Joe Caetano and Stephan Schomberg with Elevotec

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

assets, Hexagon, asset management, stephan, world, joe, sustainment, organizations, solutions, data, tribal knowledge, people, companies, c suite, products, educate, conversation, great, started, coming

00:04

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. Alright, once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk. And thank you very much for your continued support. You know why we celebrate you because you're bold, brave, you dare greatly you do things that are absolutely spectacular. You're making the lives of many, and the world a better place to live. That's why we celebrate you on this particular podcast. You don't have that you don't hear the buzz in the background just because they got us in a room. But we're here on silent Hexagon live. And it is a collection of problem solvers. And put this on your bucket list because you need to attend this event because you get to meet people like Joe and Stephan did I say step on Right. Correct. All right, step on Ella voc tech is the company. We're going to be talking about asset management and other things just because they're great, guys, so let's get cracking.

01:09

I screwed up the other intro. So, people, people don't know that. But I do make mistakes, but rarely. Rarely.

01:18

Because I have Canadian roots like you guys. and Canadian people don't make mistakes. You don't make mistakes. No, no. See, there is a level of confidence coming out be like, No, not even close.

01:30

All right. Golden Knights. Congrats. So, I have to just throw that out there. Absolutely. Shout out to them. Yeah, well, 13 Canadians on the team. So we're cheering for assay, see competent? Well, definitely Canadians know. There's a there's a video out there that shows a guy coming out of the water. It's frozen lake coming out of the water, and is like, this is how Canadians are born. So he's coming out of the water and then he's on skis, or skates. These skates off with a hockey stick.

02:01

All right, you guys having a good conference? Yeah, absolutely. It's, you know, we're grateful to Hexagon and having them put on the Hexagon live. It's it's a great time here. Pretty amazing at what we've been able to experience with them. And, you know, the greatest conversation was the talk about optimism. And

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02:57

you know, when I started my experience, our asset management program was three and a half by five cue card on a piece of equipment. And today, we're talking about virtual reality. And I've, I've been, I'm grateful that I've been able to grow

03:14

through the evolution of all of this and just continues to be completely outstanding. Yeah, it is an exciting time, no doubt about it.

03:23

Stephan, Stephan, got it. Stephan, give us a little background into who you are. Well, Scott, like, I guess, as I was saying, before I go back, I worked 20 years in manufacturing before he got into the, you know, the sort of a software in the consulting game. So you know, working with all different types of manufacturers forging heavy equipment,

03:48

furniture, even the food business, but all those industries have in common is they all have assets, they all have to maintain those assets and so when we got when Joe and I got together and we started a love attack, we thought well, you know, let's build on solutions for these different types of manufacturers and, and public sector people. Because really, next to the people companies have their assets are next, next important thing, so let's help them look after them properly.

04:21

Well, that makes complete sense. And I know that it has evolved over a period of time without a doubt. Joe, give us a little background. Yeah, so I'm, I'm very fortunate I've I've had the ability to work in this space.

04:37

Came out of school, started with an MRO outfit, which got me connected to a lot of the commodities that we see that actually help our assets and electrical, plumbing and heating and then rapidly went to the largest Canadian poultry processor that I'm forever grateful for. That helped me understand right from

05:00

You know, the egg to the chicken piece that goes in your frying pan, that entire value stream of being able to engineer it, maintain it, see the growth, the evolution of the products that we consume as humans, the Food Safety part of it. And that complete evolution really, really brought into focus for me the importance of asset management. And then subsequently, I was able to, again, another great experience in the pet food industry, I ran the entire operation where, you know, my, my customers couldn't speak in the land language that they can understand. But we needed to put out a product that they consume and love. And that was an international product that we ship worldwide. And, you know, again, they're just in that operation, being able to provide the best possible product for the near and dear pets of our lives was something that really helped me understand a little bit more about asset management and ensuring that we've got the best foot forward and putting those products. So, you know, I look back at those experiences. And the first thing that I thought about as well, you know, what I really, I really wish I had somebody that could help me

06:12

really get my arms around asset management, what I could do for it, and I started to reflect on it. And I call on all of the folks that helped me understand it, to get it to where I had it in a in a world of operations in the world of that and engineering and maintenance. And I thought, Man, I could probably go out and help a lot of folks do this. And I tell everybody, and I say this, everywhere I go, I got the best job in the world, I get to travel around, meet great people. And I get to play with their assets and get them in a place where they can find some of that comfort that I found when I was in, in the world. Stephan before the listeners for the ones that are just can you sort of help us to find just briefly Asset Management?

