Have you ever heard of pneumatics? Even if you haven’t, pneumatics, which is the use of compressed air, affects the world around you and the tools you use every day. In this episode of The Innovators, we talk to John Halvorson, the Director of Marketing at SMC, about pneumatics and robotics, grandfatherly advice, engineering, and everything in between.
Over 50 years ago, SMC was founded by one person who wanted to solve customers’ needs in the industrial automation industry. Today, SMC and its over 18,000 employees have revolutionized pneumatic automation, finding ways to curb the manufacturing industry’s carbon footprint.
For more information on pneumatics, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.
Have you ever heard of pneumatics? Even if you haven’t, pneumatics, which is the use of compressed air, affects the world around you and the tools you use every day. In this episode of The Innovators, we talk to John Halvorson, the Director of Marketing at SMC, about pneumatics and robotics, grandfatherly advice, engineering, and everything in between.
Over 50 years ago, SMC was founded by one person who wanted to solve customers’ needs in the industrial automation industry. Today, SMC and its over 18,000 employees have revolutionized pneumatic automation, finding ways to curb the manufacturing industry’s carbon footprint.
For more information on pneumatics, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.
It all starts with one idea. Have you ever wondered how today's top CEOs, business leaders and people who work for the most innovative companies in the world found success? Join host George Davison, as he explores the innovators that are shaping tomorrow's world today.
George Davison:Today we have John Halvorsen who is the director of marketing for SMC. They're a company that does pneumatics and a lot of other advanced technology out there, but I'd like to think of them as, uh, a robot maker as well. Good morning, John.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Good morning, George. Thanks for having me.
George Davison:It's great to have you here today. Well, I'm hoping that today we can, uh, help our audience take a look into the future a little bit as to where the jobs of the future are. And if we can explain a little bit about how you got to where you are and your career, um, maybe we can shed some light on how things come to be. Sounds good. All right. Well, can you tell me a little bit about how SMC was actually founded?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Absolutely. As SMC was a, uh, started in 1959 in Japan making, uh, the first product that they manufactured was centered metal elements for industrial filters out of a garage, just a really small location. And over the next dozen years, SMC started manufacturing other components for industrial automation, including solenoid valves, pneumatic actuators, and air preparation equipment. So filters regulators lubricators to prepare the compressed air, which is pneumatics is the use of compressed air. And, um, since then, since that time, uh, I guess in 1977, we SMC started their us subsidiary SMC corporation of America. I wasn't there at that time. Um, so, and since then, we're now the world's largest supplier of component pneumatic components for industrial automation, as well as we offer a lot of other products for industrial automation and process automation.
George Davison:Interesting. So for the audience, let's kind of walk it back a little bit and kind of break this into two pieces. If we could know a little more about your founder and what was the cause if you know, back when, what caused the founder to actually create the organization, that would be the first part of the question. And then can we talk a little more about describing how pneumatics works and why it works the way it does?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Right. So, u h, those are great questions that our Mr. T akata was really looking for what customers needed. That's really been the driving principle of the company ever since, ever since it started is listening to customers in the industrial automation space and finding out, oh, do you have a problem we can help you with, we can help you fix that. And we can try to create a unique solution that really helps customers, u m, to become more efficient and, u h, to, you know, to lower t heir lower, their operating costs o r lower their production costs.
George Davison:So in a way, he was using his observational skills and his listening skills and going out to an audience and inquiring how, what are their needs so that he could figure out a way to maybe help fulfill those needs. And that created an opportunity. Is that fair?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Perfect assessment of it, yes. It's if there's a, if there's a need, let's find, let's really understand that need from a lot of different angles. And then let's, um, let's develop a product that's going to fit that need so that, um, and then, and then there's the whole everything after, you know, the, the, um, all the, all the work that comes after that, but having that idea and, and a need from a customer is really the first step.
