Speaker 0 00:00:00 So at Festo, uh, we are a world leader in automation, manufacturing components, but not only for industry education as well. And how do we go about doing that? But we provide solutions for the education space. So anything around industry 4.0 advanced manufacturing, that's going to be the pulse of the advanced technology. And that's what we provide for the education space and industry.
Speaker 1 00:00:28 Hello everyone. And welcome to the eighty-three the robot industry podcast. I'd like to welcome listeners from all over the world from Seoul, South Korea, Shepton mallet in the UK and salt Lake city. Ted rosier is the director of engineering for Festo didactic solution center, North America. And they're headquartered in Eatontown, New Jersey before joining Festo. He brought 20 years of experience in leading the automation engineering department for Doosan infer core machine tool corporation. He specialized in the design and development of robotics and machine tool, turnkey systems for the automotive, aerospace and pharmaceutical industry. Ted's managed the development of several user-friendly automation control turnkey systems on a global scale as director of engineering for Festo didactic head is passionately looking to advance Festo didactic as a global leader in designing and implementing industry 4.0 learning factories and demystifying industry 4.0 cure pathways with a view to systematically prepare individuals to Excel working in dynamic and complex industrial automation environments. And Ted is a big believer in volunteerism. He volunteers with arm, the advanced robot manufacturing. He's also on the technical advisory committee for RIA the robotics safety committee for AMT, the association for manufacturing technology and the O M a the Ohio manufacturing association. So Ted, welcome to the podcast. We're glad to have you
Speaker 0 00:01:55 Thanks so much for inviting me on today, Jim. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 00:02:01 I have a little bit of a feel for what Festo didactic does. And I mentioned to you in our warm-up that it was really created in 1965. So you're quite a mature organization. So tell us a little bit more about Festo didactic.
Speaker 0 00:02:13 Yeah, so, um, festival we're a world leader in automation, manufacturing components, um, and also customize automation solutions. Um, we have about over 20,000 employees worldwide that's between sales and engineering, but out of those 20,000 employees, uh, there's close to a thousand employees that focus on the education sector of the business. So that's, uh, going into high schools, community colleges and universities, and providing technical training equipment, um, that enhances their engineering or advanced manufacturing programs.
Speaker 1 00:02:49 Well, that sounds kind of, that sounds like it's kind of fun, right? But you get to be kind of watching all this happen. So tell our listeners out there a little bit about your solutions center as well. I have a lot of passion for the
Speaker 0 00:03:00 Solution center. Um, inside of Festo, we have a department that basically puts a laser focus on topics such as industry 4.0 advanced technologies. Um, we sell products out of a standardized catalog. So the school could basically looking to put in and say, I want this, I want that. I want that. Okay. But then as soon as someone says, I want this, but, but meaning a different PLC, but coming in a different type of a robot, uh, at that point, it now comes into the solution center. Uh, so it, within the solution center, now we're able to react to the needs of the school. Uh, so, uh, the school could basically be pro possibly partnering with, um, a manufacturer, uh, that's very close within a 20 mile radius and that manufacturer might have, uh, uh, maybe it's Siemens PLCs, Allen-Bradley PLCs, KUKA robots, a universal robot. Okay. And can you put a system together with all of that technology for it so that those students are employable and that's what the solutions center we would say? Absolutely. We can. And now we're going to sit down because it's not a standard, it's going to be a one-off and we like to work with schools on one-offs because it is all about employability
Speaker 1 00:04:20 And there's so much customization in the industry and so much plug and play, but you're right. Custom custom is kind of what everybody wants to sell standard and that all the customers want is custom. Right. So I love the fact that you're going into high schools and you're going into universities and colleges. Um, so how do you engage with your customers, which are high schools and universities?
Speaker 0 00:04:41 Yes, absolutely. Um, high schools, community colleges, universities would be our customers. Um, so we, we do have a dealer channel that works as consultants to the education sector. Uh, when we find a school that is looking to align our engineering programs with industry needs, uh, we set up consultation sessions. Um, and, and so here, what we're able to do is we start off, uh, with the voice of industry. So when we sit down, uh, organizations like AMT, um, arm RIA, uh, we do sit on those boards. Therefore we do have the ability to understand the pulse of industry, but then we have to also make sure that we understand the educator's needs. So the goal is that in the end students need jobs. So you don't want to force them down a path with it. They come out of school and they're not ready for industry. Therefore, um, we look at, uh, certification programs and try and put all kinds of governors in place to keep them on track. So when they graduate, they have a possibly a certificate, uh, and outside of the certificate, it's really, uh, are they able to step in, uh, and have a skillset, uh, where they can go to work right away? So that's, that's our number one goal is employee ability for that student and making sure that the hands-on side of things, the software tools and that they're not toys. And that's the real thing
Speaker 1 00:06:09 It's so important to give them real life experiences and what better way than to actually have them build their own stuff and make their own mistakes. Right.