06:59

Well, it's, it's kind of,

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it's a couple different levels. So you've got, you've got really the maintaining of the assets, the ability to

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extend the life of the assets. And then

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what we end up doing is, in the total solution is we we under, we try to understand what each of these industries or customers actually need, you know, to fulfill their, their vision for asset management. And we actually help educate the C suite on why they need to maintain their assets. Because the biggest problem I think the maintenance community has is they get they have all these great ideas, and they get to the C suite, and they all die there. So when we talk about solution management, we're really educating at all levels in the company to put that solution through and get the get them to where they need to be. It's always a human equation when it comes to this stuff, I think the technologies of the technology and I think, but it always gets down to the human element. And you bring up a good point, Stephan that. Yep, C suites. And there's, there's this necessity to not just educate, but to continuously educate, and continuously be part of like, you know, Hexagon, live and talking to people and collaborating and finding out the latest and greatest and wonderful stuff that exists out there today to help you know them succeed because they need to succeed. You know? So tell us a little bit Joe about LFO. Tech what, what outside of the name like where did you Yeah, they're not elevators.

08:40

Yeah, we don't build elevators, but we'll certainly help an organization manage those elevators and get the get the lifecycle out of it. So, you know, a level of tech, one of the one of the primary things that we sat back and looked at is, we know that the world of asset management and I think we want to say that one of the realities is to help every possible customer with their best foot forward to sustainment. And sustainment is a big part of it. Right? It's never a perfect space, but it's what we all try to strive for. And you know, we did something that's pretty important for us. And it's what we call a three P and it's people practice and products, right? It is a human it is a human element, right C suite right down the frontline user and recognizing and supporting that. We do know it's practice. At the end of the day, we've got standards, we've got compliances, we've got different things that would need to go into practice. And I think the biggest thing is the product side we need to we need to know that there's solutions and you know, there's isn't always an entirely one encompassing it could be a conglomerate of that so we we pride ourselves on that. Having said that, I think one of the things then we started to look at

10:00

to is that we will use

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a motto of the Enable, evolve and elevate.

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So one of the things, we want a job, you got all the ease in here, thank you very much well done.

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So a lot of times what people have a challenge with is just getting enabled, well have no fear. I mean, we do it, we've been doing it for hundreds of years, let's just get you enabled, just get you started.

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And through starting, when we start something, guess what, we can evolve something. Nothing's perfect. In our world, I tell people every day, we live in a world of perfect imperfections. It's a perfect world of imperfections. Right. So now that you're unable, let's get you to evolve a little bit. Let's get you a little bit more. And as you're doing that, you're going to elevate, you're going to elevate to that place of a world of sustainment, whether that's on a profit and loss, or that's in a compliant Tory world. It's a journey. It's there's no silver bullet. Thank you.

11:07

Because I know that people are looking for silver ball.

11:12

So with that said, Stephan, well, let's sort of, I mean, that sounds great. Joe just sort of nailed it. homeruns.

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Goal, let's just use a hockey shoot.

11:26

Shot blue line. Oh, it's in? Patrick are ready, Patrick? Yeah, let's just use all the hockey analogies that far down, you've got a bar down.

11:38

But then there's typically roadblocks. What are the challenges that you see with organizations? Why, like I alluded to it earlier, but the C suite education, and we've in Canada, not so much in the US maybe within Canada, the whole process is a little slower, because we're more cautious, more conservative and at the corporate level on how we actually deal with things. So we've had cases where we've worked to educate the C suite, and the whole suite C suite has changed. And now we got to re educate them. Others said, this happens all the time. So it's all it's always a constant. But what I think what's encouraging this show to the conference here a little bit was the level of speakers are just amazing. We just just listened to the Chris, who is the he's the president and chairman of the I Am. So what is I am staffer, international asset management, Institute, Institute, international, international student. Anyhow. So what he's talking about now is there's more

12:44

focus on the fact that asset management tools and, looking after your assets can actually help you with the whole carbon neutral and sustainability questions. Because unless you measure what you're doing and control what you're doing, you'll never be able to improve what you're doing. So this has opened up another avenue with all the focus on that for companies to look more at asset management to understand their it's the hook. It's the before, beforehand. Yeah. And beforehand, it's like, yeah, asset management maintenance. Yeah, I get it. And there's a lot of churn that exists in, in all organizations, especially now. And now you're able to sort of anchor the maintenance and reliability and asset management, all of that stuff. Because it is being lumped in with sustainability in this. It's true. Yeah. Well, I went through that 30 years ago, with ERP, everybody said, you had to have enterprise resource planning, right? Nobody had which is coming out. And every company had to have it, there was a big buzz, buzz buzz. And then when you am first started, everybody started saying we have to manage our assets. But but now it's, it's here's the reason why, here's the purpose, here's the the philanthropic, you know, right approach to it, here's the banner you can put up here, but it's true, but it's true. And I still always get down to the business, it makes good business sense.

