Precision Under Pressure: SMC’s Role in Smart Manufacturing

Precision meets innovation at SMC! John Halverson, Director of Marketing, shares how SMC became a leader in pneumatics and industrial automation. 🔧

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Transcript

(0:00) Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast. (0:04) We sit down with experts, world-changing innovators, (0:07) creators, and makers to explore how they're taking action (0:10) to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, (0:14) science, innovation, sustainability, the arts, and more. (0:18) On this episode, host George Davison, (0:21) who also hosts Tomorrow's World Today on the Science Channel, (0:24) sits down with John Halverson, Director of Marketing at SMC.
(0:28) Founded in 1959, SMC Corporation skyrocketed over the years (0:33) to become the global leader in pneumatic air-powered components (0:36) like grippers for collaborative robots. (0:38) We're uncovering how SMC is shaping the future (0:41) one compressed air-powered idea at a time. (0:45) It's great to have you here today.
(0:47) Well, I'm hoping that today we can help our audience (0:50) take a look into the future a little bit (0:52) as to where the jobs of the future are (0:55) and if we can explain a little bit about (0:58) how you got to where you are in your career. (1:02) Maybe we can shed some light on how things come to be. (1:06) Sounds good.
(1:07) All right. (1:08) Well, can you tell me a little bit about how SMC was actually founded? (1:12) Yeah, absolutely. (1:15) SMC started in 1959 in Japan, (1:20) making the first product that they manufactured (1:22) was centered metal elements for industrial filters out of a garage, (1:27) just a really small location.
(1:29) And over the next dozen years, (1:32) SMC started manufacturing other components for industrial automation, (1:36) including solenoid valves, pneumatic actuators, (1:40) and air preparation equipment, (1:41) so filters, regulators, lubricators to prepare the compressed air, (1:45) which is pneumatics is the use of compressed air. (1:49) And since then, since that time, I guess in 1977, (1:54) SMC started their U.S. subsidiary, SMC Corporation of America. (1:58) I wasn't there at that time.
(1:59) That was a while ago. (2:00) I would hope not. (2:02) And since then, we're now the world's largest supplier (2:06) of pneumatic components for industrial automation, (2:09) as well as we offer a lot of other products (2:11) for industrial automation and process automation.
(2:13) And why it works the way it does. (2:16) Right. (2:17) So those are great questions.
(2:19) Our founder, Mr. Takada, (2:22) was really looking for what customers needed. (2:25) That's really been the driving principle of the company ever since it started, (2:30) is listening to customers in the industrial automation space (2:34) and finding out, oh, do you have a problem? (2:36) We can help you fix that. (2:38) And we can try to create a unique solution (2:41) that really helps customers to become more efficient (2:45) and to lower their operating costs or lower their production costs.
(2:51) So in a way, he was using his observational skills (2:56) and his listening skills and going out to an audience (2:59) and inquiring what are their needs (3:02) so that he could figure out a way to maybe help fulfill those needs, (3:06) and that created an opportunity. (3:07) Is that fair? (3:08) That's a perfect assessment of it, yes. (3:11) If there's a need, let's really understand that need (3:14) from a lot of different angles, (3:16) and then let's develop a product that's going to fit that need (3:20) so that there's all the work that comes after that, (3:24) but having that idea and a need from a customer (3:28) is really the first step.
(3:30) Wonderful. (3:31) So he became somewhat of an expert in the world of pneumatics. (3:37) So why don't we delve into that a little bit? (3:40) I would guess that of all your listeners, (3:43) 99% of them have a pneumatic device in their garage.
(3:47) It's called a bike pump. (3:48) So a bike pump is essentially taking air (3:51) and compressing it into the bike tire. (3:55) So an industrial pneumatic system works very similarly, (3:59) except it's working in opposite.
(4:01) We're using an industrial compressor to charge the tank or the tire, (4:05) and then we're releasing the air in the other direction. (4:08) For a bike pump, you're creating the force. (4:11) You're pumping the tire.
