Speaker 0 00:00:00 Pfizer is a Dutch company scallop, uh, that automates a picking in the logistics. So we are a software company.
Speaker 1 00:00:09 Hello everyone. And welcome to the podcast. I'm Jim Beretta and my guest for a three. The robot industry podcast is Herbert 10. However, he is an innovative business leader with more than three decades of experience in building high tech products and services in his career. He's held leadership positions from product and marketing manager to international sales and marketing director. As a serial entrepreneur, Herbert has successfully founded and run multiple high-tech companies. He effortlessly rides the wave of inherent challenges that come with technology and loves sharing his expertise. Today. As CEO of Pfizer, Herbert is committed to building the best vision software product to enable Pfizer's partners, to provide cutting edge robotic picking solutions for the logistics industry. Herbert, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 0 00:00:56 Thanks for having me, Jim.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 Hey, and tell us a little bit about Pfizer.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 Oh, um, it's started in 2014 by a robotics professor, a Marta and vision of the Delft university as a spinoff. Uh, he brought together six very brilliant people. And so they started off as under the name Delft robotics, integrating robots. So they're built picking cells for different applications, uh, in the Netherlands. And at some point in 2016, they participated in the Amazon picking challenge. And then, then they, uh, to their surprise, they won both challenges, both picking and stowing. And I joined later in January, 2017. And to be honest, we've directly pivoted and stopped doing robotics from that moment on and became a computer vision, software only company.
Speaker 1 00:01:47 And so what are some of the big challenges that are presented to you now? And I think that's a really good idea to pivot and, and, and leave the robots to someone else,
Speaker 0 00:01:56 Correct? Yes, I did. The whole challenge is dealing with variation variations in shape, size, color material, and how it stacked. And so actually dealing with unknown objects or products and, um, therefore we, uh, we use a neural network, so that's the essence of, of our solution.
Speaker 1 00:02:15 And can you tell us a little bit about, about this neural network? Is that bordering on AI or is that a different thing?
Speaker 0 00:02:21 That's correct. It's um, we, uh, we applied supervised learning, so we, uh, we have a lot of images from, um, the robust prior mental of our clients. And so we labeled them, annotate them with, uh, with a tool and, uh, with a team and then we train and so the it's deep learning and so it becomes good at generalizing. Like we as human beings, uh, we can see if it's a box or a back and, um, we can, we know how to CrossFit. So actually we train it to become a software of one or two year olds that can pick, uh, unknown items. And, um, that's where we get money from.
Speaker 1 00:02:59 And you've also have a partnership with a company that I know fairly well and I
Speaker 0 00:03:03 Visited before is AWL. Can you tell our audience a little bit about that? Sure. Um, actually I didn't know them until a bit more than a year ago. Uh, and then they, our process, they work with one of our colleagues in the, in the market, the us, a company in a, let's say a competitor and, uh, they had some issues, um, and they, uh, asked if we could solve them. And for us there was, we've seen that before, so we could easily show them how it could be solved. And, uh, so that's how we started to work together. It's now let's say a bit more than one year ago and, uh, we've built quite some nice successes together.
Speaker 1 00:03:43 Can you tell us about some of the challenges and use cases that you're getting involved in? And of course we understand you can't sometimes use the brand or company name.
Speaker 0 00:03:51 No, first of all, we have, um, we work with integrators, so, uh, because they have to integrate our hardware and we see two types of integrators. One is just robotic integrators, like your scammer motor Mount, or in this case AWL. And there are system integrators, uh, that, um, have complete ASRS, automated storage retrieval system, like, uh, from the along the like, uh, uh, fabric, et cetera. And so we sell through both, uh, type of integrators and with, um, uh, AWL, we focused on two applications. One is, uh, uh, partial induction, which is mostly partials up to five kilo, so small, small parcels to induct them on their own in fetal for shorter. And secondly, uh, on de palletization of a mixed sq.
Speaker 1 00:04:43 And so you're, you're doing, uh, so de palletizing you're doing truck unloading and truck, uh, um, and, and other applications what's most popular for you right now?
Speaker 0 00:04:54 Um, I would say item picking an e-commerce that's a, we've got quite some, some clients were using that in production and, um, uh, partial, uh, induction is picking up quickly. So I would say that those are the two big domains and we also getting more into, uh, installations of the palletization. So we did two installations last week. And, uh, so we either a it's picking boxes from a, from a pallet. So that's often a, in three PLS, et cetera, they get unknown, uh, items on a, on a box. Uh, but we also pick, um, big bags of anything could be milk powder, could be, uh, uh, uh, ultimately anything. So, uh, the X off, uh, have to say them pounds for the English people. So it's 30 kilo, so it's around the 70 pounds.
Speaker 1 00:05:44 And what are some of those industry challenges? I mean, we talked a little bit about injuries and turnover rates, but what's from your perspective, why are they buying?
