Tom Wilk with Endeavor Business Media

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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. Welcome

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01:16

I'm doing good today. How are you? You've

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been very patient. I've had to reschedule him a couple

01:22

of times, please. It's been a good conference, though, lots of things happening, so happy to make it happen.

01:26

Yeah, you had to come. You had to come and find me. I felt bad. I yeah, I felt bad for a second, and then I was fine. You don't have to worry about that. But anyway, so you're having a good conference. Yeah, and let's start this. Give us a little background. Let's level set. Let's talk about Tom. You know who you

01:53

02:38

Yeah, it is interesting. And what I one of the themes that I really like and pushing, and they, I think they've been pushing it, but I it's, it's becoming that connected reliability. So there's a lot of solutions that exist within the under the Fluke umbrella, as well as the Fluke, you know, bigger company with the devices. And it is nice, because I want to see I want to see success. I want to see people achieve what they need to achieve. But I don't. They're not going to do it if it's difficult. And I think Fluke is on the right path.

03:13

That's in that's totally correct. One of the, one of the press briefings I just got out of the customer SKF, was talking about rolling out emit among their plants. And they have 81 plants worldwide. So they started with a few plants, and number one, when their management team, the leadership team, saw the return on investment that emit was delivering in the form of more streamlined work processes, optimizing their pm routes, management actually mandated it across the entire company. So they're in the process of rolling out to 81 to rolling out to 81 different plants. No, that's fantastic. And yeah, you're hearing stories like this all week with people trying to figure out, okay, how can they get the most out of emails to accomplish their specific plants goals? Is it to evolve their condition monitoring program by adding on tools into the platform to move data in there? Is it simply to ingest manuals, work plans in order to optimize those work plans more efficiently. So it's, it's, yeah, it's been a great week to hear where people are.

04:12

Is it sustainable? Because, you know, as well as I do the world, reliability, asset management and maintenance, it ebbs and flows. The leadership decides that it needs to go some other place, and therefore opens up other opportunities for other leaders who might not have the same passion for optimizing, making the operations efficient, whatever the focus might be, does the the portfolio of solutions that are offered by Fluke reliability, do they sort of foster compliance in and sustainable focus on that?

04:49

I believe so, and I think it centers on the CMMS itself. That's where sustainable best practices often start, right? Yeah, because the CMMS. Become Your historian of record. You can store those work plans. It can it can act as a partial data historian, right? So doesn't matter which technician is in or out, doesn't matter which part of the leadership is in or out. If you have a CMMS, collecting these best practices, organizing them, keeping track of their work instructions, that's your collective memory for the plant. It's stable. It's not going to go anywhere, and it can evolve with the next generation that comes on. So as you were saying, as new tools are introduced, future workers can use the base of knowledge in the CMMS and add to it over time, right? So that's why this conference, I think, is so useful to understand the maturity level of various plant teams and maintenance teams is because as long as they're using ACM, ACMs and with with emails, either x4 or x5 they already have a step up on their competition, because they have that collective memory available to them, no matter who's actually going to be turning the wrench or who's going to be in the UP Management Suite approving future capital projects. Yeah,

06:00

see the aha moment that I had. You know, everybody talks about, I'm having a difficult time finding people, skilled individuals, knowledgeable individuals, and then I have this silver tsunami that's leaving my organization, and all that tribal knowledge is going out the door. But if you do it correctly, if you if you have a system like E main and and are very diligent in making sure that that that system is accurate, then that that that learning curve of those individuals that come on board is is decreased dramatically, I would imagine. And it was just sort of an Aha. Then invest in it. You know, stop complaining.

06:44

Yeah, and there's, there's less rebuilding when someone does leave whatever reason, yes, right? There's less backsliding. And something else the skft mentioned was the mobile aspect of the CMMS, yes, that they were, they got more easy buy in from the technicians because the user interface on their phones and tablets was so intuitive and easy to use. So if you're looking for one of these systems, look for one that does have a good mobile component, because that is the way to get newer, future workers on board with your system. Put it on a device they probably already have in their pockets, and make sure that they interface with it at the right levels, that way they can tap into, again, that knowledge base, which is stored in the CMMS.

07:24

So take us through because you've been attending this a couple of times. You've seen a you've seen a sort of a change that is sort of a messaging change. Explain to us a little bit about that.

