Best of 2024 (with Bonus Content)

Ed Ballina
Well, hello and good afternoon friends. I am Ed Ballina.

Alvaro Cuba
Hello guys, Alvaro Cuba.

Ed Ballina
And we’re your manufacturing meetup buddies. So welcome to the Manufacturing Meet Up podcast. This is a show where we kick back. We talk about our experiences on the shop floor that hopefully many of you will commiserate with us on. And we’re only so happy to come to you once again. Can you believe our seventeenth episode? Wow. So let’s get this started.

Alvaro Cuba
Well, guys, great to have you with us again. We hope you enjoyed our last episode with the highlights of 2024 and the predictions for 2025. We venture out there, so we’ll see by the end of next year how we did it. But for now, we thought before closing the year, we wanted to come to you with a very special episode.

It’s going to be kind of a summary. I’ll explain in a little moment, but first, we wanted to share a little bit. This has been a complete new experience for Ed and I. We started this at the beginning of this year. We are finalizing our season one and we really didn’t know what to expect really Ed.

Ed Ballina
Now, so Alvaro you know my headphones came in and this really fancy looking mic, and I was like, this is for real, and but I had no idea. Okay. And looking back on our first episode and maybe the second and the third, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. Okay. I know that I have a bit of a challenge allowing empty space in a conversation. I’m a talker. So I add in things like And to watch myself do that I was like, my god, I’m horrible. I’ve given presentations to like a thousand executives and I don’t sound this infantile, so it was sobering scary exciting and then you start looking at the counts like people are actually watching this. I’m like I guess I better clean up my act here. We’re going to tell you about all the little things that happened through these podcasts, it has been an incredible experience. I just have to say it’s been a lot of fun. You discover a little bit about yourself when you do this because you’re not used to watching yourself or listening to yourself.

And some of us, know, listen, you don’t get to be executives in corporate America without having some slightly inflated image of yourself. And when you watch that on TV, on the video, you go, my God. Anyway, Alvaro, your insights, because I’m sure you’ve had a few.

Alvaro Cuba
Well, I think you said it all, I have little to add. When people were asking, hey, you are doing a podcast or I was telling them and they wanted to know and understand. And it was scary at the beginning, no? And when you have to talk to other people and try to convey a message or an idea and you don’t know if it’s coming or not. We had even our classes about vocals, la la la, la la la, exercises, at the beginning, no. But something that our producer told us is, well, at the beginning it’s tough.

But when you start feeling that you are not hearing your voice anymore, that’s when you are starting to become comfortable. And that’s when this starts to work. I can tell you several episodes had to go before we got to that moment, but it was also very fun. And we had a lot of laughs and great moments. And I think it’s nice to have this duality, you know, the scary part, but the fun part. And that’s what keeps us going and trying to think on better things to do, Ed. And at the same time, how we continue to have fun.

Ed Ballina
I agree. It’s exciting. I remember thinking to myself, what if nobody watches? Like, what a blow. Like, we think we’ve got interesting things to talk about. And then all of a sudden, like, you know, I was joking about a prince in Nigeria watched our podcast. I was like, OK, I’ve seen that on the internet before. But it was really, really a very humbling experience for me because one of the things that I had, I didn’t realize I did this so often, is I am horrible about interrupting people. I’ve got all ideas in my head and I want to get them out. So here is official apology to my partner and to our producer, Sara, for being such an interrupter. I’m working on it. It’s a recovery program. The first thing is admit you have a problem. I think I’ve gotten better, but I still have a ways to go.

But Alvaro, you have some really interesting…

Alvaro Cuba
Apology accepted. To make it official and on record.

Ed Ballina
To make it official on record. But you have some interesting stats to share that blew my mind. Yeah.

Alvaro Cuba
But before going to the stats, what about now that we are talking about how we felt, some little insight from you, something personal that you felt that you want to share.

Ed Ballina
I felt scared and I was wondering whether this was going to resonate or not. And here’s something that was really special for me. My grandson, Collin, who’s 12 years old, watches our podcast. He’s watched every single one. And my granddaughters, maybe not every single one, but my granddaughters have watched it too. My sons, this has become deeply personal for me.

