Fluke Reliability's Xcelerate20 and the Industrial Talk Podcast is talking to Blair Fraser, Global Director of IIoT Solutions at UE Systems about "Disrupting Your Bearing Lubrication Through Automation". Get the answers to your "Bearing Lubrication" questions along with Blair's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

It's been said that as many as 60% to 80% of premature bearing failures are lubrication related. Whether it is due to over lubrication, under lubrication, or simply using the wrong lubricant for the wrong application, it is still a lubrication related failure. One challenge for maintenance & reliability professionals is how to optimize their lubrication PM’s. Ultrasound technology is one way to assist in enhancing lubrication procedures. Using ultrasound, we can prevent lubrication failures due to over and under lubrication.

You can find out more about Blair and the wonderful team at UE Systems by the links below. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2020. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy!

BLAIR'S CONTACT INFORMATION:

Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisyourai/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ue-systems/

Company Website: https://uesystems.com/

SIGNUP FOR FLUKE RELIABILITY'S XCELERATE20, RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOT - YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPPOINTED!

[caption id="attachment_6977" align="alignnone" width="600"] Xcelerate20[/caption]

PODCAST VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/gngUTTYQPvw

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

lubrication, friction, IoT, IIoT, bearing, grease, data, people, blair, technology, lubricate, put, system, uesystems, industry, called, companies, lubricant, solution, talk

SPEAKERS

Scott MacKenzie, Blair Fraser

00:04

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.

Scott MacKenzie 00:18

So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go Hey there, welcome to the industrial talk podcast. We are 100% You know, this, this platform, this industrial talkback platform is dedicated to you. But women and men of manufacturing the women and men of industry, you are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. you innovate. But you innovate and you are changing lives and the world around you. That's why we celebrate you on this podcast pretty much every day. That's right. Now we're in love with you every single day. And that's why you are the heroes on this particular podcast. All right. Another great interview. And this is associated with Xcelerate20 right, Xcelerate20 that is a conference brought to you by those wonderful people at Fluke Reliability. We're going to be talking a little bit about that. His name is Blair Fraser. And that's f ra s. Er, ue systems is the company talking about i o t let's get rockin. Yep. All right, I want you to get out your calendar, paper pencil, something to mark it up. And I want to put this date down, you got to put these dates down on that particular calendar. It is November 17 to November 19. It is a virtual conference. Of course, it is because we live in in this pandemic world right now. And it's Xcelerate20. That's Xcelerate20.

Scott MacKenzie 01:48

That is a conference brought to you by those incredible folks at roll Fluke Reliability. And I need for you to put that down. And and quite honestly, you know what's going to happen. You can also listen to Blair Fraser, he is one of the incredible one of many, trust me one of many incredible professionals that are going to be sharing how to do things the right way in the world of asset management, reliability, IoT industry for Dotto, and anything in between the theme, the theme of this particular event, and boy, is it timely, I just want to make sure you understand it is timely. And I'm going to look over here at my other computer because I want to make sure I get it straight. The six domains of resilience. Now, you know, as well as I do to build a business of resilience, and I've been preaching this on the industrial talk podcast is that you're going to have to collaborate, you're going to have to innovate, you're going to have to educate with a sense of speed and purpose, right. And you're going to have to be able to put these processes in place. So that if Lord willing, it doesn't happen. But if it does happen, you get hit by the the two finger death, blow of the COVID or some other unusual virus, you'll have a business of resiliency. So the themes that are going to be communicated to you going forward specifically with the Xcelerate20 casts of incredible professionals is the sixth domain of resilience. Number one, vision that is purpose goal. Right, and congruency. Okay. composure. That's, that's the other one. We're talking about reasoning, health, tenacity. And of course, my favorite, my favorite is collaboration. And I'm always into that. But all of this is wrapped up in, you're going to be innovating, you're going to be definitely educating. And it is an absolute honor, that I have the opportunity to not just speak to Blair but others that will be presenting at this particular conference. And I'm telling you, they're going to bring the lumber, they're going to bring the excitement, they're going to bring the energy because you deserve it because you need to learn about this. And this is a boy, it's just a timely topic, everything that's associated with, you know, industry for Dotto IoT devices, you name it, it is a timely conversation. Now, let's get on with the interview. Blair Frasier now want to make sure you understand that that is with an S S, not a z that's FRASER, you IE systems is the company he is the global director of iiot solutions at that wonderful fine business. And we are talking about in this particular episode talking about lubrication and strategies associated with using the IoT solutions and the devices associated with it so that you can properly lube your equipment which is very doggone important, I'm telling you right now, look into that. Reach out to them. Now, everything is going to be there, you're going to have to get involved once again, November 17, through the 19th. Xcelerate20 is the event. I'm going to have that link out there. If not, you just go onto Google and pop that in there. Make sure it's an axe, and you'll find all you need. Get engaged. Get on it. I'm going to be doing it. So shoot you. Alright, let's get on with that interview. Blair Frasier is the one in the hot seat. We had a great time. Enjoy the conversation. Blair, welcome to the industrial talk podcast absolute honor that you found time in your busy schedule to talk to the listeners of this fine podcast.

