Joseph Rich with Fluke Reliability

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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 get

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right once again, thank you very much for joining Industrial Talk, the number one industry related podcast in the universe as it is backed up by data. And it is a platform that celebrates industry professionals all around the world, because you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly you solve problems, you collaborate and you're making my life better. That's why we celebrate you on this podcast. And as you can tell, maybe you can tell by the little buzz buzz in the background. We are at Xcelerate 23 is brought to you by those wonderful people at Fukuhara reliability go out to look for reliability, find out more. I'm telling you, man, this is a great place to find solutions. It's just not just from a systems perspective, but real tools that will help you as a company. Be better be more better. Alright, in the hot seat. We have a gentleman by the name of Joe Rich, his stat card says Joseph, but I've because I'm a friend of him. I call him Joe. So anyway, he's the Chief Revenue Officer at Fluke Reliability. Let's get cracking.

01:27

Great, Scott, thanks for having me.

01:29

Yeah, pretty cool. Man. This is a great event. Thank you. It really is. Oh, it was funny because we were walking around, of course, like anybody else, walking around talking to people. And I think without a doubt, nobody has come back and said, This is not for me. You know, but no, the the organization, the displays, the technology, the solutions, all of the everything's there to solve problems. And boy, more than ever, I gotta tell you, all right. For the listeners out there, Joe, give us a little background, little 411 on who you are.

02:10

Yeah, so I'm Joe Rich, I'm Chief Revenue Officer here at Fluke Reliability. I've been with the company for a little under two years, and spent the last 23 years of my life in the industrial automation world. So starting out as a production process engineer, ultimately moving into product design, and then for the last 18 or so years, and sales and sales leadership roles across the industry.

02:34

So with that said, you're still relatively new, you're still a newlywed, quite frankly, it because that's the two year what do you see? What do you what are you experiencing within the culture of Fluke Reliability and where that focus is going and all of that energy? Because there's a lot of energy out here.

02:55

Yeah, thank you very much. So Fluke Reliability, we're on an interesting journey, we were formed basically by the merging of three companies. So first, the acquisition of emain CMMS, software in 2016. Then the acquisition of proof technic for precision alignment, and condition monitoring and 2019. And then ultimately, some of the elements of the core Fluke business that many of your listeners may be familiar with. So we pull all three of those things together, and are building out this connected reliability, eco sphere that we believe has transformational impact on our customers.

03:32

See what I do like and because I've been to a number of events, and I'm very fortunate to be able to do that and talk to great professionals all around the world. Without a doubt I've already got it. But what I what I can appreciate and what in my conversations with many, they're looking for solutions, but they're looking for simplicity, or where to start or because it's it's noisy out there. And what I get from this particular event is that I can go both the booth the booth and see proof technic, by the way, FYI, took me a long time to learn how to say proof technically, because it's got the two little dots above that,

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I'm still learning.

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Anyway, so you go to boot, the boot the boot and you know that that those solutions connect with that CMMS e mate and you're able to really sort of pull in all of that and you're constantly improving it. I think that that is a real tremendous value proposition that is transformative disruptive to a certain extent in the industry. Do you agree?

04:37

I do you know, proof technic historically had a strong market share in both precision laser alignment and in vibration, the core customer base that we sold to us proof technic was really that expert customer the level two level three level four vibration expert the reliability engineer, people who could take our instruments collect data and then out allows themselves to make business decisions. But by bringing together proof technic email, and some elements of core Fluke, what we're doing is building an environment that allows not only expert customers, but also expertise constrained customers and operations leadership who may not have the technical ability to go through and, you know, analyze a complex vibration waveform to gather real time data, have it analyzed in an almost immediate fashion and make real time business decisions from that.

05:30

With all that said, and because I'm a I'm a Gomer for all of this stuff, and I see a lot of changes taking place within the industry, and it never stops, the innovation never ends. The velocity that, you know, maybe it's me, maybe I'm I'm one. But the velocity is always so exciting yet unsettling. For the listeners out there, Joe. If I if I said, Hey, I see I need it, I need to get going with this. Is Fluke Reliability, not gonna leave me in the lurch because it's just changed it because I know it just is what it is. There's a support there.

