In this episode of The Maintainers, hosts David Lee and Jake Hall chat with Rafael Padilha Gama, AKA Rafa, the U.S. and Canada Maintenance and Reliability Director at Ingredion. Rafa shares his extensive background in the maintenance and reliability industry, including his roles at InBev and Unilever. He discusses his journey from electrical electronics in Brazil to handling global operations, bringing a wealth of insights into maintenance, reliability, and automation practices across diverse industries and geographies.
In this episode of The Maintainers, hosts David Lee and Jake Hall chat with Rafael Padilha Gama, AKA Rafa, the U.S. and Canada Maintenance and Reliability Director at Ingredion. Rafa shares his extensive background in the maintenance and reliability industry, including his roles at InBev and Unilever. He discusses his journey from electrical electronics in Brazil to handling global operations, bringing a wealth of insights into maintenance, reliability, and automation practices across diverse industries and geographies.
Rafa emphasizes the blend of technical expertise and leadership needed in effective maintenance roles. He believes the critical aspects include having the right people, robust processes, and utilizing appropriate tools. Rafa’s philosophy of focusing on what one can control and improving what they have autonomy over is central to his approach. He provides examples of how successful maintenance programs can enhance operational efficiencies, such as using asset criticality concepts to unlock bottlenecks and employing technology like sensors to improve predictive maintenance.
The discussion also touches on cultural challenges and communication strategies necessary for managing teams across different countries. Rafa finds value in ensuring that the message delivered is precisely the message received, especially while dealing with diverse cultures from Brazil to Colombia to the United States. His effective communication practices help ensure alignment and consistency across various teams and operations.
Finally, Rafa talks about the future of factories, highlighting the increasing role of technology and data in maintenance and reliability. He envisions a future where maintenance professionals become data scientists, utilizing AI and smart sensors to foresee and prevent failures. Rafa’s insights serve as useful guidelines for listeners who strive to drive change and adopt innovative technologies in their maintenance practices.
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Guest Bio
Rafael Padilha Gama boasts decades of experience in the maintenance and reliability industry. He currently serves as the U.S. and Canada Maintenance and Reliability Director at Ingredion, a global manufacturer of ingredients and solutions. Rafael has a rich background in electrical electronics and automation, with an impressive career including notable stints at InBev and Unilever, where he honed his expertise in automation, maintenance, and reliability. Rafael is passionate about optimizing maintenance processes and leveraging technology to enhance industrial efficiency. His philosophy centers on continuous improvement, leadership, and leveraging technology to enhance maintenance and reliability processes.
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Guest Quote
“Every time I had a problem, I said, 'What am I going to do to not have this problem again?'
I hate having the same problems twice or more. So the first [solution] is reliability. Maintenance & reliability is not only technical, it's a lot of leadership. You need to have the right people in the right place” – Rafael Padilha Gama
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Time Stamps
00:00 Episode Start
02:30 Opening Icebreaker
03:20 Rafael's Background
04:25 Segment 01: The Maintainer Mashup
04:40 What is Ingredion?
07:05 How Rafael and his team ensure all 40 facilities operate on the same standards
09:30 Setting a high bar for yourself
12:15 Proving the power of maintenance and reliability
15:50 Segment 02: What's in Your Toolkit?
16:25 What sets Rafael apart
20:05 The importance of good communication
23:30 Tips for implementing new initiatives and earning buy-in
27:20 Segment 03: The Future of Factories
28:20 Why Ingredion leverages Tractian
33:50 The evolution of maintenance routes
38:00 Empowering workers with technology
40:30 Segment 04: Fix It Funnies
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Links
Voiceover: [00:00:00] Maintenance required. Listen, I maintain, maintain the muscle, maintain course, maintain speed. I got to maintain respect.
David Lee: This is the maintainers, a blue cap community podcast. My name is David Lee, director at Tractian and your host for today's show.
Jacob Hall: And I'm Jake Hall the manufacturing millennial and advocate for manufacturing and getting our future generation excited about our industry through telling stories. Now on today's episode, we have a special guest, one that comes from decades of experience in the maintenance and reliability industry.
Jacob Hall: We're joined today by Rafael Gama, AKA Hafa or Rafa as we're going to call him throughout the podcast, but he is the U S and Canada maintenance and reliability director at Ingredion.. They're a global manufacturer of ingredients and solutions that you probably use in your products every single day. [00:01:00] Now, Rafael comes from an amazing career, uh, working in automation from the electrical part.
