Sara Hanks brings her strong background from the perspective of an Engineer.

Sarah is a particular talent that got our attention months ago. for what she does. So maybe if you could and would, Sarah, give us a bit of your background as to how you got to where you are now.

It's an amazing point in time, isn't it? Where technology, which let's say it's been around 80 years, go back to 1940, just as a benchmark. The transformation, Moore's Law with doubling capacity, halving price every six months,18 months,12 months, whatever you want to get to. It's so outdated now. Things have changed so quickly. And what got my attention with you originally was your GE background because of the lean Six Sigma, that whole transformation that I guess Jack Welch is the one that was the principal architect of that. Is that a fair comment?

And one of the things that he did that really turns me on is having his... GE University, where he used to go and teach at it occasionally, right? Were you involved in any of those?

Right. So this week, earlier this week, you were a guest at a LinkedIn live session. What was that all about?

Yeah. And the longer the task, the harder that is.

It's unbelievable. It's almost like we're children again. Our attention spans.

You've got to have the strength to hang in there. Because there is no end and you're pioneering. And that engine issue was, like you say, the facts are straight. It's easy. It's clear. How you get to where you need to be, though, from those facts, that's not clear. That's trial and error. It's lots of failures. And after a while, people say, at least my experience, I don't want to do this anymore.

And the third point was.

And human nature is not to give up.

It's rather intriguing. In the lead up to this, before we started, I was mentioning Jack Hawkins at Troy University. And one of the things that he and I talked about was I said, OK, fine, you've been doing he's in his late 70s. He's been a dean or chancellor for the last 45 years. I said, OK, what are we missing today? When kids come to your schools, whether it's undergraduate, graduate, whatever, what's missing? So he came back and said, OK, first of all, critical thinking skills. analytical skills. Thirdly, communication. Wow. And then he said, on top of all of that, what's bothering me more now, he doesn't see leadership. He doesn't see leaders today. Like he used to 20 and 40 and 60 years ago. And if you think about it, that's pretty valid.

Yeah, we have to. Yeah. So it's going to be something else. One of the things that I'm excited about but bothers me, artificial intelligence and data analytics are so far ahead of the human condition right now that we have no idea what it's going to do for us. And we probably are looking down the barrel of two of the most powerful tools that mankind has ever had. If you look at the mass amount of data we got, that hardly anybody transfers into information that we can use. And that's where artificial intelligence can shorten this trip. Absolutely. So what kind of resistance do you get with all your background, all your experience, with what you do in your work today with different companies? What's the biggest obstacle that you're seeing?

Yeah. I think that's the key, isn't it? It shrinks the time gap. Yeah. You know, you remember the experience with Big Blue and IBM beating Kasparov?

What IBM did was they loaded every chess game known to man into the computer.

So then they sat the computer Big Blue across from Kasparov, the best chess player in the world in those days. They beat him. But the only reason they did was because he could go through all of the

About five years ago, another group taught the computer the moves, only the moves of the chess pieces. Nothing else. The rules and the moves. Okay. That artificial intelligence has yet to be beaten by anybody.

Nobody knows how to deal with it. Yeah. It's looking at its fresh eyes on an old problem, right? Which is what, if you look at medical, General Electric, take all the data history of healthcare in America. They put data analytics on top of that with artificial intelligence. You go to the doctor, I had this blood work, I got this age, I got this genetic makeup. Ron,92% of the time, this is going to happen to, if this, you know, we're coming down to a place that's going to be. really exciting.

Your enamel might be thinner than somebody else's. And as a result of that, you've got to stay away from sugar. That's right. Or something as fundamental as that, but we don't even think that way today.

No question. It drives me crazy. Here's a crazy one, but related but different. In the 1800s, the emperor of China banned acupuncture. The medical community in those days, there was no medical schools in those days. Okay. Medical community looked at acupuncture as magic. And the emperor did not like the way that the country was being presented by these outsiders.

Mao in 1949, after the revolution, brought acupuncture back.

Well, I'm full of all kinds of weird things because I read like an English. But there's a good example from, you know, acupuncture works. Don't ask me to explain it medically, but it works. Imagine having that database. Doctors are reputed to be the worst business people on the planet. They've got paper files everywhere and they don't know what to do with them. Yeah. It's kind of like a salesman. That machine is going to last 15,000 hours. It's got 14,500 on it. A salesman better go talk to that customer and replace that machine. Yeah. And if you had the same kind of thing, a friend of ours is having a pacemaker put in. If her blood pressure or her heart rate changes to a different, she gets a text message on her phone asking her to modify her behavior. Wow. We've got different things coming at us.

