Sabira Lakhani and Jack Reinke with Sparetech

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Industrial Talk, CAP logistics, supply chain, asset management, reliability, maintenance, Sparetech, VP of product, circular economy, spare parts, VR glasses, AI, inventory management, transparency, innovation.

00:00

Hey, industrial Talk is brought to you by CAP logistics. You want to minimize downtime, absolutely increase reliability, you bet, ensure operational profitability. Yes, you do. That means you need 24/7, 365, insights into your supply chain. Look no further cap logistics. Go to cap logistics.com or just call them. They're great people. 802 to 724, 71

00:35

Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go all right

00:53

02:09

I really am. Love the vibe.

02:12

God, yeah, yeah. I've got this down to where it can travel on planes and I don't get subject to ridiculous airline fees. So it's, it's taken some time. Nobody likes those nobody and it's not fair. It's not fair. Just FYI, just, I have my reasons why it's not fair. I shouldn't be penalized. So you guys having a good conference? Yeah, we are. Yeah,

02:40

it's been fun so far. Have you guys been here before? It's our first year?

02:45

Oh, kidding, yeah. Why? Where were you been?

02:49

Well, our company was started in Germany, and we broke into the US market about a year ago.

02:56

Yeah, you're new, yeah? So they can't do kids on

03:00

the block, fresh, fresh faced. Yeah,

03:04

that's a See, that's interesting stuff. I like that. I like that decision to do that. Okay, let's start Yeah, sabira. Sabira Nailed it, yeah. Give us a little background.

03:18

I'm the VP of product. I am new to the company, but what's new? I'm new? No, what's new? What's new?

03:27

Yeah, how new.

03:28

Oh, what is our first day?

03:31

No, I've been here for a couple months. Okay?

03:35

Day one, my jaw was dropping.

03:38

My day one was in Germany, though I like how I was there in Germany on my first day. It's pretty cool.

03:46

So yeah, so what's your background?

03:49

So as a VP of product at a circular economy company focused on, wow, you just,

03:56

let me just look by behind me. I just like that one right over my head. It hit the people behind me go.

04:03

We built technology to help large organizations reuse what they had purchased, and we had focused on commercial furniture and lab equipment, like operational equipment. So think like if Google has to reuse a bunch of chairs, they have a warehouse full of chairs that they cycle between their locations. How do they actually manage that process, and how do they connect the supply and demand within their company and external to their company as well? So really trying to avoid things going to landfill and help the help your bottom line at the same time,

04:40

I was just hanging on everywhere. Word I'm going really that exists, that exists. My jaw was dropping. Yeah, Jack, you got to follow that. No, I don't want any part of that, but I'm all embarrassed

04:56

now. Mine's a little simpler. So,

04:59

yeah. Yeah, I can imagine I'm

05:02

basically account executive on the sales side for spare tech. So I joined the company as the first US employee with Martin about a year and a half ago as we came as he moved from Germany to Chicago, and

05:16

that's so cool. You're number one in the US. Yeah, well, I got

05:21

that's pretty cool. Yeah. So it's been a, I

05:24

have to ask the question. So you're out there, you're seeing this company, and you're saying, Yeah, I'll be number one. That's a bold

05:33

move. Yeah, it was, it was cool. I mean, in my previous roles, I was on the manufacturing side, more on the commercial printing and distribution side of things, and basically got to the point where I figured, you know, I wanted to try to do something different, and, you know, take it, step out and have a new adventure while, you know, there was still time to do it. So I joined Martin and the team, and, you know, it was kind of, I think, the best of both worlds in the sense that I was US employee number one, but joining a pretty big team already. So, you know, you kind of got both sides. So it's cool.

06:06

I have a question, because you two are very young. One of the challenges that we have is inspiring the next generation, leadership, just bringing them on into industry. And I use industry just has a macro, because I I'm not going in the circular that's way out of my pay grade. But nonetheless, it's, it's you think differently. How does industry as you look around, how do we, and this is going to severe, how do we? How do we inspire because we don't, we don't do well.

06:45

I think there's probably a couple of things that come to mind. One is to take bets on new technology without the assumption that just technology is going to solve the problem. I think we have to, like, inculcate a culture of innovation. Like, for example, we were walking by a presentation here, and I saw some, like, really old school, like, SAP looking vibes on the screen. And as a young person, I can feel a little bit like, is that, is that excellent?

