VIDEO: TOOLING UP – Improving Shop Floor Visibility with Lenox Tools and Technology

Narrator: Welcome to Tooling Up, a series by MSC Industrial Supply Company that provides real-world insights brought to you by leading industry experts and aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of your operations.

Eddie: Hey everybody, this is Eddie with MSC and welcome to this episode of MSC's Tooling Up featuring Lenox. So today we're going to talk about how we can utilize Lenox Tools and Technology to keep ourselves and our blades sharp and here to help us today is our good friend from the team at Lenox, Alexis. Alexis, thank you so much for joining us today and being our expert from the team at Lenox. So before we get started, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do for the team at Lenox?

Alexis: Well thank you for having me. My name is Alexis Fernandez and I've been working with Lenox for the last 13 years and really developing our total industrial solutions, so how do we come to our end users with a full solution for any of the problems that they're facing.

Eddie: Wonderful. Again, we appreciate you joining us and bringing your expertise to this episode. So now that you're here, let's jump right in. Of course you have customers around the world and you're going to be seeing issues every single day. So if you wouldn't mind, why don't you share with us a couple of those key issues that you're seeing at machines?

Alexis: Definitely. The three main issues that I see at machines are really unplanned downtime or even unseen downtime, so downtime that's happening inside the facility; operator error, so just the knowledge and skill of operators; and then, finally, blade failure.

Eddie: Right. All three things that we would love to avoid. So additionally, how is Lenox helping those end users avoid these issues every single day?

Alexis: Lenox looks to build really strong partnerships to fully understand what's going on inside of an organization. In order to make sure that we're addressing these three key pillars of unmet needs that customers have, we have different solutions. So for machine downtime we're really investing in shop floor visibility. That can be just making sure that we're collecting the right metrics to be able to watch towards the goal, so how are we finding the right leading indicators and making sure that you're sharing them throughout your organization? For blade failure, we're really looking to reduce unplanned blade changes. How do we make sure that you've got the right tool for the right applications and that you're getting the most out of that tooling? That works in conjunction with really investing in your human capital. Do you have operators that understand really the fundamentals of bandsawing and the choices that they can make that affect each cut that's made?

Eddie: No, these are all relevant topics and wonderful to know that you are not only aware of everything that's happening in the market, but you're actively combating to address all of these issues. So with that there are clear advantages of working with the team over at Lenox. Specifically we can discuss the Lenox Advantage itself. What do we need to know?

Alexis: So when it comes to the Lenox Advantage it really goes beyond the blade right? So this is about making sure that we're building the strongest partnership with our customers to make sure that we're really showing up and bringing our industry experience. Our industry experience is really twofold. One, we've got a really large, the largest actually in North America, field and technical team for bandsaw specific. So we've got all of this industry expertise that we like to bring. Secondly, we use that expertise to make sure that we're looking not just at the blade, not just at the application, but the overall process of your organization that allows us to have discussions about process optimization. So what could you be doing to increase your throughput throughout a facility? And then finally we have digital solutions that really make sure that you have a sustainability plan moving forward on your continuous improvement.

Eddie: No, great pillars in order to really highlight the advantages of working with Lenox. So outside of that we've got a couple of those digital options and I know a real popular item is your site survey. What does everyone need to know about it?

Alexis: When it comes to the site survey, this is where Lenox brings that industry expertise to your facility and we do things like time studies, so making sure that we're timing and seeing how long does it take to change a blade, how long does it take to set up the material and do your material handling, how long are the actual cuts taking and do you have different options there? So we take that, there's no downtime to do a site survey. It's all observation and interviewing of key stakeholders and influencers throughout your organization. From there we can really talk together, so we can offer you a guaranteed trial order about the blade that we would recommend. Like we've got some great blades that are coming out or are new to the market. GEN-TECH™ would be a great option for getting into carbide. We also do things like customized training, so how do we again help you invest in your human capital and what are some training opportunities that could be online or in person to make sure that your operators are knowledgeable about how bandsawing works and again, what choices they can make and how to make the best cut. And then finally, we have these digital tools that we're going to continue to talk about here that only continue to support that process.