You know, to your point originally on the fear and consciousness that artificial intelligence and data analytics is going to replace people. I'm a little bit older than you. I'm going to give you at least that much. Originally, when computers came, there were cartoons in the 60s with a computer being replaced or a person being replaced by pushing a button on a computer. And that was the way it was sold to the world. I remember walking into a warehouse in Stuttgart, Germany in 73 into the distribution center for Kodak. Okay. Huge place. When I walked in the door, the lights went on. There was nobody there. All run by computer. Wow. Phenomenal. We have things we don't have any idea. And the human experience isn't broad enough, right? Yeah. Your training at GE took you from where you came out of university with what the tools were you had. I'm going to suggest that those tools were magnified three, five, ten times. Fair comment?

And yet GE is unique. They offer more training to the management team than any other corporation in America, to my knowledge.

So stay there for a second. That's what wants you to go work there. A certain category of people want to get in there because of what they can gain from it, correct?

The challenges they're presented with. And the opportunity. The problems that they're asked to solve. And I don't know if you read my blog from this past week. Is the employee an asset or are they a tool in a toolbox? Too many employees are tools in the toolbox. And engagement, like you talked, that's been the number one reason that people are changing jobs. The employee doesn't feel engaged in what they're doing. Yeah. So you're in the forefront of all this stuff. You're kind of a pioneer. Is it hard to get your business going?

Let me ask you a question because you cover so many aspects of the commercial enterprise. Is it data analytics? Is it project management? Is it artificial intelligence? Is it software? Is it implementation? You've got so many points of expertise. How do you channel your efforts to maximize your effectiveness?

those are filled

One of the things, and we've talked about leadership in a bunch of different directions. I'm not so sure that each job function is not going to be a project.

I agree. But I don't know that, you know, if you look at a job description of a corporation, that doesn't describe a job function. Tells me what I expect you to do.

And yet, you know, and people are saying, wait a second, I'm not being engaged. I'm not being asked. How I can improve things. They want to. I think there's a thirst for that. Are you seeing that?

agree. They've been left behind. Yeah.

It's probably more generational than anything else. Baby boomers, I think, are rather seriously risk averse. Protect the status quo. Let's not change anything. And the younger millennials, X's, Z's, even my grandchild, I think they're calling that alphas. Those guys don't want to wait, guys and gals. Come on, let's go. Let's change this stuff. This doesn't work. Come on.

And there's this tension now generationally. And the baby boomers, they've overstayed their welcome by about 10 years traditionally. If you think about it, our median age is probably 75 in management in America today. Corporately, not necessarily entrepreneurs. They're a much younger group of people. So data analytics, project management. And your software, let's talk about your software a little bit, because I don't know that I've done a very good job of giving you a platform to explain everything that you get involved with. And I want to change that. But what does your software package do?

So if I say 2019 and earlier, in other words, prior to COVID, we were fat, dumb and happy. We didn't realize this was an issue. But COVID and the pandemic, the last 30 months, call it, the supply chain, is broken.

And we never knew it was. No. Am I wrong with that? We thought we were, everything was fine. Oh,

I've always agreed with that 100%. And I've always felt that way. But the pandemic really highlighted it when 80% of the antibiotics that are required in the United States are made in China. I don't disrespect to China or anybody, but having a sole source for something like that, forget it. Get out of here.

So let's stay with that for a second. In region for region. I translate that in a perhaps different way. But what I felt is that the currency that you deal with. So the euro. That should be the community in which you find your raw materials, where you do your manufacturing, where you do your retailing, all within that one zone. So when we move from the euro to the U.S. dollar, the same thing's duplicated in the United States with the U.S. dollar and anybody that trades in the U.S. And then we used to have the Japanese yen. Maybe it's the renminbi, but there's an Asian bloc. And maybe there'll be a fourth or fifth axis in the world. Through globalization, none of that was considered. It was strictly let's make money. And the guises were going to raise, we're going to reduce the poverty level worldwide. We're going to extend the life plan worldwide. World Economic Forum type of thinking. And didn't realize how vulnerable we were.

And that vulnerability, I don't know it's really settled in yet. We're desperately trying to get back to where we were before. but haven't taken advantage of the wonderful opportunity to change what wasn't working previously, kind of like what you do. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

not good.