(4:13) In an industrial application, the bike pump's moving on its own. (4:17) It's using the compressed air as an energy source, (4:21) and then it's perhaps holding a workpiece in place in a machine. (4:26) Perhaps it's moving a box off a conveyor belt (4:28) so that the force is not applied by the human hand.
(4:32) The force is applied by the bike pump itself, (4:35) so it's like a bike pump in reverse. (4:36) Wonderful. (4:37) So in other words, like if I'm on the Amazon production line, (4:42) there's a million packages coming down there a day.
(4:44) I wouldn't want to be the human being having to push the box (4:47) off the assembly line a million times that day. (4:50) That's exactly right. (4:51) Your arm would get tired.
(4:52) Right. (4:53) So a pneumatic arm, an air compressor, (4:57) an air compression is starting to move that lever (5:01) to push the box off the line, isn't it? (5:03) That's right. (5:04) Yeah, and without getting too deep into the math, (5:07) it's force equals pressure times area.
(5:10) So if I have 80 pounds per square inch (5:13) or 60 pounds per square inch of compressed air, (5:16) if I have a small piston, that's going to be a smaller force. (5:19) If I have a big heavy box, I need a big piston. (5:23) Big piston is more area.
(5:25) Force equals pressure times area. (5:27) So a bigger area behind the piston means bigger force. (5:30) Wonderful.
(5:31) Hey, we just figured out that math is important. (5:35) Math works, yeah. (5:35) I actually had a use for it, it turns out.
(5:38) That's great stuff. (5:40) Well, thanks for that. (5:41) Hopefully that gets a picture going in our audience's mind (5:44) as to how the world of pneumatics somewhat came about (5:48) and then how it's making an impact to make, let's say, (5:53) work life better for human beings, right? (5:56) So let's talk a little bit about your position at SMC (6:00) and can you walk me back to, let's say, (6:03) can you remember back when you were in high school (6:05) and what was going on? (6:07) And take us through some of the good (6:09) and if you can tell us a little failure or two along the way.
(6:13) You know, we usually fail our way forward in life. (6:16) Yeah, absolutely. (6:17) So I went to high school in the Midwest (6:21) and I always knew I was on an engineering route.
(6:25) So I applied to several schools and was accepted to most of them (6:29) and went to school for mechanical engineering. (6:33) And I was actually a mechanical engineer for 10 years (6:36) but found that that wasn't really the right fit for me. (6:41) Interesting.
(6:41) And went back to school and got an MBA, (6:46) Master's of Business Administration, (6:48) and then interestingly ended up right back (6:51) at the same company that I started. (6:53) So I left engineering, which the company was SMC. (6:57) I left, did some other things, got an MBA, (7:00) and said I'm going to go work in business (7:02) and ended up right back at the same company that I started with (7:06) in more of a business role.
(7:07) So I worked in a product manager position, (7:12) which is kind of in between our engineering group (7:15) and our sales group. (7:16) And really if I could summarize my position, (7:19) we in industrial marketing were looking for what do customers need (7:25) and trying to understand how do we design products for the future. (7:29) So that's probably the number one most important thing (7:32) that my group and my department does.
(7:35) Interesting. (7:36) So when you're developing products for the future, (7:39) of course companies don't know what those things are yet. (7:42) So part of the marketing need is to try to figure out a way (7:46) to communicate the future in such a way that your new customer out there (7:50) is going to understand what that new future could look like, right? (7:54) That's right.
(7:55) Yeah. (7:56) So sometimes it's in order to get a new product, (8:00) like a baseline of a product, (8:01) we may have to create a prototype and show that prototype to customers (8:05) and say if you go with a blank piece of paper (8:08) to 100 different manufacturing locations, (8:11) you're going to get 100 different ideas. (8:14) So we kind of have to narrow it down to a few things that are viable.
(8:19) And so a prototype product we might bring to a customer (8:23) and say, well, do you like this one? (8:25) And what do you like about it? (8:26) What do you not like about it? (8:27) And a lot of products, a lot of prototypes that we come up with (8:30) don't ever even end up as products in the end just because we had a better idea (8:37) or we found that there wasn't a lot of interest in that product. (8:42) The whole process of product development is there's a lot of starts and stops. (8:49) And it's just really important to collect that data over time (8:52) and really study it and really understand what customers want and need.
