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Preparing for Thanksgiving

December 5, 2019

by Milesandco Featured News General NEWS

No, that’s not a typo. No, we didn’t push the wrong button.

Instead of a holiday once a year, what if we gave a little “thanks” …every day?

At Custom Powder Systems, we’re a building full of scientists and engineers. We like to see methods and proof. This is why we’re delighted to discover that science has confirmed what many of us already knew: Being thankful is good for your health!

The University of California and the University of Miami published a report called “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life.” That’s quite a mouthful to simply say what Charles Dickens so eloquently summed up:

“Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

Whether you call it “counting blessings,” “saying thanks,” or “expressing gratitude,” many health professionals agree: Being thankful can be just as powerful as any drug in your happiness. In “Counting Blessings Instead of Burdens,” researchers found that “inducing a state of gratefulness through the self-guided gratitude exercises led to some emotional, physical, or interpersonal benefits.”

What this, and Charles Dickens’ quote tells us is that our worries seem bigger because they are the rare standout. We tend to notice dramatic contrasts. If you really analyze things around you, you’ll find most of your day is filled with good things with the occasional “ugh” thrown in there. Because the “ugh” is the oddball, it stands out.

None of this is to minimize the many struggles we all have but to re-organize our thoughts to highlight the good. According to Harvard Medical’s publication “In Praise of Gratitude,” proving a direct cause-and-effect is difficult, nonetheless “most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual’s well-being.”

What might happen if every day you deliberately noticed the things you’re thankful for?

A warm cup of coffee
The shoes on your feet
A ride to work
A place to work
The friend who made you laugh
The person who held the door for you
Lunch break
A warm bed
Friends, family, and mentors
A toe-tapping song on the radio
Your faith and beliefs
Pie
Kids laughing
Hugs

What would you add to the list?

Think of it as “preparing for thanksgiving.” Keep an ever-growing list that you can turn to, and remind yourself of the things you’re grateful for.

Some recommendations from Harvard University include:

Write a thank-you note
Keep a gratitude journal
Count your blessings
Pray
Meditate

Even simply saying a mental “thank you” when you think of something or someone in your life that you’re grateful for can make a real impact on your happiness. Try spending as little as 90-seconds each morning and note as many things you’re thankful for as possible. It can be as simple as a bowl of cereal, or as grand as your family and friends.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the impact it has, and it’s guaranteed to have no bad side effects.

We’d also like to take this moment to give a big THANK YOU to you. The customers we get to serve each day is truly a blessing and one we never take for granted. Thanks for being who you are and for trusting us each day.

We hope each day can be a day of thanksgiving for you.

Should STEM Evolve into STEAM in Our Schools?

June 13, 2019

by Milesandco Featured News General

At Custom Powder, we spend an inordinate amount of time applying art to science. As a result, we’ve taken a special interest in the current (and often heated) debate to introduce art into the concerted efforts for more primary and secondary education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Should STEM evolve into STEAM in our schools? It’s an argument worth considering.

A Quick History of STEM

The push for STEM education came from a valid concern: As technology continued to change our economy, employees lacked the skills to compete. In the United States, the 1950s brought the initial push from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This focus carried into the 1960s with President John F. Kennedy and the space program.

The 1970s brought national science programs, which helped to push technology forward into the 1980s. The first cell phone, the space shuttle, and even artificial hearts were all born in the 1980s, and the home computer entered the market as well.

School curriculums changed in the late 1990s, helping teachers to drive the push toward STEM. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that the STEM acronym first came into use.

In more recent years, there has been a significant push for equality in STEM fields. Programs, scholarships, and even legislation have come to pass to help bring more women and minorities into the fold.

Science Meets Art

When we think of the word art, most of us imagine painting, sculpting, poetry, or music. But the challenge of the STEM vs STEAM argument is to understand that “the arts” is a broad field.

One could argue that language arts, liberal arts, and even social studies have roles to play in the development of STEM fields. The argument isn’t that we should spend less time on STEM projects, but rather that we should approach them from the creative perspective that the arts can provide.

Two Sides to the Story

Albert Einstein said that “the greatest scientists are artists as well.” It’s hard to argue that Einstein knew a thing or two about science. So if he believed that art and science should marry, why has it taken so long for the rest of us to start the discussion?

