Nasarg Shah with Martinrea International
Industrial Talk is onsite at Xcelerate 2026 and talking to Nisarg Shah, Maintenance/Planner Engineer at Martinrea International about “eMaint platform deployment”.
Overview
Nisarg Shah, a maintenance planner at Martinrea, discussed his experiences with Fluke's eMaint software at the Xcelerate 2026 event. Initially, the challenge was getting employees to use tablets for data entry. Nisarg overcame this by daily encouragement and teaching. The next challenge was integrating eMaint with the existing email system to automate data collection. They now focus on pulling data directly from PLCs, including temperature readings and cycle counts. Nisarg highlighted the benefits of meter-based PM, which significantly reduced breakdowns. He also mentioned using acoustic imaging for leak detection, saving money on maintenance.
Outline
Fluke's Xcelerate Event Overview
- Scott introduces the Industrial Talk podcast, sponsored by Fluke, highlighting the Xcelerate event in Austin, Texas.
- The event featured high-energy keynotes, hands-on predictive maintenance tools, and breakthrough AI diagnostics.
- Xcelerate proved to be a launch pad for smarter, faster, and more reliable operations.
- Listeners are encouraged to visit fluke.com for more information.
Introduction to Nisarg Shah and His Role
- Scott welcomes Nisarg Shah, a maintenance planner at Martinrea, a tier-one supplier to the automotive industry.
- Nisarg started with Martinrea as a student at the University of Windsor, where he worked on deploying eMaint at the facility.
- Nisarg has been with the company for four years, and the company has been in operation for about 30 years.
- The company specializes in stamping and welding, and Nisarg is responsible for implementing and managing eMaint.
Challenges and Implementation of eMaint
- Nisarg faced challenges in getting employees to use tablets for data entry, as they were not tech-savvy.
- The initial challenge was convincing employees to enter data accurately, which was previously done via email.
- Nisarg addressed the issue by continuously teaching and pushing employees to enter data correctly.
- The company needed a better way to manage assets and prevent breakdowns, leading to the implementation of eMaint.
Integration and Data Collection
- Nisarg discusses the next challenge of integrating eMaint with the existing email system to collect better data.
- The goal is to get direct data from the PLCs instead of manual data entry.
- The company is currently working on integrating temperature readings, cycle counts, and PM calendars.
- Plans include installing vibration sensors and thermocouples on a new 3000-ton press to collect more comprehensive data.
Impact of AI and Advanced Technologies
- Nisarg is impressed by the AI version of eMaint , which can build on existing data to provide more accurate predictions.
- AI can help in quickly accessing manuals and specific pages, reducing the need to scour through lengthy documents.
- The company is also using acoustic imaging to detect leaks, saving money on maintenance.
- Nisarg highlights the benefits of using AI and advanced technologies to improve operational efficiency and reduce downtime.
Benefits of Meter-Based PM
- Nisarg emphasizes the effectiveness of meter-based PM, which helps in predicting and preventing breakdowns.
- Meter-based PM allows for better data collection and analysis, leading to improved asset management.
- The company has seen significant improvements in reliability and reduced downtime by using meter-based PM.
- Nisarg recommends integrating all assets with eMaint to achieve even better results.
Conclusion and Contact Information
- Nisarg shares his contact information, inviting listeners to connect with him on LinkedIn.
- Scott thanks Nisarg for sharing his experiences and insights on the podcast.
- The podcast wraps up with a reminder to visit fluke.com for more information on Fluke's solutions and services.
- Speaker 1 encourages listeners to tell their industrial stories and stay engaged with the Industrial Talk podcast.
If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation.
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NISARG SHAH'S CONTACT INFORMATION:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nisarg-shah-475395128/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/martinreainternational/
Company Website: https://www.martinrea.com/
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Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Fluke Xcelerate, predictive maintenance, AI diagnostic, industrial talk, Nisarg Shah, Martinrea, automotive supplier, Eminent software, asset management, meter-based PM, data integration, acoustic imaging, thermal imaging, vibration sensors, maintenance planner.
Industrial talk is brought to you by Fluke. We were on site at Fluke's Xcelerate event, where Reliability Reimagined came to life, from high energy keynotes to hands-on predictive maintenance tools to breakthrough AI diagnostic. The event delivered real-world strategies teams can use today. Xcelerate once again proved why it is the launch pad for smarter, faster, reliable operations. Go out to fluke.com to find out more.
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.
e broadcasting from Xcelerate:Yes,
because you had a little roll in there, and Shaw, he's with Martin Ray,
Martinrea,
Martinrea Ridgetown. See, right off the bat, he's challenging me. Let's get cracking. I could talk about other things now. Got through it. How are you doing?