George Davison:Wonderful. So that's great for the audience to understand, you know, when you're starting out in the world, it's a trying to understand how to figure out your way in life and what you may be interested in doing with your career. So it seems as though he figured out that he wanted to solve some problems for companies that's right. Okay. And then, so he became, uh, somewhat of an expert in the world of pneumatics. And so for the audience, you know, why don't we delve into that a little bit and try to describe it in such a way that they can really grasp what air and pressures all about in their own home. We see that, or even in the human body, they have, they have a pneumatic system, don't they?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Right. So I would guess that of all your listeners, 99% of them have a pneumatic device in their garage, it's called a bike pump. So a bike pump is essentially, uh, taking air and compressing it into the bike tire. So a, an industrial pneumatic system works very similarly, except it's working in opposite. We're using an industrial compressor to charge the tank or the tire, and then we're releasing the air in the other direction. So in a, in a, for a bike, for a bike pump, you're using, you're creating the force, you're pumping the tire in a, in an industrial application, the bike pumps, moving on its own, it's generating, it's using the compressed air as an energy source. And then it's perhaps holding, uh, a work piece in place in a machine it's perhaps it's moving a box off a conveyor belts, or that the force is not applied by the, by the human hand. The force is applied by the bike pump itself. So it's like a bike pump and reverse
George Davison:Wonderful. So in other words, like if I'm on the Amazon, uh, production line, there's a million Backpages coming down there a day. I wouldn't want to be the human being, having to push the box off the assembly line a million times that day. So
John Halvorsen, SMC:Your arm would get tired.
George Davison:So a pneumatic arm, an air compressor and air compression is starting to move that, that lever to push the box off the line. Isn't it?
John Halvorsen, SMC:That's right. Yeah. And it's, uh, without getting too deep into the math, it's a force equals pressure times area. So if I have 80 pounds per square inch or 60 pounds per square inch of compressed air, and if I have, um, the, uh, a small piston, that's going to be a smaller force. If I have a big heavy box, I need a big piston, more for big piston is more area or SQLs pressure times area. So a bigger area behind the piston means bigger force.
George Davison:Wonderful. Hey, we just got, we just figured out that math, math works!
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. I actually had a use for it turns out
George Davison:That's great stuff. Well, thanks for that. Hopefully that gets a picture going in our audience's mind as to how the world of pneumatics somewhat came about, and then, uh, how it's making an impact to make, let's say work life better for human beings. Right, right. Um, so let's talk a little bit about your position at SMC and, uh, you know, let's, can you walk me back to, let's say, can you remember back when you were in high school and what was going on and, you know, take us through some of the good, and if you can tell us a little failure or two along the way, you know, like we usually fail our way forward in life. And, uh, I think it's good for our young people to understand that that's normal.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I was, um, went to high school in the Midwest and, um, I always knew I was on an engineering route. So, um, I applied to, to, um, to several schools and was accepted to most of them and, uh, went to school for mechanical engineering. And it, I was actually a mechanical engineer for 10 years, but found that that wasn't really the right fit for me. And, uh, went back to school and got a, master's an MBA master's of business administration. And then interestingly ended up right back at the same company that I started. So I left engineering, which, uh, the company was SMC. I left did some other things, got an MBA and said, I'm, I'm going to go work in business and ended up right back at the same company that I started with, um, in, in more of a business role. Um, so I've, I worked in a product manager, product manager position, which is kind of a in-between between our engineering group and our sales group we're trying in, in, and really, if I could summarize my position, um, we, in, in industrial marketing, we're looking for, what do customers need and trying to understand how do we design products for the future. So that's probably the number one most important thing that, that my group, that my department does.
George Davison:Interesting. So when you're developing products for the future course, companies don't know what those things are yet. So part of the marketing, uh, part of the marketing need is to try to figure out a way to communicate the future in such a way that your new customer out there is going to understand what that new future could look like. Right.
