Kevin Price with Hexagon

00:03

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.

00:21

Alright, once again, thank you very much for joining us real talk the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry professionals all around the world, because you're bold, you're brave, you dare greatly, you're solving problems, you're collaborating, and you're making the world a better place in a big way. That's why we celebrate you on this podcast. All right, this begins a series this begins this great series into enterprise asset management, this is Hexagon, we're going to be featuring a lot of topics coming, well, coming in the coming months, it's going to be incredible. And we're gonna start with this particular conversation, let's get cracking. Gonna make it quick. But anyway, here, here's a couple of things. One, we're going to be talking a little bit about Hexagon, the company, we're going to talk about the EAM platform, we're going to be talking about why Asset Management is so important. And then we're going to get into the sort of the nuts and bolts, we're going to have some webinars around. enterprise asset management, performance, asset management, maintenance, you name it scheduling, we're going to dive deep in to why this is important. Why this is important to your business, why this is important for you to be able to get engaged, collaborate, ask the tough questions, work with individuals like Kevin Price, to be able to come up with solutions that help you succeed, some of the things that we're going to be talking about one, get out your paper and pencil, this is an event, this is an event in Las Vegas, it is Hexagon Live. And I got the the information here, it's in Las Vegas, it is just right around the corner, June 12, through the 15th 2023 right there. And it is a user community. And if you if you're even looking into the prospects of getting a acid system, I highly recommend that you go to that event. And I highly recommend that you connect with Kevin and other Hexagon team members and ask those tough questions. Ask him because we depend on you to succeed. And a part of that success comes from operating your business effectively and having those insights into that business so that you can make great decisions. We're going to be talking about customers examples, reliability, safety, all of the stuff that's right in front of me on my little email here of all of the topics that we're going to be addressing. So stay tuned, don't miss one. And then of course, we're going to be popping out some webinars that will highlight and dive even deeper into the subject matter. So that you have everything that you need to be able to succeed, because that's important. Again, highlighting the user community, the user event Hexagon live, and it's in Las Vegas. It is June 12. Through the 15th. Yeah, get engaged. So be on the lookout for all of this great stuff coming to you via Hexagon. All right. Back to the conversation, Kevin Price. He has been on the podcast a number of times. And again, he never disappoints. He has tremendous. And I mean tremendous. He's a legend, tremendous knowledge in the world of asset management. And I have attempted to stump him, and I have failed miserably. And I look to Him as definitely the expert. And so at a minimum reach out to Kevin, and we're going to have all the contact information for Kevin out on industrial talks. So let's get going. Here's the conversation with Kevin. All right, Kevin, welcome back to industrial talk. He's a legend. He's been on industrial talk a number of times. And he'd never ever, ever disappoints. How are you doing?

04:13

Good. It's great to see you again. Man. How

04:15

are you? I'm thinner. I'm faster. I'm stronger. I can't say that I'm better looking not like you, man. Because your hair is flowing. You're looking great.

04:23

Well, you know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.

04:25

All right, let's just we're gonna be talking a little bit about Hexagon, the company. First off, because we need to know a little bit about that. And then we're going to sort of springboard into Hexagon, e a. m, and we're going to talk a little bit about that too, as well. So, Kevin, for the listeners out there for all of the listeners out there. Can you give us a little background into Hexagon, the company?

04:47

Absolutely. So Hexagon is an organization that is out of Sweden, and they have about nine divisions and in those divisions, they have some actual world class leading applications. And many writes one example in the Geosystems. Team, they have solutions out there that do LiDAR, laser, and radar, given us the maps that we commonly use on our phones every single day. Another thing that they're known for is creating autonomous capabilities. What did you just say? Autonomous capabilities?

