One operator, and a narrow specialty.
Zhero Industrial AI is deliberately small. There is no bench, no junior consultant sent to run the interviews, and no methodology bought from someone else. The person who assesses your plant is the person who has built these systems in one.
- Trade
- Red Seal 313A
Refrigeration Mechanic - Energy
- CEM, 2016
CEA, 2019 - Business
- MMBA
- Region
- Ontario, Canada
From the tools, to the floor, to the systems that run it.
Patrick started in the trades as a Red Seal certified refrigeration mechanic, which is a useful place to begin if you intend to spend a career telling manufacturers what their plants can and cannot do. He founded and scaled a chiller services business unit from nothing, relocated to lead a greenfield expansion into Western Canada, and went on to run a multi-market energy services division with full P&L accountability across four Canadian markets.
He is a Certified Energy Manager and Certified Energy Auditor and has led multi-million-dollar energy savings programs. He has served on the Canada Green Building Council's Zero Carbon Building Council and on BOMA's Supporting Council.
Since 2024 he has been Director at a Canadian HVAC equipment manufacturer, leading an analog-to-digital transformation of the production floor and the consolidation of multiple facilities into a single 150,000 sq ft operation. On his watch the business has delivered 4× revenue growth, a 50% lead time reduction, and a 40% reduction in defects, while the team grew from 100 to 250 people.
He also designed, built, and deployed the four production systems described on the proof page — a two-plant production scheduler, a quoting and pricing engine, an automated ERP and CRM write-back, and a published iOS diagnostic application. The wider record runs to nine capability domains.
That is the whole reason this practice exists. There is a large and growing supply of people who can advise a manufacturer about AI. There is a much smaller supply who are in the middle of a digital transformation themselves, have shipped systems onto a floor, watched people refuse to use version one, and fixed it. Zhero sells the second thing.
Outside the plant. Patrick designed and built a full-size aircraft. It started as a wreck — an airframe that had raced at Reno and crashed into a national park — and became a Rotax-powered, Transport Canada certified aeroplane, with new wings fabricated from raw 6061-T6 aluminum on jigs he built himself. When work moved him across the country mid-build, the airframe went into a sea container and the work continued in another province. Certified in August 2023. He flew it through Idaho's Sawtooth Range and the Frank Church Wilderness before selling it, and is building the next one.
It is on this page for a reason. A readiness assessment is a judgment about whether an organization can carry a complex build through to completion. That judgment is easier to trust from someone who has done it with his own hands — and then trusted his life to the result.
How the specialty was earned.
Red Seal 313A Refrigeration Mechanic
Started on the tools. A working understanding of how equipment is actually built, installed, commissioned, and broken — which is what makes a plant walk-through productive rather than performative.
Manager, Chiller Services
Founded and scaled a new services business unit from nothing — the team, the processes, the estimating, the client pipeline. The first lesson in what it takes to stand something up rather than inherit it.
Service Manager, Western Canada
Relocated to Alberta to lead a greenfield expansion — wrote the startup business plan, owned the financials, built multi-divisional estimating processes, then designed the succession plan that let it keep growing after handoff.
Energy Solutions — Manager, then Director
A multi-market energy services division across four Canadian markets with full P&L accountability. Certified Energy Manager (2016) and Certified Energy Auditor (2019), leading multi-million-dollar savings programs. Subject-matter expert supporting venture capital due diligence on emerging energy technologies.
Director, HVAC equipment manufacturing
Leading an analog-to-digital transformation of the production floor and a consolidation into 150,000 sq ft — while designing and shipping four production systems: scheduling, quoting, ERP integration, and field diagnostics. Every one built against a real plant's real constraints.
Zhero Industrial AI
The readiness practice. Industrial AI evaluations and implementation plans for Canadian SME manufacturers, aligned to NGen's Industrial AI Readiness Program.
Evidence before assertion
Every score in an evaluation traces to something we saw, extracted, or were told by a named person. Nothing is asserted because it is generally true of manufacturers.
The constraint comes first
We identify what is actually limiting the business before considering what technology might address it. Reversing that order is how plants end up with expensive tools nobody uses.
Plans that survive Monday
A recommendation that assumes staff you do not have, data you cannot get, or downtime you cannot take is not a recommendation. We scope against your real bench.
We say no
If the honest answer is that AI is not your next best investment, that is what the report says. It is a more useful result than a roadmap you were never going to follow.
What we will not take on, and why.
Patrick holds an operating role in industry. That is what makes the practice credible, and it also creates boundaries we publish rather than manage quietly. If any of the following applies to your business, say so on the first call and we will tell you plainly whether we can act.
Building services and MEP contracting
Patrick holds a serving Director role with a national mechanical and electrical contractor, and a second Director role with that company's manufacturing subsidiary. Both are current. The following are therefore permanently outside Zhero's scope:
- Mechanical contracting — HVAC, plumbing, piping, sheet metal, refrigeration
- Electrical contracting — power, lighting, low-voltage, BAS
- Building services and facility management
- Building energy management and building decarbonization
- Building automation and smart-building systems
- General contracting overlapping MEP
- Fire protection, life safety, and commissioning
Direct competitors of the current employer
Zhero will not accept an engagement with a manufacturer that competes directly with the HVAC equipment manufacturer where Patrick holds his operating role. We will tell you this on the first call, before you share anything about your business.
Where we do work
- Discrete and process manufacturing
- Metal fabrication and equipment building
- Food and beverage processing
- Industrial distribution and logistics
- Manufacturing process energy — as distinct from building energy
Confidentiality. A mutual non-disclosure agreement is in place before any plant visit, system access, or data extract. Client identities appear in public material only with written permission — which is why the plant behind our own case studies is described here by size, province, and sector rather than by name.
Half an hour, and a straight answer.
Whether the funding applies, whether the timing works, and whether we are the right people for your plant.