Jacob Hall: He worked as part of the AB InBev team, uh, rising the ranks there. He also spent some time at Unilever as well. So he has a lot of amazing stories and really tidbits to share with us today around maintenance, reliability and automation. But before we get kicked into that. A word from our sponsor.
Voiceover: This podcast is brought to you by Tractian.
Voiceover: Tractian offers streamlined hardware and software solutions designed to make maintenance more reliable and profitable. Their AI powered condition monitoring and asset management solution predicts machine failures and eliminates unplanned downtime, generating an average of 38 percent more productivity for clients worldwide.
Voiceover: It's artificial intelligence. Well,
Jacob Hall: Rafa, thanks for joining us today to kick things off. How are you doing so far this year?
Rafael Padilha Gama: [00:02:00] Hello, everyone. I'm, I'm doing great. Uh, it was a great year. A lot of things, good things has happened, uh, during the year and I'm very grateful. So another, another great, great, uh, grateful year, uh, in my life.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So thanks for the invite and very, very happy to be here, joining you to this conversation.
Jacob Hall: Yeah, it's, it's great for you to be here. It sounds like you've had a busy year, but when you're not busy with work, when you're not running around putting out fires and managing maintenance programs and your teams, what do you like to do?
Jacob Hall: What's, what's your getaway when you need some R& R?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Well, I, I enjoy sports in general. So I train some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I love training boxing. So I train boxing. Of course, enjoy my kids. I have two little monkeys, 11 and five years old, a beautiful wife. So, uh, my passion as a good Brazilian is barbecuing and steaks and, you know, do all the [00:03:00] things we, we know how to do in the grill and enjoy the family and drink a wine, a beer, nothing very, very special.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So this is the beer of life.
Jacob Hall: Barbecue and steaks. That sounds, that sounds pretty good to me.
David Lee: Yes. That's right. Awesome. So Huffa, tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started in the industry.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I graduated in Electrical and Electronics. I'm a Bachelor in Electrical and Electronics. And, uh, by the time, uh, the economy in Brazil was not good at all.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I'm from Brazil. And having worked in the industry, it was a dream of every engineer that was leaving the university. So I had this opportunity to start an ADI group as automation, electrical instrumentation supervisor, which was crazy by the time, huge plans, uh, a lot of challenge, several different, uh, technologies.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And I [00:04:00] start, uh, the pathway side bentness. And grew all my career, uh, work with maintenance and, and reliability operations.
David Lee: Okay. So now that we know a little bit about you, Rafael, uh, it's time for our first segment, the maintainers mashup. We will deep dive into equipment. Management teams and things like that to find out exactly how we can make maintenance more reliable.
Voiceover: Maintenance required. Listen, I maintain. I maintain myself. Maintain course. Maintain speed. I gotta maintain respect.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Region is a mid sized company in the market, uh, 8 billion revenue. Uh. About 40, 40 plants across the globe, more than 10, 000 employees, and it's been the market, I think, is the 12th or 13th oldest company in [00:05:00] the American stock market.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So it's been in the market for more than 150 years. Uh, and, uh, we, we are known by. Be a business to business company to provide solutions, ingredient solutions for all the industry. And we, we want to be known, uh, to make better tastes and healthier ingredients, uh, and tasting always better. So we, we want to, to work in this pathway.
Jacob Hall: So when we look at the different types of products that you guys are manufacturing that you're making, can you dive into what would, what would people recognize in terms of products that you guys could be making that we can become familiar with?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yeah, for sure. Everything you eat probably has some, uh, products we make like modified stores, sweeteners, stevia.
Rafael Padilha Gama: pea proteins. We have [00:06:00] starch to bleach paper. So pope pope and and paper industry, the medicines, the pharmaceutical starch you have in the medicines, the extras, uh, glucose, fructose. So it's a very good portfolio of solution for all the industries out there.
Jacob Hall: You know, and so immediately when I think of food and bed, it's a difficult one, right?
Jacob Hall: Because there's a lot of standards, there's a lot of processes, there's a lot of regulation that comes to, you know, making sure that we're making products that are safe for us to consume and us to use. And you know, there's probably a lot of other than producers and food manufacturers that rely on your product to have consistency because those storages are being used.