Blair Fraser 05:41

It is a fine podcast. Got it. Thank you so much. Yeah. Heck, yeah. Well, that's a way to start a podcast.

Scott MacKenzie 05:49

That's right. Thank you very much for joining. All right. That was excellent. Yeah. All right. For the listeners out there, you can tell that Blair's got a little spunk in him. He's quite peppery background into who you are, and why you're such a great professional there Blair. And then we're going to talk a little bit about lubrication.

Blair Fraser 06:06

Well, I can I can give you some background about a great side of me, but absolutely. So my name is Blair Fraser, I'm the director of IoT over at ue systems, ue systems been around for 40 years in the ultrasound business in preventive maintenance, energy optimization, things like that, using ultrasound as a technology. I started my career as boots on the ground, I'm actually an a not a very good one, a licensed electrician. And what I say is, is even my own family wouldn't hire me to install a light bulb. So I think that speaks to the, to my skill set from that perspective, because I didn't do it very long. And I do go back and, and get into engineering on the electrical and automation side. So yeah, I spent, I spent the first part of my career on the shop floor, which I think, brought me a lot of real sense real life. And then I've ventured out in the technology space, the last three years prior to joining YUI systems, I focused on artificial intelligence. One is a guy like me doing an artificial intelligence, I still don't know, to this day. And again, the way I learned artificial intelligence was through brute force. And that brought me into the technology game and now at YUI systems focusing on on technology, how can leverage the power of ultrasound and bring that to more people in a more convenient, more safe way? You know,

Scott MacKenzie 07:19

what's interesting about AI, I think pre virus, pre pandemic pre two fingered, you know, death punch, I believe that people said, innovation is important to my, my process, my manufacturing my industry, yeah, but I'm going to sort of run a two to five year timeline on it COVID hits, though, then all of a sudden, we need to create a business of resiliency, and, and at that base, we've got to be able to, I mean, we've got to bring the innovation, and that's where you sort of shine. And that's where ue systems shine. Because you're you're right there where you're creating solutions for businesses that keep them up and running as long as they possibly can, which is very important. Let's talk a bit about that.

Blair Fraser 08:05

Yeah, it is, I think from a point of resiliency, I think I think it was the CEO of GM said it best if you go into this pandemic, and come out the same way you came in, you fail to take an opportunity, right. And I think it's a challenge to all of us. And what we're seeing is, it's very clear to this day is those people that invested in innovation, or an automation or some part of their digital transformation process going in to COVID with pandadoc, whatever you want to call, I don't want to go down now. But you had a better opportunity in front of you from those that did not write and we can clearly see it. And I'm sure you've done this across all industries or certain industries that lag and there's gonna be many listeners go, yeah, that's me. Right. And we all have that excuse that I'm gonna compete and innovate. But I think what we've learned from this type of technology is small incremental steps, right? That is the key. And that's what we're trying to do a ue systems. I'll give you an example. You mentioned, you know, we help companies operate safer, more reliable, more energy efficient, and we do, but the key part to remember is we are one piece of a larger puzzle, right? And what I love what's happening in industry is the big giants, right? A companies and the small mom and pop shops now are all contributing to a better, more efficient work environment. See,

Scott MacKenzie 09:21

that's, that's interesting. You bring that up, because, you know, everybody understands that the one side of that sword and that sword is painful that that COVID sword, yes, we got it. People are hurting. There's some challenges the other side, and you just brought it up, you sort of touched upon it. There is a greater spirit of collaboration. There has to be and there

Blair Fraser 09:39

has to be people listening to this podcast. We're the ones that running it. And I love it because the giant companies are not going to end the event I'm talking about vendors are not going to own the ecosystem. We've seen it we've seen companies try to we'll build this ecosystem for you and it's going to have everything No, you know what, you know what we're really good at altra sound you know what, we're not really good at a lot of Other things, so don't come to us with the other things, we are going to supply you with world class best in class altra sound solutions, use it for that, if you want to tie it into other systems, that's great. You're going to play in their sandbox,

Scott MacKenzie 10:12

too. And I love that. I think that that is a beautiful statement, because I, I really believe that and I believe the fact that when we start to, to look back, we're gonna say, Okay, yeah, some people, yeah, they didn't take advantage, but there's gonna be a lot of people who are saying, that was the best that that unfortunate situation was the best for my business. Because I was able to contact Blair, we created greater focus into what we needed to do just because we needed to, and we're not dealing with all the, you know, the, you know, the shiny objects out

