Frederic Baudart with Fluke

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

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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

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I'm

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okay. I gotta tell you, just looking forward to this conversation and and, of course, listen, I just want to let you know we haven't been prepared. No, no preparation for this conversation. I'm just going to pepper him with questions that I want me Sure? Is that cool? Yeah. So one of the questions before we get going and give us background, background on who you are, sure

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instrumentation process. Did you say, yeah, what is that explain to us? A little bit about what that means. Sure.

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So the process tool business has a really a portfolio of tools. They allow technician, engineer, reliability, management professionals, to use anything related to the process, aspect to equipment, pressure transmitter, temperature transmitter, volt melliams, where they have a need to only measure but also to source and essentially to provide a calibration. Perfect example, pressure transmitter, you need to do a measurement and also calibration. We have, actually the equipment that they provide this to you, and also we'll provide a report at the end.

02:43

Is the the equipment, because everybody, the conversations have always been, I can't find the right people. Okay, got it? It's a it's a people equation, and it happens all the time. But then there are the tools too, as well. And are these tools that you are mentioning and that you need. Are they user friendly? Are they? Are they? I know they're powerful, but I've been in some organizations where I've seen the tool just sort of sitting in a cube, not being used. And I think that there's, there's, there was a loss of knowledge that took place. Are these? Are these tools intuitive? In a sense,

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the short answer is yes, and for two reason number one, when we when Fluke generally designed a tool to launch as either brand new tool or an updated version, there's a lot of thoughts that goes behind how user friendly is it? Because we have to think about who is going to use the tool, and

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it's just the churn of people correct.

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And so I can tell you, at least for this part of the business, for process tools, the people are redeemed knowledgeable. They know what they want, and they usually know how to use the tools. So we only have met them halfway there in order for them to make it as easy as possible to actually use the tool to measure the temperature, the pressure, the milliamps. It's much more about, hey, what are the features you truly need in order to do your work. So yes, it is fairly intuitive, but I would also say then the instrumentation technician and engineer who use those equipment are knowledgeable enough that they know what they need. So they come to us to say, I want this particular model, and I want this particular model because I know I need to do this particular task, how do

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you keep up with just iterating on these tools? Right? What what it was, you know, let's say 10 years ago is not what it is today. And therefore there has to be this back and forth of conversation with the. End user to to develop a tool that truly meets the market's needs. What? How do you how do you work in that environment? Because I know what I want, but not everything is, you know, maybe not a focus for flu.

05:18

You know, it's a very fine line, and it's part of, actually the flu culture, and especially from a product aspect in product development, there's a lot of work that goes into understanding what the customer want, even before we talk about a tool that we need to come up on the market or for that matters, even if we need to have a tool, specific tool as an updated version of what we currently have, the key of that is voc, Voice of the customers. So there's a lot of work that we put in a forefront before we even present to the leadership about what kind of tool do we want? Does the customer have already this? Do we solve a problem? Those are the discussion that we have with customers, not only virtually, but in the facilities, in their facilities. And I've always said, you know, I was lucky enough when I work at GE and field service. Then I've been to hundreds of different sites, and by the time you're done, and when you do this, you have the ability to actually walk in a facility, and within 510, minutes, you can actually understand the customer, recognize what they need, and listening to them. And I think the key piece right there is at the forefront. Listen to what the customer is telling you, and also listening between the line what they're not saying. Then you actually visually see at their facilities that right there, it's your your core foundation of what, okay, I know what we're missing. Well, I know what we need to actually build for the customers. That's phase one. And then phase two is really, once you start building, have the customer partner with you, on that on that journey, in order to build or create the proper tool that they need.

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What fascinates me is, I, we're on the reliability Lab Floor right here, and and there's, there are solutions everywhere. And you just sort of scan the the environment and you're saying, man, there's a lot of tools, lot of solutions. How does, how do you take something that, I mean, are seriously advanced right now, they're, they're very sophisticated tools to help. You know, manufacturers industry to succeed. How does one? I mean, the advancement must, just there must. I just can't imagine the market saying, hey, there's more that has to be done. I just it's because you guys have such tremendous tools. How do you, how do you deal with that? I mean, I just is that gap still wide where you're saying, Hey, look at that. That's an I didn't think of that. You guys think of everything.

