This global manufacturer produces flavors for the food industry and fragrances used in beauty and well-being products. Deploying Augury in one of its U.S. plants, the company found quick time-to-value when alerted on a Rox 1 fan and motor just days after installation.

Industry—Flavor and Fragrance//
Machine—Rox 1 fan & motor//
Fault Type—Rotating mechanical looseness//

From Baseline to Alarm

Four days after installing Augury Machine Health sensors on a Rox 1 fan and motor, the machine came out of baseline, immediately indicating “Alarm” status due to signs of rotating mechanical looseness. According to Augury’s analysis, the asset displayed an increasing trend in elevated acceleration amplitudes at the driven fan.

Figure 1: Platform showing machine coming out of baselining activity and into Alarm (March 2024)

The Recommended Fix

Augury advised the plant’s maintenance team to move quickly and attend to the following recommendations:

• Slow rolling the shaft to feel for resistance or roughness
• Performing life and endplay checks with dial indicators to verify bearing/housing clearances
• Ensuring adequate lubrication

The Taste of Victory

The plant’s team executed a successful repair during scheduled downtime based on Augury’s feedback. Along with new belts, bearings, and laser alignment, they also secured the base of the asset to the concrete foundation below. 

Figure 2: Reduction in overall velocity post-repair, July 12 onward

Figure 3: Reduction in high-frequency vibration post-repair, July 12 onward

Plant floor leadership estimated slightly more than $18K in costs avoided – a huge win in saving product, maintaining throughput, reducing waste, and using energy efficiently.

More importantly, a win like this goes deeper than costs avoided. It can also be counted in less tangible ways, like increasing worker safety and morale when repairs are planned in advance rather than operating in reactive, firefighting mode. 

Ready to learn how Augury’s Machine Health can help you find stability and predictability on your plant floor? Contact our team for a no-pressure conversation on solutions to your toughest production challenges.

The post Tasting Productivity & Smelling Success: Leading Flavor and Fragrances Manufacturer Avoids $18K in Costs with Machine Health appeared first on Augury.

Each year, from September 15 to October 15, the United States celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s theme is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together.” We decided to ask Alvaro Cuba, manufacturing veteran and co-host of the Manufacturing Meet Up podcast, about his career journey from Peru to the U.S. and how he’s helped shape the future for other Hispanic Americans.

Alvaro Cuba’s love of engineering started at an early age. From cars to clocks, he wanted to understand how everything worked. He also wanted to improve everything – always looking for a more efficient way to complete a task. “Even the small things,” he says with a laugh. “I looked for a better, faster way to make my bed.” When he was old enough to head off to university, he didn’t hesitate to enroll at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima.

Moving to Lima was an important step for Alvaro. Growing up in Arequipa, a city nestled in the Andes, he appreciated the beauty of its family, culture, architecture, and food. But he also had an adventurous spirit and a desire to see what life was like outside his traditional community. 

“When I was a teenager, I spent a year in the U.S. as an international student,” Alvaro says. “I lived in Oregon, and it was a life-changing experience. When I came home, I realized how much I valued experiencing new people, places, and things.” 

Alvaro knew that studying and living in Lima would provide the platform he needed to pursue global career opportunities after graduation.

Growth Mindset

After earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering, Alvaro landed his first job with the global agribusiness company Bunge. Responsible for the energy and water supply for a huge manufacturing plant, he quickly realized how much he hadn’t learned in school. He went back to his alma mater and took the dean to task (you can hear him talk about that here.)

But lesson learned: after talking to the dean, Alvaro realized he was taught to think, solve problems, and find opportunities. He excelled in his role, eventually managing a staff of 16 people and delivering power services (steam, hydrogen, compressed air, and soft and de-mineralized water) to nine production plants. Bunge recognized his efforts and encouraged him to tackle a new challenge, as operations director of Nettalco, their largest textiles business in Peru, after training him in Brazil.

During this time, Alvaro learned how to manufacture cotton into yarn and yarn into fabric, as well as dyeing, cutting, knitting, and producing the final product. He also learned more about the people side of business, managing a much larger staff. But when Bunge began selling off units that weren’t directly related to their core business, Alvaro knew the time had come for him to move on and build his career somewhere else.

Pivot to Logistics, Procurement…and More

Alvaro’s next adventure took him out of manufacturing and into the world of commercial business. “Engineering encompasses everything from the supplier all the way to the shelf,” he says. “I was willing and open to try new things, so I began working for Carsa Group. They had several companies on the wholesaler and retailer sides. I got involved in procurement, supply chain, warehousing, transportation, customer service… and then I went to the ‘dark side’, working in sales and marketing,” he says with a laugh. Eventually, Alvaro became General Manager of one of the companies.

His work with Carsa in the automobile, electronic appliances, and apartment stores businesses exposed him to other countries and cultures. “It was the first time I started to be in contact with the wider world–with suppliers and operators from North America, Europe, and Asia. In addition to their presence in Peru, Carsa also had operations in Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.”

Dot Com Detour

Alvaro was happy in his role, but the world was changing. It was becoming increasingly high-tech, and those innovations captured his interest.

“I told my wife, ‘The Internet is the future, and I want to be a pioneer’”, says Alvaro. So with his family’s blessing, he quit his job and went all in on the World Wide Web. Creating B2B, B2C, and hiring portals was exciting, and the company he worked for began making successful inroads in Peru. “But the dot come bubble popped here, just like it did everywhere else,” Alvaro remembers. It was time to blaze another new trail.

“Krafting” a New Path

Alvaro’s next adventure came with Kraft Foods. With his deep supply chain experience, they approached him to create and manage a new function. After just a year, he was asked if he’d relocate to Costa Rica and manage the supply chain for their Caribbean and Central American business. He and his family jumped at the chance.

“We spent three fantastic years in Costa Rica,” Alvaro recalls. And while it wasn’t always easy, the family focused on all the positives that came with their move.

“There are two kinds of thinking: a set mindset and a growth mindset. And to be successful at pioneering or shaping the future, a growth mindset is essential. You need to be willing to bring new ideas into the mixture, and think in new ways to solve problems,” he shares.

That growth mindset led to amazing opportunities for Alvaro. As he took on increasingly challenging roles, he moved again – to Brazil, Peru, Miami, New Jersey, Chicago, and Canada. Highlights of this time include:

• Leading a multifunctional team in northeast Brazil, reinventing how to conduct business there
• Merging Cadbury and Kraft’s supply chains in Canada…and then splitting them when Kraft decoupled from Mondelēz
• Joining Mondelēz and leading the Integrated Supply Chain team for Latin America from Miami while implementing TPM across the region
• Retiring from Mondelēz as SVP, Integrated Supply Chain for North America while based in New Jersey

In all, Alvaro moved seven times in 17 years. He served as a GM and an Operations – Supply Chain leader at country, regional, and worldwide levels. At every turn, diverse cultures, roles, and industries always enriched Alvaro’s perspective, providing him with a wealth of experiences and opportunities to learn and grow.

“More importantly, I have made friends for life all around the world,” Alvaro says.