(8:56) That's great information. (8:58) So let's see here. (9:00) So knowing what you know today, (9:02) what advice would you give a person interested in entering your industry today? (9:09) That's a great question, George, (9:11) and it's a different industry today than when I joined way back when.
(9:16) When I joined, you either had your mechanical products, (9:21) you had your electrical products, (9:23) and where today there's a combination looking at high volume, (9:31) looking at the factories that are being created today, (9:35) there's really a need to understand both the mechanical aspect of a design (9:41) and the electrical aspect. (9:43) And oh, by the way, we can collect all this data now (9:46) and put it on a cloud server so there's an IT piece of it. (9:51) There's an IT piece to the equation as well.
(9:53) So my advice would be learn a little bit of something about everything. (9:59) Use every day as a learning opportunity to learn a different skill, (10:04) get a different skill in your toolbox. (10:07) And a quote that I'd like to mention is as a mechanical engineer, (10:13) Isaac Newton, Newton's laws of motion, (10:16) that's kind of like the core scientist who I built a lot of my knowledge around.
(10:23) And he had a saying. (10:24) I don't think it was his saying. (10:25) He's just the first famous guy that said it.
(10:27) He said something to the effect of if I could see further than other people, (10:33) it's because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. (10:36) And what he meant by that was if you, or at least how I interpret that is, (10:41) if you can be mentored, if you can mentor someone, (10:46) they're probably going to start at a higher level (10:49) or a higher understanding of how the world works. (10:53) And they're going to do better than you did.
(10:56) We see that through all the different technological innovations (11:02) that are occurring today and the rapid pace of innovation. (11:05) That's a wonderful quote. (11:06) Thank you for that.
(11:08) That's another good story. (11:09) All right, super. (11:11) So next question would be do you believe anyone can be successful? (11:16) Yes, I think anyone can be successful.
(11:20) I think confidence is really important. (11:24) Treating others with respect is important. (11:28) Being able to communicate is important.
(11:31) And it's not just being able to communicate. (11:34) It's being able to communicate something of value, (11:37) something that, or an idea or a concept. (11:40) So absolutely, I believe anyone can be successful.
(11:44) Maybe today people get perhaps pigeonholed into where you can't do this (11:49) and you can't do this. (11:50) And my advice to those people is, yeah, you can. (11:55) You just have to find a way around that person (11:57) who made you, explicitly told you you couldn't do it.
(12:02) If you go through life stressed about, (12:04) you can stress out about the little things like, oh, you know, (12:08) did I leave my keys in my car? (12:11) Did I forget to do this? (12:13) Or you can worry about the big things like, oh, (12:15) am I going to be late for being on a podcast? (12:19) So I've chosen to try to be worried about the bigger things. (12:23) And then the little things just kind of go away. (12:26) That's great advice.
(12:28) Thank you. (12:29) How about mentors? (12:31) Did you have any mentors when you were growing up? (12:33) What giant shoulders were you standing on, John? (12:36) Yeah, that's a great question. (12:38) So, of course, you know, my parents, my grandparents.
(12:44) I had a lot of teachers who I know believed in me (12:49) and who helped me to really understand abstract concepts or complex things. (12:58) So as far as mentors, you know, there's not – (13:02) one person in particular. (13:03) It's probably a conglomerate of multiple, you know, different people.
(13:09) There was the guy who taught me righty-tighty-lefty-loosey. (13:13) He was a mentor. (13:15) You can learn from anybody.
(13:17) You just have to be able to communicate with them (13:20) and, you know, let them know, hey, I'm having some trouble here. (13:24) And in that case, that gentleman, he saw I was having trouble. (13:28) And good for him.
(13:29) He could have just walked away. (13:30) He could have done nothing. (13:32) Maybe I would have figured it out eventually.
(13:35) Maybe I would have thrown down the tools and discussed and quit (13:39) and not gone into engineering. (13:42) But I don't have any one particular mentor, (13:46) but, you know, trying to just being kind and treating others with respect (13:52) opens the pathways for that positive mentoring communication (13:55) where you can learn from someone. (13:57) Right.