Jacob Hall: Pretty much every other product that can be made, you know, that we're making out there. So when we're looking at the maintenance process, right, there is, you said 40 different, 40 different facilities globally. Yeah, about that. Yes. So we look at the 40 different facilities. I know when I was working with companies that [00:07:00] had two or three.
Jacob Hall: It was tough to, to make standards across the board, especially when different countries have different regulations and rules that you have to follow. So how do you, when you're working and you're managing and helping with the U S and the Canada, um, when it comes to maintenance, when it comes to reliability, how are you, you know, establishing, I guess you could say, a process of standards that the different teams, the different facilities follow.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yeah. So it's a good point, especially because we, we, we grew a lot to over acquisitions, mergers and acquisitions. So we had different plants and I'm talk, uh, we have some peeper team, uh, plants and the same time we have, uh, wet meeting corn, wet meeting plants. Right. And we need to. We need to define standards and the standards is, is basically define the process we need to follow in terms of maintenance [00:08:00] reliability.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Uh, so we are managing assets, uh, through a process, right? So we have to work and have the best asset manager, uh, to have the best maintenance practice, to have the best, uh, planning and scheduling practice. And you can apply that to any type of industry. You can apply even to a bakery or to a nuclear facility.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So the tools inside maintenance and reliability, when you understand that, you can apply to any type of industry. So what I envision and what I want to build for this region. It's a standardized process that will drive reliability, optimizing costs.
David Lee: Right, and so basically these principles are imprintable across different types of industries with respect to manufacturing.
David Lee: So when you joined the organization initially, you started out in South America. Yes. And ultimately you [00:09:00] were running the reliability operation for South America. Yes. Now, ultimately. You came to North America and you now are, uh, running everything in the United States and in Canada. Yeah. In this process, right, that's climbing that ladder.
David Lee: There's going to be a lot of learning and a lot of self development from your maintenance, from your management skills to your technical skills, uh, really being able to influence different people, whether it be being a change agent to get new projects launched that impact the organization, uh, but it starts with you.
David Lee: So can you tell us about how you levels yourself up your skill sets so you can perform at that next highest level and what it was like getting promoted up through the ranks?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yeah, so just. I didn't cover this part in my introduction, but I joined Ingredion as a Reliability Manager for South America.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And, uh, passing the time, I was, uh, I was promoted to CI, [00:10:00] Continuous Improvement and Reliability Director for South America. Then I had another movement. I moved countries to Colombia, this time leading operations for, uh, Colombia in Peru. And then I was invited to move here to Today you ask back in reliability, right?
Rafael Padilha Gama: So the, the beauty of the things that the management process and the managed mindset that they have is applicable to all the three areas that I just shared with you, right? And, and I truly believe that everybody must have a purpose and professionally. Uh, I'm fighting against myself. I want to be better, a little better tomorrow than what I am today.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So that, that constant need for improvement, uh, I think is one, one, one thing that led me to get promoted. And also, I think there's, there's one part, [00:11:00] I don't feel uncomfortable in navigating unknown waters. So let's, let's. Design the future. Let's set a target for something that you never done before. And let's believe and let's, let's move this path because if you don't reach it.
Rafael Padilha Gama: You will at least reach a better position that you are right now. So I think this is the mindset that you have that drives me to this pathway and leaves me globetrotting of living 12 cities, I believe. So
Jacob Hall: I think, I think that that same mentality is what makes, you know, manufact, for maintenance programs and reliability programs so successful.
Jacob Hall: It's one of those things where, you know, we're always striving to look for what can I improve next? How can I reduce downtime a little bit more? How can I make. The training program on this machine a little bit easier to use. So the next generation can do that. You know, can you give us an [00:12:00] example over gosh, the, the, the, the many years that you've been there on a process that started off that you identified as a.
Jacob Hall: within your company, right? It was a problem within your company. It was either a machine, it was a process. It was, um, a, a group challenge. Can you talk, like, can you identify, and you don't have to get into direct specifics, but share as much as you can about a problem that you guys were facing. And then the process that you guys came to overcoming that we're now all of a sudden, you guys have great productivity on this certain section or area.
Jacob Hall: Yeah,
Rafael Padilha Gama: yeah, for sure. And I'm going to mention one in operations because I think sometimes the maintenance reliability guys, they don't realize how powerful is maintenance and reliability and how they could be jumping to the operations area to manage operations. And I was leading one plant in Colombia, the most oversold plant in [00:13:00] this organization, right?
