Greg Porter and Chris Tranchina with Sev1Tech

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial Talk, digital twin, NASA grant, Michoud Assembly, 3D laser scanning, real-time expertise, data trust, digital thread, rocket manufacturing, crane simulations, equipment tracking, factory optimization, Artemis program, Sev1tech, OMG meeting

00:00

Scott, welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott. MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go all right once

00:21

again. Welcome to Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for joining the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. Yes, you are bold. Yes, you are brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate, you solve problems, and therefore you're making the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on Industrial Talk, and if you can hear by the background, we are broadcasting on site. OMG’s Q1 meeting. It's not a conference, it's a meeting, and it's a collection of problem solvers that are all passionate about what they do, and they are passionate. Don't, don't come to this OMG event not thinking. There's passion. There's passion. Go out to omg.org find out more. Get engaged, because it's all about education, collaboration and innovation. Okay, we got two, two gens, Greg Porter and Chris. Say your last name again. Chris

01:15

Tranchina,

01:16

Tranchina,

01:17

and there's Gary over there. He doesn't want to be a part of the conversation, but I thought, we might as well get Gary in the conversation. There's Harry, Hey, Gary, how you doing? He said, Okay. And he's from Mandeville, too. Mandeville, Louisiana. I'm from Mandeville, Louisiana, really? Whereabouts? Amanda,

01:40

all right. All right.

01:42

He didn't want to be a part of the podcast, so We made him part of the podcast. You're welcome. All right. You guys having a good meeting? Yeah, it's been great so far. Yeah, I've been sort of newbies to the whole thing. Got a lot of old, old, crotchety guys roaming around with extensive knowledge. Ready to call you on the carpet, right? Yeah, but has it been but you're part of the digital twin Consortium.

02:08

We are, that's correct, and we actually presented earlier today. Well,

02:13

before we get into that, give us a little background on who you are,

02:18

sure, yeah. So my name is Greg Porter. I'm a senior systems architect with seven one tech.

02:23

That's one, that's a number one, not, don't, don't, don't even begin to spell out 1o, and E, that's right. Is that right? Gary, okay, good. Continue. Chris. Chris

02:35

trencina, so 3d animator, modeler by trade, and his guy brought in for real time expertise for rendering this digital twin. That's a big deal.

02:47

How do you trust the data?

02:50

Great question.

02:50

It is a great question, because I don't trust

02:53

data. My background is in data. So we've implemented what we call the digital thread. What the digital thread does is connects to source systems through the source systems, APIs and exposes the metadata from the source systems in order to understand the relationship connecting between the data in those typically disparate systems. And so we're not moving the data and creating a centralized data warehouse, which is a lot of times fostering distrust of data. Instead, we're leaving the data in the authoritative system that generated the data and leaving it back with the subject matter experts that are over those systems to govern their own data.

03:36

Are you Mary? I am. Does your wife like me talking like that. She doesn't, oh gosh. He knows his stuff, and he loves data.

03:47

Her eyes tend to gloss over sometimes.

03:52

Not me. I like it. It's good. It's absolutely good. So with that said, we you're working with LSU, but you're also looking at the digital twin in conjunction with LSU. That's right of the explain a little bit

04:10

better. Yeah. So

04:11

let's kind of start from the beginning. So LSU was awarded a grant from NASA to build a digital twin of the Michoud Assembly Facility, which is outside of New Orleans. WSU assembly facility is where they assemble the rockets for the Artemis program. So they currently have the Space Launch System, the exploration upper stage and the Orion spacecraft all being assembled inside of this facility. So when LSU, we partnered with LSU to get the award from the government. Being a grant has to go through a university, and we are a private government contractor, someone tech is so we work with LSU on this. We kind of handle the whole NASA side of it. LSU helps us out a lot on the research and development side of the technologies that.

05:00

Well, what's the objective, Chris, what are we trying to accomplish there? That's, that's big stuff. That's, that's, that's big stuff.

