Nampa Company is on the Cutting Edge of Robotics Integration

Shane Dittrich and Ryan Okelberry, both engineers, met while working on the same projects for different companies. In 2012, they decided to bring more than 30 years of combined experience to launch their own venture, House of Design. The lean organization was formed by engineers for engineers with a focus on enabling organizations to implement automation with the highest return on investment. But with many tech entrepreneurs, starting was a challenge.

House of Design started in the TECenter incubator, run by the Idaho Small Business Development Center (SBDC), where they leased industrial manufacturing space. Assistance from SBDC consultants, students and training helped House of Design start and grow a business that implements robotic solutions using flexible automation – the ability for a robot to be quickly and easily re-tasked to changes in product design. This can be applied to assembly, quality control or repetitive tasks and increase safety while reducing costs. The business also graduated from the SBA Emerging Leaders program, a seven-month “mini-MBA” designed to help businesses on the brink of growth.

House of Design now has 26 employees; 18 full-time, three part-time, one contract employee and four interns. The company is also expanding the industries in which their technology can be applied including wood products, solar, manufacturing, medical devices, aerospace, consumer electronics and contract manufacturing.

“At House of Design, we have a passion in developing custom automation solutions that enable our customers to be more efficient and competitive in their respective markets. We strive to use the latest technology to develop and deploy the best solutions for our customers,” Dittrich said. “We will be one of the strongest system integration companies in the USA in five years, and we could not have done what we have without the help of the SBA!”