05:22

Ah, very good. Okay, continue. Yeah, so

05:25

we're not talking about the robots are gonna go around and kill you, we're talking about the technology that's out there to be able to make Live easier. So what you'll find is an example one of their divisions, Hexagons, mining divisions, they'll have entire mines that have vehicles that take the different types of debris off of the mind to be processed, that have no drivers. And when they do that, these are, these are materials that that are obviously things that you don't want to drop, and you want to make sure it gets back to the processing facility. So it's very important. Not only that, but you got to make sure that there's collision avoidance capability into the system, they have technology to help provide those driving engines, the way to go, where to go and what to go so that you don't run into each other. When we think about what all is involved in that it's really pretty complex, you have to have a solution that not only can sense what's out there, so they're sensing tools, you have to have a solution that knows its environment. So there's a little bit of computer aided drawing tools that are out there, and then you have a have to have a lot of processing power to it. So when we looked at this acquisition, a long time ago, when we came over here, as of October 2021, we just saw a ton of opportunity, we came into a specific division, called the asset Lifecycle Intelligence Group. And in that group, they have a very specific type of structure, things that are tools that are around the project side, and things that are at the side of assets. And they actually divide it into two sections, one called digital assets, the other called digital projects. And, Scott, when you think about your Live, and what you've gone through in your profession, I think about mine, too, one of the most difficult things that pretty much goes on is that handover process when a new facility gets created. So you go through all this construction, it gets on you bring about all the lines of equipment, and then all of a sudden, boom, you're ready to go. Now, as a maintenance technician, as an engineer, you want to know where the P and Id drawings are, you won't know the building information models are, you want to know all that kind of content. And it's difficult to find, well, in the ideas that are around asset Lifecycle intelligence, they're responsible for those computer aided designs, they're responsible for projects that go out there to create that product, that site to create that equipment, they're responsible for those tools to actually go into that production status and start running them. So from the ATM perspective, we found ourselves in that digital asset side of the coin, in a really niche environment, because they didn't have an asset management Registry, or work process definition, they didn't have inspection capabilities that we do, they didn't have asset performance capabilities that we do, we really brought that segment that they were missing to be able to clean the entire picture of what they wanted to do around the entire asset Lifecycle intelligence. So when we came, not only were you a fit for this division, but for Hexagon at large, you know, they have 20,000 different employees around the world. They are one of the largest technologies that have industrial grade capabilities that are out there in the market. When we came along, we brought a certain type of expertise that they'd been lacking. And from us, too, we now get exposed to a limited, a limitless, rather amount of capabilities that we get, or I was ready

08:41

to jump on, pounce on that, what I'm going well, why limit now going for

08:45

limitless type of you didn't see before. So, you know, it's a good opportunity. It's a good place to land, when we were looking at it from an in for a perspective, and we were looking at where we could go. And there's a lot of capabilities that we wanted to have. And there's a lot of things that we wanted to do in different spaces in different verticals in different geographies. But we wanted to stay in to the industrial engineering, we wanted to stay in that industrial grade type of environment. And I'll tell you why we couldn't have done it in a better place than we have here at ex con.

09:18

Yeah. You've touched on a number of things out, outside listeners, you can tell he's the event. He's truly an evangelist, you've you've had this conversation before. It was smooth. It really was a couple of things that I think is really interesting, this, being able to come on board with an organization like Hexagon and having access to all of that great innovation and technology and how your system fits quite seamlessly or well with all of that is just amazing. Now you brought up something that was pretty interesting. This collision avoidance. Have you ever seen it in action? We have.

09:58

It's pretty amazing. See these this morning an example. I mean, these are 400 ton trucks. And you're looking at them and there's no driver. And it's kind of hard to imagine, but it's out there. And if you look at some of the some of the areas where Hexagon at large has endorsements on there, even in some of the f1 types of vehicles and ratios that go on except for, you know, there's technology that's that's ran, there's like really big remote control cars. Amazing.

10:24

Yeah, and and it's real time. And if you're looking at the, the solution, it's like PPP, PPP. PPP is just real time. It's just an amazing, amazing solution. And yeah, it is complex. Now, with that said, Cool, got some horsepower behind that EAM platform. Now, talk to us talk to us through that Hexagon, em, solution.