Retired…Sort Of

Today, Alvaro and his wife Teresa live in Miami, while his children live in Canada and Finland. Although some people like to take it easy during retirement, the same cannot be said for Alvaro. In addition to co-hosting the Manufacturing Meet Up podcast and traveling six months out of the year, he sits on several boards and provides strategic business consulting. He is also an active volunteer with non-profits focused on social-environmental causes worldwide. His curiosity and openness to new experiences have led to new hobbies: Alvaro is learning to golf and surf.

He also has a passion for mentoring. 

“When I was working, I led Latin Councils in different opportunities, and I still mentor several people today,” Alvaro says. “Diversity is so important to business because the diversity of experiences and perspectives helps everyone look together at solving problems in a different way and come up with better options. For example, running a plant in Brazil is different than running a plant in the U.S. If a technician or manager from a Brazilian plant comes to the U.S. to work, that person will need to adapt. But that person will also bring new ideas of how to operate the U.S. plant. And vice versa: if they go back to Brazil, they will bring different ideas and approaches back to their original plant…everyone wins”

While the diversity of ideas is important, Alvaro’s mentorship of Hispanic manufacturing professionals goes deeper. 

“Sometimes, companies recruit talent but don’t provide the right coaching or guidance. I have seen cases where after just one month, people return to their home country because the culture shock was too much. An office in the U.S. is completely different than an office in Beijing or France or Peru. If you don’t help people read the culture and understand the nuances, they will struggle to be successful. So helping people through that will have a ripple effect, and give them the confidence to bring their diverse experiences, perspectives, and knowledge to the table to improve the business.”

Final Thoughts: Be Open, Be Curious, and Go for Growth

“Imagine if at any point in my career I had said ‘no, I’m not open to the next opportunity.’” Alvaro muses. “It would have been fine, but it would have also meant missing all the experiences that have been so enriching. Life brings us so many possibilities. By keeping an open mind and saying yes to the opportunities offered to me, I am always learning and growing.

I also believe curiosity is important. I am always looking at things, thinking about how they work, and how they can be made easier, faster, and/or better. Being curious and sharing that curiosity with others opens the door to collaboration, brainstorming, and growth.

I hope my career has paved the way for other Hispanics in the U.S. – and I am excited through mentorship to shape the future together.”

For more insights from Alvaro and co-host Ed Ballina, watch Manufacturing Meet Up on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcatcher below.
Apple
Spotify
Amazon Music
iHeart Radio
YouTube Music (formerly Google Play)

The post Paving the Way for Future Generations appeared first on Augury.

It’s official – there’s a teenager in the house. To celebrate, we’ve compiled 13 of the nicest gifts we have ever received: impact statements and compliments from customers, partners, analysts, and the press.

1.

“It is by far the best thing that has ever come into this mill in the 28 years I have worked here in maintenance. Work smarter not harder.” — Anonymous, Pulp & Paper Industry

Read the Article

2.

“We scouted the world for different solutions, big companies and small companies, and we objectively tested them side by side. Augury was the solution that came on top.” — Anna Farberov, General Manager, PepsiCo Labs

Read the Case Study

3.

“Since implementing Augury and 24/7 machine monitoring, we have drastically reduced unplanned downtime and also found some gaps in our maintenance strategy.” — Michael Hill, Predictive Maintenance Lead, Purina

See Video

4.

“Augury’s made a difference in our maintenance program because it’s really the first and most critical step in our transformation of getting away from that calendar-based maintenance.” — Travis Schell, Divisional FP&R and Automation Manager, Hill’s Pet Nutrition

Read the Case Study

5.

“We had a problem getting the mechanics to trust what our technology was telling us. We have several tenured mechanics, and they had been taking care of the equipment for a long time. The failures that we find with Augury are very high in the P-F curve so when we asked them to change the component, they could not understand why we were changing good components out. We then started doing autopsies on the problems that we found. You would be surprised how many mechanics will come around to see what you are doing if you start tearing down a motor on the shop table. Once they see the problems that you found with Augury, they started to understand what this technology can do and how it can help identify the problem.

We are lucky that we have our upper management support with our predictive maintenance program. They realize the savings and help us to make the program a success.” — Roy Smithson, Maintenance

Read on our knowledge base, The Endpoint

6.

“‘The value of startup vendors such as Augury has initially been the combination of hardware and software predictive-maintenance solutions, especially machine learning-driven.’ said Emil Berthelsen, vice president and analyst at IT research and consulting firm Gartner Inc.

By using multiple data sources, such as historical and operational data, acoustic sensors and images, Mr. Berthelsen said, ‘the quality and levels of predictive-maintenance insights continues to improve.’”

Read The Wall Street Journal

7.

“We saw ROI of nearly four times the investment within six months, just in repair savings. If we include savings from downtime avoidance, it would be much, much higher.” — Adi Segal, Head of Maintenance & Service Department, BAZAN Group Oil Refineries Ltd.

Read the Article

8.

“My mission was to make the world’s best pet food. My mission wasn’t to be the world’s best at machine learning and end-to-end systems and predictive maintenance. So I wanted to find that strategic partner that was one of the best in that space and they could enable me to go fast and wide. Because there’s a time-to-value here from a money perspective, the longer it takes me to get this technology in, the more downtime I’m incurring.” — Terry LeDoux, Former VP Digital Manufacturing, Retired, Nestle Purina

Read Terry’s insights

9.

“The beauty of the solution that we have together with Machine Health, partnering with Augury, is…state of the art hardware and software delivering value immediately and maximizing on an ability to deliver something to the customer that they see now…We’re creating value together. That’s a very different dynamic, right? That’s a true SaaS model of technology and digital to basically embrace your customer and say, not only am I delivering you something that’s incredible, it’s going to get you the value you are looking for and the ROI you wanted to exceed your expectations.” — Carlos Gomez, VP, Global Partnerships & Alliances, Baker Hughes

See the Interview on Beyond The Line

10.

“Getting these wins up front and early is very important. The news spreads like wildfire around the company. People start saying, ‘Hey that’s neat, we need that at our facility!’ Of course, we were also collecting KPIs from the beginning, and not only on whether we prevented equipment failure. We also covered time to reaction, time to getting a notification, time to taking action… We’re tracking all of those. And once we saw they were all tracking the right direction, it gave us the confidence to move forward.” — Gary Binstock, Director of Technology for Strategic Innovation and Alliances, Colgate-Palmolive

See all of Colgate-Palmolive’s wins

11.

“But here, it’s not just human workers trying to hear signs of machine failure above the factory fray. Sensors attached to equipment are also listening out for indications of hardware faults, having been trained to recognise sounds of weary machines that risk bringing production lines to a grinding halt.

PepsiCo is deploying these sensors, created by tech firm Augury and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), across its factories following a successful US trial.”

Read the BBC Story

12.

“Whenever we prevent a failure, of course we prevent everything that comes from that. We reduce the amount of labor time, machine time, we reduce all the inputs that are used in our operating machines—including energy, water, and gas emissions. Any improvement we have in operation and the reduction of the inputs is helping us meet our sustainability goals. We really feel that we have a partner in Augury and this has made it very, very successful.” — Gofna Liss-Rubin, Open Innovation Manager, Osem-Nestlé

Watch the Video

13.