07:36

It's been a real interesting change this year I can't find fault with without previous conferences, for example, but the nuance has been subtle but but significant. At most conferences like this, you'll have the opening sessions set a three or four or five year future vision out, and then the message is challenging the people in the room to meet it right? And that's fair enough. With this year's Xcelerate conference, I think the message was more focused on the tools that are already being used, whether it was alignment tools, whether it was balancing tools, the fundamental hardware pieces that a plant will have. There wasn't much talk about AI in the sense of you should already have it. The talk was more about, what is it? How might you use it going forward? What's the best application? So the tone is very much where Fluke has listened to its customer base and is meeting them where they are, while still setting a vision, saying, We will be your partner to get you there as you need to. So instead of a direct instead of spinning a vision and channel and leaving it as a challenge, the message has been, we are your partner. We will help you achieve what you want to achieve. And here's where we see industry going. Feel free to let us know if that's where you're going to

08:53

Yeah, like that. And the reason I like that is because I've said it a couple of times, quite frankly, a number of times is that all of this is hitting, let's say I'm a manufacturer, and it's hitting me, it's, it's online, it's, it's, it's in publication. It's just constantly hitting me. For me, it would be difficult to determine the avenue that I need to take for my organization, is it a, go down this road, B, go down that road, and so on and so forth. I have to have trusted individuals that I can that I can work with, to be able to make those decisions and ensure success in my journey. And I like what they're doing is, do you get that same sense? I

09:41

do. It's a signature feel at this event where the customer service reps and the Fluke side are always available for plants and their customers to talk with. That is sort of 24/7 support for these questions you're talking about, right? So if the plants themselves can't identify the strategy or what the next best application is, there's always a reason. Stores on the email side to consult with and say, Okay, what are other people doing with this? How might we do it better? I think what's also inspiring too is a number of people from the plants who are here sharing their stories of condition monitoring, success of warehouse standardization, success of of optimizing their spare parts and inventory in an age right now where we're going through some market disruptions, I've seen a lot of the attendees here talking with each other at lunchtime in the hallways comparing notes about, Okay, how did you do X? How did you do y? So that that sense of collaboration and community you're talking about, I think that is being fostered at this conference, as it is every year, but the opening sessions really set that tone in a strong way.

10:47

Yeah, I I can't, I can't say it enough, because I know that I want, I want companies to succeed and to be able to have somebody like, like an organization like Fluke and and the professionals, they also, I find, are very committed to the the education side. And what's what's fascinating is that all of these solutions in some way, shape or form, and I was having this conversation with somebody else, I just said, you guys, are you leading edge in some of these technologies, right? And how? How do you keep on improving? And they have the conversations with their customer base and the customer saying, we need this. And it's just a very collegial combination of being able to work together to solve challenges that are existing today in industry. I'm gonna

11:40

take this in a slightly different direction. But at a previous conference, I was struck by how many newer workers, millennial age, Gen Z, no way were interested. Yeah, they were interested in professional certifications in the area for liability and maintenance. When I talked about the CMRP certification offered through the SMRP. Yeah, it was clear that this was new to some of them when I talked about the CRL, the CRE, the rmic, those the sort of key baseline certifications. There's a there's a new generation of workers that are hungry for this information. They want to professionalize themselves. They want to train themselves. And so what you're saying really resonates where, where? Yeah, the message is. The message here at the conference has been, don't let your capital budget for hardware be an either or choice. When it comes to training, if you do want to build a sustainable program, you need to do both together, right? If you can. And but don't try not to let your management tell you it's an either or choice. And try not to let management persuade you to invest in the latest, greatest technology just because it caught their attention without complimentary training on it, and potentially maintenance Best Practices too, because you need that baseline of best practices to make the technology work for you.

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One of the things I think is taking place, and I'll focus on AI for this one, yeah, is that you're going to see a lot more adoption of AI assistance, helping technicians to get the work done. And obviously, the A is not going to turn the wrench. It's not what I mean. It's more say, AI chat bot prompts on their phone that link to a CMS, which help them input the work order instructions, help them input data, help them capture the information, so that the CMMS can then trigger a work order on the back end. One, one compelling presentation I saw at the mark on conference two weeks ago at University of Tennessee, was a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Lab and the university to build out some of these AI driven chat bots to help technicians get their get their data input more work, more consistently. But then the fascinating thing was, there were five different chat bots on the back end, which would take the information they got from the field and then do more effective planning and scheduling, do more effective inventory management, you know, as long so what you're going to see going forward is the AI, at the very least, helping people get more. Assistant data sets get more complimentary and clean data sets to do the work and make the decisions they have to while relying on good data.

15:09

Yeah, the one of the always the concern with any system is this pencil whipping. And if there's a way of being able to to minimize it will always happen, because we're humans, right? But minimize the pencil, whipping through an automated solution and achieving what they need to achieve from from, from an information perspective, I think it's vital, because we're always talking about, you know, there's gold in that data. I got to get more data, more data, more data, to be able to make tactical decisions. But have some some solution that says, yeah, hey, here, I've been looking at this data, and then I found this go here, which makes sense.