I think there's a whole sector of society that is thinking very much differently, but unfortunately it's not the mass. And until we get into the lifelong learning circumstance, until people open up and be vulnerable to their inadequacies, that's a tough place to be. It's we have such potential and potential. You've heard my throwaway. If somebody tells you you've got potential and you're 16 years old, it's wonderful. You smile from ear to ear because it's a hell of a compliment. But if the same person tells you the same thing and you're 66, what the hell you've been doing the last 50 years? No. So the first thing is, how do you identify your potential individually? Nobody's asking us to do that. No. How does a company divide? define the functions and the requirements to fulfill that function inside the company. They don't do that today. Here's the task.

That's funny. I think, you know, I took a minor in computer science in the 60s, which means I learned how to wire unit record equipment, right? I was on the Internet in 1973 before it really was. And it was amazing because you didn't get a million responses. You got... who you wanted right now. And look how difficult it is for people to have access, even though we've got Google, even though we've got all manner of other things out there. It's really hard to find answers to real problems.

No, what's the capital of China? Boom, I can get it. Google, Wikipedia can give me all kinds of stuff. Why are the satellites eroding in their orbit and ultimately going to be coming back to the planet? I think that's something that we should be paying attention to because there's so many thousands up there, but I don't know of anybody looking at that. In the world that I work in construction equipment parts, supply chain is a mess, absolutely total mess. And that, what did you call it, in country, for country type of thing? I'm misstating it, but. Is that truly going to happen?

Do we really have any other choice?

Well, and perhaps we're going to also transition into, you know, cost of goods sold type of thing. Let's go for the cheapest. Maybe we're going to start looking at the value of a life cycle.

That would be nice.

Yeah. Yeah. Or the price of the labor job or manufacturing job, you know? Yes. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of, Kind of strange. So tell me what, in your view, landed cost consists of.

So if we look at landed cost, then in that definition, which step along the way makes the most money?

Which one makes the biggest percentage of the profit that's in that supply chain? Is it the producer? Is it the distributor? Who makes the most money?

Transportation and distribution typically are the ones that make all the money. And the best example is farming. The farmer doesn't make the most money in that process. And now they're talking about vertical farming. Have you heard about this?

10 acres of land. Okay. Can develop a certain amount of food locally. Takes transportation out of it altogether.

Why not? The product goes down between a third and a half.

Yeah. So that's another piece of this puzzle that's coming out with, you know, it started with industrial engineering. They really wanted to, in the old days, do things better. But we didn't, everything was by pencil. You know, as Alex Schuessler at SmartEquip says, we're moving from paper to glass. We're not changing anything. We're just, we're changing the vehicle. It's not a piece of paper, six parts that you fill out by pen. It's now a screen. We put the template up there and you fill it in with a keyboard. Didn't change anything. No. And that's the trouble with most change, which is why I think people become cynical and jaded was the word you used. You know, it's tough.

How many people do what you do?

I don't think there's many. I don't think there's many.

So we got to get your message or whatever out to more people so that they could start taking advantage of the benefits that you provide. Because I truly believe you're providing unbelievable benefits for your clients and for everybody that's out there. Even the software package with manufacturers, who would have thought? With all those variables. And the one that you've mentioned that gets my attention the most is the regulatory changes. Because we're being told how to make things by people that have never made anything in their life.

imagine.

Interesting. Yesterday or the day before, the World Economic Forum came out with their latest report. This is a group in Switzerland that's basically lobbying people. And they've come to the conclusion in our climate change, carbon world, our green pursuit, whatever label you want to put on it. Yep. We only have one possible solution. We have to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads. We don't have enough minds to finally acknowledging we don't have enough minds with the minerals to make what we need for batteries. And not just batteries, but batteries is a big one. That's obvious for everybody. Right. Oh, we don't have the electrical grid to power all this EV stuff. Oh, the electrical grid we do have is driven still 60 to 70% by coal and oil. Oh, got to take cars off the road. And the statistic that came by, it's a riot. Cars are only used 4% of the time.

So if you've got a half hour commute to your job. Yeah. That's an hour a day you're using your car. Okay. So you'll shop and you'll put some other. So that's one hour out of 24. That's 4%.

So what they're saying is, well, we need to have your car. You need to share your car. You and your neighbors, you only need one car out of the five. Get rid of those four. And we don't have a problem anymore. Honest to goodness. That's exactly what they put forward.