I'm good. How about you?
Hey, no complaints, my friend. No complaints. You having a good conference?
Yes, so far so good. Learning a lot, enjoying meeting people.
How often is this your first, second, third? What Xcelerate, or this is
my first acceleration.
Shut up! Yeah, meeting your expectations, I hope.
Yes, it is.
Yeah, because this is my.. I can't remember. I don't know what it is. I've been very fortunate to be able to work with Fluke and the Fluke team. They are absolutely phenomenal from my perspective. That's nice to hang. Yeah, I'm glad you're having a good time and learning a lot. All right, for the listeners out there, let's get us a little background on who you are.
So, so I started with Martin Ria as a student.
Where'd you go to school?
University of Windsor. Yeah, so that's where I went, and I did my co-op at Martinrea. That's where I got first introduced with Eminent. That was my whole project for to deploy Eminent at the facility, teaching everyone and getting it to the speed of using it in day to day life,
so you were a student, and then they tasked you to get prop up e mate.
Yes,
that's bold. Yeah, it's good. You learned a lot, I would imagine.
Yes, I did.
Now, which he made version do you have?
x4
you have x4 Yes, very good, very good. What does your organization do?
We are tier one supplier to automotive, so we do stamping and welding.
Yeah, makes sense. How long have you been around?
I'm with the company from four years now,
not you, the company. How long has the company been?
Probably 30 years. No, no kidding. There
you go. All right, let's, let's talk a little bit about x4 Let's talk about what.. what was the.. you know, they say, 'Hey, Nasara, I need.. I need to prop up this.. I need to see MMS.. I need.. we need to do this because we have this problem. Can you sort of help the listener understand the challenges that that you stepped into, and as you start to, you know, deploy this technology, what were they looking for? What was what was the challenge at the time?
The first challenge was people did not want it to, like, use tablets, like they were not tech savvy, getting everyone on board to entering the data, that was the first challenge, convincing each and every person, you got to do this, you got to write down what happened today, you got to mention each and steps what you did today, so that I can get the data. Out of email, it was the first way challenge. How
did you deal or address people that just pencil whip? Like, I don't want to do it, I'm just gonna enter in. I was there, change the boat, whatever, whatever the thing is. Keep
pushing each and every day, going to them every day, teaching them each and every day. So, yes, kind of standing on their head to kind of get the data out, like you got to do this, let's do this, let's get this data entered. I'll show you some quick and easy tricks from which it will be more convenient for you. That's how I started.
So, but from a company's perspective, what was the challenge? Not, not, not the human side. Clearly, you guys are manufacturers. Clearly, you're doing stuff. Clearly, there was a thing of day. We're not managing our assets, where we're breaking down, or whatever the problem might be. Is there some.. Can you help us understand? It's like, hey, the company said we got to do a better job, because we are not doing a better job.
So, with email, there's a meter-based PM things and report generation, so we kind of getting data out of that and predicting and preventing it from happening. With the data coming out, we are predicting that, oh, this has happened this month, so we got to be careful. We need to repair this on this coming up weekend, so we don't have this issue. This cycle has been ran, this die has been ran for 50,000 parts. We got to bring it in, we got to do a PM on it, because it's a 50,000 We know that every 60,000 hits, it will have some repair on maintenance. So, let's bring it in before and check, check the die out. Let's check the wear and tear about punches, button, any form section. Let, if you have to sharpen it, let's sharpen it and get it back, so that we don't have a breakdown inside the press, and we don't lose the run time.
So, it was, it was a necessity, from what I hear you're saying, there was just a necessity to be able to track, to be able to track that asset, the information coming from that asset, to be able to proactively be able to, you know, take that asset out on a planned basis for, for whatever maintenance.
Yes.
Okay. Makes sense, so now you're deploying the system. Now you're saying, hey, you guys got to use tablets. What else was the change management? It's always people, just FYI, it's always people. So what was the next challenge that now everybody's using the tablets, they're saying, yeah, I like it, go from there.
So now it's the integrating part, the asset with email, so that we can get better data out of it, so kind of involving it and MES team to kind of collaborate and get the direct data out of the asset instead of entering the data manually. So that's the challenge we are working on right now to get the data directly out of the PLC and giving it to E Mint, so that the meter-based PM and the readings and the work orders kind of generated by itself rather than doing a manual process.
So you're on that journey, you're on that working through that effort as we speak.
Yes,
are you through the PLCs, what type of data are you able to pull?
So, temperature readings,
yeah,
cycles count PM, PM calendar, calendar-based PM cycles. That's what we are pulling out of the system.