10:49

Sure, absolutely. So this, the solution itself is the same solution that's been out first line of code since 1986. I've been working on it for 26 years. So when we brought over that set, not only do we bring over the course of technology, and the capabilities that we brought over the entire workforce, we brought the developers that are from the zero to number four, and you gotta call the developer zero, he likes being called zero. But it goes all the number for a lot of our partners, we bought over customers, we brought over a ton of our works, and it takes a while to get that going. But what's also important to know is we're able to continue the evolution that we were ongoing, when we were in for now at Hexagon, and that's the work, that's an example to what we did around asset performance management. And they're able to continue on to some of the works that they're doing when around the smart digital reality. And

11:43

I'm gonna, I'm gonna back you up a little bit, define asset performance management just general.

11:50

So asset performance management for us, is a little bit different maybe than the market. But asset performance management, we view as an evolution to enterprise asset management, that brings on a lot of capabilities of autonomy brings a lot of capabilities of asset condition, it brings a lot of capabilities around Reliability centered maintenance, it brings a lot of capabilities around planning. And if you hear some of these tools that are out there, and you're thinking, maybe it'd be great if it was in one solution, you'd be absolutely right. Because our customers, what they have found is that these capabilities, they've had to go out to third parties to go find them, and then start doing integration. And they don't want to do that. So literally, since probably around 2000 to 2004, we've been adding a lot of predictive maintenance capability, a lot of Reliability centered maintenance initiatives to it. A lot of failure codes F Nika Monte Carlo Weibel, Laplace, you name it to the application over time, and what we are hearing is that our customers, you know, are not only excited to be able to have it as part of the EAM where it should be, but also be able to hear where we could expand onto it now. And that's where we find ourselves here at Hexagon. Because at Hexagon, they have abilities to be able to help complete that picture that we were already going on. And as an example, is a solution that's out there at Hexagon, called ECOSYS. Emphasis has a good position a good foothold in the market around enterprise project performance. And what they do is they help complete our picture for asset performance management, because they bring on the capability of modeling our asset investment plan, and being able to help control how that asset investment plan is executed. You see, in the past, we I'm gonna interrupt

13:41

real quick Oh, yeah, we'll do simulations like Okay, so if you're, you're saying, hey, what if? What if, what if what happened and really dial that capability in for optimal value?

13:54

Exactly, exactly. Because this is the problem, right? When you when you were before in an asset management system, you say, Okay, I need to come to the meeting, and I need to produce what that budgets gonna look like for the next 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, and I can do that I can, for all us being equal, I can tell you pretty much how much we're going to stay. But what if there's a pandemic? What if there's a supply change? What if What if all of a sudden, the suppliers that I get these parts for just increase all of a sudden, because there's a problem in the supply chain? What if workers are around? What if I get what if I get less money, which is usually the case? So what if I get more money, which is never the case? I couldn't do a good job of modeling that out when I was at my capability sets in em, right? So what we can do as an out of the box integration to that ECOSYS tool, they can perform a lot of those simulations and what if scenarios, and then they can take it further. And what I mean by that is they can manage the actual project. So when you do these asset investment plans, you're actually creating a portfolio of different projects that you want to be able to execute but they don't manage that. Because they do project performance, they do that type of work. And we can be able to execute it from a work process from what we do. Day to day basis. It's a great fit.

15:11

It's almost like a project digital twin, because it's over here. And I can sit there and play around over here. And then you're in the real world because you're started going, Hey, okay, good. Oh, my gosh, we've got a delay here. What does that mean? We get it

15:26

in a big way, and a big way. And that's, that's the thing I'd like to talk about, too, is what digital twin is over here. If you don't mind.

15:33

Hey, by the way, I interviewed the original founder with a thought guy for digital twin.

15:39

Oh, yeah.