Rafael Padilha Gama: This plant was operating with 85 percent OE, very good, high levels of performance. But. It wasn't enough. I was losing sales and using asset criticality concept, I was able to unlock some bottlenecks, reducing criticality and quickly identifying bottlenecks and gain capacity, uh, using asset criticality concept.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So one good example I had, I was leaving Cali. So the translation for Cali is hot. So the name of the city is Caliente, so it's hot, and I had a cold jam, and during 10 a. m. to 4 a. m. I had to plug and migrate my cold jam because it was too hot, I was losing efficiency, and I was plugging the grid and the [00:14:00] grid was not reliable.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So I had about 15 to 20 shutdowns from the grid, meaning electricity, and I was losing all my money, right? And one thing that when we start to use the asset criticality, how to decrease the criticality of the asset, because I need to run my cogeneration to be cost competitive. So what can we do to reduce criticality?
Rafael Padilha Gama: And then we say, hey, this is cotton, why not have the solar panels? And then we brought, I proved the prover, a project with solar panels, and guess what? The solar panels produce more, maybe to 10 to 4 p. m. It was the moment I was able to not be proved and work in Ireland just with my co gen. 16 to 20 events per year that I saved that cost me about six, six hours of production that was per event.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So it was my reliability background that brought this with my team and we [00:15:00] discussing and doing the questions and what should we do. And there are several other examples that use it just this simple asset criticality tool. It was able to increase reliability. Yeah. And what
Jacob Hall: a great ROI on as well, if you were able to go out, because even as well, those things where it's a bonus, right?
Jacob Hall: When you're not even, you're saving the company beyond just that initial downtime that was justified, the payback was
Rafael Padilha Gama: like three months.
Jacob Hall: Yeah. Yeah. That's an amazing ROI.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Two shutdowns, two shutdowns. I paid by my project.
Jacob Hall: Yeah, absolutely.
David Lee: Awesome. And so. We've heard about how Ingridian operates. So, let's talk a little bit more about how you specifically excel in our second segment.
David Lee: What's in your toolkit?
Voiceover: We're gonna fix it. Get the tool. Pick the one right tool. [00:16:00] The right tool for the right job.
David Lee: So, continuing the discussion around your journey, getting to where you are today, I want to ask Do you have, or what learnings have you taken starting in Brazil, going through Columbia, coming to the United States and managing United States and Canada, what type of learnings did you bring from day one that you learned out on the factory floor when you first began the fundamentals?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yeah, so it's a good point. And, and again, I think several minutes of maintenance and reliability guys, they are just thinking that is the technical thing of the things, right? So it's the technical. I'm I'm the guy repairing, I'm the firefighter, and I was a little different, so I used to work like 50 miles from my plant, and it's 24 7.
Rafael Padilha Gama: [00:17:00] Usually Friday at 5 p. m., the scary problems used to happen, I had to overnight in my plant. And long commute to back home, lose all my weekend, and I hate that. So since the beginning, every time I had a problem, I said, What am I going to do to not having this problem again? I don't have problem in having problems.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I hate having the same problems twice or more. So the first thing is, Reliability, maintenance reliability is not only technical. It's a lot of leadership. It's a lot of management and it's a lot of technical, but the technical part is in the third level, in my opinion, I always use the leadership and the leadership is having the right people in the right place.
Rafael Padilha Gama: You need to have the right people in the right place, having the right management routines, the management tools, maintenance [00:18:00] guides used don't, don't, uh, they don't like management routines. Nobody sits to review KPIs and discuss and what's the RCA. And you go and you do a 5G and why, why, what they, they don't want, they want to fix and move to the next problem because they have 20 more problems, uh, exploding their lab.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So, I was fortunate to start in the brewery with a robust maintenance reliability process. There's a click in my life when I did a benchmark, uh, in 2011 here in St. Louis. Uh, in an house and bash, it was in Columbus and St. Louis looking, uh, doing a PM benchmark and understand a little more how, how maintenance reliability was done here.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Uh, maybe I, by the time, uh, work with TPM was, was very good in trying to understand what TPM is. And when I moved to Unilever, I was leading, uh, engineering, uh, capital engineering, [00:19:00] I was leading maintenance reliability. And I was, uh, the world class manufacturing, which is a methodology that comes from TPM.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And I had to look at the whole program. So I had to have this holistic view of all the pillars, people pillar, uh, focus improvement pillar, custom service pillar, autonomous maintenance pillar, PM pillar. And that brought a lot to my background. And that allowed me to work with the team in Ingredion and create.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Uh, the ingredient performance system, uh, the reliability pillar. We have a reliability pillar that has influence on, uh, all of those documents. Plus what we have, the reliability society and, and define, uh, the process that we have to have in your areas. And, and that's what bring to my, to my bucket, all this history.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So,
David Lee: right now that, that, that's awesome. And one thing you mentioned. It's not just technical, but it's also about soft skills as [00:20:00] well, which brings me up to this next question. You worked in Brazil, then Columbia, then the United States. There's going to be cultural differences in friction, for example, going from Brazil to Columbia.
