EmbedTek
Kent Tabor, president and chief technology officer
Waukesha
Embedtek.net
Waukesha-based EmbedTek is both a manufacturer of industrial electronics and medical components and an engineering firm.
“It’s a big part of what we are, we love engineering. I love engineering,” said Kent Tabor, president and chief technology officer of EmbedTek, noting 25% of the company is made up of engineers.
EmbedTek began 2020 with a record quarter and strong sales growth, but like many companies it ran into challenges when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While the company didn’t lose customers, orders were pushed back and engineering products were put on hold.
In response, EmbedTek and its employees did what they could to help by assembling and donating 20,000 face shields to area hospitals.
When a law firm the company works with discussed the challenges its clients were having with positive COVID-19 tests, EmbedTek’s engineers set about finding a solution.
“The engineering talent we have are very similar to me in the fact that, if I didn’t do this as a job, I would do it as a hobby,” Tabor said.
The problem EmbedTek sought to solve was that just one or two positive tests could shut down employers with hundreds or thousands of employees because no one knew who those with COVID-19 had been in contact with.
The solution is a wearable contact tracing tag that employees carry in an ID badge or wristband. It tracks if an employee has been within six feet of someone and for how long without tracking the exact location.
The result is employers can limit the number of people who need to quarantine after a positive case.
“We hope it solves problems and helps companies stay open,” Tabor said.