15:42

He's, he's as smart as you are. Oh, come on. Meet now, it's pretty cool. Okay, if you want to start venturing into that digital twin, I think that is a real hot topic.

15:56

Well, it's a it's a little bit different here. Because everyone has a different definition of a digital twin, can I go out, create a 3D model of it and go look at it, that's yeah, we can do that no problem. And there's a lot of folks that can do that. There's a lot of different tools that can do that. There's a lot of different solutions that's out there. But how out is that digital, twin, smart. And really, when you make it smart, you're adding data about that twin, so you're looking at that piece of equipment, and then you're giving it metadata that's back there. Here at Hexagon because we own a lot of the design tools, we have designs about the facility, we have designs about the equipment that we wrote, when we actually were designing the actual facility out, what we can also do because of laser, light, laser, LiDAR, and even radar tools, is we can go out with drones or take images of it, they create something called a point cloud of what that asset looks like in real time, we can do different types of heat sensors, we can do different types of other views that we want to make of that particular asset. And we can overlay it on top of that original drawing. And we can see visually, hey, this is different from here to here. But the problem is, is still it's not as smart as it could be. Because it doesn't show the DNA, if you will, of that equipment, who's the last person that inspected it, who's the last person that changed something on it, who's the last person that changed how we operated it, and that stuff that EDM knows. So when we think about what they've done in the past, they produced the digital twin in the drawing, they did that here, they had an acquisition over here of a company called Leica. And it's in their geo systems, that goes out and creates a point cloud. And actually, they can compare those two. So they have a visual definition of the difference. But what we provide is we provide a lot of that intelligence, we provide the asset Livecycle intelligence, we make that reality, your digital reality smart, because we can be able to provide all that DNA. So

17:57

when we go ahead, I'm sorry, I know we of course, go.

18:01

I'm gonna say what Ben, when we look at it, what we can do, because we're part of this ecosystem of digital reality is we can add to the amount of intelligence that's there and make it smart. So when we think about digital twin here at Hexagon is not just a digital twin. It's not just a digital reality, but it's actually a smart digital reality that comes with all the detail that you'd want to know in real time. It's amazing.

18:27

So use case, here it is. So I have I have a digital representation of whatever my my, my, my line, my manufacturing, like digital representation right there. And then I've have the EM platform over here, which has the DNA to these assets. And therefore, I can take my digital twin, and then I can drill down and get all of the information that is necessary. There, I only have to be on the the manufacturing floor, I can be in the digital twin environment, you could drill down,

19:02

you could And another example is what happens if you have some of the asset performance characteristics like the asset condition, you have monitors that are going on, you have alerts that are going on that could be happening. Wouldn't it be nice if that can be visible in the digital twin as well? Absolutely, because those are data elements about the equipment. So I can see that you and I from our backgrounds of asset management and operation. We know because we have a little bit of gray here. Well I do that's about when I'm I try the Z you can have a beard. That up you can see that if if this particular piece of equipment has a vibration definition of x, it has a heat of y, it has an hour operation of z that I can pretty much tell you if that continues on, it's gonna fail within the next 24 to 36 hours. Now, if I'm on a digital twin, there's only so much you would know if I'm in a smart digital reality I could see that like and visualize it, I can actually see that go read or be able to learn that could go on. So I can let somebody know that it's going to fail. And when it does fail, because of the downward effect of that digital reality, like the other equipment that I can, they can hurt. So I can be able to notify quickly when it comes about.

20:16

So in the Hexagon, em, because there's a lot of analytics that are going on there that because if you have that predictive capabilities, and you're pulling all that analytics off of that asset, and you see certain escalations that are abnormal to the asset, therefore you have that analytic capabilities to be able to say, Dad, look at that, and we will give you a time slot. But it's, it's, it's on the path of it.