David Lee: Communication. Communication.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yes. I, I come from, um. I come from a region in Brazil that we call is the hot blood, so that the temperature is very hot and we, we are very straightforward the way we speak, uh, and we speak loud and with very transparency and there are several episodes, even in Brazil, all the cities, so sometimes I talk to my wife and she said, why are you fighting me?
Rafael Padilha Gama: I say, I'm not fighting you because she's from the region that I'm from. It's kinder and, you know, speaks in different ways. So always communication is, is the great challenge, even when you are in your city. So communication is a [00:21:00] duplex way of broadcasting information. And I constantly have to ensure that the message I'm passing through.
Rafael Padilha Gama: It's the message they are receiving,
Voiceover: uh,
Rafael Padilha Gama: especially when I moved countries was in Colombia, sometime I had to ask, did you understand? So please tell me what you understood from me and it was totally different what, what I was aiming. And it's part of the learning the same year that you asked. And if you look at U.
Rafael Padilha Gama: S. and Canada, there's a difference in the U. S. and Canada, the way to communicate in the Midwest with the West Coast, and for me, that makes it harder, but more exciting, because I'm forcing myself a lot to improve my communication skills, and try to be more accurate. And get the buy in and, uh, and find [00:22:00] the change agents to help me drive this change
Jacob Hall: in this organization.
Jacob Hall: I, I think your, your takeaway there is, you know, When you explain something your way, you're, you want to make sure that the way they interpret it. And I can just think back to so many projects, so many conversations that I had with team members and with customers where we thought we were on the same page and we could not have been farther from that.
Jacob Hall: And I think that's a great, just cultural practices, you know, Hey, explain, like, you know, reiterate what I said. So we know we're on the same page. We're on the same understanding. What a, what a great tidbit to make sure that's a practice that we continuously do.
David Lee: Yeah, it's, uh, it's interesting, right? So it's that's something that a lot of people are shy to do to push for that feedback, essentially, right?
David Lee: Um, and to close that feedback loop, which is absolutely critical. But one of the other things that you obviously are very skilled at is organizing these new initiatives on behalf of maintenance and [00:23:00] on behalf of the company. That's always a challenge. And I know there's a lot of listeners who are champions at home, people driving change at these organizations, and they would love to hear.
David Lee: Do you have any tips on how to get people involved, how to get them influenced in a way that they can see what you're working towards and see that that goal is worthwhile. Of course, it starts with communication. You can't validate that you're on the same page that it falls dead, but then you seem to have some advanced skills on really getting that buy in from people.
David Lee: Can you tell us a little bit about your strategy doing that?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yes, yes, yes, for sure. So, well, when you look inside the industry, I never worked in an industry that everybody was. With a soft work. It's always hard work, right? So you everybody's always overwhelmed delayed. There's a lot of things going on. And when you come with a different approach, it's the natural reaction is more work to do.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I can't I can bear [00:24:00] more work to do. Right? So I think if you're not communicating that The program is coming to help you and, and how is going to help you, but probably you will face some resistance, right? And the other, the other thing is I've been living in several plants where the maintenance reliability, they even don't know where is their problem.
Rafael Padilha Gama: They used to blame everybody for their problems. And my biggest tip in this call, if I can. Uh, share the tip is focus on what you have autonomy. Stop complaining about the others. Stop complaining about engineers. Stop complaining about operations. Focus on what you have autonomy and maintenance reliability.
Rafael Padilha Gama: You have autonomy. It have your [00:25:00] assets, your asset manager, build the maintenance plans for your most important piece of equipment and have a robust plan and scheduling. Uh, in those most important piece of equipment, bring technology. To help you identify failures, right? And be accurate in what's important for your operation.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So this is a good learning when you're trying to change across the organization and in every single plant I've stepped into, they start blaming operations. They start blaming the engineer. No engineer execute bad projects. They don't deliver the technical manuals. operation. They don't know how to operate.
