Hey, everyone. Another episode here of Manufacturing and Stronger Standard, Derek Gees, West USA and Degees Corporation, and Degees Corporation. And we're here at PatTech twenty twenty three. I have with us as a guest today again. Back. Brad Rupert, director of operations for our automation division. Brad, thanks for joining us. Not a problem. I'm glad to be back at FabTech and seeing how everything's changed. I mean, when we came here four years ago, We were the only arm with a coding application. Now they're they're everywhere. I mean, it's it's great to see the acceptance. It's really cool because it it we we disrupted the industry. We saw it, and we were we had to felt like we were pulling everyone along to be able to show them this is possible. We can do it. They're like, Oh, wow. That's amazing, but I'm sure I can't do it for myself. And now customer after customer after customer. People are accepting it. They're seeing it. We're proving it. Customers coming back. They're buying more robots from us. And so and now the industry is like We gotta go. And so everyone's trying to bring in robots. I mean, I welcome the competition. What do you think? I agree. I mean, honestly, it's the labor market continues to change. You know, in twenty nineteen, we recognized that there had to be something we had to get ahead of the curve, and that's where less robotics came in into play is, okay, we're having a harder time. Well, now you just don't find the feet. There's no one to go in the booth. No one wants to pick up a handgun anymore, And the ones that do, they're getting the point where they don't wanna do it day in, day out, forty, fifty hours a week, sixty in some cases. So now with with a self learning robot, We can take that, that veteran that knows what they're doing, knows how to paint that part and and give a quality part every day, but it's the same at eight AM as it is at five thirty in the afternoon. Alright. So tell us a little bit. So, yes, we we disrupted it and it's where you brought it, which work, and people are doing it, and we're growing. Your role has grown. You're the new you're the new director of of op automation for our operations. Tell us a little about your journey where you've come, and I think that will really help us set up to talk about what that means for us as an integrator. Yeah. So as as I joined the Degees team, it was kinda I just gotta be part of this. I've been in painting my entire career, grew up in a a farm based auto body shop that we we painted implements cars restorations. So I paint was in my blood. I I owe a lot to my father for showing me that skill. And then by adding my engineering background, I was able to take those two and make a career out of it, through industrial equipment, of forestry farming. A lot of paint system. I always went in for project management and ended up in paint. So as I came into the geese, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Lessster Robot and then really learn how to make that work and then be part of bringing that to North America. But now we need more. I mean, we're doing installs every week. We we have service to do, so our team has grown. And as being one of the the first people to understand how this can be applied to everyday manufacturing. We're growing a team. We now have service techs that are primarily service We have people that are specialized in how to assemble efficiently and have that quality product every time. And then we have our integrators who have learned through system after system, how to do it better, and how to get that quality install in the shortest amount of time. I mean, our downtimes now We install complete systems in three to four days. Conveyorize system in five to six days, and then you're training and doing production a week later. I mean, it's you never dreamed of that. When I was project managing projects involving just conveyorized systems, It's weeks on end. And then once you got it running, it was still months until you were producing at the rate you had planned to produce at. One other really exciting piece of your team. So we have your mechs that are doing mechanical installs. Your automation integrators are doing the electrical and the PLC. With our programming side, and then you have your E install group. You also have your application specialist. Tell us a little about about that. That is unique as an integrator have application specialist. Yeah. So that's that's taking that the next step is there's a lot of companies out there that can give you an arm. I can put a gun on the end of the arm. It's gonna go up and down left and right, and you can make it spray. But we have people that have been in the industries, myself, on the liquid side, another gentleman on the powder side. And so that way, we can have the right person with your team that has a basic knowledge of your application and they can learn from what your operators are getting as a feedback to tailor your system to do what you need it to do on a daily basis. That's really where the day one promise comes from then, isn't it? Correct. So on top of the max, the text, the application specialist, our design