Originally featured on Industrial Talk Podcast
Featuring: Rob Goldiez, Co-Founder and CEO of Hirebotics

Industrial Talk host Scott MacKenzie sits down with Rob Goldiez onsite at FABTECH in Atlanta, GA to discuss welding solutions from the perspective of the welding professional. Rob shares how Hirebotics is making automation accessible by putting technology in the hands of people who are not automation pros, using an app-based format that anyone on the shop floor can pick up and use.

Transcript:

foreign

0:04welcome to the industrial Talk podcast

0:06with Scott McKenzie Scott is a

0:09passionate industry professional

0:10dedicated to transferring Cutting Edge

0:12into industry focused Innovations and

0:14Trends while highlighting the men and

0:16women who keep the world moving so put

0:18on your hard hat grab your work boots

0:20and let’s go alright once again thank

0:22you very much for joining industrial

0:24talk we are broadcasting on site on site

0:27right now Fabtech Atlanta Georgia it is

0:30a great event put this on your calendar

0:32it’s a must attend event if you’re not

0:34here this year be here next year I don’t

0:37even know where it is where’s gonna be

0:38again Rob

0:39I have no clue Rob’s not it’s gonna be

0:42somewhere we’re just going to have to

0:43jettison that question

0:45anyway this platform the industrial talk

0:48platform is dedicated to you industrial

0:50professionals all around the world

0:51because you are bold you are brave you

0:54dare greatly you’re solving problems

0:55like Rob’s company and you are making

0:58the world a better place and as you can

1:01tell Rob’s in the hot seat

1:03firebotics is the company lets it get a

1:06car racquet hi Rob how you doing

1:09I figure I can I can use your your

1:12product now I was telling everybody

1:13about it anybody that was walking on by

1:15said check this out I I programmed a

1:18welding whatever well it was just a line

1:21welding Coba but you’re a pro now I’m a

1:23pro yeah it was on your your uh which I

1:27got to tell you man it’s pretty cool I

1:28was telling everybody there was a a

1:30young uh young gent and he’s getting his

1:33welding uh you know certification and

1:35all that stuff and I said you got to go

1:36over to see you got to go over to see

1:38and check out this particular company

1:39and I said you

1:41I did this and I was telling them what I

1:44did it’s amazing isn’t it I was trying

1:46to develop some street cred

1:48that’s that’s you know you got that

1:51credit after like three minutes that’s

1:52after three minutes I said yeah I did

1:54that I I ran that bead no it was it’s a

1:58hypothetical bead all right for the

2:00listeners out there just wrote a uh for

2:02them to understand who rob is give us a

2:04little uh background on who you are yeah

2:07so I’m the co-founder and CEO of

2:09higherbiotics we do cobot welding but

2:11what’s really unique about how we

2:13approach the market is

2:14we focus on the welder not the robot

2:17programmer and so you saw that as being

2:19our test subject yesterday as the welder

2:21and I knocked it out of the park

2:22everybody I just did I was just I’m an

2:25easy learning gag it was amazing trust

2:27us yeah it was but it’s all epe so it’s

2:30a connected product

2:31people use an app on an iPad an iPhone

2:34Android web and they teach the robot and

2:37so there’s no programming at all nothing

2:38on a teach Bennett no complicated robot

2:42jargon to deal with you just point and

2:44click

2:45yeah I was I was pretty dazzled by you

2:47know uh long ago it was it was over a

2:50year ago no it was much longer ago and

2:52when I was welded I was welding right

2:55this was just just absolutely

2:57fascinating technology what was the

3:01Genesis behind it what was the problem

3:03you were solving what why yeah it’s a

3:07it’s a good question we uh myself and

3:09Matt who started the company we had

3:11purchased Universal robots and companies

3:13that we had worked or worked for in the

3:15past we had familiar with automation but

3:17it’s really hard and it’s almost like

3:19automation is this protected Space by

3:21the experts right and we kind of uh want

3:24to figure out how to get automation into

3:26any company make it accessible for any

3:27company and so uh we feel like the

3:30easiest way to do that is put the

3:32technology in the hands of people that

3:34are not automation Pros but in a way

3:37that uh it makes them very comfortable

3:39so to do that the way we know how to do

3:41that at least is through apps right

3:43people understand apps whether you’re a

3:44grandfather or through year old kid and

3:46so if we can bring the experience into

3:49an app format right we can do a lot of

3:51different things in terms of controlling

3:52that experience and make it really easy

3:54to use and I I have to adjust it it is

3:57it’s a it’s it’s approachable

3:59and I think that uh much of the the

4:02Automation and I think it’s going in

4:05that direction is the pursuit of of

4:08adoption easy adoption easy use get it

4:12up and running and and don’t don’t make

4:15me jump through hurdles I’ve got all

4:16these other hurdles I have to go and I

4:18think that that’s a that’s an incredible

4:19business model so when you went down how

4:22long has the company been in business

4:23since 2015.

