Lanco is engineering the future of manufacturing
As a global leader in custom assembly automation and test equipment, Lanco Integrated (Lanco)’s expertise redefines what it means to be a true partner to the manufacturing industry. For many decades, Lanco has transformed productivity challenges into competitive advantages and has designed and delivered high-performance solutions that power unparalleled precision and efficiency for the world’s biggest names. By combining deep manufacturing experience with a collaborative, customer-first approach, the company provides tailored automation systems that meet its customers’ requirements and exceed their expectations.
From concept development to installation, Lanco is helping to revolutionize the future of manufacturing, driving productivity higher, accelerating efficiency, and helping businesses achieve measurable success on a global scale. Over the past 35 years, the company has manufactured more than 8000 assembly systems across the world, boasting longstanding legacies with its customers that go back decades. Manufacturing Today sits down with Bob Kuniega, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lanco, along with Barry Rahimian, Global Vice President of Sales and Business Development, to dive deeper into Lanco’s scope of capabilities and how its high-performance culture drives innovation and lasting partnerships. Barry begins the conversation by offering an introduction to Lanco and its journey thus far.
“Lanco designs very high precision engineered automation solutions that are used in production of devices for four main vertical markets: medical and life sciences, Tier One automotive, industrial, and US Government projects,” he details. “The company started out in Switzerland in 1874, and, over the course of the following decades, an automation group was formed out of the original organization. That group entered the US market and Lanco was formed and structured via a reverse purchasing of the business. Its headquarters was then transferred to the US, and since that time, we’ve established other locations throughout Southeast Asia. In 2021, we moved our Asian headquarters from Hong Kong to Penang, Malaysia, with a new factory that has now been operational for three years.”
By virtue of its passion for innovation and solutions-driven approach, Lanco partners with customers whose products demand exceptional precision and repeatability in assembly. In the medical and life sciences markets, for instance, the company works closely with some of the world’s leading MedTech companies manufacturing surgical, diagnostic, and dental implant devices, as well as with the top animal health companies developing life-saving treatments for creatures big and small. Similarly, in the automotive sector, Lanco collaborates with major Tier One suppliers to OEMs, focusing on highly intricate, mission-critical electronics and valve systems used across a range of vehicle applications, including variable frequency solenoid valves used in emission control, suspension systems, and other electronically controlled air and gas flow and current flow for many uses in vehicles.
To support these highly regulated and technically demanding industries, Lanco has built a robust global infrastructure designed for seamless collaboration and consistency, with locations in North America, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Its integrated facilities, standardized platforms, and continued investment in advanced technologies ensure customers receive the same level of precision, responsiveness, and innovation from anywhere in the world. “We have full standalone capacity in both our Penang and Maine headquarters. We use the same design platforms and business processes throughout, so we’re able to shift our resources and work on programs virtually around the clock,” Bob explains. “We try to service our customers locally to where they’re at in terms of innovation. We’re starting to use AI to give us that greater ability to stay aligned globally and go back and learn from our past challenges.”
New technology
Speaking on this technological integration, Barry adds: “We’re not only looking at the software side of things, but also the hardware side as that’ll really be the gateway to bringing in new technologies and deploying them throughout our applications. For instance, we’re embedding a lot of intelligent and smart devices into our production lines, which gives our customers full visibility into the production process and allows them to collect real-time data to monitor and analyze any reductions in the performance or efficiency they can do.”
Further augmenting this continued innovation is a strong ecosystem of strategic partnerships that expands Lanco’s capabilities even further. By aligning its in-house expertise with best-in-class automation and control providers, the company ensures it is continuously enhancing the value it delivers to customers. “We are systems integrators, so we continue to leverage and rely on the strong partnerships that we’ve established over the last 35 years. We work with some of the largest, most well-known companies, including FANUC, Stäubli, Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Keyence, and Cognex,” Barry says. “The partnerships that we hold with these companies are essential in advancing our solutions. All the systems that are conducting functional tasks on our production lines are provided by the third-party supply companies that we work with, so we’re able to leverage the technologies that they develop in advancing our own solutions. This is paramount to our continuous improvement and overall success.”
Lanco’s longevity, growth and sustained success is underpinned by its drive and culture. Enhanced by its proud employee-ownership, Lanco’s workforce lives and breathes its core values every day – Collaboration, Ownership, Engagement, Empowerment, Craftmanship, and Balance – of which permeate every facet of the company’s operations. “We have a nice mixture of long-tenure employees and new people coming in. This unique culture is partly driven by the fact that Lanco is employee-owned,” Bob emphasizes. “Recently, we have kicked off some initiatives where we’re doing some internal branding on our values to try to attract and retain people because, even in the interview process, we know what type of person will work well in our environment.” “The creation of these values wasn’t a senior leadership decision, but chosen by our employees,” Barry reveals. “Over the course of a year, they came back with some core values that represent Lanco’s true culture, and we’re now in the process of implementing and rolling these out.”
With a heritage rooted in precision and a future defined by innovation, Lanco remains to set the benchmark for custom automation. By uniting global scale, cutting-edge technology, trusted partnerships, and an empowered employee-owned culture, the company will continue to engineer the future of manufacturing for many more decades to come. “We’re very comfortable with the operational effectiveness of the organization. Now, our focus is on penetrating not only these vertical markets but specific applications, whilst also finding adjacent customers within those markets,” Bob enthuses, ending our conversation optimistic for the future ahead.
“Over the last five years, we’ve became much more focused on better publicizing ourselves in targeted spaces where customers respond well to our experience and expertise,” added Barry. “Our priority now is to continue identifying these customers, build up successful wins, and then growing organically from there on up.”