20:43

Let's let's think about that for a second. The answer to that answer that question is absolutely, yes, right on track. But the question x is, what do I do about it? Yeah, so should you should you ignore it, should you send somebody out to to call a third party because it may be an asset that's under the operation and maintenance by that third party for that service level agreement, and it depends it what it is, I could have the system automatically notify the manufacturer for them to come out in 24 hours or less to get this avoided before it happens. It can be some data, some piece of equipment that that has a part on it, that's unique, that may take longer to get in than I would normally see. So you're not only taking that condition and understanding how it performs, and then predicting failure, but you want to get to where you can prescript those actions to get done. And these are things that we can we can do. And these are things that we can visualize, and these are things that we can execute. But what we simply couldn't do before is do this with as much streamlining as possible here at Hexagon, these industrial great applications that they have these customers, they have the expertise that they have, it just makes it a natural thought it's a natural extension to what they already do and where we wanted to be.

21:58

So use case again. So I have an asset, I have an asset that is clearly failing for whatever the the the reasons are the data saying it's failing. Are you saying that the Hexagon em platform will be able to through its its robust capability, be able to say, okay, that thing's failing, we need to get a maintenance person out there and bring this seal, this screwdriver, whatever it is, and then I'm going to also at the same time, notify the right, and it's under warranty, whatever, whatever it, it tries to remove that whole manual component and just gets right to the work.

22:39

That's right. And if you think about it, that's the autonomy, that's the ability, because that's how it connects, right is, is I'm taking those those physical world things are happening. Relay in that digital version of it, I'm applying the computing power to it. And those come together in autonomous capability. So I want to get the technician, the right technician. So that job with the right tools or the right materials at the right time, because I know that that all things being equal is going to fail, maybe at Thursday at 4pm. So I want to make sure that person is ready before it happens to fail,

23:13

and avoid that catastrophic failure. And and deploy the maintenance dollars at at the right time as opposed to just sort of, you know, deploying it out of not the right time.

23:25

Yeah, because not the right time is a hell of a lot more expensive becomes a lot more risk. And there's a lot of other things that could be in play too, if you happen to prefer that's just normal asset management, predictive maintenance that you'd want to be able to do anyway. But in this particular environment, it provides a lot more visibility, a lot more interaction with other variables, and also be able to give you a lot more detail that you couldn't get before.

23:48

The question that always comes to me is like, Hey, this is great stuff. This is all wonderful stuff. You got digital twin, you've got Analytics, you got this guy to get that. And all of this wonderful innovation, AI. If I had a nickel every time, I wouldn't be now. But the reality is, it's happening today. It is industry, it is absolutely it. Companies are doing this and they're seeing real value. Is that correct?

24:13

Absolutely. 100% I mean, these are things that are capable, and what we provide because of being in one solution and one environment and one eco system is a speed to that value. Because beforehand, you know, we can take em the pieces of it and do integration to it and build it out. These are things we've done before. But now we have a lot of those disciplines at our fingertips. I mean, these are people that are down the hall from each other. Now, these are experiences that we can start sharing. These are things that we hear at Hexagon cost synergies, because when we look at the acquisition, you know, we're like all the different tools. Oh my God, it was it was like being in a toy store looking at all the different types of things that they could do. And so we found several dozen opportunities that we could go after. But the problem here is not necessarily you know, the synergies looking for synergies, we have those. The question is prioritization of them, and when can we add different capabilities to them. So our roadmap now is enormous. And these are things that we love to be able to share. We have lots of different events that we go to industry, in any industry, we do things locally, we also do big user events every year,

25:24

which was a great segue, because I was getting ready to I said, Hey, we're just scratching the surface of the our Hexagon, AI. And it's exciting and, and it's exciting to be able to hear see, and, and witness how the the Hexagon relationship has just really taken a powerful system and took it to the next level, which is really pretty cool. Tell us a little bit about let's say, I'm, uh, I'm hearing you and I'm getting all salivate and I'm going Ha, this is cool stuff. Talk to us about that Hexagon live event that's scheduled on June, I believe in September,

