Brian Hronchek with Eruditio

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

reliability, shareholder, company, executives, focused, industrial, trained, training, technology, brian, started, milton friedman, maintenance, invest, world, solution, asset management, great, talk, change

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

00:21

once again. Thank you very much for joining Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for your continued support of a platform that is dedicated to industrial professionals all around the world. Because you're bold, you're brave, you dare greatly, you innovate, you collaborate, you solve problems, you are making the world a better place each and every day, and that's why we celebrate you on Industrial Talk. And as you can tell, maybe there's some buzz in the background. In the background. We are at SMRP’s 31st, annual conference. It is the biggest one yet, and there's a lot of individuals around here that are focused on solving those challenges that you have in industry. And it's awesome, awesome to see a lot of technology, but we always talk about people, because it's always gets down to people, and because you want to be and you're listening to this, you need to be involved in whatever reliability, maintenance and asset management your first stop is SMRP.org SMRP.org they have everything you need to get going and keep the conversation rolling. And speaking of which, we have a gentleman by the name of Brian Eruditio is the company, and let's get a crack, and we're gonna be talking people and among other things, Brian, you have a good day.

01:26

I'm having a great day. How

01:27

are you good? Good conference.

01:29

That's great.

01:30

Were you here last year? I

01:32

was not. So I've been with SMRP for years. I've been a CMRP since about 2018 but I've never been to the conference. No kidding, the first one.

01:42

What's your first impression? That's pretty

01:44

cool. Oh, it's incredible. It's incredible. Lots lots of good information, lots of good technology boosts and everything else like that. And met a lot of interesting people today.

01:56

I like the fact that, okay, you have the vendors here. Yes, they are. They're right here. We're right in the middle of the floor, and it's a, it's a, it's an exciting place to be, but I enjoy the fact that there's just the the participants there. They're right in the trenches. They're trying to make sure their operations are running, you know, without drama that you know, and deploying all of the things that we, you know, talk about here at SMRP. And it's really nice to see it and and as I look out that it's very collegial, and everybody's talking and very smiling, but there's just this real desire to help. So that's what I like, before we get into the conversation, give us a little background on who Brian is.

02:44

Well, you know, being here is, I'll say, a bit of a miracle, right, right? I started professionally in the Marines back in 97 Oh, wow. Thank

02:56

you for your service. Full career there, you

02:58

know, I loved aircraft. I worked on F-18. So met my wife there. She was an engine mechanic. I was an airframe mechanic. It was kind of a match made. Wow, that's pretty cool. So she was in the Navy. I was in the Marines. And, you know, we started our family back, back in 2000 but I got picked up for an officer program, so they sent me to Purdue. I got my aerospace engineering degree. So now I've, I'm a pilot in high school. I've got aircraft maintenance experience. I'm an aircraft aerospace engineer, and then the Marine Corps, infinite wisdom infantry. The next 10 years I spent running around, shooting things and blowing things up, and which was incredible, yeah. And what I'll tell you, what I'll tell you is, is that was probably the most invaluable experience that I could have had, because I was very mathematical, very analytical, very, you know, data type centric. I was a very poor people person, and that quickly turned me into a very good people person, because those those guys out there, are some of the smartest people that I've ever worked with, no kid that kick in the doors and do these things, they're psychologically being able to look on the other side of a wall and be able to get inside of somebody's head and know exactly what they're going to do, and know exactly what the guy on the left and right. So these guys are incredibly, incredibly smart with what they do with their craft. And so I'm very fortunate to have that experience. And then about 2014 it was time to go. So I retired. I went to Exelon for a little bit. Yeah, I spent some time as a maintenance manager. It wasn't the right fit for me for for there, so I spent about three and a half years. But that was where I was introduced to reliability. Because we had a reliability person. We just didn't do really well with it. No kidding at Exxon, oh, it was horrible. Is take it was, take the youngest person out of college and say, Hey, do this reliability. I don't know. I can't say that's all of Exxon that was, that was our plan, right? And so I started to realize that it's much bigger than what we're using it for. And I applied for a job at US Steel. And. In reliability, and I got it. And at that point, the plant manager just poured 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of dollars into the four of us that were on the team. I got my CMRP, and then the light bulb came on, and I realized all of these principles in reliability are a mirror image of what I've done in the Marine Corps for the last 17 years. You want the gun to fire the first time. You want the machine to run when you turn it on. You want people to be trained when they kick in a door. You want people to be trained to follow the right process. It's all the same. It's all the same. So I started to make those connections and launched forward very quickly into the reliability profession, and I've had so much fun ever since.

05:42

And I have to ask this, I'm not trying to be negative or anything. It because you're you're wired that way, which is pretty cool. I like that because there's, it is a, it is a passion for education and continuous education. Don't, don't miss you know that that's the reality, because it the world of reliability, asset management, maintenance and all things in between is constantly evolving and changing and moving right? Yeah, great, very cool. But the reality is, is that there is some frustrations, and why? See you get it. Other people don't, right, explain that.