Speaker 0 00:05:53 Um, so there is a shortage of people that's for sure. And, um, and in, in this case off the deep hell, it's, like I said, it's a heavy item, so they don't want people to do this anymore. And so they already have, um, a lot of trouble with, uh, with the unions and if they get people, then they don't want to do the work or that get sick, or, um, they, they, they go to where your neighbor, if they pay you, uh, let's say $1 more and the off their go. And so it's hard to, to get them hard to keep them. And, uh, so they want to ultimately automate this, uh, first of all, um, of course for a business case, but most of all for, um, making sure they can do the job, because if there are no people doing the simulation anymore induction, then, uh, they have an issue
Speaker 1 00:06:41 Of course. And how do you, how do you charge for, uh, for the software now and how does a company subscribe to your service? Okay.
Speaker 0 00:06:50 Uh, we, uh, of course we relicensed out our software. That's, that's where we make money. Actually, we, uh, we grew bootstraps, so we're quite proud of that. So we learned, learnt a lot and we have two models. One is CapEx, so pay it all at once. And the other one is OPEX. So operational expenditure, and that can be, uh, per robot per year, but we also have, uh, one client now that pays per pick. So we, uh, we are able to, uh, to go together with our integrator and if they have a model that goes for the paper pick, then we're more than happy to support him. And we licensed out in that way as well. And some of our integrators have five-year contract with their, with the end-user. So we aligned. So we're flexible
Speaker 1 00:07:33 And that's typically very Dutch, right. Is to be flexible for your customers.
Speaker 0 00:07:37 Uh, I dunno, that's Jim, the, the, the trouble we had this company is, uh, we had the, the, the, uh, university as manifestor or a shareholder. They didn't invest money. They just said, fill the stark Herbert, make profit. And when are you going to make profits? So it all stuff rates off. So we had to, um, ask money to what all our clients look like from the longer we were working for follow along for five years. So we always charge money at the end of the month. And that means you, they will tell you exactly what they need. And so you have to, uh, make sure you deliver. And it also felt that your product, because if they pay you bringing failure.
Speaker 1 00:08:19 Absolutely. And can you name some of your partners or integrators? I mean, you've already, we've already named AWL.
Speaker 0 00:08:25 Sure. Uh, yeah, I developed a nice one. Um, we have, uh, friends, we also have, um, end-users, which is really nice. One of the, one of them is, uh, we've been working for, uh, a few years. It's a slow Luxotica, which you're wearing glasses, which is Raymond and Oakley. So one of the biggest companies in the world, so definitely using our software, uh, uh, uh, directly. So this one of the few end users that, uh, doesn't need an integrator that they, we are with your software, we can work with it directly. And, uh, we also do a lot in the groceries. So, um, uh, grocery picking, and second, we also, um, do placement, uh, like playing Tetris. And one of them is, um, probably, you know, them, they're also in the U S school fabric. So they're based in tele FIFA in the U S and most of those clients, we've never visited. We've never been there. I've never been there. And, um, they are using our software in production, so it's really nice.
Speaker 1 00:09:27 That's excellent. And how has the pandemic changed you for the new normal, especially in Europe?
Speaker 0 00:09:33 Oh, um, it was tough, uh, because, um, we, we did get an investment, so we had a smaller investment round because we wanted to grow faster. And, but, uh, the moment we got the money finally, after all those years, the pandemic started, so we couldn't spend it. So, um, that was not nice. Um, but soon after we felt we got the feedback from our clients, uh, in summer, uh, no we're not stopping investment. We were going faster because e-commerce is, uh, is, is, is raising. So it's going faster. So, um, uh, but from a operational point of view, we always gave freedom to our people to work from home if they wanted, or even from their home country, if they would go for, uh, towards, uh, let's say Italy or Spain or India for, uh, for a month or two, then we would support them. They will continue to work. So, uh, we, everything will automate it so we could work in the cloud. And so that was not an issue. Uh, so we've been flexible and, um, but I'm really glad we could travel again in the last month because now it's blocked, we can't afford.
Speaker 1 00:10:45 And do you find that your end user structure is changing at all? Like what you doing more work with integrators? Of course,
Speaker 0 00:10:53 Uh, there is more there, uh, up till I think, uh, two years ago, eh, we often did pilots. They try this out and they, they looked at this as sniffing, et cetera. And there were not very concrete, so they were just, they were in thing or were progressing. But I think in the last year we found that the risk pressure on people and they want to move forward. They were very concrete. We need to go production in may. And we, this is the, the timeline. And, uh, and then we, we started with one cell and then there is four cells and the risk, et cetera. So they, uh, there is more pressure there, very serious. And, um, they, there is no doubt about it that they want to automate. For instance, truck loading. That's a big issue.
Speaker 1 00:11:41 Yes. And, uh, w better appropriate just talking about that earlier on the podcast. So, uh, it's a very exciting time for, uh, automation and robotics and, uh, and software. Can you tell our audience a little bit about the Pfizer, cause this is one of the big challenges that you've had, right. Is to build up this team, uh, at, to scale up the business.