Speaker 0 00:06:17 Absolutely. Absolutely. So
Speaker 1 00:06:19 What are the trends you're seeing? And so I'm kind of assuming that you're seeing a lot of these demo demonstration systems for education. So what are some of the trends you're seeing that people are asking for?
Speaker 0 00:06:30 Yeah, so good question. You know, we find that it's important to build industry ready training equipment. Uh, so years ago, there, there were a lot of what we might call toys that were sold in the education space. And the other thing is not bad. Um, some companies may have, uh, uh, inventory at the end of the year, a product that is out outdated. So then it's nice that they would even give them to the schools. Okay. But what you find is you go into a school and, uh, those components might be collecting dusts, or it's not the real product that a student's going to work with, uh, something that's going to really help them to thrive day one on the job. Uh, so one of the things that, that we see is that it's important that a student understand the, maybe what we call the system approach.
Speaker 0 00:07:24 Um, so that's going to be, uh, understanding the robot piece. It's going to be the PLC piece. It's going to be the HMI piece. It's going to be understanding how do I bring a complete system together and can I do that outside of silos? Okay. So kind of going back to your question specifically about the trends, the trends that would really be, um, mechatronics, which goes down the path of automation, Alec cart, and what's happening now is we're now starting to see that system approach. And so we have to react to that, uh, especially when you look at the top floor where there's, you know, this I T world, that's now starting to mesh with the shop floor. So that's the trend, which leads us to industry 4.0, a lot of buzzwords that have to be demystified and you need a roadmap for students to understand how do I play in that space? So that's what we're, uh, reacting to. And, you know, you can't do it fast enough because technology doesn't slow down.
Speaker 1 00:08:30 That's a real lesson for the kids coming in, right. It versus OT. It's a real thing. Absolutely. Are you seeing a lot of maybe the, a lot of third party products such as just robots, whether they're industrial or where they may be collaborative?
Speaker 0 00:08:44 We are, we are, we're seeing a lot, um, collaborative robots are hot topic right now. Um, in, in, you know, in the robotics space, the, the, the key to collaborative robots. They're cool. Uh, but there are standards around them. So, uh, you don't want a collaborative robot just because it's a hot topic, but do you actually immediately, um, then you have, uh, AMRs amazing product. Okay. Uh, when you talk about logistics, but on the didactic side at being, it's the education part first, it's not just because it's cool, but do you actually need it in a wide? So that's what we have to make sure that we do mystify in, uh, in aligning with, you know, what's hot on the market.
Speaker 1 00:09:30 Yes. It's kind of complex. It's kind of complicated because you're managing the customer, right. And you're just saying, Hey, do you really need color monitors or black and white monitor? You know, this is what in the old days, what we used to manage too. So how do you get involved during like a, an equipment build or, or run off and like, who's actually building the equipment because I assume this is what we're getting to, right. Is at some point there is a line or a machine being built.
Speaker 0 00:09:56 Yeah. So a very good question. You know, what we do, first of all, who builds the equipment? I kind of talked about the solution center. So we have engineers, um, that, uh, that are on staff. I still would do the building. Um, we are authorized system integrators for, uh, several robot manufacturers. But what we do is we start off, but just like our industry at integrator in industry would invite the customer to their facility. Um, even as that system is being built, uh, that educator can come in and if they can, can step away from the classroom, we want them to, to be engaged, to work with us as we built the system. Uh, but then to bring structure to it, we do do a factory acceptance tests on the system. So now the, the, the instructor can come in and they have, uh, I guess you can call it skin in the game because in the end of what you want is for them to be able to teach that system was conviction because that's, what's going to make the students learn, uh, is that they understand it. Um, and so we, we bring them in for the fact that acceptance tests, uh, so that they know what to expect out of the system. And then we also, when we go for the install, we do another factory except decision, just like industry.