Alvaro Cuba
Yeah, yeah. I felt that as well. People that, and friends that I didn’t connect for long time and different countries or different cultures and then come and say, Hey, I saw you and great connection. It has made me to retake a lot of connections and make me feel great about all the friends that are out there. Obviously, family always liking the episodes. But, and, and, and one small, fun anecdote. One day I received a package and the package was coming from my co-host Ed Ballina. And then I opened it. It was very nice. A hat, a t-shirt and a clock, a timer. So I said, okay, I’m getting here and a small piece of advice.

Ed Ballina
Look look all right To put this like in perspective, okay  that was my problem, right? So I went on Amazon and I buy a big kitchen timer like this, right? But it was like two for seven dollars and I was like I only need one of these So what am I gonna do with the other one? I’m gonna send it to my buddy with his OpEx shirt and the hat So it was just because I had an extra one because you do a much better job than I, I’m not I’m not rambling, But, you know?

Alvaro Cuba
But that’s what we are talking really, really about fun. So, but all this, it wouldn’t be that fun and that important and all that without our listeners. So we want to give a big thank you to everyone that have listened, that send us questions, send us comments, just a couple of stats. I always like the stats as you know.

The episode has been watched in 28 countries, 467 minutes recorded in total, and these amazing 153,000 videos viewers or downloaded. What do you think about that, Ed?

Ed Ballina
Wow.

When our producer Sara reviewed those numbers with us I was completely blown away. I mean, you know, I kind of watch, you know, you know YouTube counts and all that other stuff, but you know a hundred and fifty four thousand times people thought that it was worthwhile to watch or listen to what we’re saying…Wow! Thank you, Thank you. That is that’s that’s great feedback. We look to get better. Next year we want half a million.

And I think we can get there because one of things we talked about and not to go too far into next year, but we we realized that we don’t want to make this just about two talking heads, right? Alvaro and I can talk our heads off about our experiences, we’ve been around for a while, but we’re much more interested in bringing guests that are interesting to you, right? The the so one last personal thing because I just thought about it.

Something really special for me was having David, my son, on an episode. Wow! I was just blown away. And he did an amazing job. So I’m thrilled. Get ready because the other Ballina GM, Eddie, came out of the aircraft industry, is probably chomping at the bit. Anyway.

Alvaro Cuba
He really did an amazing job.

So as you can tell guys, my co-host is the Ballina family. Yeah, it’s the clan. But now really big, big thank you. We are grateful to you all listeners. And we are also very, very thankful to a very special person. Our producer and the person who guide us. And who help us. So you haven’t seen her. So just there. Yeah. Sara Aldworth. Thank you so much. We love you. You have been amazing.

Ed Ballina
There’s you gotta move it over a little bit. Yay Sara, Sara, we love you and thank you so much for all you’ve done Yeah, yeah, you actually made us You made us look tolerable on these videos. You guys have no idea how much minutes are sitting on the editing room floor. It’s probably about three foot deep. Okay, so yeah a very special call out to Sara. Thank you. You made this happen

Sara Aldworth
Oh my gosh, you guys. Thank you. Thank you. I love working on this show.

Alvaro Cuba
Yes. So big applause. Thank you so much. And with that guys, and with that, yes, and let’s watch the clips. No, this is talking about Sara, she have prepared a very special, yeah, what the most popular, something never seen. So a quick compilation of that and enjoy.

<Clips from previous episodes roll>

Ed Ballina
I worked for a person at that time that did not believe in vibration analysis, right? And I was getting ready to shut down our paper machine to preemptively change out a roll. This guy was my boss came out. He said, what are you doing? I said I’m getting ready to shut shut down. We’re going to take this out. He goes, hold on. I’ve had a maintenance. I was a maintenance guy for a long time. I kid you not. This man ran to the paper machine, put his hand on the bearing block and said, we’re not shutting down. This will run for weeks. I said, are you sure we have the data? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nine o’clock that night, I got the phone call. We’re down. The bearing went out. So I went into the plant and at about eight o’clock the next morning, we’re starting up and my boss comes out and says, what’s going on? How come we were down? And despite my better judgment, I couldn’t help myself. I said to him, you know that bearing that you put your hands on yesterday and told me it’s going to run for months. Yeah. Eight thirty at night. I got a phone call in my house that they had ripped apart and it took $50,000 worth of fabric with it. And he just looked at me, turned around and walked away. So believer vibration analysis, right?