“Augury isn’t a program. Programs end. Augury is a culture. And this culture is saving downtime, money, and negative environmental impact at scale.” — Bill Hollman, Corporate Operations Manager, Nefco Biosolids

The post Happy 13th Birthday Augury! appeared first on Augury.

It’s no secret that downtime is manufacturing’s biggest nemesis. From the C-suite to the supply chain to the plant floor, everyone is working hard to keep lines up and running.

Yet out in cyberspace, a Thanos-like threat lurks, ready to “snap” production if certain demands are unmet. These snaps can come in many forms, including ransomware, backdoors, and spear phishing. According to IBM’s ​​X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, manufacturing was the most attacked industry in 2023. 

The risks to manufacturing are significant. In addition to losing money from downtime and extortion, businesses risk losing face and becoming the latest media headline (see Toyota’s nightmare.) Worst of all, hacking into an Industrial Control System (ICS) can put workers in harm’s way by physically damaging the machinery or processes that people must then go in and fix.

So, when you’re considering rolling out AI-driven machine health, what cybersecurity measures should you consider? 

1.  To integrate, or not integrate? That is the question.

Most machine health vendors integrate their solutions with existing customer data sources in order to provide value. The complex IT architecture requirements of integrating into an ICS can take a significant amount of time to work through. And as we all know, time is money. 

However, not all machine health solutions require this integration. Some solutions are secure by design and operate outside of a manufacturer’s ICS. Using isolated architecture, components within the software are encapsulated, operating independently of each other. Benefits of this approach include reliability and scalability – important factors when you’re deploying machine health across hundreds of machines and need to see quick ROI.

2: Adherence to rigorous standards

Commonly known as the ISO, the International Organization for Standardization is comprised of experts across the globe who have set the standards for keeping sensitive information secure.

There is a laundry list of benefits that come with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 compliance. In a nutshell, when a solution adheres to these standards, customers can be confident in their vendor’s:

• Risk management
• Resilience to cyber attack/ preparation for new threats
• Consistency/reliability in processes and outputs
• Operational excellence
• Constant improvement of quality, efficiency, and effectiveness

Similarly, data and privacy regulations have been enacted in various geographies, most notably the European Union’s GDPR and the State of California’s CCPA. Vendors who adhere to these regulations demonstrate strict data handling practices designed to protect their customers’ personal privacy.

3. Encryption

Encryption is a fundamental best practice – it protects sensitive data from unauthorized parties. In addition to meeting the ISO standards listed above, encryption:

• reduces the risk of data breaches during data migration
• makes it easier to detect attempted breaches by recognizing unauthorized modifications or tampering

The best security in the world is built on a foundation of basic security. Make sure your machine health vendor is encrypting data during transfer/transmission and at REST in storage devices.

4. Multi-tenant platform with data segregation per data classification

Machine health solutions serving multiple customers must maintain the security and privacy of each customer’s data. A multi-tenant platform ensures a customer’s data is stored and processed in its own isolated space. Data segregation ensures each customer’s data remains separate from and inaccessible to other customers served on the platform. Further segregation happens according to how the data is classified and may include storing certain classes of data in separate, encrypted databases with even tighter access controls.

The result? Sensitive customer data is processed and stored in the cloud, protected due to its isolation and classification level, providing even more security against cyber threats.

5. Penetration testing

Simulations are a safe way to test out different scenarios. Proactive vendors conduct penetration testing, which simulates a real-world attack on their systems. Through this exercise, potential weaknesses are uncovered as the fictional attacker tries to exploit the system. 

The results of penetration testing are used to highlight vulnerabilities, assess the impact of a potential breach, and prioritize fixes to protect against a true security threat.

Cybersecurity – An Ongoing Practice

Managing cyber risk is never a one-and-done task. Once you settle on a machine health vendor, both you and the vendor must be eternally vigilant in protecting your data and systems. Unfortunately, no matter how brilliant new technology is, there will always be bad actors looking to exploit it for their own gain. That’s no reason to fear AI-powered solutions for the plant floor, but it is a reminder to develop the discipline and ask the questions that will keep you one step ahead of cybercrime.

The post Secure By Design: A 5-Point Cybersecurity Checklist for Machine Health appeared first on Augury.

As an innovation and digital manager at the biggest dairy enterprise in Israel, Talli Zahavi brings big-data smarts to manufacturing dietary staples consumed daily by millions of people. “When I bring innovation to production, the production line creates more for our customers.”

Talli Zahavi is a big-picture thinker who knows that solving real-world problems requires getting down into the details.

After earning her degree in Information Systems Engineering from the prestigious Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Talli first worked for Amdocs, a multinational telecommunications technology company. After about a decade with the company, she returned to the Technion to pursue her master’s degree, which she earned in 2010 with honors, focusing on strategic management and entrepreneurship. Then, she joined the Technion as a teaching assistant, and also held multiple roles in their Knowledge Center for Innovation.

During that time, Talli developed a passion for the value that innovation and technology can deliver all companies and economies. “Israel is well known for our high-tech sector,” she says. “And it’s undoubtedly important – it’s the engine of our economy. However, we cannot rely on just one industry to drive our economy.”

“We dive into the challenges that don’t have solutions and scout out new technologies that may bring value and a competitive edge to our business.”

As the old adage goes, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.” Talli appreciates that in today’s world this is particularly true. The lessons she gained at the Technion and the Knowledge Center for Innovation helped her evaluate what industries and sectors were ripe for innovation. Manufacturing stood out. “If industrial manufacturing companies are not strong enough, then the economy will not survive. So I began learning about manufacturing. And for Israeli manufacturing to be competitive, we’ve got to innovate.

When a project manager role leading digital innovation opened up at Tnuva, Israel’s largest dairy manufacturer, Talli saw an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

Leaning Into Manufacturing Challenges

“The work our team does is so exciting,” Talli says. “We dive into the challenges that don’t have solutions and scout out new technologies that may bring value and a competitive edge to our business. This is how we came across Augury’s Process Health solution. Our dairy technologists were looking for ways to increase the yield and quality on some of our production processes. We evaluated different potential solutions and narrowed it down to Augury.”

Talli’s team deployed Augury’s Process Health solution at their Alon Tavor facility on one of their largest cheese production processes. Process Health is designed to analyze process performance and provide insights on how to improve it. This includes guidance on adjusting things like temperature, duration, and adapting to raw material properties. 

The deployment with Augury was successful. “Now it is used regularly to identify those small changes we can make to optimize our processes and output – something we couldn’t do previously.” Tnuva is now looking to extend the work they’re doing with Augury and implement Machine Health technology in their sites, too. 

The value Talli and her colleagues bring to Tnuva extends beyond the plant floor. “When I bring innovation to production, the production line creates more for our customers. In the case of Tnuva that means more milk, cottage cheese, mozzarella, brie, camembert, goat cheese, and even many lactose-free products to each Israeli household at every meal.”  