Speaker 1 00:11:09 And that's great to hear. Um, I saw, uh, in Montreal, not too long ago, I saw a system, uh, at Crick, which is one of the big schools there in the Montreal area. And I, and I kind of assumed it was maybe a Festo didactic system. Can you tell us a little bit about that particular system? And if you have another use case that you might be interested to chat about
Speaker 0 00:11:29 Yeah. You know, you bring up a great project. Um, the, the project in grit, Crick was amazing. Um, uh, basically that project, they were really into doing R and D for industry, uh, and therefore, um, they, uh, asked for a specific platform that, that, that, where they could truly teach industry 4.0 methods. Um, so what did that mean for us? Well, we needed to make sure that the system was not built for repetitive tasks. It needed to be flexible. Uh, for example, uh, that system, um, had four different, uh, KUKA robots built within it. Um, we needed flexible end of arm tooling. Um, and so what happens is, uh, we needed, uh, for the system to react to the data and the park type, uh, not so much the other way around where we typically would tell the robot where it tells the machine, and now you have cookie cutter repetitive tasks, but it was, it was mainly about the production order that you put in.
Speaker 0 00:12:35 I want to make these many widgets, but, uh, if I ask for a specific product, maybe the shape is different than what I asked for. Do I stop the system or can the robot actually swap out in of arm tooling and still pick up the park, process it in check the QC at the end. So we also needed to integrate AGVs into that system. So we needed the fleet management software to align with the MES platform. So there were a lot of things we have to do on the software side of things to give them a one complete overall turnkey, uh, and it had to be educational. Uh, so it provided challenges for us that made us better. So the innovation around that project, uh, was very exciting, uh, what a great partner and, uh, yeah, that that's a beautiful system, if anyone would ever want to see R and D and the education space, it's a beautiful system to look at it. But, but what I'm really proud about is that they actually use the system.
Speaker 1 00:13:44 No, that's really exciting and interesting. And if anybody wants to find out about a Crick, I'll put the notes and the links to it in the show notes. So do you have another use case that you might want to chat about? Maybe something a little bit different?
Speaker 0 00:13:58 Sure, absolutely. Uh, we have another, uh, really, really nice project where another project around industry 4.0, we have a school I wanted to show, allow the students to, uh, basically, uh, look at the production side of the system, uh, where they would just be collecting data, but then also take them to the beginning. So, uh, the system is built, uh, uh, where you have level one level, two level three, of course, level three would be production, uh, but what they wanted in the end, uh, they want it to be able to personalize a part. So we did coasters. Uh, we did wooden coasters, 11 coasters in granite coasters. And this way the students were able to actually go in type in their name or whatever they wanted. Uh, the robot would pick up a wrong part, figure out is if it's a wood, leather, granite, and then either take it to a CNC machine or to a laser engraver where then that laser engraver would put whatever characters they wanted.
Speaker 0 00:14:59 And then Pat out that system, uh, those components, well, not components, but the parts put them in a box and then they could actually take those, uh, those coasters home with them. And remember the production side, how it was totally built, um, in all in an educational facility. So, uh, that's, that was a project that we really enjoyed because, uh, of course, uh, granted costs cost of money. It's not the 10 cents per coaster. And so if the school was able to invite, uh, industry in, uh, with those specific customers, that they can actually provide them with a nice gift, a nice takeaway. So, uh, that was a really cool project.
Speaker 1 00:15:42 Yeah. And you can imagine the kids all going home with coasters for their parents or whatever, and they made that, and they'll, they'll, it's just something that they'll remember forever. So at Festo, what about, what about service and spare parts? Do you get into that very much or really once they take a delivery, the system like Crick, I assume the kind of ourselves is sufficient because that's part of their curriculum moments.
Speaker 0 00:16:03 Yes. Uh, so when it comes to, um, service support, spare parts, um, uh, and then you said the key word curriculum. So the curriculum has to be built, uh, where that it's, it's, it's going to teach them to do exactly what they're going to do in industry. Uh, so meaning that all the components are Indus, industrial components, they all have part numbers. So the, the curriculum is built around troubleshooting. Um, that's kind of level two. Okay. So it's not so much, do I know how to design something, but from a trouble shooting standpoint, if it breaks, how do I go about fixing it? And a lot of times what we do right away in the factory, as soon as something goes wrong, we always used to blame the controls guy. It's not in the software, it's not it already worked, but let's look at the mechanics. So what, what happens is the curriculum actually takes them to the part number. They get a chance to actually research the part. Um, and, and so that's getting them prepared for industry itself.
