Steven Coates (MechE 8T2), PEng

President Better Motion Group

Since graduating from the University of Toronto, Steven Coates has spent his 30 year professional engineering career innovating products and services. Currently as founder and president of the product design and manufacturing company Better Motion Group and consulting on the topic of his MERFi failure analysis methodology, he continues to be driven by his personal motto that "success is the absence of failure".

Steven has spent time in both the entrepreneurial world and large corporate manufacturing. Right out of university, Steven managed the operations of a national petrochemical contracting company, then in 1992 started his own company Kingsno Projects in the same industry to commercialize three products he innovated. In 2003, Steven broadened his scope to become engineering manager for the first of three different Tier 1 automotive parts suppliers before the meltdown in that industry. Better Motion Group was founded to "transform knowledge into better products and services", and the two US patents Steven holds is proof of that.

The MERFi methodology not only drives product development at Better Motion Group, but is a passion of Steven's that he shares through consulting, training sessions, and public speaking engagements. MERFi incorporates the failure analysis techniques that are the basis for all advanced quality systems, but presents them in a simple and effective system that can be applied to any operation in any industry.

Steven can be reached through his website merfi.ca.