07:18

Is that, what is that as good as we can do, that's it. But,

07:23

you know, there's like such the other part of that is that there's such tribal knowledge within the community that has been working, and it's been, it seems like, as a newcomer, it's been hard to capture. And so how do you create connection, to pass on that knowledge in a scalable way? I think it's a big question mark. You know, again, I'm pretty fresh to the industry that that would be, you know, those are kind of like two things that that come to mind. And as our economy kind of goes through what it's going through, people are going to be looking for new types of work that's more hands on, in the face of AI. And how can we bridge that gap?

08:01

See the way I look at it, right? I've been in the trenches. I've had these conversations. I Yes, I know, and I'll geek out on it all day long. Well, that's great technology. Well, that's a great solution. So I'll do that all day long. Here's my problem, Jack, we industry, maybe not you guys, but let's, let's just, sort of, in general, we do a horrible job at communicating, one cool and and the just the why it's important, why? Why can't we innovate or inspire that we just do a horrible job. And it's because my soapbox, because a lot of these individuals don't, they feel uncomfortable like I don't, I don't feel but they're part of the solution, but they just don't know. Do you agree with that?

08:52

Yeah, I do. I

08:53

didn't know there was I was tapering off Jack. I didn't. I didn't put a question mark at the end of that tirade, I'll just react

09:03

to it, pretty much the case. But I think, like to your point, and what we consistently see, and kind of the idea is that there is sometimes, I think people are not super confident in, you know, what they know, or how much they know, or how much they can contribute, and how to put this all together, right? And these, as you say, industry, it's very complex, right? There's many different, you know, skill sets and things that have value, like, there's many solutions in the space. So what I think is interesting for us and interesting for the new generation is, how can we take our own kind of viewpoint and experiences on this from the technology we grew up with, and apply that to who the next generation users will be, right? Because they didn't grow up using an SAP style interface, right? They grew up using a phone. So how do we, yeah, you know, how do you bridge that gap? And that's why I think, like Sabir and the team, really work on, you know, coming up with innovative ways and cool ways to do that. That brings. Just both, you know, all

10:01

the generations across, and it's the messaging too. We've got to, we've got to go where the next generation consumes the information and and puts, internalizes it. But I just, well, anyway, I digress. I This is a big spot for me. I I want us to succeed, and success comes from being able to inspire the next gen.

10:26

Well, we could talk about like, if we fast forwarded our our company, let's just say, to the future of in the next couple of years, what technology could do? I want to take you to a storeroom. Imagine you're in a storeroom, you're wearing VR glasses. You look around the room and you know what's in the storeroom, like the data is there, and then the technology is telling you what you should do with that. Should you keep some, sell some? See who could you sell it to? Right? Like that. That's kind of, well, we do a very small slice of that today, but you may start to imagine what might be possible with the technology of today. It is very cool, that is,

11:12

it is, I'm dazzled by it. By the way, I was at an event and one of the companies, and this was a an event that defines standards, technology standards pretty dry. You know, the individuals there, their heads throb there, but one of the companies there had the VR glasses, and it was voice activated, so you could sit there and ask. And of course, it was in a test mode, but you asked, and he said, Scott to put him on show me drawing a there it is, yeah, and it was, it was, it was an engine. Then you're walking around it, and you're, then you're zooming in on and you're doing all that. And it's right there, exactly.

11:58

Come on to leave the room. Yeah, come on. And so there is coolness, like the industries, the machine that runs the world, and, you know, produces all these cool things, yeah, the way that we produce, it can also be cool.

12:14

Okay, let's talk about the company. I digress. Talk about what you guys do. Spirit attack, what is that?

12:19

Well, so kind of, as I was saying, we help you understand what spare parts you have, right? So we focus on solving the problem of eliminating downtime in factory, and we do that by, would say, like providing you transparency on your spare parts data. So in today's world, if you walk in, you might have four of the same part in your storeroom, but you might not know it. And the guy at the plant next door that's having downtime, they don't know that you have it. And this causes kind of a hot mess of unnecessary inefficiency. And so we've built a database that can help you quickly understand, Oh, I do have four of the same part. And then the the software on top also helps you prevent creating messy data in the future.