14:12

Whatever, whatever it gets an organization to be diligent about it, I'm fine, go for it. But the reality is, is that managing your assets and, and doing that effectively, and being engaged and educated and evolving, evolving, is is absolutely, you know, vital. But it all hits the bottom line too. And that's, that's what the C suite really care about is that's it all this hits the bottom line. So

14:41

I always struggle with the fact that once you start to remove all of the inefficiencies, because that's really what you're trying to do. You're trying to take that that overall asset, that organization and make it as efficient as you possibly can by using the tools and techniques and strategies that are necessary to do that. Right. But eventually, you know, it's, yeah, we're inefficient over here.

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then now we're really efficient. And then there's a change in leadership that say, Wow, that's pretty efficient. Why do we have to spend all that money? And then they go, it's just it's cyclical. Now it's not it can it can have its series of challenges. So what's what's an interesting component? And I was having some conversations is all of this, these

15:21

the ability to collect data and all of that off of the assets and being able to analyze those assets in a very proactive way? Right? Are you seeing more companies being able to embrace that? Or is it do you? Or do you find the necessity, Joe, that you need to do decent blocking and tackling first getting that that fundamentals down? Before you start to venture into the world of digitalization? Yeah, so we're really, really seeing an uplift of folks that, that are trying to do both. And technology has helped us with the gathering side. And being able to fetch data, you know, there's a lot of assets today that are, well, we would dub in the in the asset management world of being smart, being able to connect

16:13

those technologies that are absorbing, let's say, the number of hits on a dye or the number of gallons that have gone through a pump, or measuring luminosity on a nest of lights, that is disinfecting water, you know, when you think about all of that, that just starts to open so much, it just starts to open so much in the process of bigger data, where you now would take an individual a human, and send out and have some subjectivity, right? In that decision making process. Well, we're not doing that anymore, we're using some facts. And the facts are the numbers that we're retrieving. And technology has made it a lot easier to connect to these to these data sources and Hexagon.

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They've really demonstrated here, I mean, I've seen some stuff that has been connected. And when I was in the field and thinking, wow, this is what I'm looking for, right? So, this whole paradigm that or this thought process that, you know, getting data is expensive, or you can't do it or or you know, it's not available isn't really true, right? I think the reality is starting to recognize that data piece, that's a priority that drives sustainment that drive decision making. Okay, well, where is it? It doesn't matter where it is, because you're confident that we've got technology going fetch it. And now we've even got some of the strength that we see with some of the Hexagon products here, as certainly on the asset management side that starting to take that data and transitioning it into information where one can make some good sound decisions and even Do you know some projections, right? I like that. And I like the projection I like a simulation. I was like, hey, what am I did this? What am I tweeted this right?

18:05

Now, I agree with you 100%. Now,

18:09

what I've also find, and there are two things. So before I forget, are the the solutions that Hexagon has are beginning to bolt up against to the their EAM platform. So we're going to talk about that. But

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the other one is, I think that given the churn, given the realities of the human equation, where people are coming and going and doing whatever the more companies can,

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and I hate, for lack of a better word, automate the collection of the data and the details of that data and the sort of the tactical results of that data, then you're, you're less likely to say, oh, my gosh, there goes Joe, Joe's out the door, what are we going to do? And you know, take up, you know, 20 steps backwards in your, no, you have some level of consistency and baseline to be able to say, okay, here comes because Stephan, he's, he's replacing Joe, and so on and so forth. And here, look at this stuff. Oh, great. It would seem to me that that resiliency for businesses is a must do as well, or 100%. Without question, you know, tribal knowledge. So we usually turn that tribal knowledge. I think companies today, you know, when you talk about folks that have tribal knowledge, and they start to see automation, look, I'm going to rip the bandage off type of guy. Yeah, they see here, right, because information is power, right. And all this is power. But I think one of the things that organizations can do is they can recognize they can recognize the equity and tribal knowledge and they can use that as a framework to build out the data information set that they're looking for. Really, really value that tribal knowledge, right. Really work with those people to let them understand theirs.

