EMS@C-LEVEL

The Strategic Equipment Choices and Technology Integration Reshaping Creation Technologies

• Philip Spagnoli Stoten

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Ever wonder how large manufacturing organizations balance standardization with maintaining close customer relationships? Mike MacKenzie, recently appointed at Creation, pulls back the curtain on this delicate balancing act during a revealing conversation at APEX 2025.

Creation has built its reputation through acquiring smaller, customer-focused manufacturing units. Rather than imposing rigid corporate structures, they've preserved the entrepreneurial spirit and customer intimacy these businesses are known for while strategically harmonizing operations where it makes sense. "We're trying to maintain some of that intimacy but also leverage best practices and standards," MacKenzie explains, noting they're about 75% through their harmonization journey.

The approach to equipment standardization particularly stands out. Instead of forcing wholesale equipment replacement across facilities, Creation allows functional equipment to naturally age out before standardizing. MacKenzie shares what they prioritize in technology partners: performance, support capability, and systems that will integrate with other tools. "We keep our assets for 10, 15 years preferably," he notes, emphasizing the need for vendors with staying power. They've successfully built communication interfaces across 90% of their equipment, though MacKenzie acknowledges the expense of creating these connections across dozens of different platforms.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when discussing Industry 4.0's unfulfilled promises and whether AI will deliver better results. MacKenzie sees potential in AI for predictive capabilities but emphasizes the need for practical applications. The vision of an "agentic AI" that could coordinate between specialized systems across production, inspection and supply chain management represents an exciting future direction that could finally deliver the digital dividend manufacturers have been waiting for. 

EMS@C-Level Live at APEX is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Creative Electron (https://creativeelectron.com)

EMS@C-Level is sponsored by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Creative Electron (https://creativeelectron.com)

You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.

Philip Stoten:

Hello, I'm Philip Stoughton. I'm at Apex 2025. I'm on the Creative Electron booth and I'm joined by Mike McKenzie from Creation Great to see you. So, philip, you are a relatively recent addition to Creation. I am recent addition to Creation. I'm so excited what you're seeing when you're in there. I think it's a really interesting and exciting business because it does feel like it's a lot of quite small entrepreneurial units and that's been a strength, but it also feels like there's a lot of them, so you kind of need to perhaps do a little bit of harmonization across it. What does it feel like now? You've kind of got your feet under the table a little bit Well.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Creations, as you know, it's kind of, I would say, a large tier two EMS manufacturing company. We're not insignificant at all. Part of our secret sauce, as you mentioned, is we have very strong, intimate relationships with our customers, which has been formulated by some of the acquisitions we've made long before they became part of creation. So as we move ahead, we're trying to maintain some of that intimacy but also leverage best practices and standards as we go, whether it's equipment, processes, practices, etc.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

So, we're on a journey I would say we're probably about 75% there to where we want to go, but great progress has been made and our customers feedback has been very positive.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, I was going to say that the trick there is to kind of pick your battles, isn't it? Figure out what you can harmonize, figure out what is best left alone and make sure you maintain those fiercely collaborative relationships all those sites have with their customers. Are there areas that you feel are particular focus, where you can perhaps add the most value? I often look at these groups and think purchasing is a great area to kind of centralize and bring together, because you get leverage, you hopefully get data from every element.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Yeah, I think we kind of prioritize based on where we can get the greatest leverage, as you mentioned, or return on that investment, certainly from a procurement perspective. So, despite the fact that we're not 100% harmonized on a single ERP system, whatever, we've knitted it together so that we do leverage our global buy, certainly for all components, et cetera. A little bit more to work to do on consumables in terms of global contracts, et cetera. As we go forward. From an equipment perspective, we're well on our way to harmonizing across standard platforms across the facilities. We're not replacing equipment for the sole sake of standardization as equipment ages out. We have strategic AVL that we're looking to buy into across the business, so we're well on our way towards achieving that. Again, we build all the interfaces and the IT structure so that, despite the platforms, we can still enable some of the interaction, integration within our systems.

Philip Stoten:

And that's going to be even more important as you suck that data out and you do more data harmonization to do that. I'm really interested in what you said about equipment, because you've grown by acquisition. You have a lot of legacy legacy equipment which is maybe equipment you wouldn't choose now, but it's functional, it works well and you don't throw away good equipment. So when you look to replace that equipment, you build out this kind of standardized avl model. What are you looking for from those vendors in terms of adding value, not just in the equipment, but as strategic partners for that technology?