Alvaro Cuba
We had jars and the jars, we needed to check that if they were filled properly enough. And we had a very sophisticated machine with weights and counterweights and all that. Electronics and all that. And one day it stopped working and we were producing thousands an hour. And one of the mechanics came with one spring and one small bar. So he was putting the spring and the jar was passing. If it had enough weight, the spring was going down and was passing the bar. If it was not enough weight, it was not too much and the bar was taking the jar out of the line. So, so simple, change. One year later, all the machines were using the springs and the bar.

Ed Ballina
I’m sure everyone that’s, you know listen to this, to this podcast has had the experience where you come in, seven thirty, eight o’clock in the morning or earlier, and you’re trying to start up a process or a machine or a line and you’re there 24 hours later, right? Because you have the commitment to make sure that it starts up. That you don’t do that. It’s part of the job, you are seeing, and I’m seeing now lines that run three hours, four hours without a stoppage.

And they stopped the machine to do something in the machine versus the machine stopping to you. Exactly. No. And the boss, right? Who’s the boss? Is the machine the boss or are you the boss?

Alvaro Cuba
I recall going to my very first job and being so frustrated because everyone knew more than what I did. It was about steam and tubes and traps and all that. I knew nothing and everyone knew everything. I went back to the dean of the university to complain. I have been all these years here and you have taught me anything. I don’t know this. And his reflection was if we had to teach you everything that happens out there, a lifetime is not enough. What we taught you was to think, troubleshooting, to reflect, to analyze. With all those tools, you will be able to figure out whatever is out there.

Ed Ballina
My first exposure to vibration analysis, right, happened in a paper mill in Mahoopany, Pennsylvania when I was a maintenance manager and I went out just doing the job I’m learning. I went out to do a round, you know, with my maintenance tech, right? So for those of you that are that are in manufacturing, you know what this is, but essentially when you have these large processes, you assign your maintenance technicians to walk a prescribed route every maybe it’s once a week, maybe it’s every two or three days, right? Where they monitor these key pieces of work. Well, this guy, it wasn’t quite that perfected back then because it was vibration analysis right?

Now, imagine a paper mill, very loud place, everybody wears headphones, preserve your hearing. Okay, so I’m walking out with him, we walk up to the first motor, and he’s got a broomstick with him. I’m like, that’s kind of interesting. He goes up and he places one end of the broomstick right on the bearing housing and the other end of the broomstick on his headphone, on his muffs. I’m like, what? He goes, yeah, you can hear. So he goes, yeah, you try it. Literally, you can. You can take a broomstick, put it on a bearing housing, put it on your ear muffs, and you can hear how that equipment is running, right? And you can actually hear a bearing noise if it starts going bad. This person did this three times a week, right?

Do you think they had a database in their head of what normal looks like? And sounds like? Absolutely.

<Bonus Content Begins>

Ed Ballina
Last week I was at at a, major beer brewery, in, in Georgia. Yeah. And, had a terrific time. My first time in a, in, well, not in a brewery, but understand, you know, looking at it from a, a beverage, you know, production standpoint.

The one thing I will tell you is when you walk out of a brewery, right? You smell like you’ve been in a bar for 10 hours. And that was new to me, right? I’m used to the gentler soda world where you come out, maybe smelling like a lollipop or, you know, iced tea. But when you come out and you smell like you’re coming out of a bar, it was an interesting experience. But the reason why I bring that up is- so I use, Apple notes, okay. You document all of my observations. So if I find an issue, single filer transition rails, not aligned, right. I take a picture of that and this helps me put, you know, I take videos, bottles stumbling out of the discharge of a filler.