Speaker 1 00:17:10 Well, that's great. And what other questions that one of your typical customers might ask? I assume that they're not real sensitive on delivery dates, but are they
Speaker 0 00:17:20 Delivery date? So, um, very good question. Uh, because when it comes to delivery, um, most schools that are investing in equipment, um, good portion of the funding can be, uh, driven by way of grants. Right. Okay. And so what happens is if the equipment's not in place, uh, the grant funding can go away. So it's very important that we kind of find that out upfront early. Um, and, and that's the challenge for us in the solution centers, because if you know of grant funding and, you know, the expiration date, it might force you down a path where that you need to deliver something standard. So, so that's kind of what we're always fighting is how do we figure out how to still get them exactly what they want, uh, before the delivery date. So that's that, that, that is one challenge that we have to fight in education.
Speaker 0 00:18:11 Uh, and then the second thing I would say, um, right now certification is, is one of the hottest topics ever. Um, and it's really based upon going back to the funding. The government has so much funding for education, and they want to know, well, if I put this, this much money in this pot, show me the roadmap that says that it's actually going to be utilized properly. Um, so that's where the certification and like, micro-credentials come from, uh, a true roadmap of job role. What are the specific tasks that I need to do? And then this says that I am a technician or I integrator. Uh, so, uh, that's something that we've also had to pull into our complete turnkey. Uh, whereas years ago, of course, an industry, a turnkey packages pushed a button and let it go. But in education, you have to add the two CS, that's a certification and curriculum they need to align. And that kind of gives you that stamp of approval, that you're not going to deviate too far away from closing the skills gap. And that's, that's what we're really after.
Speaker 1 00:19:19 Cause you really just want kids to go out there and get good well-paying jobs and start becoming taxpayers and, and, and fill the void that we have today in advanced manufacturing jobs, because, Oh my gosh, is there anything Ted have, have we covered everything today? Is there anything that you'd like to add to our, my questions to you?
Speaker 0 00:19:37 You know, Jim, I think we kind of touched on, on everything. I think in closing, what I'd just like to say is that, you know, um, industry 4.0 smart manufacturing, uh, it's not going anywhere. Um, uh, and therefore for, for students, um, and also, uh, those that are just looking for upskilling when it comes to these advanced topics, you know, dive into them, uh, because the, the topics of robotics, uh, the it OT world, uh, data science and robot programming, the days of a robot or whisper, um, they're so much going on in the education automation space right now, industry's exploding. Uh, COVID has, has done something where it's putting a magnifying glass on the digital transformation. Okay. And so what, what does it mean? It all means that advanced technologies here, here, the state, and we've have to embrace it. We have to look at how to be comfortable being uncomfortable and it's only gonna make us stronger. So, uh, that, that's what festivals here for, well, thanks,
Speaker 1 00:20:48 Ted. And thanks for getting a hold of me and, uh, being on the robot industry podcast, how can people get ahold of you? And if it may be their professors or college university staff, and they just need to chat with you, how do they get ahold of you?
Speaker 0 00:21:00 So my email address is, uh, Ted T E D dot rosier. So let me just spell it out. T E D dot R O Z I E R act Festo, F E S T o.com.
Speaker 1 00:21:18 Well, that's great. And again, thank you. Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart automation systems, Earhart builds and commissions turnkey solutions for their worldwide clients. With over 80 years of precision manufacturer, 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. Their email address is
[email protected] and Earhart is spelled E H R H a R D T. I'd like to thank and acknowledge our partner, a three, the association for advancing automation, a three is the umbrella association for the RIA, AIA, M C M a N <inaudible> Mexico. And these four associations combined represent almost 1300 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, systems integrators, and users and research groups and consulting firms like myself throughout the world that are driving automation forward. I'd like to thank painted robot painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions.
Speaker 1 00:22:24 They're a web development firm that offers SEO and digital social marketing and can set up and connect CRM and other ERP tools to unify marketing sales and operations, and
[email protected]. And 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 a customer attraction, industrial marketing, and I'd like to thank my nephew, Chris gray for the music, Chris Colvin for audio, my partner, Janet, and our partners <inaudible> and painted robot and our sponsor Earhart automation systems.
