whether the new manufacturing facility and warehousing center will be a good investment. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of each tool?
