Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Deloitte has opened a smart factory in Montreal in order to help companies become more advanced in the use of their technology, robotics, automation, factory, and warehousing. We've developed this experience center in Montreal where companies can come and experience 20 different technologies in one facility and start to think about how those technologies would be applicable in their own operations.
Speaker 1 00:00:36 Welcome
Speaker 2 00:00:37 To the podcast. I'm Jim Beretta, and our guest today is Alan Tover. Allen is a leading partner in the smart factory initiative in Canada. The smart factory consists of both smart warehouse and smart factory visit experiences. He also leads the logistics and distribution practice in Canada with over 20 years of experience in supply chain strategy, network design, facility design and implementation, transportation and corporate transformations in various industries and countries. He's experienced an automation business, case development, distribution center, design and implementation and distribution network strategy. Allen is recognized as a guest speaker at important supply chain conferences across North America related to smart warehousing, supply chain strategy, logistics, and distribution and transportation. Alan, welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us.
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Thank you. Thanks for the invitation.
Speaker 2 00:01:29 Well, I read recently that Deloitte Canada had opened the smart factory in Montreal, a first of its kind facility, and like you said in the introduction, showcasing and interconnected ecosystem of more than 20 cutting edge solutions and technologies and kind of intent on transforming manufacturing and warehousing through digital transformation. And that's a mouthful. Um, I understand that you've just opened this facility, and I understand Canada's not alone,
Speaker 0 00:01:55 Right? Uh, Deloitte has three other facilities operating around the world, and, uh, we're using these platforms to help companies grow and learn about new technologies.
Speaker 2 00:02:06 Well, you kind of mentioned it, but what are some of those expected outcomes?
Speaker 0 00:02:10 We believe that by helping Canadian companies become more competitive in the marketplace, we're ultimately helping them and Canada to be more of a global player in the competitive, uh, factory and warehousing market worldwide.
Speaker 2 00:02:26 We kind of chatted about this, uh, in our warmup, but you have a full staff compliment at the
Speaker 0 00:02:32 Factory. Exactly. We have four full-time people there serving various functions. I mean, we have a lot of equipment that has to be maintained. We have a site that has to be operated, uh, eight hours a day at least. And, uh, we also have to manage the visits and the, uh, the visit experience of, of those that are visiting.
Speaker 2 00:02:51 And it's not really a showroom. We, we kind of chatted about that too. It's, it's, you've kind of focused this as a use case centered facility.
Speaker 0 00:02:59 Exactly. The purpose here is not necessarily to sell the equipment in the facility, although we do appreciate the donations of our sponsors that have graciously donated, uh, various different types of equipment to us. But what we're trying to show is how this equipment can be used together to, in the future, be able to receive product in a, in a more modern way, uh, put product away in an automated way, uh, store product, uh, pick, pack and ship product, all in a smarter, more automated way. Alan,
Speaker 2 00:03:34 Let's talk tech. What kind of technology are you showing?
Speaker 0 00:03:36 Well, some of the surprising things, uh, that we've learned are that, uh, the, the automated equipment that we have in the facility doesn't just come as equipment. It often comes with a server along with it. And, uh, while many of our clients have one piece of automated equipment, we have, uh, 10 or 15 different pieces of automated equipment, which means we have 10 or 15 different servers in our server room for all this different equipment. And, uh, each server has its own operating system, its own, uh, proprietary software of the sponsor and, uh, its connection through the Deloitte firewall to the internet. And what we've discovered is that the IT side of implementing some of this automation is actually more complicated than the physical side.
Speaker 2 00:04:31 I think it's a good lesson for everybody to take from, from these systems about almost planning the IT technology and getting it on the onboard when you're doing things like this.
Speaker 0 00:04:41 Right. We found in the industry in general, uh, were sponsors and, and, uh, tend to, uh, be concerned about getting us the equipment and rushing the equipment out the door as soon as possible, while forgetting that, uh, we really need to start three months in advance with the software side of things before we even plan on receiving the equipment.
Speaker 2 00:05:03 Because you probably have some IT bosses at Deloitte, you've got a lot of sensitive information that you're protecting.
Speaker 0 00:05:08 Well, like any large company, we have, uh, cybersecurity risks that have to be mitigated and, uh, exactly. We have many competing priorities within our, uh, our company. And, uh, while this is, uh, an important priority for us, uh, sometimes we may have to wait to get some of this equipment installed.