15:50

That's what we're hearing of plant services. Again. It's funny how quickly anyone who would want to keep those redundant pm routes for the sake of a quick break here and there. And God knows, maintenance teams need breaks when they can get it right. Yeah. But how quickly those minds are changed when you see the bottom line improving and you see how even much easier it is for the maintenance manager to report back positive results and ROI to the to leadership, suddenly the attitude towards that changes. Says, Okay, let's, let's work efficiently. Let's get rid of the let's not do the busy work we're used to doing.

16:24

How do you now, we've talked about AI, where there are a number of tools that are on the horizon, and all of them are very various levels of excitement and interest and insights. What would be your recommendation on Yeah, I need, I need executive buy in. What do we need to do? It always gets down to dollars and cents, but what do we need to do?

16:51

It does i I'm gonna fall back on something with Joe Anderson, who's a reliable ex, said here at the conference, which is, go to your operations team. If you're in maintenance, go to your operations team. Just walk the plant floor, learn what some of the stoppages are on the floor, which are unrelated to things breaking, and be known as someone who can start implementing process improvements at that level. It was very he was very clear that once he did find a stoppage on an implant one time, he pulled in the reliability person, and they went out there and saw the problem together with operations. But you're looking for those moments to, number one, find good process improvement wins, and number two, collaborative process improvement wins. Once you've got those teams working together and on board with what you're doing, then you can focus on the next steps, which is, what sort of technology do I need to get them to to to to more efficiently predict failures in my machines, for example. But there's a lot of things you can do even before the first investment in that kind of technology. It also gets you a sense of what the problems are on the plant for to let you know, do I need an ultrasound probe, if I don't need that? Do I need an infrared camera? Do I need a visual leak detector? What do I need? What problems are the operators experiencing and how? How are my technology investments going to help them as well? With me, it

18:10

always gets down to the human equation, yeah. I mean the technologies, the technologies, the innovation and the tools and the data collection. Yeah, it's all technology. It always gets down to that human interaction and being able to do it. Do you think there's a and this, did I digress with, with, also the the the challenges that exist within finding the right talent? Do you see universities stepping up. I know the University of Tennessee has a program, but do you see universities nimble enough to be able to handle and to be able to promote professions like asset management, reliability, whatever, but nimble enough to be able to sort of take into consideration all of the technology that's changing at a rapid pace? That's

19:02

an excellent question, and it's going to have a complicated answer. I think it depends on the university, in many ways, university like University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which clearly has the state of the art program in this area. But there are also universities which do invest in things like the rock wall automation fair, the IMTS trade shows, and they make sure that they are there with their booth demonstrating what their engineering department is doing to support industry in this way. I think that when it comes to universities, the number one thing they could do is as the actual classes are in motion, the engineering classes, if you have teachers who give examples of it, the application of those skills in various sectors, that's going to be the best advocate for manufacturing. I'll give an old example. 10 years ago, I was flying home from Rockwell Automation fair, and I talked to a young system integrator, and he said he got into System Integrator. Question, because he was interested in networking and computer science. Over his college career, he became aware that there was a massive opportunity for integrators in heavy industry in America, and he made it his business to become an industrial system integrator. And he said, I'm going to retire early, and I'm going to retire well. But no one told him that's where the opportunity for his skills were. He has sort of figured that out for himself, and he had a couple people in university telling him, so as long as you've got a support system at the university which says, yes, you can use this skill for X industry, here's the application in y industry. In my opinion, that's the best thing that could happen.

20:39

Yeah, I think that there's, there's tremendous pressure for universities, especially today, in the world of technology, to be far more nimble. I just, and I'm not sure if they're, they just, they got to figure that out. They

20:56

do. And I hope there's advocates on the teaching side who have the dexterity enough to know where the applications lie, because there's a lot of opportunity companies Next, coming years, huge,

21:04

and having that street cred also helps out. Right? Absolutely. Are you out there? Have you done it before? You know, don't just give me some book thing anyway. Tom, how do people get a hold

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of you? You can reach me at T Wilk, at Endeavor B, to b.com, by email, or you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm under Thomas Wilk, but friends call me Tom, so once we're conducted, I'll be on a first name basis. And anyone who's listening, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to talk to you. You are

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You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

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Tom Wilk, yep. His stack card is out on Industrial Talk. You need to reach out to him. He need to, he needs to be a part of your network. We were talking about the technology that is impacting in a positive way, reliability, asset management and everything in between. It is a must and get the latest and greatest from Tom and his team at Endeavor it, yeah, it's a must. Must connect. All right, Industrial Talk is more than just podcasts. We're a marketing company. We understand the market. We want you to succeed. We have the tools and the strategies that are necessary for you to succeed. Your company to succeed, bring in greater revenue, greater attention. It's all here. We we know what we're doing. All you have to do is go out to Industrial Talk, talk to me. We'll set you up with a plan, plan of success. Ah, yeah, you can use it all right. Be bold, be brave. They're greatly hang out with Tom. Change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned. You.