Revving it Up: Increasing Manufacturing Efficiency Via Computer Simulations 
by Andrew Kerr
April 2006

Antony Brand was recommended to me as an interview subject by Michael Edmondson of Northside High School (an engineering magnet high school in Columbus, Georgia). Mr. Brand is a Georgia Tech graduate and former Northside High School teacher who now works for E2M.

Michael Edmondson wrote that you taught for three years at Northside High School. What years did you teach, and what did you teach?

Let's see. I began in the fall of 2002, and I was there until the end of last school year, so I guess spring of '05. I started off teaching algebra, and the second year I was able to teach digital electronics as well as some of the engineering design courses; engineering design and development, EDD.

What were these design classes like?

At the beginning we started off with the soldering, then went on to electron theory, alternating current vs. DC current, number systems, binary hexidecimal, that kind of stuff, and we progressed from there into boolean algebra.

Boolean algebra and logic is used when exploring complicated logic functions. One example is the little buzzer in your car that goes off when your keys aren't in. When should a buzzer go off?

The theory stuff was a little hard for them to grasp, but once we got into the logic section they thought, "Wow! This is really easy!"

What did you study at Tech? I need to be very specific here, to give the right shout out to the correct program!

I studied at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering: ECE.

Why did you go into teaching after Georgia Tech?

I'm a computer engineer and I study digital electronics, but I actually majored in microcontrolers, so digital logic is the heart of all that. Northside High School was looking for rising engineers or engineers in the field to teach there.

I was looking for alternatives, the economy was pretty bad. Being just a fresh engineer it was pretty tough to get a job, so why not just get a feel for teaching now? When the school was opened there was a position available. I think they started off with only sophomores and freshmen, so there weren't that many individuals in those classes. So the algebra [which I taught at first] was just sort of a temporary thing.

Why did you go into this field in the first place? Was it something that interested you in high school?

I actually started off wanting to be an aeronautical engineer. But later NASA budgets were being cut by like three-fourths. There were more homeless aeronautical engineers than working ones.

I think I got my first computer when I was a junior in high school. It was a nonbrand name, a 486DX40, it was just an IBM. I remember when it arrived they did not connect the hard drive, and I had a friend over and we would always try to boot it up and get this message: "Can't find the hard drive can't find the hard drive." We just pretty much voided the warranty and opened the back. We got it working.

Where did you grow up?

I was actually a German citizen. Right before September 11th I was naturalized. I grew up in Germany for about eight years of my life as a "military brat." Within the span of four years we moved about three times. My mother was German and my father was in the U.S. military. I was pretty much on the Army base through high school. I went to DOD [Department of Defense] schools.

I was in Nuremberg [the site of the famous trials].

What prompted you to go into industry afterward?

I was teaching under a provisional certificate; the salaries for those are not that impressive. I basically had paid for Georgia Tech by working and loans, so those bills were coming to roost. The bills just kind of caught up and I wasn't able to pay the bills and still teach at the same time.

I had a friend of mine who had mentioned the company that I am currently working for , and this was a good company in terms of technology and advances.

You sent me a link to your PolySim stuff. Is PolySim a software package?

No. The concept of PolySim is that in the manufacturing industry there was always the problem of having to fix systems that were designed in the field. Before this technology you would actually need to have the whole system installed.

It's a computer program. The engine that we use is the same as the one that was used in the early Doom games. It creates a virtual factory; exactly what you would see in the field. So if the conveyor belt was 50 feet long it would be 50 feet long in the simulation.

What this company does is link this program to a real computer that will be used in the warehouse. That way you can debug and create most of your logic code.

Simulations don't require any controller involvement, so we can actually do concept situations where if you want to do something a certain way I can set up the situation to see if that can be done logically.

What sorts of industries are your clients in?

As of late we were in the beveraging industry and I think the shift has moved a little, so we have a lot of beverage experience here, ice creams stuff, diapers and baby wipes; some wine company is also interested. We're even doing drywall mud!