25:59

it is June 2015. It's in Las Vegas hot as hot as can be. Yeah. But you know, in those examples, you never really leave the inside. So you have more air conditioning, you really don't know what time it is going on. Let this particular events Great. There'll be several 1000 of our closest friends and neighbors. And they'll be able to go out and see some of the sessions that we have around solutions like Hexagon AM, or like the digital assets that the portfolio family that have been core, within the larger framework of the asset Livecycle Intelligence Division, or in some of the other divisions, like you'll find in mining you'll find in geo systems. And you'll even find in some of the Hexagon AB environments. The A B is the corporate entity that owns this and where they're going with it. Now they're building that through. But here we have other customers, we have other partners will have a plethora of Hexagon, folks at your at your fingertips as well. started looking at the solutions, building it in an expo floor that we're building. Now that's looking to be pretty amazing.

27:01

See, and I don't have to be an ex Hexagon aficionado, I can go there to learn I can understand the solution, right? I don't have to well,

27:12

if you're not one, when you leave, it's our fault. Because you shouldn't be but you don't have to be when when you come in, I don't have well be when you leave. And if

27:18

I'm a company that is looking at, you know, solutions around my my assets, and I'm looking for a platform, I highly recommend that that would be the must attend event.

27:31

Oh, it is I mean, there's so much to learn there. And there's so many real good network connections to make. We have folks that come out there simply because they can meet new people. And they can be able to meet other people that's a birds of a feather in their industry, or maybe a bird of a feather in their discipline, or maybe just a kindred heart that just likes the same ad span. But the idea behind it is you can be able to meet other people and make new connections. I definitely think at any point in time when you can get out of where your daily grind is and see how other people are doing it. It makes you a better person.

28:03

Wow. You are wonderful. I hate to hear you try you succeed. Absolutely. So if somebody's listening to this podcast, and are watching this video, and I'm pointing at you, and you need to get a hold of Kevin, how does? How does somebody get a hold of you?

28:20

Oh, I'm available. I don't mind posting my email any day of the week, twice. And Sunday, it's kevin.Price@Hexagon.com. And if you get a chance to be able to meet us in Vegas, I'll be able to grab your coffee, and a smile and tell you another joke.

28:37

Really liked it, man. All right, listeners, we're going to have all the contact information from Kevin out on industrial talk as well as his email, as well as all the information around Hexagon Live. I think that's a must end event, at least begin that journey of educating and begin that journey of collaborating. And it will lead to innovations that will help your business succeed. Thank you very much for joining. We will be right back.

29:03

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

29:09

As always, thank you very much for listening to industrial talk. And Paul was always thank you very much for your continued support. That was Kevin Price. You can tell he's got mad skills in the world of asset management. And that platform, the Hexagon em platform. Yeah, knocking it out of the park. Again, as a reminder, two things one, we're beginning this journey with Hexagon AEM. We're going to have a number of topics that we're going to cover. And then we're going to start to shift it to some webinars for some deeper insights into how this platform how in the knowledge associated with, you know, asset management can help you succeed can help you in your operations in a big way. So just keep on the lookout for that and once again, we're We're going to be out there in Las Vegas. This is going to be June 12. Through the 15th. Make that a point. Go on out there, ask the tough questions. If you have any questions associated with how to manage your assets and or you're looking for a platform, that is that is the event that you need to attend. It's in Vegas. You know, what's, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I highly recommend that you have that conversation. Reach out to Kevin Price, he's gonna be there and he is an open book. Big time that's going to be Hexagon live. That's Las Vegas. June 12, through the 15th right around the corner, if you can believe that. All right. As always, be bold, be brave, daring greatly. I say it every time. You got people like Kevin, you got companies like Hexagon and you're going to change the world hang out with them. All right. We're going to have as you know, going to have more conversations around the world of asset management and, and Hexagon. So stay tuned. We're going to have another great conversation shortly.