The Game-changing Role of AI in Equipment Management

I wanted to use this discussion, this conversation for you to introduce, if you will, your new product. And maybe you can talk a little bit of the evolution of the company and how it came to where you are now and how you see the future a little bit. But I'd really like to concentrate on the fleet intelligence tool you're creating, which it sounds exciting as hell. So the ball is yours.

So you mentioned the full package. What is the full package that Foresight Intelligence provides?

And it's all dependent on sensors on the equipment and telematics.

So let's go down through all of those things for the audience that might not be familiar with what you do. When you talk tracking, you know where every machine for your customer is geographically. Right. Yes. And that's a satellite type of feed? Or how do you drive that?

And that... If I am understanding this right, that comes across in the same technology as a text message does, not a telephone call. Is that correct?

Meaning that we do not have the dead spots that you do with cell phones with texting.

Okay. And the only reason I mean, yeah.

Okay. And then the other thing that I was trying to allude to is that text messaging also works underground with mines, not to the full extent. But at 50,100 feet, they can get text messages underground, to my knowledge.

Yeah, they probably put a booster in the shaft. Yeah, okay. So you can track every brand, irrespective of the system. So if brand A has this telematics logic and brand B has a different one, it doesn't matter to you at all.

Yeah, and it's rather remarkable. So tracking is one piece. Inspections. You provide an inspection tool that is on a tablet, a cell phone, a laptop, or how does that work?

Okay. Yeah. And is it user designed as to what's going to be inspected? Or do you create the template? Or how does that get established?

So let me try and see if I'm understanding that. Through the tracking and telematics, you will send an oral message to somebody who's logged in and asked a question that will say there's an inspection needed on this for this reason?

Okay, so let's back up a little bit. Does that, when I... come to work this morning, can I do a search of my fleet and say, are there any inspections that need to be performed today?

Or next week?

Okay, so it's all user-dependent that they can set the parameters?

And do they do that orally?

Gotcha. So it becomes more and more precise.

Yeah. Okay. So then how does fluid analysis, oil sampling and fluid analysis fit in?

okay so then that also leads to you having the preventative maintenance programs for various brands? Or does the dealer give you that data? How do you manage the PM programs?

To my knowledge, nobody else has that tool. that crosses all brands. Is my understanding correct? You're still the only one that has this?

So if I'm looking at, let's say, a rental industry, so I have a business that has 500,700 machines that are being rented. This tool is terrific for me to manage my asset that the customer is using. Am I seeing that properly?

Okay. Okay. Now, the next point that you mentioned is that the system will also open a work order. Yes. So that means you're able to connect to a whole bunch of different business systems. You're doing that through an API, I suspect?

That's what I was thinking. And not just staying at labor for the moment. The first time I would need to touch my corporate business system. is when your tool says we're going to open the work order. And can you open a work order that's segmented as a result of the inspection?

Correct. Now, are you putting job codes on those segments?

And so you're going to let every user set up their own job codes or you're going to have one generic set that you're going to use? Have you gone down that path?

Right. And there is a generic Caterpillar, as an example, calls an engine 1000. John Deere calls it 0400. Komatsu has an X in front of it. Everybody has their own convention. And that's why I created a default for that years and years ago because I didn't find any dealer number one that was. one brand and I didn't find any customers that were one, well, a few customers that are one brand. Okay, so then you got all the reporting on the back end on machine utilization. How many hours worked, how many RPMs, et cetera, that existed in the engine, blah, blah, blah. This is kind of cool, Dale. This is kind of cool.

Sure. Well, once you, yeah, it's like the old days, you know, we got systems were developed by, you know, somebody created a computer system and it was at a dealership and somebody acquired that computer system just like we have today. And then that computer system had a bunch of dealers that would meet and the dealers would tell the computer people what they needed to have. And that's how the product got developed. That stopped about 20 years ago. We don't have that development anymore. We've got reports coming out the wazoo. We don't have an operating tool at any of the major dealer management systems, dealer business system companies saying what. Here I've got 1,000 reports. These 300 have never been used in the last month. Or these five have been used 1,000 times a day for the last 20 years. We don't even have that efficiency in those systems. In Infor, or SAP, or Oracle, or JD Edwards, or Microsoft Dynamics, blah, blah, blah.

None of them have that. So this tool. would be used any time and every time somebody from a dealership touches a machine or the machine sends a message saying, I need help.

So let's stop on labor for a second and shift over to parts. So the same trigger can come orally. I need to do maintenance next week on this machine. It's a $500 service. Give me a list of parts I need. Is that part and parcel of the package as well?

Yeah, you can do that. Yeah, the list of parts shouldn't go back orally because then somebody would have to transcribe it. You'd have to be able to send it straight into the system somewhere.

Okay, so I have 10 machines. I want your full system. I want to be able to do all of this stuff orally. How do you sell it? Is it a month by month? Is it an annual contract? How do you do it?

Okay, so if... I buy your system for 10 machines, whether it's AI or non-AI. You charge by machine, by machine hours, by time period? How do you charge for it?