“In IT, we use and talk about big data, AI, and machine learning all the time. But we are a manufacturing company, and our employees don’t necessarily know what these terms mean and how they can be helpful in production. So we created a training program, and people throughout Tnuva could apply to become a part of it.”

Spreading the Innovative Mindset

Talli is passionate about creating a mindset shift around innovation not just for Tnuva’s IT Teams, but for the entire company. Developing “citizen data scientists” is an example of this.  

“In IT, we use and talk about big data, AI, and machine learning all the time. But we are a manufacturing company, and our employees don’t necessarily know what these terms mean and how they can be helpful in production. So we created a training program, and people throughout Tnuva could apply to become a part of it.”

This was no ordinary training program. The employees who were selected to participate attended courses about machine learning and then created a project applying what they learned to real life environments. Talli supported the process, ensuring participants had the tech infrastructure needed for their project.

“My job was to introduce these students to new technology, escort and support them as they evaluated different challenges, and mentor them as they experimented using new technologies to solve those challenges.”  

The best part? The training program included an element of competition. Employees presented projects to Tnuva’s management, and prizes were awarded for their innovations.

“I think in the 21st century, data science has to extend beyond the IT department,” Talli says. “People throughout the organization need to know the added value, strength, and benefits it can bring to their jobs.”

The post Bringing AI Manufacturing Innovation to the Table with Talli Zahavi from Tnuva appeared first on Augury.

Join us in paying homage to women who have made significant contributions to manufacturing over the years.

Women have long been part of manufacturing. Sadly, many of their names are lost to history. In this curated list, we focus on seven ladies whose creativity, determination, and sense of justice have paved the way for women (and men) in manufacturing today.

In the early 19th century, textile mills began springing up throughout the northeastern United States. The work was long (12-14 hours every weekday, with a half day on Saturday.) It was also grueling. Conditions were loud, hot, humid, and the air was choked with dust and lint.

Sarah Bagley was a weaver and one of the many mill girls who worked in this challenging environment. She even authored an essay titled “The Pleasures of Factory Work.” However, Sarah’s thinking shifted after a giant mill instituted a speed-up of work alongside a 20% pay cut. Seventy mill girls walked out on the job, only to be fired and blacklisted as a result of their protest.

In 1844, Sarah became president of the newly formed Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. She advocated for a 10-hour workday, which, unfortunately, she could not secure. Nonetheless, Sarah and all the mill girls laid the foundation for future labor reform and safer, more humane manufacturing work.

There’s nothing special about a brown paper lunch sack, grocery bag, or gift bag. Until you realize that bags used to be made by hand. It took the engineering mindset of Margaret Knight to create and patent a labor-saving machine that is still used, in a very similar form, to this day.

By all accounts, Margaret was a tinkerer from an early age. Her sleds were the envy of the neighborhood. At the tender age of 12, she began working in a textile mill. Witnessing the dangerous conditions, she invented a shuttle restraint system to protect workers from accidents while they worked on the loom.

Later in life, Margaret worked for the Columbia Paper Bag Company. In 1871, after spending time tediously folding paper bags by hand, she created an automated machine to make the process more efficient. Thankfully, she also meticulously documented the development of her invention. This came in handy when she attempted to patent her machine. In a court battle against Charles Annan, a coworker who tried to steal her idea, she proved decisively the machine was her intellectual property.

Margaret went on to patent over 25 more inventions, including a compound rotary engine. 

If you hate handwashing dishes, thank Josephine Cochrane for making your life easier. After experiencing the frustration of chipping fine china while scrubbing it in the sink, Josephine knew there had to be a better way. She got to work designing an enclosed system of high-pressure water jets and wire racks–and she displayed it to great acclaim in the Machinery Hall during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

The dishwasher was hailed as a breakthrough invention, though initially, it only found a market among large institutions like restaurants and hotel kitchens. (Most individual consumers found it too costly and couldn’t supply the amount of hot water needed to run the machine.)

Eventually, Josephine began manufacturing her dishwashers, selling them across the country and as far away as Mexico. She received a patent for her machine and another patent posthumously for design improvements. After her death, the company she founded was acquired by the Hobart Manufacturing Company, which produced her invention under the KitchenAid brand. Today, dishwashers are commonplace in home kitchens. A recent report states that the global dishwashing machine market has generated approximately $27 billion in revenue! We think Ms. Cochrane would be pleased to see how many people have cleaned up with her creation.

Madam C.J. Walker did not have an easy life. Born Sarah Breedlove, she was one of six children born on a plantation to former enslaved people. She was orphaned young, married young, and became a mother (and a widow) at a young age.

Seeking to escape a life of poverty, she and her daughter moved to St. Louis in pursuit of new opportunities. It was there, possibly due to stress, that Sarah began losing her hair. She turned to a product called “The Great Wonderful Hair Grower,” created by Annie Turnbo Malone, a Black businesswoman. The product worked, and Sarah became a sales agent.

Eventually, Sarah moved to Denver and established her own line of specialized Black hair care products. She also married Charles Joseph Walker, an ad man, and her transformation to “Madam C.J. Walker” was complete.

Although her marriage didn’t last, her business did. Madam moved her manufacturing headquarters to Indianapolis. She employed 40,000 sales agents. She became a prolific advertiser and business owner, and her financial worth totaled more than $1 million. In addition to her manufacturing empire, she founded the National Negro Cosmetics Manufacturers Association in 1917. And perhaps most importantly, she used her fortune and voice to fund philanthropic ventures and support the NAACP’s work to end lynching and advance civil rights.

Before disposable diapers came along, mothers were waging a losing battle with laundry. Cloth baby diapers leaked on clothing and bedding, creating constant work. Marion Donovan was determined to solve this problem.

She was the right person to do it, too. Growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Marion liked to hang out in the manufacturing plant where her dad worked. (Incidentally, her dad and uncle invented a tool to grind automobile gears.) While Marion wasn’t trained as an engineer, creative problem-solving was in her blood.

After giving birth to her first child, Marion got tired of all the laundry created by diaper leaks. She designed the “Boater,” a breathable yet waterproof diaper cover, and took it to various manufacturers. They laughed at her. Marion was not discouraged. She knew she had a winning invention and began manufacturing the Boater herself. The product was such a hit she patented it and sold her company and the rights to the Boater for $1 million.

She also began working on a truly disposable diaper. Again, she was laughed at when she shopped it around. It would take about a decade before a man, Victor Mills, made good on that dream, creating Pampers.

Nonetheless, Marion’s endless drive to make life easier led to 20 patents in her lifetime–including one to help women close the zipper on the back of their dresses. (Off to check Amazon for one of those!)

3M has been manufacturing innovative products since the early 1900s. One of their best-known products, Scotchguard, results from a happy mistake made by chemist Patsy Sherman and her colleague Sam Smith. 