05:06

Yeah, so And Greg can correct me if I'm wrong, but, yeah, the whole concept is, what about

05:12

Gary? Can you do it sometimes Gary correct me if he's wrong, he's like, but

05:17

we have this ancient architecture, right? This facility that's been around since the 1940s and we have no blueprints, right? All is washed away a couple hurricanes ago. So we've come in and we've digitized the entire factory and reproduced it right in this digital twin, and with the digital thread, we can expose all of the data that's inside that factory into a common dashboard.

05:47

How long did it take you?

05:49

I mean, if it's if you don't have any with drawings or PN IDs or whatever, and you've recreated that, I mean, that's big stuff. I mean,

05:58

it is big stuff. So to be fair, we are still a work in progress, but we got access to the facility March of last year. So we've been about a year that we've had access to the facility, and we've scanned, at this point, we've scanned roughly half of the facility, I'd say. So we still got a long ways to go, and we've still got a lot of modeling work to do. We're making a lot of progress, but the ultimate goal is not to get a digital copy of the building. The ultimate goal is to be able to simulate the actual build of the rockets. But by doing that, we have to actually understand the reality of the building and the current state of the building. So we're grabbing everything in that building with the 3d laser scanning, including the platforms, the tooling, the flight hardware itself and the building. And then we're understanding the actual as a state, so we can eventually build out the simulation.

06:53

Interesting. There's a couple of questions that come to mind. So, so not only the digital twin of the physical facility. Got it 3d modeling, fine, got it, that's all. But the real power and the real benefit is the the ability to simulate it. Are you? Are you also having the ability to simulate the boosters and optimize is, or is it just specifically around the manufacturing of the boosters, and being able to, you know, create scenarios around that,

07:27

our current scope is just to manufacture the actual rocket, not to do a digital twin of the actual launching of the rocket and the capabilities of the rocket itself, but around the manufacturing, right,

07:39

Right? And then run some simulations, of course,

07:42

yeah, simulations more on the manufacturing processes of the building of the rocket.

07:47

But you're not there yet. You're still you're in the scanning. We

07:52

have started some simulations. So part of the building has cranes in it, and so we're working on crane simulations by being able to make complex lifts with cranes in the digital twin before you go make a complex lift with the actual piece of rocket that you need to move. What

08:07

do you mean by that? I mean, I can understand complex lifts, but they've been doing that for Are they not doing it efficiently,

08:15

like doing

08:16

it with the ancient architecture? Yeah.

08:19

So

08:19

understanding, maintenance schedules and how to make sure that this this operation is going to go as planned, or do we have to modify the plan because the piece that we're trying to move is too large?

08:38

Oh, kidding,

08:41

because they've been, weren't they manufacturing, also the the boosters for, like, Columbia spaceships, yeah, they were still doing this. So they they've been around for a long time. They have, they have a lot of expertise, right? Are they? Are they getting to a point where they're finding challenges, finding people like resources, or is it just it's just cool?

09:09

No, there's a lot of people there that have been there for 30 years, and we do rely on their expertise in a lot of the movements and manufacturing processes that existed back when they made the extra tank, but with this new, bigger, powerful, you know, greater rocket, yeah, there are things that even the more spring in the skies don't know. No kidding, yeah. So we they all work in collaboration with new technology and the things that we're providing to make their process better. It

09:47

just makes sense that if you're if space is where it's at, you're going to have to continue to push the envelope to be able to manufacture bigger, stronger, faster, type of. Of more reliable rockets, yeah. And, of course, the seasoned professionals out there, you know, of course, they haven't done it. Of course they're learning as we go. And I could see the benefits of being able to create that scenario, to be able to say, No, this is where, yeah, it works. And, no, it doesn't. We need to do something else, right?

10:23

And as part of building that digital twin, we're also, we're also addressing other problems that they have in the factory. So given the size of mystery, you can imagine that things go missing, right? So literally, every time I walk out onto the floor, I see somebody walking the floor, and they're searching for a piece of tool, equipment, platform. We're not having to hammer a wrench. We're talking platforms the size of a two story house, because there's constant movement going on in the can't

10:54

find it, right? So, so it's funny to think about that.