John Halvorsen, SMC:That's right. Yeah. So sometimes it's in order to get a new product, um, like a baseline of a product, we may have to create a prototype and show that prototype to customers and say, if you go, if you go with a blank piece of paper to a hundred different, uh, manufacturing locations, you're going to get a hundred different answers, a hundred different ideas. So we, we kind of have to narrow it down to a couple, um, you know, uh, to, to a few things that, that are viable. And so a prototype product we might bring to a customer and say, well, do you like this one? And what do you like about it? What do you not like about it? And a lot of products, a lot of prototypes that we come up with don't ever even end up as, uh, as products in the end, just because, um, we, we had a better idea or we found that there weren't, there wasn't a lot of interest in that product. So, uh, the, the, the whole process of product development is, um, it's, there's a lot of starts and stops. And, um, and it's just really important to collect that data over time and really study it and really understand what customers want and need.
George Davison:That's great information so that, uh, when the students are actually developing their ideas into prototypes, and then they have to go out and talk in front of other people about what it is, uh, you know, we would hope they have had enough time to fail a few times to perfect their product, to get to the point where when they get out there, they really have they're feeling good about what they created. And they feel as though they are bringing something to their audience that, uh, that they need. Right.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yes. Uh, if I think the act of going through failure in a safe environment, in a controlled, safe environment is, is a good thing. You learn a lot from, from that. Um, I, I don't like to always call it failure, you know, failure. It could just be a, um, an idea that never blossomed or an idea that stopped because you had another idea. There's so many different things we can do with our time every day. And I could have a hundred ideas in my, you know, written on a piece of paper, but I only have time for two or three of them. So a lot of times we have to table those other ideas and try to, but I always try to hold on to any of those ideas so that we're not, um, so we don't have, you know, sometimes idea generation brainstorming. Um, we, we want to catalog those does an blossomed ideas, and maybe we'll come back to them at some point in the future.
George Davison:So it's a learning process is what we're, what we're getting at. Right, right. Yeah. So, you know, you're, uh, you ended up is a marketing person, but started off as an engineering person. It's an interesting, uh, path that you've traveled on. Um, were there any other, uh, you know, work-related experiences that you had in between?
John Halvorsen, SMC:So, um, it was a, it was a gradual shift is the, uh, working as an engineer was, um, one thing that I found was I was spending a lot more time with interfacing with my computer, uh, doing designs. And I really felt like I didn't have that personal connection with people. So the, it was a pretty quick turn to go from engineering and then to move more into a business role. But what I found was it's really for, for me at least, um, I really enjoy the people aspect and the communication collaboration with others that I'm working as a design engineer. You do have that to a point. But, um, what I enjoy about my job now is, is it's a lot more, there's a lot more, um, communication with others and presenting ideas, explaining concepts to others.
George Davison:It sounds like you've evolved from when you were younger to where you are now, and you've identified stepping stones to go from one to another, and it's okay to do that in life, right?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. If I I'm still changing, I never thought I'd be on a podcast with, with you. Um, so, you know, and it's, uh, but I'm not going to be intimidated and I'm not going to say, oh, I can't do that. I might try it. And it doesn't work out that well, but that's fine. I'll I'll, um, I'll go back. I'll listen, I'll regroup and I'll figure out how do I do it better next time.