Rafael Padilha Gama: They spend all the time in the control room, look at the cell phone, but it's okay. Why? Why do you still have so many pumps jumping a lot and you are not lubricating and [00:26:00] you don't have identifying your single points of failure. You don't know the assets that are stopping your plant or a whole process.
Rafael Padilha Gama: You don't have your right maintenance plans, your right PDN strategy for the last. So this is what you have. This is what you do. You have your, your, your hand, why you're afraid to change some leaders that are not leaders and are not able to execute their job. So focus on what you have autonomy. That's, that's been said more than 2000 years ago by this, uh, by this stoicism.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So I'm, I love this thing and that's how I handle my, my life.
David Lee: Yeah. It's kind of like, um, I've heard the phrase. It's take extreme ownership of your situation. And it's like, that's basically what you communicate. And I think that comes from the Navy SEALs or something of that nature.
Jacob Hall: I got, I got, I literally have the book.
Jacob Hall: It's, um, by Jaco Jaco. That's okay. Yeah. From the, yeah, his book's called extreme ownership.
Rafael Padilha Gama: [00:27:00] And this, this is inside Ingredion values, owner mindset. So that's, that's what you have to do. Think control of what you have control and stop, stop complaining.
Jacob Hall: Own it. Don't assume it. I love that. I think that's a great, you know, transition into our, our third segment, which is the future of factories.
Voiceover: Meet the future. To our futures. What future? The factory. My factory. Everybody's factory. I love your factory. My factory.
Jacob Hall: You know, this third segment really dives into trends that we're seeing in the industry. And what we look forward ahead. So when we talk about different technologies or innovations that we're seeing on the floor, um, you know, where do you see changes happening that can help companies move forward?
Jacob Hall: And, and, you know, uh, we, we talked about, you started using, I think, even Tractian sensors going back into 2019 as one of those [00:28:00] solutions, a lot, a lot of times really before even the whole. maintenance, reliability, and really enabling the worker came about when a lot of these companies experienced a worker shortage coming out of the pandemic.
Jacob Hall: You were preparing for that and were ready for that before that even happened in 2020. Can you talk more about that?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yes, yeah. So, it's interesting this question because when I, uh, I met Traptan Solutions, so I had, by the time we went plant in the south of Brazil, And it's a very solid, very reliable plant with a very good culture, very good employees.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And they were very disciplined with the reliability program. And I start to talk about the factory of the future. So I said, Hey, we need to, we need to do something different. The way we're doing madness. It can be, it can be easier. It can be more agile. Uh, by the time I brought some vendors, and [00:29:00] WAG was one of these vendors, and, and, and they, they present me, so, hey, we, we are evaluating those type of sensors, and there's, there are, there were some competitors, some Traktion competitors by the time to, and then we decide to move with, with Traktion, and one of the competitors to, to compare solutions and start learning with the solutions.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Uh, for the PDM, as I, as I mentioned, my background is TPM and world class manufacturing and, and for a cultural perspective, you first, you need to create your time based maintenance. So your PMs, uh, based on FMEs, you need to start to execute the PMs and then you convert some PMs to PDMs. So basically the methodology says about it, and I had these.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And, and we had some plans. We were executed plans. And I said, so this is the moment to start [00:30:00] switching, uh, to, uh, smart sensors and bring technology, uh, why not have a 5g network inside the plants? Because more and more, more and more, the machines will come with everything. You're, you're gonna buy a new machine.
Rafael Padilha Gama: This new machine is gonna, is gonna come with all the maintenance plans integrated through cloud to your SAP with all the sensors communicating. If they change anything, your PMs, your SAP will change automatically. That, that's the future. And the future is interesting because we, we, we are passing through another industrial revolution.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Everybody thinks we're going to lose the job. That's the opposite. You know, uh, we didn't have Apple. We didn't have Google. We didn't have a lot of companies, technology companies that have how many employees we have in those companies. A lot. So. It's the same in the industry. We, we are moving to, to a pathway with call booths, uh, with, uh, smart sensors, [00:31:00] technology, prescription, and more and more, the reliability role will become a data scientist role.