06:21

And when you mean frustrations, which ones do you mean just, just

06:25

the embracing, the embracing, just in organizations. And it's always a people. It's never, yeah, I can find a vibration, you know, device, and I can stick it out there, and I can start pulling data, and I could do all of that. It's, all there, it's all here. I can align a motor with there's laser alignment. I can do all that, the technologies, the technology, and it is superior, but

06:52

we haven't solved the problem yet. We've got all the technology, but we can't seem to get it to solve the problem still. Why? So that's a great question, and if you root cause it right, let's think back to why can't we apply it and we look at our education level, right? And I don't mean education like college or beyond or anything like that. What I mean is, in industry, how trained are we with what we do in industry? Oh yeah, they say, well, we're not there. We don't have the training. It's hard to find good people these days, and that's that's a challenge for everybody, right? You can't find people who are trained, who have the skills. So back it up. If we go back far enough, what we find is that in about 1970 there was a dude named Milton Friedman. Oh, yeah. So Milton Friedman Google and Friedman doctrine, before 1970 companies were focused on the customer and on the employee. And then Milton Friedman came to the scene and he said, You know what, no companies should be focused on the shareholder. And CEOs everywhere, generally in publicly traded companies, turned their heads, and they were, wait, we're focused the wrong direction. I had no idea. And so they started focusing on the shareholder. And we started to get short sighted, because those shareholders want the return on their investment. Oh, yeah. And they wanted in terms of dollars, right? So we started to think towards cutting training, cutting maintenance, cutting the things that we don't see as a profit center. We see him as a cost center. And then in about 1980 there was the FAA strike, and remember it will Yep. So So Reagan then set a precedent for layoffs as being a business tool rather than a full stop. We're about to go over the cliff tool. He laid off 80,000 employees and said, you'll never work in the FAA again. And now the CEOs are focused on shareholders, and they have a tool that now makes people a resource rather than a human, rather than a human, an asset. And so we're that was 1980 and now it is 2023 so 43 years later, we've forgotten where we came from. We don't even know what it's like to think of the customer as being beholden to the customer and being beholden to the employees, except for some exceptions, you have privately owned companies. You have smaller ones that still have a longer vision. But for mostly the big and the publicly traded ones, we've lost that I'll give

09:15

you an example. I was fortunate to be part of a team that took the company public. Great, cool before, you know, day one or prior to going public, we were, you know, just pinpoint focus on customers, pinpoint focus on solving their problems and solutions and doing what we need to do. And that was just part of it, but the the strategy of going public was necessary to expand and grow and all the stuff that is necessary for business. When we finally, you know, signed a deal and and said, Now we're, you know, we're public company. Our focus instant. Continuously changed from customers to shareholder, because the shareholders had all the leverage, and they wanted to, they wanted us to expand and do whatever, and I want money from, you know, that type of stuff that was like instant, and they always, I'm a shareholder, don't trust me. Complaint, yeah? And so, you know that squeaky wheel concept that always happens. Yeah, that's very interesting, and I like that. Yes.

10:25

I mean, we're surrounded by great, incredible technology, but we've all been trained that technology is the answer, and then our executives see technology as the answer, and data is the answer to where I can't even go talk to somebody and tell them what I do. I say, you know, well, we do education first consulting. We train people how to change their organizations. Oh, you mean that's a CMMS integration? Oh, you mean the big data? No, we change people. Oh, it's just like the connection can't even be made almost today, it's hard, it's hard

10:55

to get there. Do you think the that that people equation. Everybody is struggling to find people. Is still a necessity, yes, but I find that there's a disconnect between I need people, but I'm not willing to do what is necessary to train and retain right as much as I possibly can. That's a That's a change within my organization, which I'm not, that's, that's sort of the rub. I need people, but I'm not willing to do what is necessary to get the people and retain the people right and train the people, which makes complete and utter sense. Yeah, totally right. Yeah. And do you think a lot of that has and so I'm left with, I need technologies, because I need to get more out of my whatever technology, because I can't find people, right?

11:44

Yeah. So that is, I mean, it's like not understanding the root cause means that we're looking for a solution that might be a band aid and it might be a temporary band aid, but it's not a solution. It's just temporarily putting a finger in the dam while three other cracks open up. Yeah. So the this is a huge gap, right? There's a huge gap. And the question is, how do we close it? Because you're not going to change the culture. You're certainly not going to change it overnight. If somebody else, like Milton Friedman got up today and said, Hey, we're wrong, we need to turn the other direction. It might take another 30 or 40 years to get there. Yeah, right, but that's not going to happen today. So what do we do today?

12:20

What do we do today? What how do we how do we close that gap? Because it's the reality of it and I and it just has to happen,

12:30

right? And so, so for all the executives out there, you know, you guys know what you can do if you understand this, you know most of, most of us, or most of them don't. So really, this is for the front line. This is for the maintenance managers. This is for the plant managers, right? First of all is understanding where real value is created, right? OEE is a result profitability as a result. I can't touch profitability. I can't touch it with my hands. Yeah, right. I can't even touch pm compliance with my hands. What I can do is I can touch a job plan. I can write a job plan. I can put a kit in a box. I can request work as I identify it, right? I can do those types of things. I can do things with my human hands that create action, and those actions cascade into the results that we want.