George Davison:That's a great attitude and it's great overly. Hopefully we can give some of that confidence into the kids too, you know? Right. The, um, so how important would you say stem based classes for someone I'm interested in, let's say pursuing a career with your company, how important would something like that
John Halvorsen, SMC:It's going to be pretty important, but there's, it's not, it's not a be all end all there's. There are, we have a lot of, um, we have a lot of opportunities for outgoing people who like to be in front of customers to go and sell our product. We actually have a six month training program to try to I'll call it. I'll say level off. Some of the, for those who didn't have the, the stem training, we can provide that we actually have a six month training program where we can provide that for them. However, it does help. The more you bring to the table that the better off you're going to be, and it doesn't even have to be formal training, just something as simple as knowing, knowing the difference between a Crescent wrench and a pair of pliers knowing I'm all right. If I can tell you a story really quickly, go ahead. Uh, one of the first jobs that I had in between as, as a, as a student, as an engineering student, I was working in this, um, at this company for the summer that made these, uh, plastic, um, uh, uh, water, um, like for a drainage ditch or something, and made the plastic pipes for, for drainage ditches. And I was trying to, I was wrestling with this thing, trying to figure it out. They wanted me to pressure test it. And I asked for some help from one of the maintenance guys there, one of the maintenance workers. And, um, he I'm like, I'm sitting there with a screwdriver trying to try or with, uh, um, trying to tighten a bolt. And he's like, well, son, I'll tell you what your problem is. You don't have to remember my name. You don't have to remember anything about this, but I don't want you to remember one thing when you're screwing in a bolt righty, tighty lefty, loosey. I was trying to thread it the wrong way I was going the wrong way. So just some of those simple, um, just, you know, being able to work with your hands, um, just little things like that can, can really go a long way in establishing what, you know, and then building a platform so that you can film on top of the
George Davison:That's. Great. And that's thank you for that story by our way. Okay.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Uh, and I don't remember the guy's name. Maybe he, he told me not to remember it, so I subconsciously forgot it.
George Davison:You send us like a great guy, you know, he's willing to help help the, uh, the young buck coming up through the system. Right. Right. Well, that'd be great. All right. Thank you for sharing that, uh, about the, um, how would students get hands-on experience to build skills that they may be able to use in their adult lives? Do you have any suggestions? I mean, that was a good story. Is it just go out and let's say work on your bicycle and take it apart. Or do you have any suggestions on how to hands-on with some mechanical experience?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. So definitely look at your opportunities. Maybe you have a, uh, a space like in, uh, like invention land, where you can come and, and, um, where it's more of a, uh, formal controlled environment. But if you don't have that, everybody's got a bike pump in their garage, everybody's got tools in their garage. I'm not saying, you know, make sure you wear your safety glasses, make sure you're not going to make sure you know how to operate the tool. You're not going to get hurt. My, um, one time, uh, my, my daughter, when she, I have three children, my daughter, when she was younger, um, we were spending, um, it was a summer day and we were out in the garage and I was trying to do some work. I can't remember what project I was working on. And she came out and she said, well, can I help? I said, yeah, absolutely. So I gave her a power drill. Um, the battery was only about 25%. So I knew it didn't have a lot of power to it, but she drilled hole. She drilled her name into a, um, I had just a piece of plywood or a piece, or, you know, uh, one by, and she drilled her name into the board and took her to, um, one of, one of the skills she has now is how to operate a power drill. So, and that's all it takes. You just have to get out, you know, don't be afraid to pick up a tool, try to use it. Don't, don't be afraid to try two different tools and ask yourself, well, which one works better? Does this one work better or does this one work better? And, um, I, I also have a lot of, uh, spare parts just around my garage, just to try to say, you know, what, what can I build today? What, what, what should I do? Um, you know, how can I fix something in my house without spending any money and, and trying to make, uh, you know, trying to make some, have some fun with it.
George Davison:That's a good catalyst right there. Cause things tend to, you know, they do wear out or they do break and, you know, buying new, isn't always the answer. It's can I go out and figure out a way? Um, so not being afraid to take something apart, look at it, using your observational analysis, try to find the broken part. And then how can I repair that? And, uh, if you can walk away with it from that experience with, uh, not being afraid of tools and building confidence around that maybe your maker skills will start to grow.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Right. Well said.
George Davison:Oh, thank you. Um, so let's see here. So knowing what, you know today, what advice would you give a person interested in entering your industry today?