team is really at the forefront. We don't say this is what we're gonna give you, where say, what do you want out of your system? Where is it gonna go? How are you gonna present your parts? And we'll work with your team to give you that solution that is really unique to you. Still uses the technology that we use every day. We have some customers that we do that with where we'll say we'll design it we'll look at it, evaluate what hooks in in the way that they're doing their parts now manually, and then we'll take those pieces in. We'll we'll see if they work. And if they don't, we design it And they have two paths, right? I mean, so we can either fabricate it for them and build it, or they can do it themselves. Yeah. So we basically would give you that path. It's how you wanna get there is this is how we recommend you do it. This is what we would see to be the most successful on that day one because really in the end, When you shut a paint system down, it was already behind if you're looking into automation. You don't wanna have that pile grow to the point where everyone's overwhelmed. And then any hook you know, any hiccups that you would see in a normal startup are complicated. If we can make it simple, comes in, the part is presented, We're not overcoming the things that we can do beforehand. The day one is much more successful. So we have in our booth here have, we we debuted, we showed are not our typical robot. In the self learning robot technology, yes, we can rapidly program a part. But as we continue to grow and we've added these services people in our teams, we've seen companies they don't have those people. They don't have the capacity to be able to figure out k. I got a robot, even if it's easy to make a program, there's a lot of other things to eliminate variables that they have in the day to day, and so the not your typical integrator. Talk a little bit about how you see that wrapping up and coming together. So that's that's adding everything beyond the path. Self teaching is an amazing technology. It works well. But the problem is what you program today isn't the same conditions as you'll see tomorrow. A normal environment. So there we offer pro stats to to to mount to monitor what you're doing when you're doing it. We have production manager send that program directly to the robot so your load station is in direct communication what the robot needs to run, nitrotherm poly fluid to eliminate the variables of moisture, heat differentials, humidity itself. You know, so if you you're programming, you know, we're in South Dakota painting every day, We make that program in August, it it definitely is gonna run-in November when it's a forty degree swing. Vice versa is also there even worse as you'll have dry spray because What I sprayed back in November is not falling out like it's gonna do when it's eighty five degrees and humid in the in the shop. So all those things are able to be incorporated into the the USA system to overcome those variables to give you that quality product year round, not just at day one, but for years to come. I've even seen on the HMI on the robot controller, you even have controls for fan imization flow path speed changes. You have a lot of tips and tricks as well that you can use. When you I heard you say just yesterday to a customer, he said, like, well, how often are we gonna program this? And you said that we're still running programs that you use that you programmed in two thousand nineteen. Yep. That that that's true. We Again, it's it's all the little things since we're using it day in day out. You have that want, you see it, and we have a team that can create those things on the fly. Paint parameters control. You're actually recording what the what the flow is, the atomization, your trigger pull length, what your dwell is, but that may need to change. And instead of going in and reprogramming everything again, we can go in and tailor just those settings. On when it comes to humidity and heat, a lot of times you can just slow that robot down a little bit, and it's gonna make up for the difference of the environment. That's all available right at the HMI so that operators can do it on the fly to keep that production line moving. Awesome. So Our customers continue to come back. So that you've seen, I think, almost half of our installs this year was repeat customer orders, which is super cool. I think that's a testament I mean, to you and and your team. Yeah. So, I mean, really they they they're extension of our workforce. Their their family out. When we leave that site, we make sure we're reaching out, and really we get to know them a little too well. The first few weeks of their install because you've always had those little tips and tricks that we showed you in training, but how did you get to this page? How did you do that? We have the ability to remote directly and see what their operator is seeing, talk to them on the phone. In some cases, video chat, they literally turn their phone around. This is what it's doing. Why is it doing this? Most of the time is because it's supposed to that's what you told it to do, but we tell them how to do