13:26

Here's the challenge. If I was an executive and I'm willing to invest in educating, training, cultural and effectively working on the culture of my organization, I'm all in. I guarantee you, I'm thinking about, well, I'm going to invest all this time, energy and effort, and they're going to leave, sure, and, and, and I think it's stems from the the Milton Friedman example, right? Like they're not, you know, they're not beholden to me. I'm not beholden to them. And because the market is the way the market is, I'm ready to bolt. Yeah, I've got more skills. I have more value. They're not going to pay me, but I can go over here and get paid. Yeah? So how do we deal with that? Because it does happen. Yeah, the

14:19

first and the first thing, the first thing I would say is, is that right now, in the vacuum of no training, nobody focuses on people, the best way to get a raise or get promoted is to jump to a different company. It is so you're saying to me, I don't want to train you because you might leave, but they're leaving because you're not training right? And what we've actually seen on the ground is the exact opposite of what's intuitive. If my company invests time and money into me, I really enjoy that. I really want to be effective. I want to have that impact out on the floor and know that my life is meaningful. And so I stay right. So I stay. Because you trained me, I stay because you value me, and if I go somewhere else, they're not going to value

15:05

me. But to the reality is, yes, and I agree with you 100% and I think that that's really counterintuitive, and I think that we've, we've sadly, drank that Cooley that, hey, if I get trained, then they're going to go to some other place, and somebody's going to say, hey, they've invested. It's cheaper for me, blah, blah, blah. But the reality is, as executives, the reason they they move so much is because they're receiving their training on the job as an executive. And they're going to go to and they're every bit as mobile as anybody else you know, three to five years max, and they're gone. Yeah, that's the truth. So it's really just an interesting but it's but what I hear, what I see in this conversation, is one, it's definitely, it's definitely a people equation. It is. And how you do that? Yeah, go ahead.

15:57

There was one thing that I heard that changed, that totally flipped my mind. And it was about about two years ago. Now, it was an interview. You remember the old TV show Hercules in the 90s? Yeah? Kevin Sorbo, yeah. So him and his wife are still very active on the, you know, public scene. Sam Sorbo was on an interview that's his wife's name. Sam Sorbo, she was on an interview on The Epoch Times, and she made a statement that actually just blew my mind. And she said wealth has nothing to do with money. She said wealth is created through the transfer of knowledge. I agree with Yeah, and I, and I, it took me a minute, and I was like, Wait a minute. I understand, you know, money and the economy, stuff moving, whatever. But she's 100% right, wealth is created through the transfer of knowledge. That's why we pay so much to go to school. I need that knowledge because that is value that I can now inject back into society, right? And if I, if I share something with my kids morals with my kids, that is value that they will then inject back into society, right? And so if the company invests in me, that is value that I can now inject back into society. So is it? Is it totally perfect as 100% you're gonna stay No, but you know what you're still contributing to the Yeah,

17:12

see, that's a great that that I like that a lot. It's not, it's not without value, right? And, and if you have from, from if I owned a business, and if I had a humble heart and yeah, and a desire to truly create a business that has resilience, there is no way I can do it being sort of old school in the way I look at the business and and I have to recognize that I have to change. Yeah, the culture has to change and be more in line with the way we look at the world today. And training has to be fundamental. And do that with a happy heart, not with, you know, a heart of, you know, like, I don't care. Yeah, for real. So how do people get a hold of you, my friend?

18:04

So I'm at Eruditio, you can get the Eruditio.com or I'm on LinkedIn, look me up on LinkedIn. Are

18:12

you on LinkedIn? Pretty active, not

18:14

so active, but I'll answer some messages. Active. Yeah. Thank you.

18:19

I will. I will definitely pull up your LinkedIn stat card and have it out on Industrial Talk so that people will connect via LinkedIn for

18:27

you. All right. Thanks, Scott.

18:30

All right. We are broadcasting once again at SMRP, 31st, annual conference here in Orlando, the biggest ever. Right now, if you are in the world of asset management, or if you have a desire to be in asset management, maintenance or reliability, go out, your first stop would be SMRP.org make that happen, go out to an SMRP.org and get engaged. You will not be disappointed. You get to meet great people like Brian and others that are really passionate about, you know, impacting the world in a positive way. We're going to wrap it up on the other side. Thank you very much again for joining. We will be right back.

19:11

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network

19:21

that's Brian, Eruditio is the company the event was SMRP. And if you're in the world of asset management, maintenance and reliability, that is the event for you. The next one is just right around the corner, so make sure that you put that on your calendar. It's in Orlando, and it's gonna be a barn burner for sure. We were talking about people. We were talking about culture. And I don't care what type of technology you have, the technology is the technology, if you don't have the right training, people, culture, you're not going to get the most out of that solution, or those solutions. Options, so make sure that you make a note of that. All right, you have a podcast, or thinking about a podcast, you need to talk to me. You need to put it out on Industrial Talk. If you have a technology or solution, you need to talk to me. You need to highlight that solution or technology out on Industrial Talk. That's the go to All right. Be bold, be brave, dare greatly. Hang out with Brian. Change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.