John Halvorsen, SMC:So it's a different that, that's a great question, George. And it's, it's a different industry today than when I joined way back. When, um, when, when I joined there, you either, had you had your mechanical products, you had your electrical products and where today it's, there's a combination of looking at, um, looking at high volume, um, looking at, uh, the factories that, that are being created today. There's really a need to understand both the mechanical aspect of, uh, of, uh, design and the electrical aspect. I know, by the way, we can collect all this data now and put it into like, put it down on a cloud server. So there's, there's an it piece of it. Uh, there's, there's an it piece to the equation as well. So my, my advice would be, learn a little bit of something about everything, because it all kind of comes together. Of course you want to specialize when you, you know, if you're going to go to college, you're going to get a degree in something, but try to take a class that you don't know, something about, try it, try to expand your understanding so that you at least know you have a minimum, minimum level of understanding across multiple disciplines.
George Davison:That's great advice. So it's maybe a little bit of coding, maybe a little bit of a mechanical, um, feeling with mechanical devices of some sort. And I've when I was a boy, I used to take things apart and I had some, uh, my uncle Bob is what I called him. He was like my Cub scout master, but we used to take stuff apart all the time. And, um, I think it was just such a wonderful experience. Um, he didn't have to explain everything, but what I would see is that he would take things apart and he just figured out, he'd figure out a way to put them all back together and, uh, and learn how to use tools and, uh, in many different forms. But your, your advice would be with where the world's going today. There's a lot of it. There's a lot of mechanical still, right. Robotics is really starting to take off and, uh, an AI is coming around. Right. So, uh, how do we touch? How would you say, uh, from the world that we're in today, you have three daughters and are you trying to find a way to give them a little bit of experience in, in those zones as they're growing up? And if you have, have you found a unique way to try to get through to them? So they kind of get the picture?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah, I try to use, uh, day-to-day, uh, it's, there's too many things to teach my, to teach, to teach my children all, all at once. So I try to pick one thing at a time. And, um, it's, you know, maybe today it's how to check your oil in your car. Maybe tomorrow, it's how to change a broken fuse in your car because you honked the horn too much and you Burton and it burnt out the few, you know, that's okay. Uses are inexpensive, but maybe we shouldn't haunt. Maybe we shouldn't hold the horn down for that long cause. Cause we know what's going to happen. Maybe that's a symptom of another problem, the car. So just trying to use, um, use everyday as a learning opportunity to, uh, learn, to learn a different skill, get a different skill in your toolbox. And, um, uh, just over time, as, as I'd said before that you, you have all that you have that higher platform, you know, um, one, uh, a quote that I'd like to mention is, uh, as, as a mechanical engineer, Isaac Newton is Newton's laws of motion. That's, that's kind of like the core, um, that the core scientists who we built a lot of, I built a lot of my knowledge around and he had a saying, I don't think it was his saying, he's just the first famous guy that said it. Okay. He said something to the effect of if I could see further than the, than other people it's because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. So, and what he meant by that was if you are at least how I interpret that is, is if you can be mentored, if you can mentor someone, they're probably going to start at a higher level in, or a higher understanding of how the world works and they're going to do better than you did. They're going to, you know, and that's the, we see that through, through, um, all the, all the different technological innovations that are occurring today and the rapid pace of innovation.
George Davison:Wonderful. Quote. Good. Thank you for that. That's another good story. All right. Super. Uh, so next question would be, do you believe anyone can be successful? And if so, what do you think some of the most basic building blocks need to be in order to empower our youth?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yes. I think anyone can be successful. I think, uh, one of, I think confidence is really important. Treating others, treating others with respect is important. Being able to communicate is important, and it's not just being able to communicate. It's being able to communicate something of value, something that, or an idea or a concept. So, absolutely. And I believe anyone can be successful. Um, maybe today people get perhaps pigeonholed into where you can't do this and you can't do this. And my advice to those people is, yeah, you can't, you know, you, you can, you just have to find a way around that person who just, who made you, who explicitly told you, you couldn't do it, or perhaps, um, a lot of the times I know with youth, they may feel as if they can't do something, no one ever told them they couldn't. They just feel, um, well, I can't do that. You know, I'm not good enough. I can't do that. And just, um, yeah, you can just, don't, don't be afraid if, if you go through life, you're going to be stressed out in life. If you go through life stressed about, you can stress out about the little things like, oh, you know, did I, I locked my keys, so I leave my keys in my car. Did I forget to do this? Or you can worry about the big things like, oh, am I going to be late for being on a podcast? Or so I've chosen to try to be worried about the bigger things and then the little things just kind of go away.