10:59

I mean, I know I have a man problem, because I don't find anything, but that's just a little excessive.

11:04

So as big as the factory is, there's lots of small, I say, smaller than the building, but with giant pieces inside the factory. And they might have 50 of them, so they might get stacked next to each other. And, you know, you look at all these different work stands, and which one is the one I need, right? So we have technology that can not only tell them which is the right stand to pull out, but what's the right order to pull them out into the space. No kidding, yeah, to optimize it. Just didn't realize

11:35

that, yeah,

11:36

so we're getting that benefit from a system that's the real time location tracking system. So the whole purpose of that for our use case was to be able to understand how things move in reality, so we can get to the point of simulations. But a byproduct of that system being in place is at all times you know where your equipment is. And on top of that, as you build the data over time of the equipment moving, you can start to optimize your factory workflow, because now, instead of moving from A to B to E to F, back to C to D, you can just go ABCD, because you now understand that there's been inefficiencies in the way you've been

12:13

moving. Can you use that same scenario that use case in where to put that platform absolutely like, okay, don't John always six it over there. That's not where we want it to go. We need to be so that even gives the direction on where that is, given the whole picture of what, what's happening in that manufacturing line, right? We're going to be eventually using that. So put it over here, that type, that type of insight,

12:40

right? Right? Absolutely. And it also goes to the crane systems themselves to be able to track the movement of the cranes, to better understand when to perform maintenance on the crane, so you don't have cranes breaking down in the middle of a lift.

12:54

That's not good for anybody, right? So, so how long do you think this project will continue on? I mean, it just seems, seems massive. And what do you deem a success?

13:10

That's a good question. I would say success is a full replica of the digit of the micute assembly facility, to the point where we're simulating the actual build of the rockets. I would call that success. How long it's going to take to get there? That's a good question as well,

13:29

because they have, they have timelines too. They're doing that now. Artemis is slated to for a launch coming in 2025

13:39

that long. The second one, the second one,

13:41

the second one, I

13:41

know the first one took a little while, but 2025, yeah. What about me? I want to know about these things

13:53

now. That's that's impressive. How do people get ahold of you? Guys talking to you? Yeah,

13:57

we can reach out on LinkedIn or email us. My emails Greg.porter@sev1tech.com

14:05

and I'm Christopher.Tranchina@sev1tech.com, but

14:08

you both are out on LinkedIn, because Chris made sure that I

14:13

yeah, we're on LinkedIn. Okay, made sure that I know that. How

14:16

do I get a hold of Gary? You just wave a lot. We want to appreciate Gary, because he's been very helpful in the podcast and the making of the podcast. Thank you very much. Gary. Over to the side. He's amazing. All right. You guys are absolutely wonderful. All right, thanks. All right. Listeners, we're gonna have all the contact information for Greg. And is it Christopher or Chris?

14:38

I prefer Chris.

14:39

You'd prefer Chris. Okay, Chris, nobody out on Industrial Talk. Their LinkedIn stack card will be there for the taking. So reach out to them, because they're part of OMG. Go out to omg.org they know what they're talking about. And if you wanted to get a hold of Greg or Gary, excuse me, I'm looking at his thing, you're just going to have to just wonder how to get a hold of him, because he's not going to share something. All right, we're gonna be right back. Thank you for joining. You're

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listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

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Greg and Chris. The company was Sev1Tech. That's the number one in that name Sev1Tech and anything that involves the conversation around technology, as well as the space industry. Oh, I get all giddy about that. That's cool stuff. They're right in the thick of it, right down there in the manufacturing. I get it. That was OMG Q1 meeting. And again, I say it all the time, collection of incredible problem solvers trying to make the world a better place. That's what they do. Omg.org. Find out more, as well as reach out to these two gents out on Industrial Talk. We have that LinkedIn connection there. All right. You have a podcast, you want amplification, you gotta stick it out on Industrial Talk. If you wanna be on a podcast, you gotta contact me. If you have technology, you gotta contact me anyway. Be bold, be brave. Dare greatly. That's what Industrial Talk's all about. Hang out. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned. Bye.