NARRATOR: This video is brought to you by Lenox, Always Hungry. Welcome to Tooling Up, a series by MSC Industrial Supply Company, the show that provides real world insights and is brought to you by leading industry experts aimed at improving the efficiency and productivity of your operation. And now the host of Tooling Up, Mitch Free.
MITCH FREE: Welcome to Tooling Up. I'm Mitch Free. If you're new here, be sure to subscribe and hit the like button. Our guest today is Michael Ford, Digital Insights Manager for Lenox. Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
MICHAEL FORD: Mitch, it's great to be here, long-time viewer of the show, first time guest. So looking forward to mixing it up with you.
MITCH FREE: Excellent. Excellent. Mike, you've had like what, an 18-year career with Lenox in a variety of roles. I'd love to hear a little bit about your career path at Lenox.
MICHAEL FORD: Yeah, it's been a unique one for me. I started off 18 years ago running a machine out in our manufacturing facility. I did that for a few years. With that experience, I took that into the quality control lab and did some some work there for a few years with that team. From there, our design engineering team, I moved over there and did some project management for them and then transitioned over to our distributor training team, which allowed me to really start to get in front of our customers and train them how to use, how to sell and how to use band saw blades out in the field.
We've worked with, with a lot of MSC representatives, networking specialists, outside sales managers in the past and we continue to, to this day.
MITCH FREE: What a great, what a great path. And we certainly give you that hands-on experience having started off in manufacturing. I've always thought of Lenox as being more of a solutions provider than a band saw blade provider, and I think that's probably something that, you know, you guys have purposely put out into the market because it's resonated with me.
But thinking about solutions. Let's dive into your 360 offering. I understand it puts real-time data to help track job performance and monitor operational efficiency. Tell us about the 360 offering.
MICHAEL FORD: Yeah, well, to your previous point about a solutions-based company. I mean, we have been that, we've always strived to be more than just a consumable tooling manufacturer right. Because let's face it, I mean, there's a there's no shortage of manufacturers out there that make band saw blades. But what we've prided ourselves on over the years is being able to provide more than just a blade right?
We have an entire team based around not only selling the blade, but putting the blade into proper use at our end-user accounts, because the majority of people that we deal with don't really know how to run a band saw blade and don't really know if they're being efficient or, or doing things the way that they should be doing.
So all of our sales activity is based around not only placing the right product, but also placing the right solutions in place with that product to make sure that that customer is, is successful. So we're Lenox 360 comes into that is it's the next step for our business, our sales process and our consultation process and our collaborative effort with an end user to really try to understand what that customer is doing and give us cold, hard data that will support any sort of efficiency or operational changes that we try to put into place with that customer.
MITCH FREE: Do I understand correctly that the 360 offering, it's collecting data from the saw itself?
MICHAEL FORD: Yes. So the 360 system is very unique in that it was designed specifically for band sawing. I think there's no shortage of companies that have sort of a utilization-based software model where we understand if the saw is turned on or turned off or if it's running, right? But what Lenox 360 is designed to do is go that much further.
And because we're able to pull specific band saw data off of the saw we're able to understand not only is the machine running or not running, right, because that's only just a small piece of the, of the puzzle. But in addition to that, is your machine running the right way? So we're able to capture things like band speed, feed rate, any sort of vibration that's coming from the saw and really start to understand what the customer is doing from an operational standpoint.
Yes, the saw is running, but is it running efficiently? And then we take that data and we benchmark it and say, here are your areas that we can help you improve in. So this is not only a great product for the end user, but for us to be again adding that different layer of that consultative approach with them to strengthen that bond and be more than just a consumable tools provider.
MITCH FREE: Now, is it band saw agnostic? Do you really care what brand of band saw you're integrating with?
MICHAEL FORD: Yeah, that's another really unique feature about this Mitch, is that it is band saw agnostic. So really all of our sensors are designed to be what we call noninvasive for installation. So we can take any band saw machine and take these sensors and put them all over it and it will work like any other band saw machine. And luckily for us all, band saw machines for the most part are all built the same way.
They all have the same components, they all have wheels, they all have guide arms, they all have vises. So our sensors are designed to be able to fit on any on any saw. Obviously the installation practices that take place are a little different for every saw. But band saw agnostic and it allows us to really approach the market with saying there's no saw that we can't work with for this product.
MITCH FREE: And then how do you guys support this product out in the field?
MICHAEL FORD: We have a very extensive field sales team at Lenox. We have a group of our team that are focused specifically on sales. But there's also another almost half of our field sales team that is focused on applications and saws and blades and running tests and solving problems. They're the guys that drive pickup trucks and have toolboxes in their beds and they're out there to really focus on solving problems.
And we've always had that team with our business, and we continue to, and they're going to be the ones that are working with us to help solve a lot of these problems that are identified with this data. But in addition to that team, we've also got a team within Lenox 360 that is not only focused on the installation of the product and getting the data to start to look right and to work with the customer to understand what the data means, but also to be that consultative partner throughout.
So this isn't something we install and just run away and say good luck. The power of this system is the data, but it's also our team that can help the customer work through it and understand what they need to do to make that data make an impact on their efficiency.
MITCH FREE: Michael, this has been a fantastic conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time and your domain expertise just shines through in spades.
MICHAEL FORD: Thanks, Mitch. It's been a pleasure to talk to you, too.
MITCH FREE: If you enjoyed our talk with Michael as much as I did, please subscribe to our channel where you'll find many more great interviews just like this one. To learn more about the 360 offering and other Lenox products, visit mscdirect.com/lenox. 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 MSC 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.
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