George Davison:That's great advice. Thank you. Uh, how about, um, mentors? Did you have any mentors when you were growing up? What giant shoulders were you standing? Right?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah, that's a great question. Um, so of course, you know, my, um, my parents, my grandparents, um, I had a lot of teachers who I know believed in me and, um, who helped me to really understand abstract concepts or, or, uh, complex, complex things. So as far as mentors, you know, there's not, I don't have any one person in particular. It's probably a conglomerate of multiple, you know, different people. Um, there was the guy who taught me righty, tighty lefty, loosey, right. He was a mentor it's you can learn from anybody. You just have to be able to communicate with them and, um, you know, let them know, Hey, um, I'm having some trouble here. And in that case, that gentleman you saw, I was having trouble and good for him. He could have just walked away because he could have done nothing. Maybe I would have figured it out eventually, maybe, maybe I would've thrown down the tools and discussed and quit and, uh, not gone into engineering, but, um, I don't, I don't have any one particular mentor, but, um, you know, trying to just being, being kind and, uh, treating others with respect, opens the pathways for that positive mentoring communication, where you can learn from someone.
George Davison:Right. And I think as we, you know, approach where we're getting a little older it's, I think it's a part of our responsibility to mentor those who are younger than us, the way others mentored us. Right. I mean, I feel good, always trying to help our youth, uh, to build their confidence, to try new things experiment until they find a path that's their path. Right. And I like that a lot. So
John Halvorsen, SMC:Absolutely. I would agree.
George Davison:How about, um, do you have any maker tip for today? Like if I was working at SMC or I wanted to work at SMC one day, um, we call them maker tips or, you know, like basic making. So from your, from the world of understanding how air is moved, um, maybe through that pneumatics world, is there any maker tip? That would be helpful for me to know if I worked at SMC.
John Halvorsen, SMC:So I'm going to deviate a little bit on that question. It's not going to be specific to, uh, to SMC. I'm going to use a quote that I got from my grandfather and perhaps other people have heard this already, but I think it's, it's pretty, u m, i t's, it's, it's a, it's a good quote measure twice. Cut points. That's a great quote. Yeah, you can, you can't put, if you cut a piece of wood in half and you cut it too short, it's really hard to put those two pieces back together.
George Davison:It's really, his grandpa did a good, uh, that was good advice from grandpa. So I see something on the table here today. Uh, did we touch on that a little bit? What's what's going on?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. So what I have here is a, um, it's a part, this is an end effector for a collaborative robot. So essentially this is two fingers that can open and close to pick up an object, perhaps move it over here and then drop an object. So this is designed to interface with a common manufacturer of collaborative robots, and it's using compressed air as, as the energy source. So it's a pneumatic gripper. And, um, here I have all my communications through this cable, through this electrical cable. So, um, I brought this because now this isn't everything that my company does, but I do think it's pretty inspiring because now I can say, I make parts for robots and that sound stack that captures people's attention.
George Davison:Right. Right. And one day you'll be a grandpop and grandpop do what he makes. He makes parts for robots and okay,
John Halvorsen, SMC:Just cool. Enough said, then you just dropped the mic.
George Davison:That's good stuff. Well, what a nice part. So in other words, I'm on an assembly line and maybe now I'm not just pushing a box off, right. Also the assembly line that has a million parts going by a day. Now we are picking a box up, maybe pulling it off and putting it on another assembly line. Is that, so that's what that robotic arm could do for us, right?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Exactly. Yeah. There there's, you know, think about it, George, all the, all the applications where a person can pick something up and place it now, um, if, once it becomes, um, once it becomes repetitive, we can do that now with, with a collaborative robot with robots. And, um, it's, you know, we're going back to that, that the first analogy with pushing a box off a conveyor belt, that's kind of brute force where this has a little more finesse, this is more of a softer touch. Um, there is still the, I don't know this, this particular product wouldn't work well with like a donut it's going to squish the donut. So there's, there's, you have to think about the force control. Um, but there are products that can do that type of work as well. So, uh, where they have different ways to, uh, gently pick up an object without crushing it.