Rafael Padilha Gama: You have to be able to look at your data from your historial, for your sensors, temperatures, the flows, the densities, the current, and generate a prescription model. So not only. Look at the assets, but look at your process. How can you prevent your process from damaging the assets? How can you predict that the process will create a failure mode to your assets?
Rafael Padilha Gama: And that's the beauty. So the, the, the role for reliability is turning into that. And, and more and more, we need to be prepared, uh, working with the IT to democratize the data. And, and the biggest challenge, use the relevant data because you have, you will have tons of data and the most difficult part is [00:32:00] what's the good data and what's the data that I need to put it away.
Rafael Padilha Gama: So that's, that's how I envision and technology is here. Tear it off, be afraid and complain. Let's understand and use it to help us because that's all my role. My role is eliminate my role. I need to create a management process. To solve all the problems and eliminate my role, and that's the way I'll be able to take another responsibility to learn new things and redesign my role, right?
Rafael Padilha Gama: So, yeah, that's what I have in mind.
David Lee: That brings up a lot of, a lot of really good points, because when you brought up AI, you brought up data science, uh, all these things scare people, uh, to a large degree, and it's important to reiterate, if you look at history, every time technology solves an issue, It uncovers another one, right?
David Lee: So your role may change, but that doesn't mean you won't. There won't be a place for you with [00:33:00] your expertise. And so that brings me to my next question for the people who know they can see this technology come in. They can see the world is changing and they know that they have to do something, but they don't know what, what advice would you give to someone?
David Lee: Who wants to stay competitive in the job market, but also wants to focus on the things that are actually impactful for the companies that they're going to work for and for the future of the industry.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Yes, it's a good question. And I'll answer a question with a recent example for one of my plans. And we were with with a vendor talking about the routes, right?
Rafael Padilha Gama: And I have in mind, the routes should be like, The sniper from the army, so you just call the sniper and the sniper is coming to find something right to shoot it. It doesn't come to [00:34:00] chitchat, it comes to shoot it. The same way is, uh, the routes. When you have your team on the shop floor doing a route, I expect they to find something.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I expect them to find a failure mode in the very beginning stage, right? If you're doing routes and you are not finding anything, you are walking the walk, you are spending money and resource. So, in a recent discussion, one of my plants, 80 percent of my routes were not finding anything. The guys were doing the routes, a lot of routes, it was not fault favorable, so it was not efficient, right?
Rafael Padilha Gama: Now the technology can help you, instead of doing the routes, because If you don't have a robust FMEA [00:35:00] to define the frequency of your routes and the failure modes, that's what's going to happen. You're going to do the routes based on embedded knowledge, white hairs, and, you know, and you, you do three, four, ten times, you won't find anything.
Rafael Padilha Gama: If you don't have the reliability engineering, uh, looking at this aim, we execute the entire, we identify anyone, change the frequency, and that's the, the soft saving of the thing. You start soft and save your, your maintenance plans. You're going to be executing there for decades, not finding the things.
Rafael Padilha Gama: And you won't solve the problem, you won't be more reliable. So the technology now is more accurate. You can have your vibration sensors, you can have several other technologies that will point the failure modes. And now you start doing the routes to check what the sensor is telling you. It's a different approach, and by the time you are fine and you are [00:36:00] confirming what the sensor is telling you, the AI is learning from that aspect and will be more accurate, uh, in the future readings, and more and more, you will reduce the need of doing the rounds, you'll be more accurate in the future readings.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Executing the routes and find the failure modes and you'll be more accurate in your planning and scheduling to solve what the sensors are bringing to you as a problem. And that's how, uh, uh, the technology can help you. And those guys who are spending, wasting, to be more accurate in the wording, wasting time in those routes, now those guys can be doing RCA's to, to reduce breakdowns.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Or doing RCA's to reduce, uh, fader mode occurrences. Bringing new technologies, uh, trying to [00:37:00] convert some routines, some manual routines, into automatic routines. It will open a window of time for those guys to improve your process. And to improve your execution.
Jacob Hall: To follow up with that, you talk about technology.
Jacob Hall: I want to talk about culture for a second. And that's probably something that you've just learned so much about. And more importantly, future workforce, right? When you're going to all these different areas, all the different countries that you've been a part of, when you're going into a facility and establishing something new, I'm sure there's always been the old way of doing things.
Jacob Hall: And then approaching it to, here's the way it's been, here's the way we need it to be in the future. How do you, you know, establish a, a culture, a mentality of, you know, getting future workers when you have a younger generation that's stepping in who's never been a part of these processes, who's never seen this type of, of work before.