The argument against combining the arts with STEM lies primarily in maintaining focus. If an engineer is paying attention to language or civics, are they maintaining the focus needed to do their best engineering work?

Another argument is that there isn’t a curriculum in place for STEAM. Nobody really knows what it would look like. But there was a point when we didn’t know what a STEM education would look like either…

The end result is that there is not yet an end result. STEM is critical, both to the continued success of our country and to the individuals within it. But maybe – just maybe – it’s time to expand our definition.

How do you feel about the subject?

A New Negative Pressure: Burnout

June 5, 2019

by custompowd2stg Featured News General NEWS

As we continue to develop our reputation for aseptic isolation, we’ve learned a thing or two about containing negative pressure… and its many forms. In our shop, we use this focus as a regular reminder to consider and address the other kind of negative pressure: Stress and frustration and, specifically today, burnout: the negative pressure most recently featured in the news.

The World Health Organization is updating its definition of burnout and adding it to the ICD-11, which classifies diseases. While the new definition of burnout will be known as a syndrome, it ties burnout to negative pressures such as “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

If you’ve been feeling exhausted at work lately, or detached from your daily tasks, it’s time to look at burnout as the cause.

The subject of burnout gets discussed at length in certain fields – healthcare, teachers, and police officers all come to mind. But it should come as no surprise that engineers, workers, and even support staff run the risk of burnout as well.

CNBC points out that 67 percent of full-time employees felt at least some type of burnout. Those feelings come with real-world consequences as well. Burnout has been attributed to diabetes, heart disease, GI issues, and even early death.

There are symptoms that employers need to watch out for as well. Negativity, cynicism, and reduced efficacy can impact a company’s moral and its bottom line when there’s increased use of sick time.

The best time for a burnout intervention is before it happens. EngineeringJobs.com lays out seven acts that can keep you fresh and excited about your job. The article is interesting in that it points out wider options than the standard “take a break” or “use your vacation days” that we normally hear.

At Custom Powder, we’ve seen a direct correlation between our team’s wellness and our Experience Modification Rate (EMR): the number used by insurance companies to project future chances of risk based on past injuries. The lower the EMR, the lower premiums will be, and the lower the costs involved. We pass those (not insignificant) savings onto our customers.

The standard EMR for our industry is 1.00.

Our EMR is 0.82 — significantly below the industry standard.

Keep the negative pressure in your life contained, and to receive regular ideas and inspiration about workplace wellness and other critical components to the Art of Engineering, sign up for our email newsletter.

Hey NASA – Need Some Help?

May 9, 2019

by Milesandco Featured News General

Once in a while, we will read an article that reminds us of the challenges that face not only us, but also our customers. Since NASA has been a customer of ours in the past (did you know that moon rocks are handled inside of a gloved isolation box that was designed and built by Custom Powder Systems?), the recent story of their failed rocket launch hit close to home. Not because of the rocket, but because of what caused the failure.

Custom Powder Systems - NASA glovebox — NASA needed to handle moon rocks. This glove box was the solution we built for them.

As Bloomberg reports, an Oregon supplier for NASA had been falsifying test results and providing faulty materials to the agency for over 19 years. The result? Over $700 million in losses, charged to the U.S. taxpayers.

NASA’s Director for Launch Services called out the problem in plain English.

NASA relies on the integrity of our industry throughout the supply chain.

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking, and it’s the difference between being able to solve a problem, or creating a new one.

What does it take to build a great product, and do so with integrity? As far as we can tell, it takes a hard day’s work and an honest desire to help your customer succeed.

Some folks say that makes us different. But if you’re asking us, it’s just the way that things should be done.

As we keep helping more people, our business grows to meet their needs. When we’re looking for a new welder, project manager, or shop maintenance person, we seek out exceptional people who understand the challenges that we solve without sacrificing the quality standards we put in place.

Your success is too important for us to settle for anything less.

We’re fortunate to have hired some of the best people in the world from right here in Missouri. At the end of the day, we’re not only building custom projects, but we’re also building relationships for the long term. You can bet that every member of our Custom Powder team will do what’s right, work hard for you, and never try to take a shortcut.

If this sounds like you, we’re hiring, and we’d love to talk to you.