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Obviously, we're looking for performance on the equipment as a general rule and with that support, we need to make sure that we're buying equipment. We tend to keep our assets for quite a long time. We're a lower volume manufacturer, so we don't wear our equipment out per se. It ages out before it wears out. So we're looking for partners that are going to have the staying power, local support, the technology that will ultimately be able to interface with the other tools. We think about AI, we think about integrated systems that we need to make sure and pretty well, everybody has that now, or at least they tell us they have it right. So that's kind of what we focus on in training, whether it's maintenance, technician or operator training are key elements for us.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, and you want that simplicity in the operation and the training, because talent is a bit of a challenge at the best of times In a perfect world.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

if I think about an SMT line, I'm looking for a solution that is full end-to-end, Whether it comes from the same OEM, or at least we can integrate different OEM parts into a solution that has the kind of self-healing capabilities and optimization.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, and you see companies here that partner very well in that basis. Do you look at their own R&D performance, their frequency of new equipment, their ability to maybe upgrade old equipment, what they're doing in terms of R&D spend within their organization?

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

We do look at their technology roadmap Again. Frankly, we're probably not at the bleeding edge just by the nature of the business that we have our portfolio, but we are concerned that we want to be partnered with someone who is going to be moving that technology roadmap and supporting future state Because, as I said, we'll keep an asset for 10, 15 years preferably.

Philip Stoten:

So, Mike, did you bring your checkbook and were you looking for anything in particular when you got to Apex?

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

We have a number of things we're trying to land from a platform perspective in terms of strategic EVLs. We're in the partnership with a number of different OEM equipment manufacturers on various roadmaps that we're working through. I think what's most interesting to me is it's not just the process or the test technology, it's really the integrated information systems that are becoming very much more the norm. I'm looking for solutions that not only provide the technical solution, but give me, you know, tools to enable operational effectiveness, yeah, and performance from an operating perspective, not just on you know technology.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, and I really like that idea. It's the idea that you can synthesize data not just from one vendor that's maybe got multiple inspection machines on your line, but also from the placement machine, also from the printer, from other areas, and you can use that to actually make operational performance improvements but also get to root cause analysis really quickly if something does go wrong.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

I mean we see a lot of self-healing capabilities with some of the integrated solutions that the suppliers have put together, which are fantastic, but again, just being able to get real-time performance information to really push corrective action in real time. It's not necessarily quality. Quite often our biggest leverage opportunity is just operational efficiency, yes, performance. So that's a focus for us.

Philip Stoten:

And I don't know if you noticed, Mike, but all the booths that had Industry 4.0 on their booths have now got AI on them.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Philip Stoten:

I'm hoping that AI is more performative than Industry 4.0, because I feel we never really got there and you guys really never got a digital dividend from that, Apart from connectivity. You seem to have got past that.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

I think we've built some interesting tools internally, that we have the communication interfaces and the protocols kind of built out across 90% of the tools. Now we can actually scrape data and do stuff with it. It's expensive, though, to build out those solutions across 40, 50 different platforms, so if we can have the vendors provide that out of the box, it certainly helps.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, it makes a big difference and, of course, looking at that data a huge amount of data, but with the right prompts and the right output, is AI a solution? Is AI part of your?

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

roadmap. I've certainly talked to a number of suppliers here who have suggested that they're kind of starting to work into that space and get some more predictive, be able to predict outcomes based on data See trends. So I think we have not broached that internally, but I think it's coming. And as to your point, I hope there's a more solid solution than maybe Industry 4.0 had promised.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, when I look at the vendor community, I think what the vendor community needs to do is think about specific projects, kpis within those projects and an ROI, and if they can bring that to you and say, hey, if we do this, this and this and we use AI to do it, this is what we're going to deliver and this is how you can measure our performance through that project, then I think there's going to be some buy-in. I felt with 4.0, and it feels a bit the same with AI. It's kind of very big and very ethereal and a little bit cumbersome and it's hard to know where to start.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

You're right. I think the biggest challenge we're going to have is knitting all this together. So we're going to have point solutions and pretty well everybody excited to talk to all the suppliers here. Everybody has got a vision and a roadmap and they're looking for partners to look at practical applications. But then we have to integrate all this.

Philip Stoten:

And I think that's where you look at that agentech layer and you think of agentech AI and the AI-assisted model that is talking to other AIs to get what you need, whether it's to get your shopping or to help you cook the right thing to live more healthy, or whatever. The idea of an agentic AI that works for the COO and is actually looking at my inspection AI, it's looking at my production management AI, it's looking at my supply chain AI, which I think is a very important area. Production management AI it's looking at my supply chain AI, which I think is a very important area, and it's taking my input and I'm able to get what I want from it. I think that's where it gets exciting. I think that's a ways off, but I think there needs to be an awareness of that and a desire amongst the vendor community to be very open and very collaborative with their data. I agree, and in the past they've found that difficult.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Yeah, I think I mean again, we're interested in being involved early with a number of the suppliers to provide a practical sense of what would work for us as an operating company. So that, I think, is where our focus is today.

Philip Stoten:

Yeah, super exciting. Well, congrats on the new role. Look forward to chatting to you again.

Mike MacKenzie, Creation Technologies:

Look Well congrats on the new role. Look forward to chatting to you again. Look forward to visiting a couple of sites, please, absolutely welcome.