Speaker 0 00:12:00 I think I was lucky, uh, where close to the university, where in union university building, and we attracted a lot of people from different countries. So we've, uh, we are sponsored. So, uh, we are sponsored, so we cannot, uh, hire highly skilled immigrants. So we have, uh, currently 12 nationalities, uh, in our team and the last 11 hires were all from outside of the Netherlands. So, um, and I think we all, because we also do open source. We have a very good, uh, uh, name out there in, in developers. And, uh, so we've been, we are quite lucky getting very good people, uh, around and we, we get open applicants almost daily.
Speaker 1 00:12:46 Well, that's very exciting, but tell us a little bit about your team activities. Cause I think this is a really a unique perspective for, on your company.
Speaker 0 00:12:54 Yeah, no, we haven't done a lot for the last, um, so we've got a hang board in the company now. We, we went away of course. So we, we do hikes together, uh, goes from drinks and eating. We often eat, uh, uh, cook dinner ourselves as well with the group. Um, we've been to, uh, Romania, we've been to Greece, uh, we've been sailing. So of course we do do all those kinds of activities, but, um, at the end, it's, it's all, uh, about, uh, letting go because I'm not an expert at all. It's all about the team. And so they motivate each other and, and they, uh, they attract also brilliant new people. And, um, yeah, so I won't take credit for that. It's, it's the thing that, themselves, that, that are so, um, yeah. How do they, we've got people from the start four people from the early start in 2014, still onboard as employee and the shareholder.
Speaker 1 00:13:52 Well, that's great. And where can you tell us a little bit about Delft? Is that in another ones
Speaker 0 00:13:57 It's, between Rotterdam and the, and the hake and a Delft university is the biggest technical university of the Netherlands. So it's bigger than all the older technical universities together. So it's, um, Delta is a, it's a small town, but, uh, uh, it's, it's 10 minutes by train to the hake or, or to Rotterdam and to Amsterdam, it probably be 40 minutes.
Speaker 1 00:14:18 So it's pretty easy to get to. I actually, my, I have been to delve with my wife, uh, many years ago. Have we forgotten anything Arbor to chat about today?
Speaker 0 00:14:28 I said that we are so far only, so we, uh, I've not been to clients and so where we can support them remotely. So, um, uh, we're hardware agnostic, et cetera, add this. Those are all features. So, um, I'm okay with
Speaker 1 00:14:45 And what do you like to do when you're not selling a AI software?
Speaker 0 00:14:50 I like sports outdoor sports. So I live on a small island, the actually Dora, which is the oldest, uh, uh, uh, city of, um, uh, Holland. And, uh, so, uh, I've got, uh, quite some kayaks for a long house, got a boat in front of my house. I got to the shops and the peddling. We swim in the Harbor in the summer. I work, I'm very close to the books. And actually I came back from running a one hour ago, which I do almost every other day with a, with a group of friends and I cycle as well. And I play field hockey and you name it.
Speaker 1 00:15:22 So you're just busy guy all around. No, I,
Speaker 0 00:15:25 I, the company is really it's, it's like a, I dunno, that's we call it like a boys book. We, we love it. We just, we live it it's my biggest fear would be somebody offering a hundred million and just to buy the company. And then, then what, because it's my baby. I like, I like billing it. And, and, uh, and I liked the theme of what we're doing. So, um, it gives me energy and also, uh, uh, running with friends, doing social things. Also give me energy. So I'm very pleased. I'm I'm, I think I'm blessed.
Speaker 1 00:15:58 Well, that's wonderful. And how can, uh, people in our listening audience get ahold of you if they want to find out a little bit more about visor? Of course,
Speaker 0 00:16:06 The second connect with me on LinkedIn. Um, and, uh, if they want to know more about the team, et cetera, just go fire our websites and show your interest. Like I said, we get daily, uh, people that are interested, um, often also for interns or projects. And, uh, so we will reply. So we love you. Lots of give you a feedback.
Speaker 1 00:16:26 And for those out there, listening Pfizer is spelled F I Z Y R.
Speaker 0 00:16:31 Correct? That's correct. That's correct.
Speaker 1 00:16:34 Well, thank you for joining us today. I certainly appreciate it. It was a
Speaker 0 00:16:37 Pleasure. Have a nice day.
Speaker 1 00:16:39 Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart automation systems. Eric builds and commissions turnkey solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing, they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing, and project management, delivering world-class custom automation on time and on budget contact one of their sales engineers to see what Earhart can build for you. And that's
[email protected] and Earhart is E H R H a R D T. And I have to thank our partner 83, the association for advancing automation. They are the leading automation trade association for robotics, vision and imaging motion control and motors, and the industrial artificial intelligence technologies visit automate.org to learn more. And I'd like to thank our partner painted robot painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions. They're a web development firm that offers SEO and digital social marketing, and can set up and connect to CRM and other ERP tools to unify marketing sales and operations. And you can find
[email protected]. If you'd like to get in touch with us at the robot industry podcast, you can find me Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by customer attraction, industrial marketing. I'd like to thank my nephew, Chris gray for the music, Chris Colvin for audio production, my partner, Janet, our partner say three painted robot and our sponsor Earhart automation systems.