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I think the technology is moving so fast that we even as an OEM, we are making great tools, a great product that we still need to continuously learn about the technology, learn how we can help the customer, and how we actually match the two together. I think that's the key piece. Yeah, that's number one, number two is not all customers are actually there where they needed to be with the technology. And so it is our responsibility, as much as the product provider, that we also provide the knowledge and the expertise, and so educating them. It goes way beyond just providing a tool. You know, we should be expert in pressure. We should be also experiencing temperature. We should be expert in thought leadership. About, hey, I do actually do digitalization. How do you actually do reliability of how you actually combine the two together through a tool, a tool, a product that we have, even a CMMS, is only a vehicle that just brings you there. There's a lot more to this, much,

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huge. Oh, I agree with you 100% there. It's a it's a massive, it's a massive profession with many, many many tentacles and avenues to choose from and and I think it's a very attractive, quite frankly attractive profession. How do you deal with the advent and it's happening? Because you guys have it in incorporating a. I into your tools some you got your Zima you got, but you've got to be having that conversation with your tools too as well.

10:09

Yeah. So it's in two piece, two parts. The first is on the other 40 level. So we'll work closely with with the 40 obviously means Fluke is one of the major Opco within fortif, and they have some some good tools already that we can use internally. And along with this, we work within the Fluke organization, depending if you have Fluke reliability or Fluke industrial or even network, to slowly try to incorporate some of these tools into not only the product itself, but the work stream. And I think the work stream is really important because it does not necessarily have to be always in the tool itself. It could be, I don't utilize AI once you have the data, because at the end of the day, what is really powerful is that, if you have a bunch of calibration data on 50 different assets, can you actually have aI look at those and really give you a summary, pinpoint with this potential failure and so forth. So having the ability to do this, but he also goes with the the aspect of of learning how to properly use AI, and that's, that's probably the biggest piece, and that's, that's a continuously effort. So you know, we're probably at the beginning of AI. I

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agree and support you 100% absolutely agreed. The challenge that I always see specifically when, when I'm collecting data, let's say I can collect data all day long, and quite frankly, I can collect clean and good data, good relevant data. It's the ability to take that tsunami of data and be able to effectively analyze it in such a way that gives me tactical insights into my operations quickly, right? There's a time component, and to be able to do that effectively, I think that that's key. And in companies and organizations like Ford of and and, of course, flu leading the way is, I think, is, from a macro point of view, very important to the market, because somebody's got to do it. You got to, you know, skin your knees a little bit. You got to bump your head, and you got to do it. Just because I think the market, the market is going to demand more. And, like you said, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg. We're absolutely

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interesting point. It everybody knows, unless you're living under a rock, everybody knows that the realities of AI, the realities of being able to analyze the data effectively, is very important, and I think it's it's a competitive advantage, too, for companies and organizations to to be able to look at that technology in such a way that says, Yeah, well, here we go. We're better because of that. One of the areas that I find that I think is important or incumbent upon Fluke is the necessity to be that, that technology Sherpa, because I might be this manufacturer, and I, you know, I'm on the worldwide web, and I'm looking at and it's saying I got to do that. But who do I trust? There's a lot of people hanging their shingles out saying, Hey, I'm a I'm an expert in X. I think that it's an it's important for Fluke to be able to be that sure

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I 100% agree. I mean, this is exactly some discussion I even had with leadership recently about it is that we do not as Fluke our company. We do not just want to be seen as a good OEM or to a manufacturer. I personally, I'll be honest, I'm not interested in that. I'm interested to see Fluke as a true partner. They can not only provide X. And product, but also the thought leadership and the knowledge that goes along with this. Yes, I was saying, if not, what's the interest? There's so much more that we can talk about it. And I had discussion recently with some other customers, and say, let me not talk to you about the tool, but let me talk to you about the application. Why you need this, how you need this. How does that benefit your organization in the long run, not just in the short term, without even mentioning the tour? And I think this is a discussion I even had. I remember sitting down with Chevron in in Richmond, California, and it was a big meeting that we had at that time. That was a long, long time ago, and I made sure to do with the sales manager. When we walked in, they say we are not going to talk about the product, but by the time we leave, we will have the largest contract, and you'll have both in product and services, and we end up in the very question, and as with the VP, was simply, it's like if I could save you 50% of your overtime because of your pump. Would you be interested to partner with us? That's how we started. And we ended up, obviously having at the time, it was an ultrasonic measurement, and we ended up he signed off on it a week later because we were trying to meet him. Ways. True problem wise, yeah. And again, it goes back to fruit. This is what we're trying. Is the worst problem we're solving for the customer they currently have, and if it is then we should go after and we should partner with them to make sure that we provide the best equipment. But as well, the knowledge that goes with it. Thought Leadership podcast is so important. Yeah,