Are there any plans or conversations around we want vibration, we want heat, we want, we want to be able to sort of pull all that in, and then be able to, through a tool of some sort, analyze that data to get a better indication of the health of that asset.
So we are just getting a new:What's who's the manufacturer? The same
pack, it's a Korean, South Korean press, which we are getting. We are installing all kind of vibrating sensors, thermocouples, so that we can get the data out of that press. It's a new press coming and running right now. It's at the starting phase, so yeah, kind of working by the way,
I'm amazed at the press, you're standing next to the press, it's, it's, it, you feel the force, it's pretty impressive. I don't know, that's just me,
yeah,
digressing, because I, I remember just seeing some at an event, and I said, "Wow,
you're most welcome to come and see it.
Well, then I'd have to go up and see my family.
Sure, you can do both at the same time. Yeah, we are right on 401 highway.
Yeah, see, I know it's right there, man. All right, so with that all the said, so. Here at Xcelerate, you're learning a lot. You got X for what are some of the things that you have been exposed to that makes you think, and said, "Hey, what else can I do? Where else can I go? I see that we're doing this, this, and this, but look at that. I'm looking forward to that.
So, what impressed me more is the AI version, how they are bringing it in, how you can build a layer on top of what you currently have, and AI can build your make sure the data is coming out correct, and you can, when you are having a breakdown, you can get the data out right, right away, instead of looking at the manuals and stuff. It's right there, you can just talk. Hey, I need this manual, I want to see this page. It can open it up, and you can read that. So that's that's the
other thing that I think is pretty impressive, because, and you being young, do you really want to sort of scour through 150 page SOP? You want, you want directed results, and saying here, yeah, and that's the, that's the beauty of AI.
Yes, correct. Then to
be able to do that, because I agree with you 100% If you can compress, if you can take that asset and that acid reality is under a lot of pressure, because it's a stamper, but, but to be able to do that in a way that that compresses that time to whatever effect change to it, I think it's amazing. What else
about the conditioning monitoring, we get acoustic camera thermal imaging, and whatnot. We are currently using the acoustic imager right now, and it really helps us, like checking for the leaks, gas leak, air leak. We are saving money on that, like having the camera, setting it up, checking the air leaks, it's really cool feature, and you can check it out. It's right over here at the Fugue Reliability Lab. Yeah, it's really nice feature, like you can check all your air leaks and gas leaks. Really nice thing, really nice camera to invest in.
I'm stumbling and stubbing my toe on the fact that your, your, your manufacturing facility has leaks. I just,
every, every facility got leaks. Yeah,
it just, it's, it's an, it's an, it's one of those ahas. It's like, ah, check it out. Yeah, I get it, I get it, so, so now you, what type of benefit have you seen? Okay, so you're a young pup, you're still a young pup, but I'm gonna say your young pup, and they say, hey, here's, here's Emate, good luck, that type of thing, and and wonder if these people will take you serious. It doesn't matter. You're over here. You must have some analytics that said we were here, now we're here. It's better over here. Wasn't good over here. Now look at all the better. Do you have any information, information to share the listener to say we were here, we deployed it, now we're here, we're better.
So I'll, I'll give you a really good example for the meter-based PM, with which is what everyone should use and recommend, like out recommend it. That meter-based PM is going to tell you each and everything. You can enter that data, iterate it, and set your targets accordingly, and I bet you, you won't have breakdowns. You will go to meter-based PMs, integrate all your cycles with, like, integrate your asset with email, and you will see the difference. The meter-based PM will take you to the next level, you won't have breakdown what you are having right now,
and when we say meter babe, you're just saying counts,
yeah, counts, our counts, hit count, cycle count, you name it, they got it over there, so it's in your
PLCs,
yes, correct, or you can enter the data manually too, yeah, like enter the data manually too, and I bet you, you will have much better results.
See, it's just a little attention, that's all it is. You are great, Nisarg. How do people get a hold of you?
I got a LinkedIn,
yes,
Nisarg Shah, and you can find me. I work at Martinrea as a maintenance planner, so I am right there.
Love it. Great conversation. Now that's in the trenches, that is real results that it comes from a guy that's been there. Thank you very much for being on Industrial Talk. All right, we're gonna have. All the contact information for the Scarga out in on Industrial Talk, so fear not, reach out to him. He's been there, done that. He's one of those guys that you need to connect with. He's out on LinkedIn. All right, we're broadcasting once again from Xcelerate here in Austin, Texas, and it's brought to you by those wonderful people at Fluke. Go out to flute.com find out more, because you will not be disappointed. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.
You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.
g the way. That was Xcelerate: