Students learned about Coghlin Companies’ work in contract engineering, contract manufacturing, and medical device manufacturing. The tour was quite informative. Students learned about the entrepreneur who founded the company, John P. Coghlin. Founder and CEO John Coghlin was an engineer, manufacturer and entrepreneur in the late 1800s whose innovations and inventions were some of the first industrial uses of electricity.

Beyond historical aspects, students learned working with a contract engineering and contract manufacturing company like Coghlin Company’s DCI Engineering, Columbia Tech and Cogmedix companies enables entrepreneurs to design and manufacture technologically advanced products without having their own engineers and without owning their own facilities.

As Bill Laursen explained so well to the students, the beauty of Coghlin is that if one month a client has no sales and the next month that same client has booming sales, they can easily account for these variations in demand. At the beginning of the month or sales cycle, the client works with Coghlin Companies to determine how many units need to be manufactured based on orders they’ve received. Coghlin Companies takes it from there.

The students were very excited to have the opportunity to learn about Coghlin Companies and tour the facilities. The tour gave the class a first hand look at the myriad manufacturing spaces and types of products that Coghlin Companies are currently working on. Students were left with a sense of awe at the efficiency and capabilities of Coghlin Companies. They went back to their classroom having learned more about innovation and entrepreneurship, and ready to start building their own businesses.