Blair Fraser 10:44

there, it's great to be lots of shiny things. Yeah. And, and that's, that's what I tell people is, you can go and start to Google IoT solutions. And you can find so many solutions, I lost track, I used to keep track of them and follow them to see technology and I, I love technology, even it's from a competitor. I love it, right? Because we're all contributing to the better good, the sandbox is huge, right? But here's the and keep this in mind. I'm the director of IoT a UV systems, companies, people don't need IoT. Right, what they need is a solution to a problem. IoT is a mechanism is a tool that could possibly solve that problem, not guarantee it, but it's a it's a tool, a method to solve a problem, what you need to do is figure out how to solve a problem. And hopefully IoT has an aspect to that. I love it. And you're absolutely spot on. And I think those conversations are happening, because I think that people are saying, like, I can't, I can't dilly dally, I've got to come up with solutions to my problem. Right, those problems are what? Here's the reality and and another CEO of Microsoft, right, came out and said, digital transformation changed in more than two months that didn't last 10 years or something like that, and totally agree, because what are we seeing is, you know, a lot of us are gonna listen to this podcast, and we're sitting at home, I, I used to be on a plane every other day. I haven't left my house. I'm getting I don't know what to do. I got it like painted or something. Right. I haven't left my house. So here's the challenge. I'm now supporting customers, I'm having these conversations are in technical talks with all these companies, and I'm doing it from from my house, and it's something I could I thought was never possible before. You know, I'm a face to face person, I want to look you in the eyes, make sure I trust you see how you act, make sure you put your shopping cart away. Right. those type of things? And then and then, you know, do that. But I'm learning these face to face conversations. No, we're lucky we know each other from the past. Right? But what a difference these these technologies can do.

Scott MacKenzie 12:41

Right? And you're absolutely correct. And I think it's forever changed, right? I mean, it's it's harder for business to justify Blair to jump on a plane to go talk to somebody, when maybe it's just a 15 minute conversation, we could do it by zoom, and it'd be just every bit as effective. And I think that there are going to be other consequences that are resulting from this. And some people can say, Why do I need that office? Right? I just stay in your house and no talking, you know,

Blair Fraser 13:08

well, that's right. So here's the thing. Now, now many of us are getting overloaded with zoom meetings and things like that. Yeah. So you've been proven that these virtual meetings are way more tiring than actually meeting in person. So if you ever get done a day of just back to back meetings, and you're exhausted, you're like, I didn't do anything. Well, it was talking to a screen, but I'm exhausted. That's why. But we flip that on to the end of what we're seeing now with IoT, in particular condition monitoring. And I have gone out and said, I think we're at a crisis point, I think we have a serious problem with IoT and condition monitoring. Because I think we are getting so much data, so much data, we don't know what to do with now we can strap a sensor on to anything and get data. You don't necessarily what it means, right? And I come from me, I know the value of collecting data data, I still don't believe data is the new gold, I believe, insights. Yeah, new gold data is just the raw material, right? Gold is the iron ore if you will to get that gold. But we're focusing on capturing this data. And for the AI background, absolutely collect data. never delete data, always save that day. You never know when you need it. But really what we're trying to get to is insights, we're trying to solve that problem. How do we get to insights? So you can start to log in these systems and get all this information. But how do we get insights? Right? But

Scott MacKenzie 14:23

isn't there a way to be able to say, Okay, I'm collected data, and there's data, no man is a tsunami. And when somebody says I can, I can put an IoT device out there, and that device is cheap. And all I do is just sort of stick it out there. And now it's into the cloud, right? There's data everywhere, and it is a tsunami. The key is to be able to take that data and really create the parameters of saying, this is important data. This is not important data, get rid of that, because maybe it's not, but then of course, you want to save it all.

Blair Fraser 14:55

Yeah, of course. Yeah. No, and AI is gonna help it AI is gonna help you That data start to tell us and I love it big fan of artificial intelligence. But also, there is also there's data, there's insights and a very, very small portion of that data we're collecting is what I call actionable insights. What can I, what can I do from the data turned to insights turned to actual instance? I can do and let's let's talk about a bearing, for example. Yeah. So bearings, they're spinning around in our plants or our industry everywhere, right? It is said that 80% of premature bearing failures can be traced back to port lubrication practices. Right?

Scott MacKenzie 15:38

Yeah. Too much not enough. That's right. Whatever. It's just like, right. Yeah.

Blair Fraser 15:44

Right. So so it to me, it's a smoking gun. Right. Emma says, Well, I have a have a downtime issue with my rotating equipment. Well, your bearings, I think was SPF come up with the study saying less than 11% of roller elementary anti friction bearings meet their design life?

Scott MacKenzie 15:58

Less than 11%? Less than 11. So I don't know if it was 10.9. round down and say

Blair Fraser 16:05

10%, we can say that, right? So...