Early on, Patsy knew she wanted a career. Her natural aptitude toward science led her to study chemistry and mathematics in college. After graduation, she worked at 3M, focusing on fluorochemicals – specifically, attempting to create a rubber appropriate for jet fuel lines. An accidental chemical spill onto a white canvas sneaker revealed some interesting properties of their latest attempt. The spot repelled oil, water, and other liquids, keeping that part of the shoe clean. Patsy and Sam saw the potential of this chemical in textile applications. Together, they patented what became Scotchguard, a major product in 3M’s portfolio to this day. They went on to collaborate and receive a total of 13 patents together.

In the 1950s, most women weren’t pursuing a college degree in chemistry. Edith Flanigen wasn’t like most women. She earned her master’s degree in inorganic physical chemistry from Syracuse University. She then headed off to work for the Union Carbide Corporation (now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company). 

At Union Carbide, Edith invented molecular sieves. These specially formulated materials are critically important in manufacturing, especially in the petrochemical and petroleum refining industries. They remove moisture and impurities, making them essential in pharmaceutical manufacturing as well. 

If that were all Edith had done, it would have been impressive. But she was not one to rest on her laurels. Edith invented or co-invented more than 200 synthetic materials. Her work with molecular sieves has been used in everything from purifying petroleum to environmental cleanup. She holds 109 patents and was the first woman awarded the Perkin Medal, America’s top honor in applied chemistry.

When asked about her amazing career, Edith said, “I was in leadership positions all through high school and college and on into my career with Union Carbide. I think a good trait of a leader is to recognize what each person brings to the table. And, by the way, we always had fun. In the early days, when the bosses went away on a trip, we would always have a peasants-and-peons party in the lab… I think it’s important to have happy people who get along together and have fun.”

Well said, Edith. Happy Women’s History Month!

Interested in reading more about women in manufacturing? Check out our interview celebrating International Women’s Day.

The post Patents, Production, and Women in the Plant appeared first on Augury.

The theme of International Women’s Day 2024 is #InspireInclusion. We talked to Amy Michtich and Frieda Venechuk about their career paths and what inclusion looks like to them. 

When Amy Michtich earned her second promotion in plant leadership at Pepsi Bottling Group, she remembers telling her peer that she felt like she only got it because she was a woman.

“Get that out of your mouth,” he told her. “You got promoted because you deliver damn good results.”

It’s true. Amy does deliver damn good results. Throughout her career, working for such giants as PepsiCo, Molson Coors, The Scott’s Miracle-Gro Company, and 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, Amy held numerous roles of increasing responsibility. She managed plant floors, headed up integrated supply chains, ran day-to-day business operations, and focused on developing talent and teams.

So how did Amy work her way up to the C-suite in manufacturing?

College and Co-Ops

“It’s funny that I ended up in manufacturing,” Amy admits. “I came from a family who worked in the automotive industry. My parents did not have college degrees. My goal was to get into a university and not spend my life in a factory.”

As an only child, Amy mainly kept to herself. She read a lot and liked figuring out how things worked. A good friend of her dad was a plant engineer and liked to build drag race cars as a hobby. Amy liked observing the process, and started learning about the different tools, their uses, and handing them over as he worked.

Her dad’s friend also encouraged Amy to pursue a college education. “He took me on several college visits,” she remembers. “He wanted to ensure I was exposed to the opportunities available to me. He took me to Purdue, where I eventually applied and was accepted into the College of Engineering. My goal was to become an aeronautical engineer.”

School was fun. Maybe a little too much fun, Amy confesses with a laugh. But, the challenges that came with newfound freedom and an eventual switch of her major taught Amy valuable lessons about resiliency and finding a new path.

“I did a co-op with General Motors, which is a program where I alternated between academic semesters and then semesters of full-time, paid work, ” Amy shares. “Interestingly, as soon as I started my co-op work, I saw a direct connection between what I was learning and what I was doing on-site. Suddenly, manufacturing, the thing I had been running away from all this time, energized me.”

Life, Leadership, and Role Models in Manufacturing

Early on in her career, Amy began managing people and taking leadership roles. She took a “fail forward” approach to work – willing to take calculated risks, identify opportunities, and build her team’s capability to do the same. Her confidence kept building. 

Still, she was often the lone woman in the room or on the plant floor. “Working rotating shifts is tough on family life, and childcare is expensive,” Amy says. “Lots of women leave manufacturing to get married and have kids.”

Thankfully, this is becoming less of an issue – although many women are still not coming up through traditional manufacturing routes. “There tend to be other pathways to more senior roles in manufacturing,” she says. But she notes there are also more supports for women in manufacturing, no matter how they got there.

“Groups like Women in Manufacturing and AWESOME didn’t exist when I started my career in the early 1990s,” Amy says. “These groups are great for development and networking. I think they can also provide role models – although it’s important in my view to choose role models based on who you want to be as a person, and not necessarily on whether or not they look like you.”

“In my day, there weren’t many female role models, and those I knew had to make many sacrifices to get where they were. Even though I admired them, I also wasn’t always sure I wanted to be like them. Now, I think there are more opportunities for women to see various role models and understand that we don’t all have to be on the same path. What works for me may not work for you, and that’s okay. It’s all about balancing what is important to you and your family.”

Thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion

Many manufacturers are still struggling to figure out how to increase diversity in their companies. In Amy’s opinion, solving this problem might require a broader approach. “I think the issue is tied to an overall challenge in attracting people into the industry. Let’s focus on recruiting people at the start of their careers. We can show them that manufacturing provides opportunities for them to grow professionally. There are ways manufacturers can (and already are) working to evolve the way work is done on the plant floor. Making sure we highlight this evolution of manufacturing work will help us recruit people, and in particular, women, who are concerned about the balance between work and family life. ”

At the end of the day, the power of diversity and inclusion is “about surrounding myself with people who think differently than me,” Amy says. “Maybe we have similar experiences, but I want people around me with different styles, approaches, and perspectives. That is the fun of manufacturing: the breadth of what we get to do, the hats we get to wear, and the skills we develop that we’ve never had before.”

Frieda’s Story

Like Amy, Frieda’s career in manufacturing had its roots in her childhood.

“I was a strong student in math and science,” Frieda shares. “Teachers and adults always told me I’d make a great engineer and encouraged me in that direction.”

So off to Purdue University she went. During her freshman year, she explored all the different types of engineering available to her. “I took a seminar on industrial engineering,” she remembers. “I thought it was so cool. I’m all about making things more efficient in my life and planning things out. When I realized I could make a career out of that, it was one of the best days ever!”

The dynamic environment of manufacturing also appealed to Frieda. “I love that my work is hands-on, and I’m not boxed into a cubicle. I’m out solving real issues we’re having on the plant floor and getting real-time feedback from it, too.”

From Six to Sixty

To date, Frieda has spent her entire career with PepsiCo – and they have recognized her damn good results too.

She began working right out of school as a production frontline supervisor, leading a team of six people. She then moved into food safety, then to quality, and then back to processing at a managerial level. She even did financials before being tapped to lead the maintenance department – a role where she now leads a team of 60 people.

“It’s been an interesting shift from day-to-day firefighting to focusing on strategy and the bigger picture,” Frieda says. “It’s not about winning the day anymore. It’s about winning two to three years from now.”