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level of importance and they would be valuable input to creating the the framework that the organization is going to meet. Right? And recognize that one day they'll win the lottery or whatever grateful thing of letting them go on to their next journey or their next, you know, part of their journey in their life isn't going to strain. Anybody else. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that I would say to decision makers is recognize that you have tribal knowledge, recognize the the equity that's in it, and leverage that to create your framework. Yeah, some was just going to add to that a little bit. That sums some of the some of the talking about the data collection part, there's so many things that with real time data collection, that you could actually,

20:46

excuse me can actually determine that you can't, with people writing down, like a readings every 15 minutes or something like that, you know what I mean? So

20:56

at the Westin, when we one time we had,

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we were having trouble with some of the equipment, and we couldn't determine what it was. But when we connected to the historian, we found out that it was skipping every 13 seconds or something. And you wouldn't have never, you couldn't see it visually, right. You couldn't see it visually. But there was a you could see in that in the data that there was a skip. Yeah, that that skip was caused, and by further analysis, determined what it was caused by incorrect it. But what they what a lot of times people will do is I'll just record a reading every so often, manually, or something and all that data that's on paper ends up under somebody's desk and never used again, where these systems really capture the information that you can use this seen it. Paper doesn't do that and know that, and there are a lot of organizations that still do that. You know, I think from my perspective, and we all talk about IoT, and all that fine, it's just getting a device out on that asset is a real, you know, plus, now there's some conversations that are wrapped around the cyber component, because they're all connected, and that's fine. It's fine. That's all, you know, fixable. But the reality is, is that I've been in organizations where you have these, these tools, these diagnostic tools sitting in cubicles,

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that's where they sit, doing nothing. And that, you know, asset is spinning and having a grand old time. And you're not getting that information. So that from my perspective is the plus of, of all of these devices is now you're like, Okay, God, you

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keep them there, but we can definitely analyze these assets in a very effective way. Yeah. And that, and that adds to that predictive factor. Yeah. Because what, you know, you don't want to wait till something fails, in order to make the correction. Absolutely, you can, if you know that every, you know, 15,000 cycles, this piece of equipment is going to fail because of the bearing at 14,000 cycles, you change the bearing, well, of course, you sweat the asset, and then it's a it's a positive impact to the bottom line, just because you're not doing the, you know, the plan maintenance all the toys.

23:02

You know, you're doing something with you're doing it smart. Yeah. Yeah, there's a word continues to go out there, Stephan real quick on all of the products that are available at Hexagon, because one of the things that I sort of just sort of went, Wow, that's pretty amazing. You've got your EAM, and we all understand the EAM. And we all understand what's going on there. That's all good. Shout out to that entire group. It's fantastic. But now, with it being part of the Hexagon, family, you're able to access the digital twins, you're able to access a lot of other solutions that that just adds to the richness of that asset management. Yeah, I find that yeah. Well, I guess just to get back-to-back to what we're currently doing. Currently, we're actually on Hexagon, anonym for partner so. And we have oh, we do Oh, so we do. EAM we also in for LM ERP systems, we do? Burst reporting analytic tool, you know, so we already have other things that we do. And we're we're very much in the conversation with Hexagon about adding different things like ECOSYS, some other things that they have, because there is a real understanding how all this will fit together at some point. So we're very Oh, yeah, don't. Yes, you know, there's going to be a way of fitting that all together. All right, as we close, Stephan, how do people get a hold of you? While we're on the internet,

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the world wide web, web tech.com and Burlington Canada to find her. On the inside you too. Joe. You can set the that's the avenue. Are you guys out on LinkedIn? Yes, absolutely. Put that backlink in my website. Absolutely. Connect with us on LinkedIn. We're on the we're on the website. You can you can contact us through Hexagon and then for great part

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yours. And we'd love to help you with, with any part of the solution that you're looking for, at the end of the day, if there's a synergy if there's an opportunity that we can share, and you get some success and start to develop closer to the sustainment that you're looking for, we want to be part of it and help you along the web.

25:19

Like you guys have had this conversation, right? That's Joe and Stephan, you need to reach out to them. And we're going to have all the contact information for them out on industrial talk. So if you're not reach out to them at a minimum on LinkedIn and get some more information than spelling of their company, as e l e, vote, see? Elbow tech. All right. Again, thank you very much for joining us real talk. We're going to wrap it up on the other side. So stay tuned, we will be right back.

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You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

25:57

All right. That was Joe and stuff on Hexagon live, we were on site.

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I don't know, it just had innovation everywhere. And the individuals there are just so focused on, on having a conversation around solving problems. And what I see is the end it's exciting, don't get me wrong, it's truly exciting, is that they're taking the technology and being able to bring in more functionality, more solutions. So that

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there's this power in this, this platform that helps you succeed. I mean, there's just stuff coming out and I still think personally, we're at the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more that's going to happen. You need to find trusted individuals, Joe and Stephan, fall into that category. Be bold, be brave, daring greatly. Put that on your calendar that Hexagon live. We're going to have another great conversation shortly. So, stay tuned.