13:11

Jack. Don't we have in our systems by our CMS or our ERPs? Don't we have a procurement model is supposed to track the inventory,

13:22

yeah, and everybody does, but the problem is the foundational data, right? That's where the issues come is, you know, even if you were to go into a CMMS system and create perfect data, right? So you snap your finger Friday afternoon, data is perfect. By Monday morning, the new part request comes in, you know, hey, somebody in the plant level says, Hey, I need a new part. I need to set up this piece. I don't see it in the system. He, you know, they do a search and they don't find the part. And then they create a new material request, and they set it up as a different part number with a, you know, O instead of a zero. Now you have two of those parts again. Now all of those automated inventory ordering and reorder points get set up for a duplicate part, and now you are, you know, in this same cycle. And so what we're trying to do is control it, both on the data that exists today, but also on the new data that's coming in to these organizations on a daily basis, right for big new capital projects, all the way down to a single, you know, belt or bearing that they're setting up at the plant level. So it's really trying to look at it as a as a cohesive, you know, sort of ecosystem.

14:30

How? Because I've been there and and experienced it, how does, how does your solution prevent cannibalizing of pallets. So I have a capital project. I bring it in, it's all kitted, it's on a pallet. And then Joe decides that, hey, I need that bolt, rips it open, grabs a bolt. Now that pallet is, well, not correct.

14:57

It's an interesting question. I mean, I think what we. Do is provide the visibility from a data perspective on what's on that palette, right? Yeah, but I think something that we tell every customer, and to your point, there's also a just process and discipline component that needs to happen, like the human part, like the software is cool and it does a lot, but at the same time, if the people don't buy in and actually operationalize what we're able to show and what we're able to provide like you still will have the problem, right? It's, it's not capable of, you know, self executing, you know, on, on what needs to happen, but, but that's to, I think, our early point, we try to make the software user friendly. We try to make it modern. We try to make it something that they want to use on a daily basis, and it creates a good user experience, because then they can do that more frequently, right? It just, it's a better, better process.

15:47

But Sabir, I have a CMS, and that's my system of record. Will Will your solution, you know, through API's the magic of API's, connect to the CMMS and then deliver the debt by directional lens. Yeah, good, yes, yeah, yes, it does because, but go ahead,

16:10

you know. But one important thing that we tell customers, and this is how we try to be very I think, you know, realistic as a company is we also allow most customers to start by just doing manual File Exchange. Right? We don't have to do the API. We don't have to jump into this because, as you alluded to, it's not ever as easy or out of the box as it seems, right? We have, you know, customers always get there, but we have ways to start and unlock the value, you know, kind of initially through the manual File Exchange, which works, I think, really well for for companies of all sizes.

16:43

So what are we talking about? Sabir, about savings. What do we what's bottom line value for being able to have this level of insight and efficiency?

16:52

17:06

yeah, it would be company specific. If, yeah, if you're Chevron, yeah, that's, you

17:11

know, depends on the quality of your data. It depends on the size of your store rooms. It depends on, you know, what you send us, and how we're able to match it to our database, to be able to give you that insights, but we can tell you, like some companies that we've worked with, we've seen 40,000 duplicate parts. No way. Yeah, 40,000 duplicate parts. That's like a big number. So now, and that's depending on the value of each part, you're looking at really big dollars in savings, yes. And there's the the effectiveness and efficiency of your team. Instead of them sitting there trying to sort through all the kind of useless data, now they're able to make decisions faster find what they're looking for faster. So you see that kind of like softer savings as well. And then the third type of savings is now, I know I have five of the same part, and I can go negotiate with my vendor and my supplier. Hey, I'm gonna buy five of these from you now instead of one, and consolidate your spend, instead of across five suppliers to one.

18:17

Okay, here, here's how I look at that. That's like, that's like, low hanging fruit. So I can just, you walk into an organization, it's inefficient. Yeah, your storeroom stinks, and you haven't done your, you know, inventory management, walking around and counting the parts in that, you know, bin. So I see that, but eventually, through your solution, I'm efficient. I'm rocking and rolling. I now I'm not having savings because I've already extracted the value out of my inefficiencies. Help Help me understand that ongoing. Because I guarantee you somebody is going to come in and say, Well, why are we doing this? Yeah, you know, that conversation is there,

19:02

yeah, and, and, I think, I think there's, there's two buckets in which you see that ongoing, you know, I think value, right? The the number one thing with that is, like, where we see a lot of companies struggle on the first piece of it is they don't have the spare parts tied to the assets. They don't have them attached to the bombs, blows me away, yeah, but, but it's, but it's not as you would think, it's standard, but it's really not that, not that common to have really, really good, you know, a level of excellence around that. So we help, you know, upon that creation piece, we're checking for duplication. We're checking that the product or the spare part has active, you know, life cycle status of it. You know, it's not obsolete from the manufacturer. And we're enforcing their kind of taxonomy and part creation requirements for all the new parts that are coming into the system, right? And we're also helping them to avoid duplication from the new spare part list or the recommended spare part lists that are coming in from the line builders, the machine builders, so that. Is the really origination of the bad data, origination of the spend. So that's where we see a lot of like the recurring and residual value in software. Yeah, I