These upward moves align with Frieda’s goal to diversify and be a cross-functional leader. “I don’t want to be siloed into one area,” she says. “I’m always looking at roles where I can expand my skill set and gain knowledge beyond the plant and into the larger overall business.”

Meaningful Mentorship and Support

Shortly after joining PepsiCo, Frieda began meeting with her mentor Jen, the senior site director at the other plant on their manufacturing campus. Initially, their discussions revolved around employee relations or performance issues. But as time went on, both Frieda and Jen earned promotions and took on greater roles and responsibilities.

“It’s been interesting for us to develop together even though we’re at different points in our careers,” Frieda notes. “Our conversations have evolved and gotten deeper. As we’ve progressed, we talk more about strategy and higher-level work. And Jen is a big advocate for bringing other women along and creating a supportive environment.”

Frieda is modeling that same supportiveness as a leader. 

“I’m a big believer that there’s enough sunshine for everyone,” she says. “I’m happy to have more women at the table and I feel invested in their careers.” 

She also mentions the power of affinity groups, such as Women In Manufacturing. 

“The women in that group model how you can pursue your professional goals while still being a mom, for example. There was a time when that was a roadblock. Manufacturing is a 24/7 operation. But as manufacturing modernizes, groups like WIM help move the needle on building more flexibility into manufacturing careers so women can find the balance they need to live the life they want.”

Overcoming Hurdles

As a woman in a largely male-dominated industry, Frieda acknowledges that she and other women in manufacturing are a bit of a rarity. And she’s had her share of people underestimating her abilities.

“Unfortunately, there have been a few times where I’ve experienced pushback due to being a young woman in my position. Some older male contractors coming into the plant don’t want to interact with me,” she says. “But my team understands that I’m the one contractors need to talk to, and they educate and then divert these guys to me.”

Having these experiences has helped Frieda finetune her leadership skills. “I feel responsible to make sure women have a voice at the table,” she says. “Of course, I want all genders to have a voice, but culturally, I think women tend to speak up less and experience more pushback. I make it a point to ask their opinions and encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas.”

#InspireInclusion

This International Women’s Day, everyone is invited to #InspireInclusion. But long before that hashtag was invented, Amy and Frieda have lived it by leading teams and blazing trails. At Augury, we’re proud to continuously support women’s inclusion in manufacturing. How will you inspire inclusion today, tomorrow, and into the future?

The post Delivering “Damn Good Results” appeared first on Augury.

Flipping your factory into a modern manufacturing powerhouse requires a strategy that extends into every part of your facility – including how you manage your spare parts inventory.

If you think predictive, prescriptive machine health is just about fixing equipment before it fails, it’s time to think bigger. The actionable insights generated from condition monitoring can be used to optimize asset care—especially when it comes to managing spare part inventory.

Meet the Experts

Adi Segal heads up the maintenance and service department at Bazan Group, an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. 

Sigal Mannheim Katzovich serves as the managing director of DSV in Israel. DSV A/S is the third largest international shipping company, offering global logistics and transport services by road, air, sea, and train.

Working together with Augury, Adi and Sigal discovered a spare-parts-as-a-service strategy, which combines machine health with logistics to better manage production risk. Their just-in-time approach to inventory is an innovative way to save money on maintenance and procurement costs.

#1:  Ditch the Low-Risk, High-Risk Way of Working

Spare parts are a major line item on any manufacturing budget, making it an area ripe for review and innovation. Typically, manufacturers either follow a low-risk or high-risk strategy in the way they manage their spare part inventory.

Low risk = high inventory levels

High risk = low inventory levels

Reflecting on the low-risk strategy, Adi said, “When you don’t know what’s in front of you, usually you purchase more and your shelves are full of spare parts. We found out that they lay on the shelves for more than two to three years, without any use, which is a huge waste of time and money. And from time to time, we can’t even use those spare parts because there’s corrosion or something else that happened to them just sitting on the shelf.”

Conversely, the high-risk strategy means not holding much inventory and hoping that when a part is needed, it will be available, affordable, and delivered on time. According to Sigal, it’s a risk that doesn’t usually pay off. She shared a story where one small missing part cost a customer more than $200,000 due to rushed shipping and the part’s location a hemisphere away.

“Of course, the disruption itself cost millions of dollars,” she explained.  “So the customer is not happy and we work under pressure. This is not a good environment for any supplier.”

#2: Think Differently About Machine Health Data

Bazan’s maintenance team uses machine health insights to get ahead of equipment failure and optimize its assets. However, Adi realized that there was additional value within the data that the procurement department could be leveraging as well. The insights provided a window into better forecasting the need, budget, and timing for spare parts. 

That created an “a-ha moment” for DSV as well. “We realized that we could use the machine health data and insights we got from Bazan to make our whole supply chain better,” Sigal said. “We could buy better, we could deliver better. We have time to talk with other suppliers, with the ocean carriers and the air carriers, to bring parts just in time to the customer to make him happy.”

#3: Create a New “Just-In-Time” Procurement Process

Cracking the code on machine health and logistics meant Bazan’s maintenance and procurement departments pivoted to a new, smarter strategy: just-in-time inventory.

This strategy broke the cycle of reactive inspections, unplanned downtime, and emergency repairs.

“Once AI detects the problem in the machine, there is an alert sent to procurement. We then get the order and we have the lead time to get the best rate and bring it to Bazan at the time it’s needed—not before and not too late—we call it ‘just in time parts’,” said Sigal.

New Process = Big Benefits 

While just-in-time parts help cut maintenance and procurement costs, there are other benefits to pairing AI-powered machine health with logistics. For example, maintenance budgets are typically direct expenses. But predictive, prescriptive machine health extends the life of assets, improves their efficiency, and results in fewer unplanned shutdowns—which add up to significant cost savings for the business.

“I get to control my budget,” Adi said. “I can present to top management where to invest or upgrade a machine because we have spare money now.”

Sigal agreed. “Technology is here to support people and the business. It makes you work smarter, not harder. It’s a benefit–people can analyze data, talk about strategy, and talk about better budgeting instead of running after machines and fixing them all the time.”

The post Strategic Planning for Spare Parts: 3 Essential Steps For Maintenance & Procurement Pros appeared first on Augury.

Forget house flipping–that’s for amateurs. You gotta go bigger than that. Flip your old factory into a modern, high-tech workplace. It all starts with designing your downtime, on your time.

Unplanned downtime. It dogs pretty much everyone involved in maintenance and reliability. But what’s worse is unnecessary downtime. Downtime that could have been scheduled, avoided, or even prevented if machine failures were predictable.

That’s exactly what our two experts tackled in the first webisode of Flip This Factory: Design Your Own Downtime. 

Meet the Experts

Dave Penrith, recently retired, spent his 36-year career with Unilever in the UK, ultimately serving as global Chief Engineer. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, Terry LeDoux was VP of Nestlé Purina North America before retiring after a 33-year career in information systems.

Both Dave and Terry are champions of digital transformation, with deep experience in the successful rollout of Industry 4.0 initiatives. Here are their key takeaways on how to start fixing downtime for good, without using temporary hacks.