George Davison:So isn't that interesting where we have the world of pneumatics and then inside the world in pneumatics, many other little worlds aren't there,
John Halvorsen, SMC:There are, yeah, there's, there's so many, and there's so many different applications. A lot of times we'll have products that are, that are kind of general purpose that can be used in, uh, in a variety of applications. But say, for example, this, this component, this is designed specifically as an end effector for a collaborative, for a specific brand of collaborative robots. So it's a very specialized part. Um, but as, as the, as the industry, as other manufacturers complete their product lines and build up their product lines, our products are continually changing to match up with those, with those other innovations
George Davison:Understood. So in the early days it was your founder. A single person as an entrepreneur. And here we are all these years later, are we talking about a couple hundred people who work with the company worldwide or h ow, how large is the organization?
John Halvorsen, SMC:We went from in 1959 just one person's idea, where today we have over 18,000 employees globally.
George Davison:Isn't that wonderful?
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. A lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of, a lot of jobs, um, a lot of improvement in people's lives from that one gentlemen who decided to venture out there and become an entrepreneur and solve problems.
George Davison:Isn't that wonderful. I a dd. U m, so let's kind of move into the future if we could for a minute. Sure. U m, so what do you think the next big innovation might be in your industry?
John Halvorsen, SMC:The next big innovation? Well, we there's a lot of, uh, right now there's a lot of cables. And, um, one of the products that we had highlighted, uh, recently was our wireless communications system. So a lot of times, um, so I, I really see wireless and products that, that can communicate with different industrial ethernet networks and other, other communication protocols. So there's a lot of, um, I'll call it digitalization. So combining a mechanical design with an electrical control system, but making sure that it's done in a safe, on a safe protocol with, with all the machine safety in place. So really, um, I guess I'll, I'll summarize, it's really three things. It's sustainability. How do we make products with that consume the least amount of energy that, uh, for a given output it's safety, how do we design products that have that meet all necessary safety requirements? So people are safe, um, during the manufacturing process and the products that manufacturers are making are safe and digitalization. How do I, how do I send feedback through, in, in this, for this product that we're looking at here, how do I send feedback back through this cable to a programmable logic controller? So I have a digital record of how many times this, this gripper, how many times an actuator understood, and we can use that data for predictive analytics. So, as an example, if I see a pneumatic actuator and it's cycle time used to be three seconds, and now it's four seconds. Maybe it's time to change that change that maybe I've got a broken seal, I've got a leak in the system. So trying to use data, it analytics to improve the operation of machines.
George Davison:That's very interesting. So you can predict when let's say a seal is going to go bad and you're going to lose 25% of your efficiency on a production line. That's right. And then that leads to additional problems in that system. Right. So seeing that, uh, you are always running at optimum performance would be the goal.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. It's almost, almost like, um, in a way it's almost like, are you had mentioned in the beginning about our bodies have co you know, have, have, um, uh, there's similarities between our body. So if my, if my blood pressure is going up, that's a signal. I need to do something. I need to exercise more. I need to, um, re you know, do something in a, in a pneumatic system, in a machine. We see those same signals. We just have to be able to measure them and pay attention to them. So if I'm not taking my blood, if I'm not taking my blood pressure reading, when I go to the doctor and I have blood pressure problems, well, it's because I wasn't measuring it where it's in, today's in the future of, uh, of, of pneumatics looking at trying to get more of that data, whether it's blood pressure, uh, the press, like whether it's pressure, the flow, the cycle time, the position of a part, and keep in mind, we have a lot of machines that are produced. We have a lot of data from different machines, so I can, I can have 10 different machines. And I noticed that all nine of them are operating exactly the same within, within a set of parameters. But machine number 10 is, is doing something a little wonky. It's doing something different than all the rest. So, um, I can study that data over time and predict in advance. Oh yeah. I, when, whenever we see it start doing that, that, that little thing that it does, it's time to change this part on the machine. So
George Davison:You get down there with your screwdriver and, you know, lefty loosey, and you go through the process of changing that out.