20:11

you know as well as I do, that has been an ongoing headache, a major headache, dealing with inventory, spare parts, whatever that looks like, whatever that strategy is, do we, do we get an extra pump? Or can we? It's just, it's just never ends. And then over time, you know, whatever strategy that they embraced one time, and then people come and go and leave, and whatever you know, then it all of a sudden changes and go upside down. And it would seem to me that a solution such as yours would create some stability in a very unstable, naturally unstable

20:52

type of that's a good way to put it

20:54

operation. Yeah, yeah. So with that, let's, let's talk about future. Yeah, I want, I want future stuff.

21:07

Talk to us also, again, just harking back to what I was sharing at the beginning, the role of AI and how you search and standardize your data, and even how we build our database is all part of the future. But I think more interestingly, you know, coming with a background from Circular Economy, the question of, how do you connect the dots in the industry better, faster? We were actually at a previous event, and somebody walked up to us and said, Hey, I have, you know, I'm looking for this part, where could I buy it? And we pull up the part in our system, and we say, like, oh, we see these couple of suppliers, and one of those suppliers was in the room, right? Or, you know, we know alternative layers that we could connect you to, and why does that need to be happening in person, right? Like, what is the, what is the optimal decision making path for your entire storeroom at the moment of surplus, at the moment of purchase, who can you buy from, especially when you need it right away, or especially when you need to clear out your inventory right away, right so we really want to look at those urgent moments, either in individual spare part or in bulk.

22:20

Yeah, and I think the future is, like, to spear his point, it's, it's, it's in transparency, right? Like, there's, there's going to be more transparency in everything, right, with AI. And so what, what do we have to do? Right? We, what we see as our goal as a company is to provide that transparency to our end customers, right? Transparency about where they can sell the part, transparency about where they can buy the part, and transparency about where they have the part inside of their current network, right? So if we can give them that transparency, I think that we're, you know, heading down a good path for the future.

22:53

Okay, to you, Alex, see I was, I was getting ready to pop out a question. I count myself before I get Alex. So how long does it take when you say, Hey, I got a system. It's a fantastic system. It does all this stuff, this tool, this technology. How fast can you deploy it? 18 months.

23:19

I mean, one thing about what we do and having the database and the real software, it's true software. There's not a person behind the scenes doing this is our time to value. Is what we call it is very fast, like, it's a matter of weeks for, you know, basically the time we get all of the material data till the customer is in the system, and being able to use it so it we can provide that because it's true software and at a large scale,

23:43

all right, I have to wrap it up. People in the queue. It was fun. Was just so cool. I like it spirit. How do people get a hold of you? What's the best

23:57

way you can find us on LinkedIn?

23:58

Nope, you. I want to talk to you.

24:02

I'm also I'm also available on

24:03

LinkedIn. Good that's all I care about, because I can grab that link and stick it on my website. Alex Jack, same thing. Yeah, there you go. Good answer. Hey, I got an email address. Now it's too easy to grab that LinkedIn and say, hey, there it is the stat card, right there. You guys are wonderful. I really enjoyed this conversation. Be the leaders that you are. Inspire, Thanks, Scott, whatever that is, inspire. I love it. All right, they're wonderful. You need to reach out all of the contact information for these two incredible professionals. We'll be out on industrial talk. So fear not. You need to do it. That is a high priority connection. All right, we're broadcasting once again, SMRP 33 here in Fort Worth Texas, and it is a collection of problem solvers. And if you're in the world of asset management, reliability, maintenance, inventory, this is the place for you. Yeah, you. Need to be here. Put this on your calendar for next year. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. Stay tuned. We will be right back.

25:06

You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

25:14

Yeah, another great conversation from SMRP. Oh, that was a good conversation. Sabir and Jack spare tech is the company again, all out on industrial talk. Find it. Find out. Listen to all of these great conversations from SMRP and as well as others. I I'm always talking because I think, I think to inspire that next generation, you need to get out of your comfort zone, and you need to tell your story, and you need to do it consistently. Just do it. We depend on you. This is not just your challenge or of course, it's your challenge, but it think about it from a market perspective, we need people. We need talented individuals who are all in on the purpose. All right, be bold, be brave. Dare greatly. Hang out with these two professionals, and you're going to change the world. We're going to have another great conversation from SMRP shortly. So stay tuned.