Jacob Hall: How do you get them excited to say, you know, I'm, I want [00:38:00] to see this self improvement and this improvement come within a company?
Rafael Padilha Gama: I think. If this is coming to help everybody's life, you will have the buying from all the ages. And, and one example, it was very grateful to me when I was working at Shield and Lever, we did the POC and then we implemented the mobile, right, the execution.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Everybody hated the work orders. So hundreds of papers, work orders. In the day, they have to write, they have to sign, the scheduler had to pick it up, or the lead had to pick it up, and to check, and when I did this POC, I took a guy, he, he was working by the time for 38 years at TVA, right, and for all the age, and we did this POC, and everybody uses cell phone, everybody likes to use technology when the technology is helping their life, and it was [00:39:00] very grateful to understand that, The technology, the guys, all the age, they were using and they saw value and they were excited and asked me, Hey, when are you going to bring this to us?
Rafael Padilha Gama: I don't want to take anything in paper anymore. I don't want to blowgun. I hate blowgun. I always forget my password. I have to turn on the computer. Then we'll go on SMP. It's I double 21. I was confused with I double 21. Uh, and when we start, uh, uh, uh, with the mobile is like a click and he could take photo, he could put audio and say, I need this, this, this, and that.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I need you to, to, uh, manufacture this type of thing. And the planner was receiving, the gatekeeper was receiving the notification. With forums, with audios and facilitating the planning process, the planning process more accurate. This is one example how technology can help any age [00:40:00] and, and if you, if you know how to use it and if you know how to show the benefits in everybody's daily routine, I think, I think that the buyer will always come.
David Lee: Yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, definitely, uh. Good, good, good information and a lot of golden nuggets to take home for all the listeners and viewers. So before we say goodbye to Raphael, to Huffa, let's jump into our final segment, Fix It Funnies.
Voiceover: Fix it in. It's making a really funny noise. Alright, fix it. Make it funny would be great, if you could make it funny.
Voiceover: Your fate is fixed. That's what makes it funny. Make sure it's
David Lee: funny. So, Huffa. I love that name, by the way. Uh, that nickname. Thank you. Do you have any work hacks that you use from day to day, like insoles, or whether it be a cliff bar, Snickers bars, specific candy, or, uh, any sort of, uh, thing that [00:41:00] helps you get through the day, like your creature comforts?
Rafael Padilha Gama: I think the steaks I have in my fridge,
Rafael Padilha Gama: my, my wine bottles. And, but I think, I think the biggest hacks focus what I have. That's my biggest work hack. I, I'm not saying that I don't complain. I don't say that sometimes I'm, I'm, you know, saying bad words to other areas, but there's a moment that I have to. Talk, breath, and say, Hey, okay, let's go. I have autonomy to do that.
Rafael Padilha Gama: I have autonomy to influence that. I have autonomy to change that.
Voiceover: Yeah,
Rafael Padilha Gama: right. Focus on I have autonomy. And that's the biggest and best work hack I, I can share with you.
Jacob Hall: Awesome. So if you were to completely step outside the industry, you know, the, the decades of experience you have around maintenance reliability, and you were just to pick something completely different.
Jacob Hall: What, uh, what [00:42:00] would you wanna do? What industry would you wanna go into?
Rafael Padilha Gama: I think I would be a, uh, medical doctor. Surgery. Okay. Man. SI love it. Surgery? Yes. I fixed machine. I think it's the same principle to fix bodies. Mm-hmm . Uh, and, and I think, I think that's, I think that's one of, one of the things I, I would like, uh, if I would change my, my current role, maybe medicine to, to be a doctor.
Rafael Padilha Gama: Nice.
David Lee: Awesome. And thanks again for coming to the show. Hoffa, it has been great to have you. This has been The Maintainers, a Bluecap Community Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your content and podcasts, as we are on most major platforms. And you will be notified immediately when we drop another episode.
David Lee: Thank you.
Voiceover: This podcast is brought to you by Tractian. Tractian offers streamlined hardware and software solutions designed to make maintenance more reliable and profitable. Their AI powered condition monitoring and [00:43:00] asset management solution predicts machine failures and unplanned downtime, allowing clients to save an average of 10 million every trimester.
Voiceover: It's artificial intelligence quarterbacking your maintenance.