(13:58) And I think as we, you know, approach where we're getting a little older, (14:03) I think it's part of our responsibility to mentor those who are younger than us (14:08) the way others mentored us, right? (14:10) I mean, I feel good always trying to help our youth, (14:13) to build their confidence, to try new things, (14:18) experiment until they find a path that's their path, right? (14:22) I like that a lot. (14:25) Absolutely. (14:26) I would agree.
(14:27) So I see something on the table here today. (14:30) Do we want to touch on that a little bit? (14:33) What's going on? (14:34) Yeah. (14:35) So what I have here is a part.
(14:40) This is an end effector for a collaborative robot. (14:43) So essentially this is two fingers that can open and close to pick up an object, (14:49) perhaps move it over here and then drop an object. (14:54) So this is designed to interface with a common manufacturer of collaborative robots, (15:00) and it's using compressed air as the energy source.
(15:03) So it's a pneumatic gripper. (15:05) And here I have all my communications through this cable, (15:09) through this electrical cable. (15:11) So I brought this because now this isn't everything that my company does, (15:16) but I do think it's pretty inspiring because now I can say I make parts for robots, (15:22) and that captures people's attention.
(15:25) Right, right. (15:26) And one day you'll be at GRANDPAP, and what's GRANDPAP do? (15:30) Well, he makes parts for robots. (15:32) That's just cool.
(15:33) Enough said, and you just dropped the mic. (15:37) That's good stuff. (15:39) Well, what a nice part.
(15:40) So in other words, I'm on an assembly line, (15:42) and maybe now I'm not just pushing a box off, right, off of the assembly line (15:47) that has a million parts going by a day. (15:50) Now we are picking a box up, maybe pulling it off and putting it on another assembly line. (15:57) So that's what that robotic arm could do for us, right? (16:01) Exactly, yeah.
(16:02) Think about it, George, all the applications where a person can pick something up (16:08) and place it now, once it becomes repetitive, (16:13) we can do that now with a collaborative robot, with robots. (16:19) And it's, you know, we're going back to that, (16:22) the first analogy with pushing a box off a conveyor belt, (16:26) that's kind of brute force where this has a little more finesse. (16:29) This is more of a softer touch.
(16:31) There is still the, I don't know, (16:34) this particular product wouldn't work well with, like, a donut. (16:39) It's going to squish the donut. (16:40) So you have to think about the force control.
(16:43) But there are products that can do that type of work as well, (16:47) where they have different ways to gently pick up an object without crushing it. (16:54) So isn't that interesting? (16:56) We have the world of pneumatics, (16:57) and then inside the world of pneumatics there are many other little worlds, aren't there? (17:03) There are, yeah. (17:04) There's so many different applications.
(17:09) A lot of times we'll have products that are kind of general purpose, (17:14) that can be used in a variety of applications. (17:18) But, say, for example, this component, (17:20) this is designed specifically as an end effector for a specific brand of collaborative robots. (17:29) So it's a very specialized part.
(17:31) But as the industry, as other manufacturers complete their product lines (17:37) and build up their product lines, (17:39) our products are continually changing to match up with those other innovations. (17:44) Understood. (17:45) So in the early days it was your founder as a single person, as an entrepreneur.
(17:49) And here we are all these years later. (17:52) Are we talking about a couple hundred people who work with the company worldwide? (17:57) Or how large is the organization? (18:00) So we went from, in 1959, just one person's idea, (18:05) where today we have over 18,000 employees globally. (18:10) Isn't that wonderful? (18:11) Yeah, a lot of people.
(18:12) A lot of people, a lot of jobs, (18:15) a lot of improvement in people's lives from that one gentleman (18:19) who decided to venture out there and become an entrepreneur and solve problems. (18:23) That's right. (18:24) Isn't that wonderful? (18:26) So let's kind of move into the future if we could for a minute.
(18:30) Sure. (18:30) So what do you think the next big innovation might be in your industry? (18:35) The next big innovation. (18:37) Well, there's a lot of, right now, there's a lot of cables.