#1: Turn Knowledge and Insights Into Wisdom 

According to Dave, you’ve got to start by thinking about it as a process. “There’s a lot of solutions out there that will give you data. But you’ve got to move that data into knowledge and insight and then into wisdom. Machine health is the first step in that journey. It’s a foundation you can build everything else on top of.”

Terry agreed. “Most of us have some form of CMMS or maintenance solution that we work with in our factories. But over time that data becomes less and less accurate as players change. So sometimes you just gotta take a step back and do something very simple…actually walk your product flow. Anything that your product flow touches that could stop that product flow is probably critical.” 

#2: Measure What You Treasure

It’s easy to get lost in a sea of acronyms, metrics, and complex measures. (OEE anyone?) But our experts are firm on this point: simple is better. 

“Strip it back to the basics,” Dave said. “Production is about boxes on trucks. How many boxes could you have put on the truck and how many did you actually put on the truck? Start from that level first because otherwise, there’s a risk that we get comfortable hiding behind some of the complex definitions.”

Once you know how big or small your problem is, you’re on solid ground to find a solution. At that point, “…it’s about trying to find the tools and right vendors that will help get you there faster,” Terry said.

#3: Shift the Culture 

People can be resistant to change. So listening to the shop floor users, making it simple, and communicating the benefit is key.

“Nobody ever solved the shop floor problem in a boardroom,” Dave said. “We’re trying to shift culture and behavior from problem-solving to problem-avoidance. We’re trying to give the shop floor folks the tools to fix their own problems.”

Moving from problem-solving to problem avoidance is a paradigm shift that needs reinforcement. After all, maintenance techs are trained to go fix whatever is in the red, melting down, and setting off alarms.

“But what really needs to happen is to focus on the green, and publicly recognize people who are having great days,” said Terry. “You need to understand what they are doing to have those great days. And very often it’s that they’re using the tools that you put out there in the right way. Or they put forth ideas on better ways to use those tools. So recognition and reward is a small investment that really drives a lot of improvement.”

For folks on Dave’s team, that might mean winning the “Scotty Award”, named after Star Trek’s chief engineer, Montgomery Scott. “Scotty seems to save the Enterprise every week or every episode. So we had a Scotty award for someone who’s gone out of the way and done something different and saved the day.”

#4: Data, Served Fresh and Hot

Most reports are a look back at what happened–what Dave likes to call “cold” data. So any good machine health report is ideally forward-looking, predictive, and prescriptive. 

That data helps teams plan forward and across the organization. It’s where the idea of problem avoidance comes back in.

“You need fresh, hot data that helps you see what’s coming down the pipe,” Dave said. “Imagine a scenario when you’re running production and you’ve got a forward-looking system and it tells you that an asset is going to fail within seven days. You know that you’re going to have to take some time out to address that potential failure. But let’s say you also know that there’s going to be a material outage within three days because the suppliers are falling short. Just imagine having the ability to make those two interventions coincide. What you’re doing is combining what could have been two sources of loss into a single point of planned loss. Taking advantage of that is planning and designing your downtime.”

#5: Find a Strategic Partner

When it’s time to move forward, it is critical to find a vendor who doesn’t just throw data over the transom. 

“My mission was to make the world’s best pet food,” said Terry. “It wasn’t to be the world’s best at machine learning, end-to-end systems, and predictive maintenance. I wanted to find that strategic partner that could enable me to go fast and wide because, from a money perspective, you’ve got to consider time-to-value. The longer it takes me to get this technology in, the more downtime I’m incurring.”

Dave noted that while you might be able to DIY sensors and data, what you won’t have is the “hundreds and thousands of running hours of benchmark performance for a range of different assets and cycles. We couldn’t get to knowledge or insights and we definitely could not get to wisdom.”

Simply put: your strategic partner needs to be predictive, forward-looking, and always on.

Bonus Tip: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Quickly

When it comes to new tech solutions, lots of manufacturers find themselves stuck in pilot purgatory. But it shouldn’t, and doesn’t, have to be that way. 

Terry shared that his teams set a good, baseline measurement so they knew what success would look like. Then, at the end of a 90-day pilot, if they had 70% success, it was time to go big with speed.

For Dave, scoping the right size pilot is critically important too. “Manufacturing systems are complicated, and complicated things will fail in complicated ways. When a pilot is so narrow, there’s a risk that nothing fails. And the learnings are in the failures more than they’re in the successes. If you can get the correct size of pilot, to prove that it works, it will go big.”

In Terry’s opinion, “If you don’t jump on this next Industrial revolution and move your workforce to a mobile environment, you are going to fall behind. Yes, this is all new stuff but fail fast and pick yourself up. Learn from it and go try something different.”

Dave agreed, adding, “Don’t overcomplicate the metrics, and remember, it’s a people journey first.”

The post Design Your Downtime: 5 Tips from Industry Experts appeared first on Augury.

The promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has drawn people to America’s shores for centuries. In recognition of this promise, we wrapped up Hispanic Heritage Month by interviewing Ed Ballina and his sons Eddie and David. Their multigenerational story of big dreams, hard work, entrepreneurship, and success could (and should!) fill a book. We celebrate their contributions, and the contributions of all Hispanic Americans, to making the U.S. a better, more vibrant place to live and work.

The year was 1969. Ed Ballina was just nine years old when his parents made a fateful decision to escape Cuba. Before the revolution, the Ballinas were a typical, middle-class family. But Ed’s father was not a Communist and after Castro’s rise to power, he was demoted from his job as a warehouse manager to a truck loader. Experiencing increasing oppression under the new regime, the Ballinas made a break for Spain, with the ultimate goal of settling in America.

“We left Cuba on a 23-hour transoceanic flight from Havana to Madrid,” Ed remembers. “Then our plane had trouble and we were forced to land in the Azores. It was the middle of the night. The airport was virtually deserted. We hadn’t been fed on the plane–we were only given water. We left Cuba with no money and 40 lbs of luggage.”

Speaking heavily accented English, Ed’s father approached a few U.S. Air Force officers and enlisted men sharing a nightcap at the airport bar, hoping to bum a cigarette. When they realized the Ballinas were refugees, it only took a half hour before a convoy of Jeeps came from the U.S. Air Force base nearby. “They fed us. They gave us everything we needed: soda, gum, water, cigarettes, and sandwiches,” Ed shares with tears in his eyes. “It’s a testament to how great the U.S. Armed Forces are and just one reason why I am unabashedly patriotic.” 

Bootstrapping their way to prosperity

Although the Ballinas first emigrated to Madrid, they arrived at their ultimate destination, Elizabeth, New Jersey, on the east coast of the United States in 1971. Initially living with extended family, the Ballinas became American citizens and began to build a new life for themselves.

“I have an older cousin, Honorio Padrón, who was the first in our family to graduate with a college degree,” Ed shares. “And in my mind, there was never a question whether I’d go to college–my father was adamant that I graduate because no one could ever take that sheepskin away from me.” So Ed followed in Honorio’s footsteps, earning a chemical engineering degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Shortly thereafter, he married his wife Heidi, herself an immigrant from Poland who came to the United States when she was only two years old. (“Heidi still speaks Polish and shares her rich culture with the rest of the family,” Ed says. “We are truly multicultural–eating Cuban roast pork and Polish pierogis at our parties where guests are likely to hear four or five different languages being spoken!”)

