VIDEO: TOOLING UP – Unlocking Efficiency with Lenox SawCalc

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Lenox. Always hungry. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

Toni Neary: Hello and thank you so much for joining us on Tooling Up. I’m your host, Toni Neary and I’m so glad that you’re here with us on the MSC YouTube channel. If you're new to the show, make sure that you click that subscribe button and like this episode as well so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Today's guest is Cameron Guthrie and he's the national account manager at Lenox and I'm super excited about some of the technology that we're going to have and talk about today. Thank you so much for joining us, Cameron.

Cameron Guthrie: Thanks, Toni. It's great to be here. Really appreciate you having us.   

Toni Neary: Absolutely. And I have to say, it's funny, when we originally chatted, I thought that we would go a little bit through, you know, physical cutting materials and cutting tools. And I was kind of surprised to see that we were working more with a web-based application. But before we jump into that, tell me a little bit about your background and your kind of career pathway. 

Cameron Guthrie: You bet. I've been with Lenox 22 years, started out in an application specialist role, which was really beneficial, kind of being hands-on in front of the customer. After that, I moved into a sales role and had a variety of different jobs inside that sales role, had personal territories, called on some key accounts, assisted our training team with some product training and currently reside as a national accounts manager. 

Toni Neary: Cameron, that's amazing. And I think that different experience, I mean, 22 years with one organization is no small feat. Tell me a little bit about your favorite things working for Lenox.     

Cameron Guthrie: Really, we provide this solutions-based approach and being that person that can deliver best practices and solutions and really make them more efficient in their sawing operation. You know, just makes you feel good at the end of the day.

Toni Neary: And I know that we've talked with Lenox before and if anybody missed that episode, you can go back and check it out a little bit and you'll hear more about the Lenox advantage. But tell me a little bit about what the Lenox advantage means for your customers. 

Cameron Guthrie: Yeah, so it's really delivering our expertise and our breadth of knowledge in the world of sawing and a lot of those things are at no charge. So we deliver some preventative maintenance to the customer at no charge, operator training, and then we really dive into feeds and speeds and breaking in a bandsaw blade, which is obviously very vital to design efficiency. 

Toni Neary: And I have to say that seems like the perfect segue for us to talk a little bit about SawCalc. And I have to say, when we talked, this really blew my mind. When you're looking at something that you're doing completely free for your customers. Why did you guys decide to create this and provide it free?     

Cameron Guthrie: Yeah, obviously, you know, in its early form you had to go into the office and punch the unique data into the tool and bring it back out to the shop. So now obviously most have a phone with them near the saw or a computer. And so you can now input your unique sawing data and sawing parameters into the tool. And what comes out are bandsaw blade recommendations, feed and speed recommendations. You can get overall cut times. If you know the cost of your blade and your shop burn rate, you can drive it all the way down to a cost per cut and it really allows the customer to understand the cost of that job and how to and if they're doing it efficiently, you know, how to be more productive and cost effective. 

Toni Neary: And I think that's amazing, right? We never knew that we would just have a computer at our fingertips that would be right there with you, next to you with the equipment. And this is really about increasing the efficiency overall for your customers. So what exactly can you punch into SawCalc what can you see when you actually do that and put in some of the data and stats that you have? 

Cameron Guthrie: Yeah. So it's unique to each individual's application. They can put it in their exact make and model of saw. They can put it in their exact size, shape and grade of material they're cutting. They can put in whether they're cutting one piece at a time or they're bundle cutting. A lot of sawing calculators don't have the ability to take a shape like an I-beam or an angle iron or a channel that kind of has some uniqueness to it and put in all those dimensions and get out recommended band speeds and cut times and feed rates. And so and then, you know, if you sign up to be a registered user, once you're verified, you actually have the ability to save all of the information that you're putting into in there, into your library. So, you know, you may have three or four saws in your facility. This way you don't have to go in each time you're using the tool to find your exact make and model saw. You can sort in your library and then you can do the same with materials. So very powerful. You can create cut charts from it, you know, so if you have multiple shifts that way, everybody on all the shifts are cutting the jobs the same way.

Toni Neary: Okay, having that efficiency across shifts and between different operators is huge. And having the capability to save that data, have it right there when you need it, I would have to imagine is going to be a huge timesaver and potentially helps with onboarding and training new people.

Cameron Guthrie: Absolutely. Yes. You know, a lot of bandsaw operators don't get a ton of training. And so when you have all of this information at their disposal, it also includes how to break in a brand new blade when you put it on the saw. So like I said, it's all that information right there. And then the other nice thing about it is if you have a facility with multiple sites you can share. Let's say you have a job at one site and they're really efficient at cutting that. You can share that information across to another site to kind of help out the entire company. So, very powerful tool.  

Toni Neary: And amazing. This powerful tool is completely free. It works with all of the current products that you have on the market. But did you say it has over 9000 machines in it?     

Cameron Guthrie: Yes. We've obviously, you know, Lenox has been around for over 100 years and, you know, we feel like we've accumulated a lot of information in that time span. So we collect all of the data on machines and grades of materials and how to best cut those and keep the app and the web up to date with that most recent information. And you actually just mentioned it, too, as we launch new products, new products goes into the tool. And so you're constantly using the most relevant, up-to-date information. 

Toni Neary: Talk about leaning on the experts, right?     

Cameron Guthrie: Yes. Yes, for sure.    

Toni Neary: Awesome. Cameron, thank you so much for your time today. I'm so excited for more people to hear about this, this app and find different ways that they can work with it to really increase our efficiencies. And I really appreciate your time today.   

Cameron Guthrie: Absolutely. Thanks for having us, Toni. 

Toni Neary: If you enjoyed this episode and our conversation with Cameron as much as I did, make sure you click that subscribe button. And we cannot wait to see what else Lenox brings to the table with all of these amazing customer-driven innovations. If you'd like to see more of the tools available from Lenox, go to https://www.mscdirect.com/lenox. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.     

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level. And subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.