4:25there you go you’ve been around a little

4:27bit yeah and you you must have seen some

4:30really interesting changes challenges uh

4:34technology all of that stuff take us

4:36through that just whole process you’re

4:37saying hey you’re sitting around a table

4:39and you’re saying wouldn’t it be great

4:41to be able to do that yeah so when we

4:43started it originally we weren’t doing

4:45welding

4:46um we’re doing all sorts of different

4:47applications with kobots but what we saw

4:51over and over again is you know uh we’re

4:53not we don’t come from the welding

4:54industry or at least Matt and myself but

4:56we’ve hired people on that help with

4:57that but um you can go back to the 90s

5:00and read statistics from American

5:02Welding Society about the shortage of

5:03skilled welders well those same problems

5:05exist today so it’s like what’s been

5:07done to solve it right like everybody’s

5:09making trying to make automation a

5:11little easier but they’re they’re just

5:12trying the same things over and over

5:13again and so we thought we had an

5:15opportunity to do it a different way

5:17right to approach it a different way to

5:19really really make it accessible to

5:21welders and not take the traditional

5:23approach that people have taken with

5:25automations do you do you find there is

5:27a resistance a pushback hey I’m a I’m a

5:31skilled welder I I’ve done this and I’ve

5:34run this speed and I’ve used this

5:35application and I know it and I

5:37understand these metals and all of that

5:39there’s there’s a there’s a pride that

5:41goes on with with being a welder and

5:43rightly so is there any pushback on this

5:46or so not really what happens over and

5:49over again is that we get contacted by

5:51companies that cannot find welders

5:54so that’s where it starts right they’re

5:57not looking like traditional automation

5:58we’re not looking at deposition rate or

6:00I need to hit some cycle time to hit

6:02some volume commitments for some

6:03Automotive supplier they just can’t find

6:05welders to make production and so they

6:08reach out to us they see something that

6:10looks very very easy to use and it’s

6:13really a way to empower their welders so

6:15it still takes the knowledge of that

6:16skilled welder right but now they’re

6:18getting uh maybe a co-worker that’s more

6:21reliable and a co-worker that shows up

6:23every day and a co-worker that lets that

6:25welder focus on things that only he can

6:27do the kobot can’t do everything

6:29and so it really allows them to take

6:30their their skill and put it into the

6:33cobot right you get that repeatability

6:34and reliability so what was interesting

6:37because as a as a former welder a long

6:40time ago is one is the ability to to say

6:44okay I’ve got this this tool this this

6:48cobot that is helping me run this speed

6:52but there’s also rate there’s also you

6:56know the material that you’re using the

6:58penetration there’s a lot of science

7:00that goes in on that and is that all

7:03part of your solution it’s like okay

7:06what do you got here oh we’ve got this

7:08stainless steel thing going on here and

7:10this is Dad blah blah blah and you put

7:12it all in and it just says oh I know

7:14what to do so so I’ll say yes and no

7:16right we still we don’t take anything

7:18away from that skilled welder they know

7:20torch angles they know to contact hit

7:22the work distance they know parameters

7:24and settings right so we really look at

7:25this as a tool to empower them versus

7:27the tool to replace what they’re doing

7:30so it’s not trying to figure stuff out

7:32that they can’t do but it’s an easy to

7:33use tool think of it like a power drill

7:35right like it still takes that Carpenter

7:37to put it in but it’s a lot easier and

7:38faster than you know or or that nail gun

7:40right than doing it by hand

7:44and I would imagine there’s uh some it’s

7:47a good solution for that sort of I hate

7:50to say there it it exists that mundane

7:53for sure you know and and you know I

7:56we’ve all been there we’re running a

7:58beat we’re trying to do it and it’s the

7:59same one over and over again and after a

8:01while there’s a there’s a numbness that

8:04happens remove that use the skill of the

8:07the individual to focus in on something

8:10else yep and then be able to leverage

8:12this uh solution for sure like that that

8:15welder does not look forward to doing

8:17the repeatable small little Trinkets and

8:19things like that around the shop it

8:20doesn’t keep them around that’s for sure

8:21it doesn’t and it doesn’t

8:23um it’s not interesting work it’s you

8:25know very repetitive and mundane so it

