Sterner Automation - a brief history
Christian Sterner started Sterner Automation Limited in 1990 shortly after he had graduated from systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family that owned an electrical contracting business, Christian naturally took to running his own business. After completing some contract work, Sterner Automation was launched as a control systems design business for a number of Toronto based companies in the chemical processing and packaging industries.
In the early days the company was working on control systems and Sterner Automation was responsible at the end of a project to "make it work." Recognising talent and appreciating Sterner Automation’s level of service, customers encouraged the company to take responsibility for a bigger portion of the projects. The company expanded its staff to include more engineering disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical design, to offer our clients a more complete design package. Encouraged by customer response to these changes, Sterner Automation began to undertake complete design-build projects. Soon the company was designing and building special purpose machinery for a variety of industries including packaging, medical diagnostics, converting, and automotive. As the business grew, assembly activities were brought in-house to maintain control of the process as well as to get quick feedback to the team of designers. Attention to quality and customer service continued to be a central theme through the growth. A quality manager was added to the team and a department dedicated to field service was created.
As the business grew, the automotive industry and specifically the automotive electronic parts sector seemed to be an ideal fit for Sterner Automation’s expertise and talents. Sterner Automation found many unmet needs in these industries. The R&D group developed products that were quickly and widely accepted for the set up and testing of a variety of high tech parts. The company further expanded its capabilities to include electronics and custom board design. The focus on robust systems suited for just-in-time production provides the benefit of reduced downtime risk to these customers.
Sterner Automation has expanded internationally in this industry and not only supplies to Canada and the United States but also to Mexico, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan.
With a 24x7x365 support hotline Sterner Automation’s knowledgeable team is only a call away for customer and equipment support. For customers located around the world Sterner Automation makes use of remote monitoring and servicing of equipment to ensure that all customers have the prompt response time that they have come to expect.
When asked about the quality and robustness of Sterner Automation’s machines Christian often cites the example of one customer whose plant was torn apart by a tornado. "Our service technician was on site within hours but our machine, although wet and in the middle of the damaged area, looked like it hadn’t been touched and it ran without issue once it had been relocated to the half of the plant that was still standing."
Fuelled by the entrepreneurial spirit of Christian and the members of Sterner Automation’s team the company continues to grow its business using the same principles on which it was founded: customer service, robust design and innovation.