Eddie: No, wonderful. And so with all the tools essentially at your disposal, how are you helping customers find the best solutions?

Alexis: I would say that one of the first things that we do is listen. So we listen and we observe to make sure that we find the right solutions and then we tailor really the Lenox Advantage to say these are what we would recommend from Lenox that we know would affect the key metrics that we see inside of your organization.

Eddie: Right, hey and as you just mentioned, one of the real strong pillars of that Lenox Advantage are the technological options and the technology that you bring to these customers. So what are the options that you have available?

Alexis: Yeah, so right now one of the biggest things that's coming out to the market is Lenox 360 and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you. Lenox 360 is a data monitoring device that sits on your bandsaw. It works with any make or model of machine and year of machine and it works through a series of sensors that we attach onto your machine to be able to watch things like blade speed, feeds, tension of your machine, all of that comes together and we aggregate that data through the cloud onto a dashboard that allows you to see things like machine utilization. Again those speeds and feeds, you can track jobs on this and it even gives you an indicator of blade health which allows people to get closer to predictive blade changes, how much life do I have left in this blade before I start the next new job? This obviously allows you to analyze your overall sawing operation but also isolate the different variables that go into making the best cut. You can look at it online on your computer. It also has an app for your phone and you can use it on shop floor monitoring. So when we talk about creating shop floor visibility around metrics, making it so that everybody can see the same metrics and everybody is speaking the same language so that you can really track where I am today and am I getting better tomorrow.

Eddie: Creating visibility with metrics, love it absolutely. And then so with that, Lenox 360 sounds and is amazing. What other technology are you bringing to the market?

Alexis: Well I definitely have to talk to you about SawCalc®. SawCalc is really a digital tool that comes out of again all of that industry expertise that Lenox has. SawCalc is an online tool that allows you to save your profile, so the machines that you have, the applications that you're cutting, and it will make recommendations on the speeds and feeds and the time of cut that you should be seeing based on the parameters that you put in. This is a great way for you to not only, if you're looking at Lenox 360, you see where you are today and you know where you're cutting and what time those cuts on average are taking. SawCalc allows you to say is that the best cut I could get because SawCalc is going to give you that best recommendation.

Eddie: No, this all sounds great and Alexis, we have covered some ground today talking about the issues in the market, the solutions and how you tackle and address these issues. And then additionally, the advantage you're bringing to the market wrapping it all up with the digital solutions that you're bringing to these customers. So can you give us a quick recap as we wrap up this episode?

Alexis: Absolutely. When it comes down to it, customers today are really facing unplanned downtime, operator error, and blade failure in ways that they want to be able to control. They want to be able to predict. And so the Lenox Advantage is really about the partnership that we can create together that allows us to invest in human capital, create visibility on your shop floor, and reduce the downtime that you're seeing or maybe is invisible inside of your organization. From there we've got some really great tools like SawCalc® that will allow you to see what's the most efficient cut that I would be able to make for this application and then Lenox 360 that's just going to give you that full view of what's going on in your shop floor in terms of utilization, blade health, and the parameters that I'm running.

Eddie: Transparency and efficiency, the core of everything we've discussed today and it's made for a very informative and wonderful episode. So for those who are looking for more info. on not only the Lenox Tools technology and solutions but also to see all the other amazing things that you're doing in the market, where can we get more info.?

Alexis: Well you definitely have to go to mscdirect.com/lenox. That's going to have all of the frontline information and again, about that partnership that we have with MSC that's so important. If for some reason you're still curious, you can go to cutwithlenox.com.

Eddie: Wonderful. We thank you so much for your time, your passion, and your expertise in this episode of MSC's Tooling Up featuring Lenox.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up video playlist to see how we can help improve your operations and subscribe to our channel so you never miss out.