But that's part and parcel of what you do. Supply chain issues, lean issues. Six Sigma was a wonderful tool. Have you done much with 5S and 7S since? Do you have them at all? I

You're an organized neat freak.

Any measure. Okay.

But you're an organizational freak.

Do you have your pantry on the computer? No. 1973, this guy that IP Sharp was the company that was the first one that was on the internet with me. They had a routine on your fridge and recipes. And when you did your meal, you said, I'm doing this recipe and it updated the inventory and it gave you a shopping list every week that your fridge needed to be replenished with this, that, and the other thing.

Yeah. That's about 50 years ago. Do you know anybody that uses anything like that today? No. No. Because we're human. It takes all the fun.

Which is why that engagement that you talked about a long time ago, keeping people's interest, because some of these things take a long time to fix or solve or create, but we don't have the patience for that. No. In all of the aspect of life. You know, do you know who George Carlin was, the comedian? He said, you know, what's the matter with us? Wherever we are, we want to be somewhere else. You're at home, you want to go to work. You're at work, you want to go to lunch. You want to come back from lunch, you want to get back to work. You want to go to, you know, what's wrong with us? It's true.

That book Indistractable is kind of interesting, isn't it?

It changed how I organize my day altogether. I no longer deal with to-do lists that are tasks. I deal with to-do lists that are blocks of time. And it takes the stress out of the day altogether. It's remarkable.

Well, you've also, you have a family, you have a husband, you have children, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, it's not just a function of performing business activities or money-making activities that, you know, there's carving out.

And I think that that's another thing I think that happened in the pandemic. Maybe you can. express your opinion on that. I hope a lot of people reevaluated their lives and looked and said, okay, this is valuable. I want to repeat that. This I don't want to keep doing. I hope everybody did that. I'm afraid they didn't, but it's kind of an interesting time. You have unbelievable tools, abilities to bring to the market. I want to help you get it there. And I, you know, if you have time, pick a subject, give me a blog, and then we'll do a podcast and promote it. Okay. As to, you know, how we can take advantage of this. What do you think of this kind of a candid conversation?

We got to explore the boundaries for the room. I call it getting high enough you can look over the wall. We have no idea what's out there, right? Yeah, yep. There's something wrong with me, kid, I'll tell you. How would you like to close this? You got any words, wise comments or real interesting nuggets that you'd like to pass across to anybody?

Process mapping is absolutely critical. And the thing that I think that appeals to me about is that the people that are doing the job, who know everything about it better than anybody else, they're fundamental. They're an absolute requirement of a process map.

And all of a sudden they're engaged. And in many cases, it's the first time they've ever been asked, how should we do this? How do we do this? Yeah. It's really kind of strange, isn't it? Yeah. So, you know, taking stickies and putting them all around the room. This is the project. You know, here's the decision point. Here's your options. Here's if this, then that. Oh, you know, I love those things.

There's something wrong with us, Sarah. That's really detailed, baby.

Have you heard the story about Michelangelo? He's painting the Sistine Chapel, the roof, right? And the Pope at the time, I think his name was Leo, and Leo kept coming out and said, when are you going to be finished? When I'm done. The Pope was really upset one day. He comes out and Michelangelo's up in the scaffolding. He has to come down. And the Pope looks at him. He said, when are you going to be done? When I'm finished. He said, well, what's the problem? He said, well, you know, this is religion. There's God. And Michelangelo says, God is there. He's in the details. And the details nobody really thinks about. This is a beautiful painting. Imagine how long it took. It's a beautiful piece of music. How did you put that together? Here's a beautiful computer program. Wow. How did I get that part out of the warehouse? How did I get that part into the warehouse? Whoa. Well, I ordered it. It showed up at my front door. Congratulations.

What went behind that?

Yeah, process mapping. So there's the message. Why don't you write a blog on process mapping? Okay. That'd be something. And, you know, kind of a. Follow the bouncing ball. Here's how you do it. Yeah. And I would suggest to you or submit to you, maybe you want to say if anybody's got a problem, here's an email. Okay. And then we'll see if anybody responds to you. Okay. I sure appreciate the time, Sarah, and your insight. And I hope everybody listening has gained something. Sarah is a particularly talented young lady. So thank you very much.

And I look forward to doing many more things with you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Bye-bye. Mahalo. Thank you for listening to our podcast. We appreciate your support. Should you have any thoughts or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us at www. learningwithoutscars. com. The time is now. Mahalo.