06:15

Absolutely. So today, we're the only company who can start with precision laser alignment, ensure that our customers equipment is properly aligned, begin deploy, you bet and then deploy condition monitoring technologies to make sure that that equipment stays in an optimal operating state. And then bring together our professional services organization to ensure that those condition monitoring technologies are deployed properly, that customers are getting the data analyzed in a way that's impactful for them. And then ultimately, conductivity to the main software platform, where our ultimate goal is to get to automated work order. So our vibration monitoring equipment detects an anomaly. We analyze that data, either through an AI engine or through our professional services organization, we'll

07:06

touch upon that you just don't gloss over that I was getting ready. In the back of my head, I'm listening to you and I'm going away is is AI component because I might not know what data I need to analyze and what's important to me. Okay, well, we'll touch upon continue, I didn't mean to go

07:20

No. So we have a very broad professional services organization that can help our customers determine not only how to deploy our technology, but what technology would be best suited for a particular application from a condition monitoring perspective, then we can also consult with our customers to identify the best way for them to analyze that data. So three options. One is, if the customer has the capability, they can analyze the data themselves. If they don't, and they're not in need of immediate real time response, we have a remote condition monitoring offering where our services team analyzes the data for the customer. And then can make recommendations on both predictive and preventive maintenance actions. And third, we do have an AI engine that we've recently launched, that can analyze vibration data with some inputs at the beginning and setup so that we understand the customer's application and how it's being used. But we can make real time decisions for the customer on if a particular piece of equipment represents a potential downtime incident.

08:26

So some of the feedback that I've received. And that's incredible stuff. And we're going to talk a little I'm going to pull a little bit on the AI component but but first some of the feedback that I received from manufacturers in the industry in general, they see the internet, the World Wide Web, and they recognize that digital transformation and asset management and and reliability is all real important. I don't know who to trust and nor do I know where to begin. Take us through a little scenario if I just said, Hey, Fluke Reliability, I've got this manufacturer I need some help or at least an analysis take us through a little process.

09:12

Yeah, so our process involves heavy consultation at the beginning. So we have several level three and four vibration experts and a whole host of reliability professionals so we can bring to bear to come visit with a customer tour their facility understand their process and identify likely points of failure. We typically start by focusing on critical equipment, critical assets, and then also looking at any other

09:40

before don't gloss over that because you then then you do a criticality assessment of of the your asset base. So I didn't mean

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so yeah, so we can help them understand which assets are most critical and their process which assets are most likely to cause a an unplanned downtime event. And then we can make record Innovations for what technologies could be deployed in order to monitor those assets and make sure that they stay in an optimal running condition. So I believe very strongly that that consulting, first approach is what gives us the opportunity to better serve our customers.

10:20

I like that, because, sure, and now there are a lot of companies out there hanging the shingle their shingle is, yeah, we do this, we do that and it's all around could be around asset management, that's fine. It's good. And it's an important profession that is necessary for industry as a whole. But what is real intriguing interest for me is, is the fact that I could go to a Fluke Reliability individual. And I can say, Hey, I got all my little IoT devices out there. I've already bought a, you know, box full, whatever it might be. But I just need the tools I need to do that. I can also go there and do the same approach applies. A just need this vibration is a laser line, this whatever it might be. So that's good, right? Yeah, absolutely. So let me ask you this. So another area of real concern for the market has been cyber, because you guys are vertically integrated, you get you've got the IoT devices as well, not just and everything's connected and all of that stuff. What are we doing about cyber from that perspective.

11:34

So we use AWS for as our cloud provider, and, you know, are continuously monitoring, making sure that we have the latest and greatest security updates to keep our customers data safe.

11:48

So you're doing that. And so when I, when I'm, I installed, I do all of this good stuff, I know that I'm protected. I know that I'm getting the data, I know that there is an AI component that maybe be that is unique for me. And I you know, my vibration is like this, I'm in the south and is like this is the way that acid sort of operates. And so I've get that that component. Yeah, sure. Real quick before the thought goes away. Email allows me from a portfolio perspective is I've got five manufacturing facilities, one West Coast, East Coast, north and south went for, let's say, four. Can I just sort of aggregate all of that and sort of look at sort of a report? And then of course, drill down? Is that possible?

12:36

You can Yeah, so with the main x five, which is our latest version of e-maint? Did us

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get it? Yes. Did a sprint? Yes, right there? Yes,

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we do have the option to either look at the data holistically from a corporate perspective, or to deploy individual instances at each manufacturing facility based on a customer's preference.

12:57

That's powerful. Let me ask you this one last question. One, where do you see it going? What what is the strategic vision or focus of a flow? Because things? I would say when I have a few years ago, we had COVID. I can't keep track the math is hard for me. But the reality is, is that I've seen a lot of changes, a lot of things happening, where do you see it going?

