Leadership Team
PPSI’s leadership team is an experienced group of professionals with expertise in engineering and software development. We are experts at starting from a blank page, taking projects from business need to concept to implementation. Our mission is to create one-of-a-kind automation solutions that help manufacturers improve process, quality and return on investment.
Willard (Chuck) Raymond
CEO
Mr. Raymond has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Raymond has extensive experience in machine design, robotic control systems and machine vision. From 1982 to 1990, Mr. Raymond was employed at the Production Technology Laboratory inside Honeywell Corporate Research Center. Here, Mr. Raymond focused on applying manufacturing and management technology to improve the competitiveness of Honeywell manufacturing divisions. In 1992, Mr. Raymond formed Prototype and Production Systems, where he has focused on providing niche automation solutions to manufactures worldwide. PPSI is often called the “Supplier of Last Resort”, tackling difficult problems that other vendors turn away. PPSI has an extremely stable workforce with zero turnover in the last 2 years. Since its first year in 1992, PPSI has maintained an average revenue growth of 30% per year.
James Ellingson Ph. D.
Principal Innovator / Mechanical Engineer
Mr. Ellingson has a Ph. D. and master degrees in Machanical Engineering including concentrations in Computer Aided Design, Computer Graphics, Design, Controls, Manufacturing, Simulation, and Super Computing. Mr. Ellingson has extensive design and development experience including; Design for Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, Capability Analysis, Process Validation, and Installation Qualification. Mr. Ellingson joined PPSI in 2008 as the primary innovator responsible for the development and testing of automation solutions. From 2003 to 2008 he was a Senior Process Development engineer at Boston Scientific Corporation. Here Mr. Ellingson developed processes and CE mark-able equipment to bring the next generation catheter from R and D through validation and into production in the US and EU, designed and conducted exploratory DOE's (Design of Experiments), generated predictive models, optimized process parameter settings and implemented closed loop control on polymer tubing warm forming processes. Prior to this Mr. Ellingson was a Senior Design Engineer with 3M Coorporation.
Chris Johnson
Director of Business Development
Coming Soon
Kirk Schultz
Dice Sales Manager
Coming Soon
Zach Thorson
Software and Control Systems
Mr. Thorson has a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Thorson joined PPSI in 2005. At PPSI Mr. Thorson has designed and implemented the controls for automation systems that range from simple PLC based controls to complex real time custom machine vision systems. Mr. Thorson is fluent in the .NET suite of tools, the Matrox machine vision library and several PLC and SCADA systems. Mr. Thorson is familiar with developing control systems that support the requirements of FDA good manufacturing practices. Currently Mr. Thorson is developing an integrated control system for a machine that extrudes, inspects, cures and cuts to length implantable medical tubing.