Nickolas Asset Management and Kreate are investing $100 million in a 542,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing plant in Tiffin, Ohio.

Nickolas Reinhart announced the business venture in late August. He grew up in a family-owned injection molding business and today owns 14 manufacturing sites and eight distribution centers.

The investment includes the facility, machinery, infrastructure, tooling and startup of an operation that will manufacture Kreate’s consumer and professional products. Production began in October.

Thirty-two Engel injection molding machines, equipped with iQ weight control technology, are being installed in the existing building. The first machines were in place in late August, and the plant became operational in October. Other equipment includes pick-and-place robots, Fanuc collaborative robots, autonomous guided vehicles and automated packaging.

Krevera’s read-write computer vision AI platform will connect production equipment, quality systems and factory operations, according to a press release. Reinhart’s purchase of Krevera has helped his facilities create fully autonomous work cells, he said in an interview with Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing. The connected system is designed to increase production speed, improve quality, reduce material usage and operate with significantly less waste.

The Tiffin site is about 25 miles from Kreate’s headquarters in Findlay. The industrial site has the electrical capacity, rail access and warehouse space needed, Reinhart said.

“I'm from the area, so I know Tiffin well,” Reinhart said. “It's a great community, great culture, great people, and you still have to have a skilled trades workforce to run an autonomous factory. You’ve got to fix molds. You have to fix machines. You have to do all the skilled trades jobs still. Tiffin's a great spot for that.”

The Tiffin facility will create about 120 skilled jobs in areas including automation, engineering, logistics, maintenance, manufacturing, robotics, and tool-and-die repair.