If I wanted to say I have one machine, and that's probably your most expensive. And I wanted to use all of what we talked about, tracking, inspections, triggers, fluid analysis, opening, all of that. How much would that cost me for one machine for a month? Ballpark.

$8 a month. If I had 10 machines?

Yeah, so it

Okay, so there's no one.

Okay, so I need to talk to you about raising prices. You're much too inexpensive.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah. Yeah. Would it be beneficial to charge by the machine hours?

I really believe our world is moving to what I'm calling subscription services. So I'll deliver parts within a 50-mile,100-mile,250-mile radius, $20, $40, $60 or something. I'll give you a five-year warranty on repairs that are greater than $5,000 for $40. I'll guarantee 24-hour response of a field service technician. I'll guarantee 48 hours parts availability, blah, blah. And all of these things will have a charge to the point that I believe the dealer, the distribution channel, will take responsibility of the equipment away from the machine owner and let the machine owner concentrate on the work they're doing, laying down road or digging a trench or whatever it is. Absolutely. And so you're ahead of everybody on this one as well.

Well, the other part of that is, you know, in a mine site, which is becoming pretty autonomous, or a large farm, which is also becoming autonomous and not daylight dependent and not weather dependent in certain applications, charging eight bucks for a machine that puts 500 hours,1,000 hours,2,000 hours,8,000 hours on in a year disadvantages you. Yes,

it's really it's really starting to get to the place that uh Data is going to drive everything that we do. So the quality of that data becomes absolutely critical. That is so correct, Ron. Yeah, I went to a doctor a couple of days ago, or I have an MRI, or I have a bone scan, or I have blood work. MD Anderson is taking every medical record of every patient in America from the year 2000 to 2020, digitizing it. such that you go in, you're 77 years old, your BMI is 20, you're blah, blah, blah, and you're almost going to have artificial intelligence do a diagnostic for us, which is exactly what you're talking about with the machine, isn't it?

It is getting closer, and they're finding. unbelievable things. That's the same. That's why I use that as an illustration. What bothered me, and I think you and I have talked about this, in the 1800s when the steam engine was replaced by the electric engine, it took a generation of leadership to be able to take advantage of the electric engine opportunities. I think we started the data dictionary, database management,50,60 years ago, and we're only now getting to the point that we're starting to be able to realize, which is more than one generation. We're talking two or three. Ed Gordon, who writes with us, he's in Chicago, used to teach at Northwestern. He's got a doctorate in economics and a doctorate in history, which is kind of a weird combination. But he's made the bold statement that by the year 2030,50% of the American workforce will not have the skills necessary to hold a job. And that's 80 million people.

So this tool, you started out with training, and that's a beautiful way of doing it. People in their jobs today don't have time, have not given themselves permission to have time for employee development. Companies are hiring people. to fill specific skill needs and are having a hell of a time finding them.

But very few of them are hiring people and training them to be able to do the job, which leads to higher employee retention, not just better employees. Yes. Your product can kind of short circuit that in the short term, can't it? Because it's oral, they don't need anything. Just ask, what do you want to know? Ask this thing, whatever the hell it is you want to know, and that's all you need to do, and it'll give you back an answer.

And then when you get into machine utilization statistics on the back end, now the customer, the machine owner, or the person who's using the machine, because the rental companies are in the middle sometimes, the man or woman who's using the machine. Their performance can be evaluated on that particular machine against other people operating on the same machine in similar jobs.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I find this amazing. As usual, you're out ahead of the pack again. And I'm excited. for you and we'll get this podcast up early. Anything that we can do to help promote your product other than what we're doing?

Okay. So what languages do you have currently or what languages can you have?

So I was just thinking about Europe. So if I've got clients that are French in Europe and French in Quebec or Canada, will use the same French language? Are you going to have two Frenchs, one for Canada, one for France?

Are you using artificial intelligence through the translation?

Yeah, okay. We did a similar thing, and it's getting better and better and better, the translations.

What have we missed? in talking about fleet management, what have we missed? Have we covered everything?

Yeah, very much so. That's a big argument that everybody's going through right now with ChatGPD using a timeframe of data and social media. You know, it's there forever. And a lot of it's misleading. So it's very, if it's dealer data on sales, on parts history or bill paying patterns, that's easy. But where you're going through the world now is on the inspections and the fault codes and the telematics and the fluid analysis. It's saying, oh, watch out for this. Watch out for that. That's much more precise than this big fire hose that's coming at us about, you know, where's the best place to go to eat?

Yeah. And it can be anywhere in the world. Anywhere you've got satellite or internet connectivity?

Okie dokie.

Okay. As usual, my friend, you've done a great job. I think this product is going to take off like... It's wonderful. So thank you so much, Dale. I think this has been a really informative conversation. And to the audience out there, I hope you pay attention to this. Dale, as usual, is leading the parade. And listen to this a couple of times and have a look at the blogs and check his company out. This is something that I think is really beneficial to everybody. So thank you for listening. Thank you, Dale, for participating. and we'll see you soon at the next Candid Conversation. 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.