If you've ever peered into the toolkits of electrical engineers, factory engineers, lab technicians, or anyone else who works with industrial equipment, you may have come across Fluke's yellow-cased equipment.
The 75-year-old company specializes in industrial equipment and solutions. Its tools can monitor power, temperature, and vibration in industrial equipment to detect mechanical problems and wear.
here, information age We speak with Ankush Malhotra and Aaron Merkin from Fluke Reliability. Fluke Reliability focuses on reliability and asset longevity using maintenance, critical data collection, reconciliation, and machine learning, helping customers deploy her AI solutions to move operations from reactive to predictive This is a business division that makes it possible. .
Throughout history, every major “advancement” has been perceived as a threat to the livelihoods of the existing workforce, especially AI.
However, there is an argument that they tend to create more employment opportunities than they replace. what is your view? Could advances in AI exacerbate or alleviate the global skills shortage?
Malhotra: “What we’re seeing now with AI, especially generative AI, is in terms of impact and scale as big as electrification and the introduction of the internet. It’s huge, and with generative AI, It has become more widespread and accessible.
“In our context of serving industrial facilities and improving customer outcomes, including increased asset uptime, increased sustainability, efficiency, and increased machine life, we see a huge opportunity for AI. thinking about.
“We have aging assets and there is a lot of pressure to extend the life of those assets from a sustainability perspective and because they cost a lot of money to replace. We also have a severe labor shortage. There are 3.5 million manufacturing jobs needed over the next 10 years, 2 million of which will go unfilled because the workforce doesn't have the skills needed for the jobs. It doesn’t take away jobs, it fills a gap that we can’t fill.”
“We also provide value in the form of co-pilots. With Azima DLI as an example, our recent acquisition brings AI-powered vibration analysis and remote condition monitoring solutions to our connected reliability products. Enabling customers to move from reactive to AI-enabled predictive maintenance.
Ninety-three percent of the data ingested into Azima's diagnostic library requires no human intervention, while 7 percent does. We leverage technology, but we don't dehumanize it. ”
Connected reliability: Can you elaborate on that concept? What are the benefits for businesses? Do you have any examples of customers who have achieved this?
Merkin: “If you think about all the data that customers have in manufacturing, there are a lot of different systems. It’s about integrating them all.”
Malhotra: “An example of this concept in action is the Jack Daniel's cooperage, which produces barrels for Jack Daniel's whiskey. Dust collection systems are in use and must remain operational or production will be halted. It is important in this business that there is no downtime, resulting in wasted or lost production. This can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. That's why we introduced smart vibration sensors that collect data and send it to the cloud to report anomalies. Generate work orders within CMMS eMaint for remediation by the maintenance team before they occur. This shows how connected reliability ties together workflows and drives asset efficiency and uptime. This is an example.”
Breakthroughs in the field of AI, including machine learning, have the potential to dramatically change the way we approach work, impacting both your business and the business of your customers. You all know this.
Is it significantly changing customer expectations? How is it specifically benefiting customers?
Malhotra: “The key is data collection. We have trillions of data points on over 80,000 machines, so we can use algorithms and data to predict when machines will fail and why. Azima has been doing this for 30 years. We don't use generative AI, but we do use machine learning.
“In our case, if we ask our customers whether they prefer corrective or predictive maintenance, they will all choose predictive maintenance. There's a huge need to do more predictive maintenance because of the ripple effects that we're having, and this technology now allows us to deliver that as a solution to make things more efficient. I think there's an expectation and a clear need to do that, and I think both traditional machine learning and generative AI are helping customers do that.”
Sustainability permeates nearly every new industrial planning initiative.
Are you seeing a change in how your customers talk about sustainability as technology advances? How are you working with them to achieve these sustainability goals?
Malhotra: “From a governance, shareholder and stakeholder perspective, there is a clear need for companies to be sustainable, but it is also the right thing to do. We are seeing that change, and in some regions and industries We see more of that change than other regions, and that's natural.
“To me, we have a role to play. Tools and software to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals of using their machines longer, increasing energy efficiency and extending the life of their machines.” Our job is to help our customers understand the link between effective asset management and utilization and sustainability.”
Merkin: “We are very proud that 100% of our portfolio contributes to our sustainability goals. By being proactive rather than reactive, we reduce damage to assets and save needed spares. You can reduce the amount of parts and goods, which means you can produce more with less resources.The key to improving machine performance is to avoid unnecessary friction and vibration. to adjust.”
Everyone is talking about Industry 4.0, along with IIoT, but some people think it's a baseless and made-up concept. What do you think here? Can we expect Industry 5.0?
Merkin: “Industry 4.0 was about incorporating data into traditional AI to provide better insights. Industry 5.0 is about the next generation of that. even when incorporating copilot technology to provide better instructions on how to perform tasks.
“For example, if you have someone who has been working on an asset for 30 years, they could do it in 90 minutes. If you bring in a new person, that person's efficiency decreases. There is an increased risk that what should be maintenance actually damages the asset. By using generative AI technology, you can wipe out the expertise, improving the efficiency of your results and improving your skills in the meantime. can.
“There's always a lot of hype around this kind of thing, whether it's Industry 4.0 or 5.0, but fundamentally it's something that's very real and will bring great benefits to our customers. We want to be a part of that too.”
Ankush Malhotra and Aaron Mirkin are President and CTO of Fluke Reliability.
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