13:20

So we see kind of two paths emerging in the market. One is some of our customers continue to employ vibration experts, thermography experts, they have all that knowledge inside their organizations. And what they're looking for, is a partner who can just help them refine and optimize their reliability strategy. And we're fully capable of doing that we do that on a regular basis today. The other path where we think we have a unique value proposition in the market, is the idea of having one supplier to meet a customer's entire reliability needs. Starting with the precision alignment, as I mentioned, yeah, then going through condition monitoring, incorporating all the modalities of condition monitoring, today is Fluke, we can do vibration, we can do thermography, ultrasonic motor current analysis, oil analysis, and we continue to build that portfolio out. But then from there, where the real magic happens, according to customers that I've spoken to, is the ability to quickly analyze all of that data and provide the customer ultimately through email with real time work order. So as opposed to sending an operations VP or a plant manager notification that, hey, there might be a potential incident coming on this piece of equipment. What we're going to be able to do in short order is actually dispatch a technician to address a specific piece of it. It's

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cool. And I What's interesting about it is that I think that that's where we're going I think that I see that trend taking place not just from an indigenous industrial perspective, but also from a personal perspective. My refrigerator, my washing machine. A, it'll all be connected in some way, shape or form. And then lo and behold, a technician shows up and says, Hey, God is your disqualification is heating up. And so we're gonna come in. That, to me is a is a beautiful thing. And I don't I don't have to understand how the sausage is made. My life is easier. My life's better. I'm sorry. I said one last question. I lied. The other question is, on everybody's mind is, of course, resource constraints. And I can't find the reliability professional. So I am looking for a way of managing my assets. But I can't I can't I tell it does Fluke help with that.

15:46

We do. So we recognize that, you know, first of all, condition monitoring expertise is dramatically constrained across the industry. Skilled Trades are also dramatically constrained. I mean, I look at the openings in trades like electric, electric, electricians, pipe fitters, and there's over 100,000 for each of those that we we have a deficit of. So we can help with that in multiple ways. One is that we have a very large team of reliability professionals who can assist our customers in their reliability journey, all the way through services, we can provide doing route based condition monitoring for our customers. But we also by automating reliability, and by making the data cleaner, and in providing the customer with analyzed data to make real time decisions, we can reduce the need for unnecessary PMS. And so therefore, we can allow them to allow them to shrink down their, their maintenance staff and get by with a smaller organization.

16:46

Sure, I'm telling you, I like that. And I think people are looking for solutions. And I don't I don't have a crystal ball by any stretch of the imagination. But the more we can, from my perspective, continue to educate but but also be able to leverage technology to address a lot of these real live human, you know, challenges. Oh, good, Joe, how do people get a hold of

17:15

they can reach me at joe.rich@Fluke.com, directly, or Fluke.com, for more information about liquor liability,

17:23

there it is. He didn't give me his card. So he says he's gonna go up to him and get a card. I'm gonna put a hold up to it. Well, you are absolutely spectacular. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for finding time in your busy. It's busy here. It's definitely it's busy. Right here. Yes, it is. It's all busy. All right. All right, listeners. We're gonna wrap it up on the other side. That's Joe. We are once again at Xcelerate 23 Fluke, reliability is the company. And we are, we're in Orlando. And this is a great venue. And they've got a great, I'm telling you right now you need to put this on your calendar for next year. And you say next year, absolutely. There it is. Next year, we gotta put it on your calendar, because you will not be disappointed because it got a lot of solutions out there. All right, stay tuned, we will be right back.

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You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

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happy about that. I never tire I never tire interviewing industry professionals. I'm living the dream. Joe Rich, Chief Revenue Officer Fluke, reliability, Xcelerate 2023 By the way, you need to put that on the calendar, it will not disappoint. The energy was absolutely spectacular. And it's it was a collection of professionals like Joe, who are just dedicated to solving problems. They want to educate what you need to do they want to collaborate Absolutely. Because you need to collaborate. You need to find companies people to collaborate with the to have these great conversations because change is happening. And then of course, innovation, how do you leverage innovation so that you can create this business that is truly resilient, because we need you up pretty much wrap that up? We don't have you know, a date for Xcelerate 2024 We just know that it's in 2024. But Be on the lookout and put that in your calendar just because I think that if you're if you're in the maintenance, if you're in the reliability if you're into asset management, if you're in uptime if you're into all of the all of the reliability related professions bow, Xcelerate 2024 for a month put on it. All right. Building a platform. This platform is dedicated to industrial professionals. It is a collection of professionals that truly industrial professionals that want to work with you right here. It does real talk, go out to Industrial Talk will have all the contact information for Joe and absolutely Fluke Reliability out there. So if you're not you'll be able to connect Don't be bold be brave Daring Greatly I say it all the time hanging out with people like Joe and you're gonna change the world another great conversation from Xcelerate right around the corner so stay tuned