Custom Solutions for the Cannabis Industry

April 16, 2019

by Denise Featured News General Integrated Containment Systems

We love a challenge. When you make custom products, built to meet the needs of highly-specific markets, you have to love a challenge. We’ve kept a close eye on the emerging cannabis business and the challenges that it creates. Traveling to the MoCannBizCon + Expo gave us an opportunity to talk with many of you face to face about your specific needs and how we at Custom Powder Systems can help.

The Two Major Challenges Facing The Cannabis Industry

Those of you in the cannabis industry already know the problems that need solutions. For us, the conference was an opportunity to meet with speakers from government relations, industry groups, and seed-to-sale businesses to find out more. The most important thing that we learned is that there are a lot of unknowns.

1.Regulation

One challenge for business owners is that regulation won’t be happening on the federal level. This means that your budding business can’t turn to FDA regulations.

Instead, in most cases, the individual states are handling the regulatory load. For many business owners that we spoke to, this leads to a lot of confusion and leaves unanswered questions.

2.Unknowns

We also learned that many business owners don’t yet know what they need to help them get their products to market.

For example, we spoke to producers who were still trying to come up with the best ways to extract everything that they need from their plants. They’ve been resorting to slow, inefficient processes that work well enough for testing, but running a business requires that your methods scale. Many were at a loss when the discussion turned to increasing output to meet the demands of the wider market.

The Custom Powder Solution

What we took away from the conference was a revelation for us.

We are a company that builds custom, novel solutions to difficult problems. State regulations will, almost certainly, be less demanding than those at the federal level.

For us, these unknowns are not obstacles, only challenges. We have helped companies of all sizes meet or exceed their production demands, and we can do the same for the cannabis industry.

We work in a world where the status quo isn’t good enough. We don’t expect you to take our existing products and make them work for you.

We want you to tell us your problems, and then let us go to work designing a solution. From grow cycle management to defoliation, extraction to storage, we are here to build you what you need for success.

When you are ready to take the next step in expanding your cannabis business, give us a call.

Download our small scale cannabis sales material

New Year. New Possibilities With Custom Powder Systems and Integrated Containment Systems.

January 17, 2019

by Milesandco Featured News General NEWS Setup

New Year. New possibilities.

2018 was a doozy. Budgets, trade deals, and steel tariffs steamrolled discussions and left many so focused on their restrictions, that they forgot to look at their opportunities.

Not this year.

2019 is now in full swing and all we see in front of us at Custom Powder Systems and Integrated Containment Systems is a blank canvas.

No, we’re not so naïve to think there won’t be challenges to overcome.

No, we don’t think we’re immune to obstacles on the path to success.

Instead, we are choosing to embrace them. We choose to let the constraints fuel our creativity, not diminish it.

“Constraints can spur creativity and incite action, as long as you have the confidence to embrace them.”

–Tom Kelly

We see you there right now, suppressing the urge to high five your computer or possibly do a couple enthusiastic fist pumps…because you get it. You’re our kind of weird.

So, to you, we ask…

“How can we help?”

If you have an idea, one that may help your organization, or one that may better the world – no matter how crazy, we’d love to hear about it. We need to hear about it. Because we can help. Whether you have pages of blueprints or just a smudged and tattered bar napkin sketch. We. Can. Help.

Here at CPS/ICS, we are going to use the new year to focus on, among other things, aseptic isolation, bin production, and helping companies find ways to retrofit containment solutions to keep costs down.

2019 is going to be a wondrous year full of discovery and creation. Join us!

Custom Powder Systems and Integrated Containment Systems Have An In-House Testing Clean Room

November 13, 2018

by Milesandco Featured News General Integrated Containment Systems

So we have an in-house testing clean room…

Right now, you might be thinking, “Good for you. But what does that mean for me?”

Good question.

A cleanroom ensures a stable, low particulate background to measure down to the lowest threshold of detectability of your products. Whether your product is hazardous to humans, combustible, pyrophoric, a controlled substance, or you simply need a clean facility to handle your materials, our in-house cleanroom testing allows us to certify the barrier technology performance of your project before it leaves our facility. And all that extra planning and testing on the front end can save you time and money.

You DO like saving time and money, don’t you?

Oh, and if you’re wondering, we also perform blending and segregation tests, isolator surrogate testing, and deagglomeration demonstrations of hardened materials in our drum massagers.