John Halvorsen, SMC:That's right. You remember your, you remember back to that guy that told you all righty, tighty lefty, loosey that's, right.
George Davison:Oh, isn't that fun? You're having a, it sounds like a great career. It sounds like you're happy with your work and you're progressing, uh, very, uh, nicely. I hope that, uh, let's see if there's anything else we want to cover here today. Do you want, what, do you have anything you'd like to bring up that you'd like to share with these, uh, with our youth today? Cause you're going to get a direct impact right. Into them today.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Yeah. Just, um, if I can reiterate what I'd said earlier, you know, some of the things I said earlier, don't, don't be afraid to, to, uh, roll up your sleeves, pick up a tool, don't be afraid. Don't let others define what you can and can't do. Whether it's a, uh, an explicit something that they actually said to you, or the way you internalize what they said. And, um, just, don't be afraid to make a mistake, uh, to make a safe mistake. Don't make big mistakes. Those sometimes you can't reverse, but don't be afraid to make a little money.
George Davison:Yeah. That's what prototypes are for. Right. Right. Kind of forcing you to only go so far and take a look and then reevaluate. Right. So, okay. Two more questions for you, John. And then, um, how difficult is it for SMC today to, you know, go out there and hire young adults? Um, you know, do they have the skill sets, skill sets that you're really needing today? Or are you needing to do a lot of training once you're finding people that have some potential?
John Halvorsen, SMC:We, you know, I'd say it's, it, it depends on the individual. There are some people who, um, can come in, who may not have there's some people who come in with the skillset, but perhaps the wrong attitude. There's other people who come in with the right attitude, but the wrong skillset, I'd rather have that, that one, the wrong skillset, right. Attitude. Because a lot of times we can, uh, with, with our training program, we can teach them what they need to know. Um, it's, you know, there, there's, there's a lot of opportunities. The world is, it is different than, than when I started, uh, all those years ago. And I'm sure when you started, it's, it's a more it's well, I won't get into how it's different. It's, it's always different. You know, every, every generation, I think CS has different challenges and different, different opportunities, but I, I see a lot of, um, a lot of positive things happening and, um, you know, there's, there's just a lot of, lot of things hyper for the students or the future.
George Davison:I think one of the things that really hasn't changed and I hope it never changes it, the students who are, um, positive and are willing to listen and to learn as you're mentioning, that's what you'd rather have is somebody that is willing to, to, to want to grow. Right. And I don't think that's ever going away. I think businesses are always going to be in search of our youth that have that kind of mentality. And, uh, so, okay, so this one's a big question for, uh, for a different kind of an audience out there, but well, if you could share something with our education leaders here in the United States about how they could better prepare students for the jobs of the future, what would you suggest?
John Halvorsen, SMC:So that's a great question. I would probably suggest that they, um, get involved in the same organizations that, um, that, that people from industry are in, as an example, there's a, uh, organization called, um, or it's, it's like a robotics competition, and that's a great opportunity to network for educators to network with other professionals in the industry at, at my company at SMC, we have several people who act as mentors on these robot competition teams and, um, just trying to get involved in, in those types of organizations. So they can network with, with other, with, with PR. So educators can network with professionals and get to know them on a, on a personal level, but also understand, um, what, understand what skills are needed for that type of work for that, for some of the challenges that we're looking into in the future. And some of those same challenges are, are given in these, in these robotics competitions.
George Davison:That's great advice and folks that is John Halverson.
John Halvorsen, SMC:Thank you, John. Thanks for having me.
George Davison:Bye everybody, have a great day.
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