Ryan McHugh Named President of Integrated Automation Systems

“Ryan has been doing this for five years and performing most of the tasks of running the company,” said company founder Mike McHugh, who remains as CEO. “People have stopped referring to him as my son and started calling me his father. It’s time to make it official.”

In the five years Ryan has been with IAS, the company has more than doubled in size, expanded to nearly two dozen products and added an additional building. Solutions include automated glass handling and storage for residential, commercial and architectural glass and robotic gas filling with automated fourth-corner patching.

Ryan has led the company’s recent implementation of new order entry and production control software and the hiring of a general manager with deep experience in the glass fabrication industry. He will continue to be responsible for sales while leading the company.

“Our focus is to continue to be an agile organization that develops and delivers innovative automation solutions for glass handling and gas filling processes for operations of all sizes,” Ryan said. “We work very hard to make sure every customer is happy and comes back for additional solutions.”

Mike McHugh, who will continue to serve as CEO and as head of product development, said Ryan has more than earned the position as president.

“His strong technical background is a tremendous plus and he has developed many good relationships with people in the industry. His ability to communicate with everyone from floor employees to the CEO and tech consultants enables him to accurately understand the big picture for each customer as well as which solutions fit their needs.”

Starting eight years ago with the patented and award-winning OptiGas gas filling and verification system, IAS now offers solutions for edge deletion, elevation compensation, glass handling and storage and more. The OptiLoad automated glass handling and storage system earned Window & Door magazine’s 2018 Crystal Achievement Award for most innovative equipment system.

“Companies buy our products because we help them reduce costs, eliminate bottlenecks, increase capabilities and improve quality in glass fabrication,” said Ryan. “With our automated solutions, you can significantly upgrade raw glass handling and storage, fill and verify IG gas content faster than your production and move glass from the oven to the glazing line without touching it.”

Product names include OptiLoad, OptiClose, FastGas, Edge Deletion System, ThermalCHECK, TurboFILL, OptiCool, ThermalSense and TemperCHECK.

Ryan previously worked as a manufacturing engineer in the Nuclear Operations Division of Babcock & Wilcox Company and as a technical sales engineer with Dixon Sanitary, which serves the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

For Babcock, he managed the manufacturing of long lead-time heavy components to ensure customer specifications were followed throughout manufacturing. For Dixon, he was a technical product expert and application engineer for North America, managed large project sales for technical product lines in four industries, worked on new product development and performed technical training.

While at Dixon, he served on an ASME sub-committee charged with writing and maintaining industry specifications.

He graduated from Purdue University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in manufacturing engineering technology. He worked in the insulating glass fabrication industry while in high school and during summers while in college.