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absolutely agree, yeah, I agree. And there's that, whether we have that, you just have to recognize that there's that human component. I mean, it's fine. The technology is the technology, the solutions are the solutions, and and, yeah, you've got a portfolio of all of that, but I'm telling you right now, given the conversations that I've had, they're still looking for that human to human contact to be able to help them along. Trusted, not just anybody trusted. And I, and I agree with you 100% what gets you excited about the future? Tell

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us those. Post COVID, I think more and more gathering and more and more sharing of the knowledge, like we do, yeah, um, I think it you have lived through so you know exactly what I'm talking about, the fact that we lost easily two and a half to three years, yeah, has been a huge challenge, but I've seen a lot of excitement about people going back to, obviously, to conference and sharing the knowledge, not just the product be there, but be able to be one on one, having the discussion about, about about AI, having discussion about reliability In general, about how you actually can do digitalization. What does that really mean? Because we all use this word, but what the heck does actually mean for anyone? Yeah, so I think then seeing this, um, and since post COVID, obviously, we have seen chat, GPT and AI explode. So it's almost like a perfect timing, if you want to, because we it forces us to kind of Xcelerate and relearn some of the things that we did not know before. Yeah, and that's a tool right there that we all, at least have to have some type of knowledge can use, both professionally and personally. But I think it really, really, it will is going to help us quite a bit. We just don't know. We just don't know exactly how some people think that they do. I personally don't, and I want to be that's okay. I want to be surprised, yeah, and I want to be along with that journey. And I think that's important. The other thing that I would mention, also I think it's really important, is we've got to find a way. Then you have the next generation following us

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whole nother doggone conversation, and

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so, because AI can take us right there. But I don't want to the people who are using AI, regardless, with tools always work processes, start thinking about the critical thinking, yeah, because AI is great, but at some point is going to give you, is going to learn and learn and learn. That means you do not have to stop to do some really good critical thinking about how to create a product, how you have worked for how you work with each other, yeah, and that's a key piece right there. I just want to make sure that we do not lose that that aspect was key about having ideation on a on a project.

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Yeah, I that whole you. Whole inspiring the next gen is, is a completely you know? What concerns me is that I think we're in a renaissance. We're in a renaissance period now, and I think that it's gonna because of things that have changed. In DC, there's a bigger focus on bringing manufacturing back, and we still have not addressed Well, that's great. Let's bring them all back. But who's going to do it exactly? Yeah. I mean, it's great. I get it. It makes sense. The paperwork all works fine, but it's like, who? And you never get rid of the that the human side.

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You're absolutely right. You can't. I mean, I'm all for it to bring back? Well, yeah, I still think then there's a huge part of globalization, then we won't be able to necessarily get away with it. And I think it makes perfect sense, but you can't have, you can't have both, where you can have, let's bring back all manufacturing, and then you have an immigration policy that doesn't follow it. It's,

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it's a balance. I it's way above my pay grade. Yeah, I mean, we can dabble in it, but I guarantee you we're sort of missing the mark. I'm sure there's other smarter people than me. I'll tell you that much. How did they get a hold of you? What's your best way? Best

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way. I'm I'm at Fluke frederick.broad.com talk to me about thought leadership, product, anything related to fuck. Oh, yeah. But you're also out on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn as well. Absolutely they're pretty active. I tried to be, yeah, that trying

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You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network. I feel,

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what always fascinates me about anything dealing with Fluke is the ability to be able to talk to anyone like Frederick and be able to get answers to your challenges. But not only that, is how they incorporate all of the tools, like real, you know, flute tools, they're out there, proof technic, big, all of this stuff works together for asset management, and it's all available and and they just continue to strive for user simplicity, to get the answers that you need in all of their solutions. Fantastic, fantastic stuff. All right, Industrial Talk is here for you. We have a marketing group. We do marketing and we do it well. So contact us. You want to increase your attention? Contact us. All right, be bold, be brave, dare greatly. Hang out with Frederick. Change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly. So stay tuned.