Company: Blue Falls Manufacturing, Thorsby, Alberta
Company Description: A relatively small company, with 274 employees in two factories in Alberta, Canada, Blue Falls Manufacturing is dedicated to producing the world’s finest hot tubs and leisure products. A development strategy aimed at dealer support and global growth has helped catapult Blue Falls into Profit magazine’s list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies for the third year in a row.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Product Developer

Nomination Title: Pete Van’t Hoff: Designing for Excellence

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

A hot tub is crafted for comfort and relaxation--but in a competitive market, a manufacturer can’t afford to relax.  With a strong commitment to research and development, Blue Falls wanted cutting-edge improvements in the design and manufacture of their spas and components.

 

This required an investment in technology, equipment, and skill.  The technology: Autodesk Inventor Professional and a powerful computer.  The equipment:  a Stratasys rapid-prototyping unit, at the time apparently only the second such unit in the province (the first was at the University of Alberta).  The skill:  Pete Van’t Hoff, an experienced professional who understood 3D design and CAD/CAM.   

 

Under Pete’s supervision, staff undertook a mammoth task.  They measured existing spas and cabinets to establish design parameters: size and depth, the angle and contours of seats, jet locations, piping configurations.  They also measured the hundreds of individual parts that go into a high-end spa line, and created a computer model of each, thus building a parts library. 

 

When Pete designed a new model, the Tundra, the R&D department was able to test virtual variations in seating angles, seating positions, jetting configurations, floor designs, equipment placement, and plumbing routing.  The final file was outsourced to a CNC company who, with a five-axis router, cut a plug from MDF.  This plug then provided the shape for the new mould, which was completed using standard methods. Quite a change from the previous costly and time-consuming eight-month trial and error of sketches, hand-carved foam mockups and production test models!

 

The Tundra won Pete an International Design Award from Autodesk.   It won acclaim from customers, as well:  sales soared to the point where the main plant couldn’t keep up.   A secondary plant in southern Alberta was retooled to produce only the Tundra.

 

Although there was no savings of cost or time on this first design, Pete has since done two new designs, the Fox and the Frontier, each of which was developed and built within weeks.   The Fox was a runner-up in the 2004 Autodesk Awards.

 

The parts library and CAD system has proven valuable in other areas.  Production changes, such as new equipment or additional jets, can be changed on the computer model. The guessing game of whether or not new equipment will fit in the cabinet is now solved virtually rather than on the production floor.   Pete then prints out the new locations and pipe routing for the production crew to follow.  This has enhanced training, speeded production, and improved quality control.

 

The R&D department uses the 3D prototype printer, in conjunction with the parts library, to develop and test a wide variety of new parts.  Items that once required days or weeks to complete can now be ready for wet-testing within hours.  Tired of warranty claims for worn bearings on rotating jets, for example, the company came up with a bearingless jet.  Pete has steered this project through a dozen prototypes and hundreds of tests.  The final design has a patent application pending.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

www.goarctic.com

http://www.autodeskevents.com/au2005/index.cfm?action=content&contentID=20

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=3830374

http://inventordesigngallery.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=3485943&id=3569399

http://www.americastophottubsandspas.com/Advertiser04/arctic.asp

“Arctic Spas Tundra LSE: Perfect Comfort.” America’s Top Hot Tubs and Spas.
2004 Edition: 30-33
http://www.goarctic.com/life/802.About_Us/downloads/articles/
AmericasTopHotTubs2004.pdf

von Buchstab, Viktor.  “Autodesk awards customers for design excellence.”
Design Engineering.  June, 2004: 29
http://www.bizlink.com/designengineering.htm

2004 Design Award for Fox
http://www.autodeskevents.com/au2005/index.cfm?action=content&contentID=20

Information on the jet designs is being withheld pending grant of the patent.

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

Pete Van't Hoff, C.E.T. 
CADD Department Manager
R & D Department

Pete uses Autodesk Inventor 3D modeling software to design everything we use in our Arctic Spas from jets to plumbing to the Spa designs themselves.  A 1997 graduate of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology with a certificate in Engineering Design and Drafting Technology, Pete spent four years in oilfield consulting, drafting 3D models of heavy oil and high pressure piping.   He has been with Arctic since September of 2002, taking on steadily increasing responsibilities within the R & D department under the direction of CEO Darcy Amendt.