Ed’s career took off from there, with a progression of roles and increasing responsibilities with Procter and Gamble, Scott Paper Company (now Kimberly-Clark), and finally PepsiCo. During this time, he and Heidi started a family, first welcoming Eddie and then David to the fold. They also moved. A lot. From Pennsylvania to New Jersey to New York state, then onto San Antonio, Denver, Massachusetts, Orlando, and finally back to Pennsylvania. Ed even had a brief stint in Mexico after Pepsi acquired a franchise bottler.

At each step of the way, Ed was living out the American Dream, strengthened by his family ties and upbringing. And while history doesn’t repeat itself, it does hum along to the same tune. 

The soft power that comes from family values and tradition

As second-generation Americans, Eddie and David have blazed their own trails, in their own ways. 

After high school, Eddie got his start as a motorcycle mechanic, admittedly having a good time and flying by the seat of his pants in his early days. But after meeting his girlfriend and becoming a father, he decided it was time to find a more secure career path with upward mobility. He set his sights on aviation, becoming an A&P mechanic for a regional airline. But the biggest prize was landing a job with Delta, where he worked his way to a leadership role with the airline’s TechOps maintenance group. 

Similarly, David graduated high school and went straight to work, first stocking grocery shelves for Pepsi and then pursuing his hands-on passion for cars. Working for AutoZone, Advanced Auto Parts, and dealerships, David got to indulge his love for rebuilding cars. But once he married and started his own family, he also decided to find a new niche where he could use his hands and mechanical know-how to move his career forward. Pepsi, Gatorade, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and Packaging Corporation of America all benefited from David’s strategic, analytical thinking as he upgraded, updated, and streamlined manufacturing machinery and processes.

As they grew their careers, each son lived by the ethos their father and mother instilled in them. The immigrant mentality of hard work, dedication, and smarts was woven right into their DNA. “This is a generality, but most Latinos are taught to be team players and collaborative,” Ed says. 

According to Eddie, this is definitely true. “We were raised not to leave anyone behind,” he says. “We stick up for the low guy on the totem pole. You need to help your fellow person out because together, you’re going to become better as a team. That’s the bottom line. If you try to do this individually, you’re going to lose.”

For Eddie, that meant standing on the wing of an airplane in office shoes, showing guys how to get a complex job done, even after moving into an office-based leadership role. 

“I love being a teacher and leading by example,” he says. “It sets the precedent that you care about your people. And it echoes throughout the team. A friend of mine told me that he heard a guy on my crew brag about how I came out on the wing in my office attire to help teach the guys how to rig a spoiler. When you do things like that, the folks you lead will do anything for you because they know you have their backs too.”

David agrees. “In the past, I was the guy empowered by a good leader. So when I became a leader myself, I wanted to make sure that I did the same thing for others. I see guys who are where I was five years ago, and I want to take them with me, and give them the opportunity to move up and get where they need to go.” 

No rest, just progress

For some folks, achieving success leads to resting on their laurels. But nothing could be further from the truth for the Ballina men.

When Ed retired from PepsiCo five years ago, he took on a role as the first Corporate Advisor for Augury. Sharing the incredible depth and breadth of his knowledge, Ed’s feedback has helped Augury continuously refine and innovate our offerings (and saved many machines in the process!).

He’s also been hard at work building a family business focused on consulting and equipment rebuilds for the beverage industry.

First, he recruited David away from Packaging Corporation of America to serve as general manager. “He essentially designed a layout of the shop. A lot of what we’ve got going here is his baby,” Ed says. Then, he and David were excited to get Eddie on board.

“I wanted a piece of the action too,” Eddie says. Throughout the launch of the company, he had been steadily offering input while discerning his own future at Delta. “Dad was surprised when I told him I was ready to join him and David full-time. But being part of a family business start-up is super special and very cool.”

“Eddie is becoming my little padawan learner,” David deadpans. “I will show him the ways of the Force.”

But Star Wars jokes aside, Ed recognizes that going into business together has strengthened his boys’ relationship with each other, and with him.

“Over the last two to three years, I find myself having leadership conversations with my sons,” Ed says. “I share what’s worked for me, what they should consider trying, or what not to do. Even though they have lovingly nicknamed me ‘Dream Killer’ at times, it’s opened up a different part of our relationship that typically fathers and sons don’t have.”

Looking back with gratitude

As exciting as it is to look ahead and build a new business, the Ballinas are proud to look back and see how their grit and determination got them this far.

“I remember visiting my grandmother back in New Jersey,” David says. “She was a seamstress and my grandfather did the same type of work. They lived in small apartments and that’s how my dad grew up. Knowing that my dad came here with nothing and worked hard to build the life he has now–I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to build this new business with him.”

Interestingly, David has had conversations with his daughter about the family business, too, and just what it will take to be a part of it. “One day she told me that if she can’t figure out what she wants to do with her life, she’ll come rebuild valves with me in the shop,” he says. He set her straight quickly. “If she wants to do it part-time or as a summer job, no problem. But I won’t bring her into this business as a full-time employee without a degree behind her. Because she may be turning wrenches now, but as this company grows, there’ll be so much to do that requires understanding the business part.“ Will the next generation of Ballinas inherit the business? Only time will tell.

Encouraging the next generation of Hispanic Americans

Speaking of the next generation, the Ballinas are deeply invested in what comes next, not only for themselves but for other families like them.

During his time with PepsiCo, Ed was active with their Latino employee resource group, Adelante. Through Ascender Mentorship Pods, he worked with a group of four to six up-and-coming Latino leaders. They would be given a project and Ed served as their sponsor, working with them throughout the year. Recently, he was delighted to reunite with one of those leaders who has risen through the ranks and now serves as a plant manager out in California. 

“I’m reaching a point in my life where I want to give back,” Ed says. That starts at home. “I’m grooming my grandson to be CEO,” he half-jokes. “His training has started by cleaning toilets. If he’s putzing around on his phone, he doesn’t get paid. Now he knows that his abuelo (grandfather) is not a nice abuelo in the shop but the CEO!”

But in all seriousness, Ed is clear on this point. “The janitor has the same value as the CEO. I think that comes across to the people we work with on the shop floor. Eddie, David, and I are all very hands-on. We grab our wrenches and lead from the front.”

Further reflecting on what it means to give back, Ed considers kids who may be living on the fringes and their need for positive role models. “We are the face of the new Americans. When those kids see somebody who looks like them, who made it in the world, there’s incredible power in that to change lives. If me or David or Eddie wind up in front of a kid who’s on the edge, thinking about joining thugs because that’s the only way he or she thinks they can survive–we’re here to show them there is hope, there is opportunity, and there are people who are willing to help you.”

The post From Castro’s Cuba to American Industrial Entrepreneurs  appeared first on Augury.