8:27lends itself well to a cobot one of the

8:30things that that um

8:32we see is that the fact we really focus

8:34on making it fast to teach I mean you

8:36learned it very quickly oh yeah yeah

8:37teach something and I’m not the sharpest

8:39tool in the show how you are no no okay

8:41all right no I don’t wanna I’m humble

8:44just ask me

8:47but uh the faster you can make it to

8:50teach apart the smaller batch size

8:52people can run in production so if it

8:55takes you an hour to program a part you

8:56got to think I better get hours worth of

8:58production to make it worth spending an

9:00hour to program it or a day or whatever

9:02but when you can teach a part in minutes

9:04minutes right now you don’t need to run

9:06for a long time to make it worthwhile so

9:08we see customers running smaller and

9:09smaller batch sizes 20 pieces 50 pieces

9:12things they wouldn’t do with traditional

9:15automation where do you see it going I

9:16mean let’s uh put your future hat on

9:17I’ve seen that you’ve been around for

9:19seven years yep so let’s see how I did

9:21that math it was pretty quick oh yeah

9:24man I’m like a calculator

9:27um you know we still feel like it Cobalt

9:29welding is it at its infancy no it is

9:31still a lot right A lot of people still

9:33doing things manually but there’s some

9:34other applications that we have our

9:36sites on

9:37um today we sell our the product that

9:39you saw that you experienced in the US

9:41Canada and Australia and we’ve got plans

9:43to take it to other regions as well

9:45people are looking for easy to use

9:47Solutions and so you know step one it

9:50was two buttons

9:53the math isn’t hard one two

9:57but that that’s that’s really good and

10:00again it’s only going to get better it’s

10:02only going to get more advanced it’s

10:04going to only get uh more helpful and

10:07insightful and and just be able to do

10:09that so with that said

10:12Dr Rob somebody’s saying that’s cool

10:15stop man how do I get a holder up come

10:18to us on our website hirebiotics.com

10:19we’re on social media pretty active

10:21LinkedIn Instagram Reach Out we’d love

10:24to talk to you

10:25it is it’s pretty cool technology rob

10:27you were fantastic thanks I love the

10:29tech I love it

10:31I’m going to sort of uh anchor my my

10:35train to your your future it’s bright

10:38and Sparky

10:41all right we’re gonna have all the

10:43contact information out on Industrial

10:45talk for Rod so don’t come to me and say

10:46you can’t get a hold of me because it’s

10:48all out there on Industrial talk again

10:50we’re broadcasting from Fabtech it is a

10:53must attend event please put that on

10:55your calendar you will not be

10:56disappointed we’re going to wrap it up

10:57on the other side stay tuned we will be

10:59right back

11:01you’re listening to industrial Talk

11:04podcast Network

11:06how about that conversation at Fabtech

11:09before I forget because I said it

11:11throughout the whole interview that is a

11:13must attend event really enjoyed it and

11:17you’re walking around and you’re seeing

11:19so many different Technologies and and

11:21The Innovation and and people and

11:25companies that have a real desire to try

11:27to make our lives easier and better and

11:29stronger and faster and all that stuff

11:31Rob is no exception higherbotics is the

11:36company and I got to tell you if you if

11:38you haven’t seen it there’s this

11:39technology Sprint that I went to his

11:41booth and uh programmed a well-being

11:46segment right and it is it’s just your

11:50app

11:51put it here at this angle and then put

11:54it at another it is really quite

11:56fantastic and as a past welder or

12:00recovering welder because I got to tell

12:02you I enjoyed welding quite a bit uh

12:05this this technology is spectacular

12:08reach out to Rob he’s got a solution

12:11that will blow your mind all right uh

12:14building a platform we want you to be a

12:18part of it we want you to be engaged and

12:20be part of the the ever expanded

12:22ecosystem of problem solvers you have a

12:26message to tell you have something of

12:29value to give to the marketplace and and

12:32don’t sell yourself short

12:35industrial talk is here for you and

12:37we’re here for you because we all need

12:40to succeed no matter what it is and that

12:43comes through education comes through

12:45collaboration as well as Innovation and

12:47figuring out how to deploy this

12:49technology all right people be brave

12:51dare greatly I say it all the time

12:53you could do that hang out with Rob and

12:56you’ll change the world thank you very

12:57much for joining we’re going to have

12:58another great conversation coming from

12:59