Speaker 2 00:05:29 You mentioned to me that smart factories well suited are particularly well suited to Canadian companies, and can you elaborate
Speaker 0 00:05:35 On that? We think that the biggest area of opportunity for the smart factory is the mid-market type of company, because mid-market companies, while they, they have, uh, mid-market, uh, sales, they tend to have big company problems. And, uh, they tend to be growing rapidly and, uh, not really sure about how to invest in order to support that growth and prepare for the growth of the future. So, uh, even big companies can benefit from visits because even if they're aware of some of these technologies, they might not be aware of all the applications and, uh, all the, uh, different suppliers that are available on the market for these technologies. But most of our mid-market visitors are trying to figure out what are the technologies that are out there? Are they really at a level that they could use? Uh, and just by touching and feeling them, these mid-market companies are, are much better able to educate themselves more quickly and determine which ones of these could be applicable to them.
Speaker 2 00:06:49 Montreal's kind of a perfect spot for this, right? You're a port city, you're leading in so many different industries, there's a lot of automation there. Give maybe give our listeners some examples of, of some companies that would really benefit from seeing and using some of these technologies.
Speaker 0 00:07:03 Well, I think, uh, distributors, uh, would benefit, uh, retailers, uh, would benefit wholesalers, would benefit, and, uh, in Quebec, uh, what are called the PayU, the, the medium size, small to medium size businesses that are struggling with questions of how to build for the growth that they will be getting.
Speaker 2 00:07:27 Yeah. You'd mentioned something like a, a fruit manufacturer, or sorry, a fruit distributor who has to constantly re repack and re and reorganize product would be a, as well, a good example of somebody who'd be able to see all these technologies.
Speaker 0 00:07:40 Yeah. We have one client that you would think would be interested in smart warehousing because they're primarily a, a fruit and vegetable distributor, but they actually have a, a small manufacturing line for, for putting fruits in bags, uh, putting, uh, cleaning fruits that they may receive in bulk and then later create smaller quantities for subsequent distribution to, uh, uh, their clients. So we've been surprised to learn that while we thought we would be doing either a warehouse or a factory tour, uh, many clients are interested in seeing a little bit of both. So before creating a a visit plan to the facility, we have a, uh, very detailed intake process where we decide which use cases would be more or less relevant for a client. And, uh, that can be a mix of both warehousing and factory use cases, depending on needs.
Speaker 2 00:08:40 Alan, who are some of the sponsors in this facility?
Speaker 0 00:08:43 We have a number of very generous sponsors, uh, that have donated, uh, uh, millions of dollars of equipment. In fact, we, we believe that the value of the equipment donated is over 5 million at this point, uh, and counting because we have more donations coming in over the next few months. Uh, we have very large sponsors like Siemens and Cisco, uh, and, uh, we also have smaller sponsors like G K C, uh, local architect firm that designed the facility for us. Uh, Cosme, a local racking company in Montreal that, uh, donated some racking to us. So, um, we have really a wide variety of sponsors. However, um, you know, I'd like to stress that, uh, this is really about the, the use cases that have been put together. Uh, you will learn about sponsors when you visit and, and who is out there in the market, but I think it's more important to learn what the most, uh, automated way of doing your business in the future is and can be applied to your operation.
Speaker 2 00:09:53 The other part that's so fascinating to me is the educational partnerships. Can you spend a minute, uh, talking about that as well?
Speaker 0 00:09:59 Sure. Another one of the important spinoffs of the facility is that, uh, we intend to have, uh, better relationships with universities than we had before at Deloitte because we didn't really have sites for PhD to, to do experiments. Now we have this site where we can have PhDs working in robotics, uh, doing robotics experiments, maybe introducing us to some of the latest thinking in the field, and, uh, really a, uh, a win-win scenario with universities in the area. So we believe that, uh, this is not only a great facility for business, but it's also a great facility for education.
Speaker 2 00:10:41 And you've got such a good center for, uh, artificial intelligence in Montreal, so I'm excited for you on
Speaker 0 00:10:47 That. Yes, several of our use cases use artificial intelligence virtually anything with vision, and we have several using vision. Those use cases use auto artificial intelligence in order to learn from the, uh, from the different, uh, pictures that are being taken or, or what the, what the robot actually sees.
Speaker 2 00:11:11 No, I understand. After you, uh, announced, which you just really announced within the last couple weeks, you've had some great initial success for Smart Factory. Can you tell our audience a little bit about that?