what they wanted it to do. And it's just it's learning and having that direct connection with the customer and you know, not being that, here's your arm, good luck. It's we want you to be successful because in turn, that's why we're here is to make North American manufacturing stronger. And I I think your teammates are really fun too. So we name all of our robots after other movies, robot movies or action figures, and we have big action figures. And so when we bring people through, most of our customers have come through our facility, they've seen us in production, our integration center. And so Tell us how your team's taken that and nationwide. Yeah. So basically all of our customers get to see who Degees is and they get exposed to that. Well, why are you why are you calling your re your welding robot, Maymax, and you've got Adam and midas from Real Steel as you're painting robots terminator and robocop blowing off water after your watch. And it it kinda caught on is we depending on the the facility and where they're at, we've got One in Georgia, that's G dog, you know, to go with the Georgia dogs. We've got we've got one that they're nicknamed the guys in the shop. They're they're following that, so we gotta a Shrek and donkey. We got Wally and Eve side by side on a twin system. So it it's a lot of fun. You know, you're not just talking about your robot. You're talking about What's Wally doing today? Well, being being the eighties child I am Wayne and Garth Campbell. I mean, it just it it's really fun as wide. We have two robots Yep. Of our customers Wayne and Garth. Yeah. We have Wayne and Garth, and they actually oppose each other in paint paint a product at the same time, you know, and, you know, Garth is doing this today. Wayne's just fine. And it's just you know who it is. The team, I can say what Wayne's doing. They know it's the robot doing the trailers in Minnesota. You know, you learn where they are, who they are, and then, you know, who's operating them, those gentlemen, they're part of our team. Yeah. You know, we talk about, hey, get someone reach out to Stewart to to do this, and we know it. I mean, they're they're they're extensions of our work That's really fun. We just added the Marvel family. We just did a really large system that we started up, the other week, four robots doing primer. Primer, coat and two doing the top coat. Yep. What are the names of those again? So, yeah. So we have, of course, Batman and Robin are are are the priming robots. And then, Hawkins Superman on the backside. So, Hawkins Superman, I really wish he was hulk and green lantern because they both shoot a a green powder. That might be a That would have been huge, but and and to see the pride to see the pride in that because it's not Like, we'll cut out a a one of our less the logos and put their name and the robot in and put it on their gauge. These guys went out and had professionally cut vinyl late on the robots, the the the the doors, you know, this is this is Batman's lair, and please don't slam the door shut softly. And, I mean, just just to see it, it's it's not a piece of equipment at that point. It's a member of your team. And when they're treated that way, It's just a success follows. Yeah. It really does. Well, then it becomes an extension of them, you know, and so that there's the pride they have in the robot and environment in the system, and then and that we continue to empower them, go learn and do it themselves, with our support. It's just it's it's incredible to see. Yeah. It's it's it's a lot of fun. A lot of smiles, almost a lot of tears when When you leave a system and they don't call for a few months, you know, as I said before, it's like your kid went off to college and they don't call you. So you you kinda check and maybe a little internet creeping on them to see what they're doing. And, you know, and eventually, it's it's one of those things where we don't. After that first couple weeks, It's just we gotta check-in to see if they're even running. But with the addition of pro stats, I have my peace of mind, and that's something we can offer from their management as Right. And they're continually improved. And now we're, yeah, now we're starting to come back to our customers that reach their annuals. And now they're doing their spam, we have a couple people out there on their second second year. And we're bringing additional software solutions that we're continuing to add to make their system better. Yep. And it's just this really need to see the evolution of our current customers The new ones are products. Your team, it's just, amazing. And our team is incredible, and you're just the perfect embodiment of of what what makes us so special here. So thank you. Well, thank you for that. Yeah. Well, guys. Awesome. Thank you, Brad, and and everyone. Thanks for joining us on another edition. Manufacture a stronger standard here at FabTech, make sure that you're checking our podcasts out. And as we continue to tackle the finishing industry and automation and continue to dry and disrupt, finishing and automation in the industry and helping you continue to move forward. Thank you.
