Interviews from the Rhombus Room where sometimes your angles of perception are opposites or could be equals, it is for you to decide.
Welcome to the first in a series of interviews with the solution engineers from RSA, Inc. I am Eldrige Golar.
A quick bio on me would include my witnessing the Roswell Alien spacecraft crash, pulling the still-living alien from the wreckage, and then having the alien impart future technologies to me telepathically. My life’s goal is to impart, as humans are able to cope with them, new technologies that will result in the betterment of mankind.
Sometimes, humans have proven able to use and understand my gifts, think automatic windshield wipers, and other times they have not, think the Internet. Ah well, maybe someday humans will rise to a level where all of my gifts are used for good.
For this series, Interviews from the Rhombus Room, I have decided to interview a rare breed of engineer, the automation solution provider. This group of engineers are required to constantly work using a highly cross-disciplinary skill set that few people have acquired. The engineers I will be interviewing will be bringing a lifetime of learning to bear in creating the solutions needed to solve their customers automation problems.
Today, I would like to introduce Bill Johnson of RSA, Inc. Bill is a BSME graduate from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He has 35 years of experience providing automation solutions to RSA, Inc. customers. Bill is expert in all things motion, machine control, machine vision, product sensing, communications, and personnel safety.
EG: Welcome to Rhombus Room, Bill.
BJ: Thank you.
EG: Could you please give us your elevator speech as to what you offer as a solution engineer?
BJ: I like to have customers feel I’m an extension of their internal engineering group. The motion/automation specialist they don’t keep on staff. I generate complex solutions every day so customers can draw on my experience from working across a wide variety of industries.
EG: I happen to know that you were an early adopter of the stepping and servo motor technologies I originally shared in the 1970’s.
BJ: RSA started as a sensing house but quickly moved into the motion world in the late 1980’s. We were definitely on the leading edge (sometimes too close to the bleeding edge) with programmable multi-axis stepper drives and digital servo controllers using Intel 8186 12 MHz processors along with analog servo drives. Lots of screw driver adjustments in those days.
EG: When you receive a request to assist in an automation solution, how do you start the process? What questions do you ask?
BJ: Generally, the customer has an idea they believe is a potential solution. My job is to get them to tell me what the actual needs of the application are. Then we can generate a workable solution that fits into their total machine control system.
EG: Interesting.
EG: As you develop the concept with the customer, how do you bring in challenging perspectives to help them in designing the best solution? Does this alienate them or inspire them?
BJ: Since I live in the motion automation world every day, I see lots of different applications – high speed, low speed, high precision, high force, with needs for velocity control, force control and everything in between. My favorite saying is “You can’t add enough electricity to overcome bad mechanics.” This bit of truthful humor usually opens up the application space to look at alternative solutions.
EG: If you challenge an engineer, how do you help guide them to change their ideas. Obviously, they have their experience and opinions on how things should be done.
BJ: Luckily for me, formulas for mechatronics are what I use every day. When a customer requests something that is potentially not workable, I can show them on their white board how the concept might have some difficulties. This type of interaction builds confidence in the ultimate solution because we discuss how the physics of the solution work. Electrical solutions impact the mechanical choices and vice versa.
EG: Can you give me an example of a highly successful “concept change” that you helped someone with recently?
BJ: A customer had to go very slowly over a long stroke – 30-inch travel in about a month’s time. The initial solution was lots of gearing on a fine pitch screw. It turns out the process needed resolution in the low speed which drove the solution to high resolution motor feedback vs. lots of gearing. RSA delivered a servo drive system that has 16,777,216 ppr and great low speed resolution +/- 1 count/sec (5.3 years/motor revolution).
EG: How do successes build trust for long term partnerships with your customers?
BJ: Successes on difficult projects build trust which allows customers to tackle projects that would have previously scared them off or caused them to bid excessively high. It is very fulfilling to nurture these relationships into partnerships and see the new opportunities customers are now not afraid to attack.
EG: Fascinating! What do you think you can do to reach more engineers and be able to spread the success of your work to others?
BJ: (chuckle) Give me more than 24 hours in a day to visit folks? Seriously, this is an in-person process. The trust needed is immense when someone is taking your advice and staking their success on it. The best way to reach more engineers is through our vendors who place the same trust in RSA as they would in their own engineers. This level of trust builds confidence for everyone in the process.
EG: In closing, would you like to share any other keys to how you bring profitable success to your customer partners?
BJ: Call RSA. Everything we do is to help our customers be more profitable.
EG: Thank you, Bill. I appreciate your insights and your time with me today. Good luck in your future endeavors.
Well folks, that is all from the Rhombus Room today. I look forward to sharing my next interview with you in the near future.