Speaker 0 00:11:21 Yeah. The reaction in the market has been incredible. Uh, we ha in one night after our big grand opening splash, we received a request for ad visits from, uh, various different sources. Um, we were, uh, we were very happy to see the interest. Uh, we were published in every newspaper in Canada and the business section as having opened this, I guess it is newsworthy because this is really the only facility in Canada like this that we know of that exists. And, uh, it's good to have these things in Canada, so we don't con constantly have to drag people across the border in order to see these examples. So we're very proud of the fact that we're the first and that, uh, we're also, uh, able to provide this service to Canadian industry, uh, and Canadian education.
Speaker 2 00:12:14 Alan, from your like 80 requests, I'm kind of, uh, interested, who are you kind of generally attracting?
Speaker 0 00:12:20 Well, first of all, there's existing clients and those clients are all, uh, are are all, uh, wanting to see what we've done. Uh, they're, they're actually, some of them are jealous of the ones that have already seen it. So we're sort of surprised at the excitement that's come outta our existing clients. There's, uh, medium sized companies and larger companies that wanna see what some of these technologies are, what we've been able to do. Uh, some, uh, educational institutions have reached out to us and said, Hey, uh, we'd like to partner with you. And also some para government, uh, uh, organizations that we didn't even know existed. Organizations like the, uh, Institute of Robotics and Study, you know, that, that sort of thing that we didn't even really knew existed before. So it's been great for us to, to build these, uh, connections in the marketplace and learn about, uh, these different, uh, organizations that are doing work in robotics and automation that we weren't even aware of.
Speaker 2 00:13:24 Alan, what's, so what does a visit look like?
Speaker 0 00:13:26 Well, first of all, we introduce a client to the facility. Then, uh, we, uh, we take them through, uh, a material flow. So we show them, uh, what we think is the future of receiving what we see as the future of, uh, putaway, uh, picking, uh, packing storage and, and shipping. And, uh, we'll basically take them through that flow in the facility. They'll also see some, uh, manufacturing use cases if they decide. So that will be somewhere in the middle of that flow. And, uh, we also have a nice, uh, virtual reality exhibit where you can walk in the metaverse inside a, uh, a simulated warehouse, or you can walk inside a simulated factory in the Metaverse. So, um, that seems to have been a big hit. So, uh, we're happy to have added that as a use case.
Speaker 2 00:14:23 I know that you just got started, but what does the future look like for Smart Factory?
Speaker 0 00:14:27 Well, the Smart Factory is going to have to continue to evolve as the technology does. So at the moment, we've decided to freeze, uh, the sponsors at the point where we are so that we can stabilize it. Um, but, uh, in about six months, we're gonna start working on version 2.0. And, uh, we think that next year around this time we'll be making another media splash and unveiling version 2.0 to the marketplace.
Speaker 2 00:14:56 How can other companies get involved with Deloitte Canada? You've mentioned that some people are already interested in, in the Smart Factory from a partnership perspective.
Speaker 0 00:15:05 Well, there's a, uh, website that, uh, I'm sorry. There's a, there's an email address that you can use to, uh, to reach us and, uh, of course we are, we're also on the Deloitte webpage. You can find that email address there. But, uh, the, the email address is, uh, tsf the Smart Factory at uh, deloitte.ca.
Speaker 2 00:15:29 Well, thank you for joining me today and how can people get in touch with you if they're interested to reach out?
Speaker 0 00:15:35 I suggest to get in touch with that address. It's monitored on a daily basis, and information that's directed at me will be forwarded accordingly.
Speaker 2 00:15:44 Well, thanks again for joining me and good luck with the smart factory and hope to visit someday.
Speaker 0 00:15:48 You too. Thanks for this opportunity to speak about this and, uh, I'm always encouraged by the response of, uh, industry and education in, uh, in our progress. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 00:16:01 Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart Automation Systems, Earhart Bills 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 they're at info airhart automation.com. And Earhart is spelled E H R H A R D T and I'D to thank our partner, A three, the Association for Advancing Automation. They're the leading trade association in the world 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 can set up and connect E R P C R M and other tools to unify your marketing, sales, and operations. And they're at painted robot.com. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, and that means me 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, and I'd like to thank my nephew, Chris Gray for the music, Jeffrey for audio production. My partner Janet and our partners, A three and painted robot and our sponsor, Earhart Automation Systems.