I can describe it to you, but the slow-mo feature on our phones is amazing. They’re like, hey, you’re releasing the pressure off the container too hard. It’s called snifting, right? They’re like, really? I didn’t think it was that bad. So then I played back to slow-mo and I showed them what looks like an eruption when you first release the pressure on the container. They’re like, that doesn’t look good. I go, I know. And I’ve got the video to prove it. So to your point, this little machine is incredible. Unfortunately, trying to marry Apple Notes with Microsoft Windows, different problem. We still haven’t cracked the code on that.

Ed Ballina
Let’s see. It’s a question about leveraging review sites to help in the decision. There were some examples like G2, Captera, Gartner, Pure Insights, TrustRaters, et cetera. I’m going to hand this off to you because I’ll be honest, I have experience with Gartner, you know, place a lot of, you know, faith in, what comes out of that organization. You know, you’ve got the other consulting companies, Bain, et cetera. But I don’t necessarily go to review sites on this stuff. I try to find out like who is running this stuff and I make that personal connection. So I thought I’m going to, ask you kind of take that one too.

Alvaro Cuba
I think, it’s a little bit of a mix. It’s always, and we have been talking a lot of new technology and new things in OpenTable or in Google, or you were talking about the trip. Just looking at the reviews, which is something that we didn’t have before. Helps a lot. It gives you, at least gives you an entry level. If you are choosing a restaurant and you go, hey, three star or a hotel or whatever, three star, three star, and then you start four and then you can put in, then you have a couple of five star. Okay, then you can do a little bit more. So I wouldn’t rule it out. And I use nowadays with the easy way that everyone can put reviews in. So I will check it out. I will not just focus 100 % on that. Just give me a little bit of where I’m navigating. And then I will do what you say, go and start getting direct connection and then probably go and talk to other people that have already experiences. So then I’ll round out and I’ll have more input and, and, more things, but for an initial map, I would say I would recommend that it’s so easy. You go to Google and you just put that in, it gives you four or five. And you can check and then it helps to start getting an idea on any of these fields. And at least to your point, some information and then you can draw your own conclusions as to how trusted the review is.

Ed Ballina
No, I am a huge believer in reviews. I mean, with all the travel that we do, you land in places that you haven’t been before. I live by Yelp Yelp has it’s let me down one or two times. There might have been some sketching, know sketchy like the cousin and the whole family gave this place good reviews and you walk in there and there’s botulism everywhere.

<End of Clips Segment>

Alvaro Cuba
So, well friends, this is time to wrap up. We really hope that you enjoy the clips. And it has been, as we were saying at the beginning, a fantastic year. We learned a lot and we are so thankful to all of you for watching us in YouTube, for listening to us in iTunes.

And more important for your comments, your questions, your participation. And please keep doing that. Keep coming to us with your drink to kick back, relax and talk about manufacturing and tell your buddies, bring them to the coffee shop or to the bar and we’ll all enjoy together and we’ll continue to discuss great fun things.

And having a great time together.

Ed Ballina
Thank you. Really, really thank you for tuning in with us and listening to our chats on a regular basis. It has been truly special. So thank you for tuning in today. Please continue to send your questions to AMA. Ask Me Anything episodes. They’re really only as good as the questions that we get. So we want to encourage that. And now we’re going to wrap up with where else you can find us. And we’ve joked with Sara during this call that there are so many, it’s a mouthful things we have to say. It’s like alphabet soup. So here we go. So email us at mmu@augury.com or find us on the Endpoint, which is a free online community for manufacturing folks like you and I and Alvaro. So that’s mastering. I’m not even looking anymore. So and it is Endpoint.dot I had to look back augury.com and we’ll throw those addresses in the show notes for you and we all want to wish you and your families an amazing holiday season time to spend time with the family and reflect and give thanks for all of the gifts that we that we that we have and how fortunate we are so thank you and see you next year!

Alvaro Cuba
Yes. Happy holidays, guys. Thank you very much to my co-host Ed, to our producer, Sara, and to all of you for watching us. See you next year.