(18:42) And one of the products that we had highlighted recently (18:47) was our wireless communications system. (18:51) So a lot of times I really see wireless and products (18:56) that can communicate with different industrial Ethernet networks (19:01) and other communication protocols. (19:04) So there's a lot of, I'll call it digitalization.
(19:09) So combining a mechanical design with an electrical control system (19:14) but making sure that it's done on a safe protocol (19:18) with all the machine safety in place. (19:21) So really, I guess I'll summarize. (19:24) It's really three things.
(19:25) It's sustainability, how do we make products (19:27) that consume the least amount of energy for a given output. (19:33) It's safety, how do we design products (19:35) that meet all necessary safety requirements (19:39) so people are safe during the manufacturing process (19:42) and the products that manufacturers are making are safe. (19:46) And digitalization, how do I send feedback through, (19:50) for this product that we're looking at here, (19:52) how do I send feedback back through this cable (19:55) to a programmable logic controller (19:57) so I have a digital record of how many times this gripper, (20:01) how many times it actuated.
(20:03) Understood. (20:03) And we can use that data for predictive analytics. (20:07) So as an example, if I see a pneumatic actuator (20:11) and its cycle time used to be three seconds (20:14) and now it's four seconds, (20:16) maybe it's time to change that, (20:19) maybe I've got a broken seal, (20:20) maybe I've got a leak in the system.
(20:22) So trying to use data IT analytics (20:25) to improve the operation of machines. (20:29) That's very interesting. (20:31) So you can predict when, let's say, (20:34) a seal is going to go bad (20:36) and you're going to lose 25% of your efficiency (20:38) on a production line.
(20:39) That's right. (20:40) And then that leads to additional problems (20:42) in that system, right? (20:44) So seeing that you are always running (20:48) at optimum performance would be the goal, right? (20:52) Yeah, it's almost like, in a way, (20:56) it's almost like you'd mentioned in the beginning (20:58) about our bodies have, you know, (21:03) there's similarities between our bodies. (21:05) So if my blood pressure is going up, (21:07) that's a signal I need to do something.
(21:09) I need to exercise more. (21:11) I need to do something. (21:14) In a pneumatic system, in a machine, (21:18) we see those same signals.
(21:19) We just have to be able to measure them (21:22) and pay attention to them. (21:24) So if I'm not taking my blood pressure reading (21:28) when I go to the doctor (21:29) and I have blood pressure problems, (21:31) well, it's because I wasn't measuring it. (21:34) In the future of pneumatics, (21:39) looking at trying to get more of that data, (21:42) whether it's blood pressure, whether it's pressure, (21:45) the flow, the cycle time, the position of a part, (21:49) and keep in mind we have a lot of machines (21:52) that are produced.
(21:53) We have a lot of data from different machines. (21:55) So I can have 10 different machines, (21:58) and I notice that all nine of them (22:00) are operating exactly the same (22:01) within a set of parameters, (22:04) but machine number 10 (22:05) is doing something a little wonky. (22:08) It's doing something different than all the rest.
(22:11) So I can study that data over time (22:14) and predict in advance, (22:16) oh, yeah, whenever we see it start doing (22:19) that thing that it does, (22:21) it's time to change this part on the machine. (22:23) So you get down there with your screwdriver, (22:24) and you know lefty-loosey, (22:26) and you go through the process of changing that out. (22:29) That's right.
(22:30) You remember back to that guy that told you (22:34) that righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. (22:35) That's right. (22:36) Well, isn't that fun? (22:37) You're having what sounds like a great career.
(22:40) It sounds like you're happy with your work, (22:41) and you're progressing very nicely. (22:46) Well, I'd like to thank you for being on this episode. (22:49) And, folks, that is John Halverson.
(22:51) He is the Director of Marketing, SMC Corporation. (22:55) Thank you, John. (22:56) Thanks for having me.
(22:57) Bye now, everybody. (22:58) Have a great day. (23:00) Thank you for listening to this episode of (23:02) Tomorrow's World Today Podcast.
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