EECO At 100 And Customer Delight

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Number one, factory. Welcome to Ask Watch. I'm your host, Chris Cranker. I look forward to spending some time with you today. And we have something very exciting for this episode that we cannot wait for you to hear. Again, we're celebrating 100 years of electrical equipment company. That's right. You heard me right. 100 years. Incredible. And we've been working working through over the next few months some items that are part of EECO's company culture. And last month we talked about Chi Results, that we are responsible for the company's results and for aligning our activities to achieve those results. Now, the second company culture we have, we call delight customers. I understand we can anticipate our customers' needs and drive innovation for their benefit. So we could have went a couple ways to unpack this, but we thought, you know what? What better way to explain and demonstrate delighting customers than hearing from a customer directly? So I'm very excited for this one because we we brought in Bruce Barton, who works at Trinity Manufacturing, and he's going to give a little bit of a testimony of what it's been like to work with Eco through some pretty big modernization projects over the last couple years, and how he views our relationship really as a partnership. And as we're coming together, we're serving together, we're working together. It's not just another vendor and a

Meet Trinity Manufacturing And Bruce

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Rolodex. No. And if you guys don't know what a Rolodex is, go back. Ask somebody from the 90s, they'll show you what a Rolodex is. And but we had a really great conversation. We thought it was too good just to sit back and hold. So we just want to let you hear directly from Bruce himself. So sit back and just enjoy this one as we hear more directly, direct insight from my friend, Mr. Bruce Burton. Now I don't know a lot about uh Trinity, to be honest. So where are you guys located?

SPEAKER_01 2:36

We're in Hanglet, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So, and what is Trinity? What do you guys manufacture?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Uh we're a chemical manufacturing company. We we make several different products for the uh industrial and agricultural uh bleach and or pickering things of that nature, but uh primarily for agricultural and uh we'll go out, we'll go out into the bleach industry as well. We'll go out.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Okay. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to to chat with me. I mean, what we're trying to do ultimately in Eco is you know, we got a hundred-year anniversary this year, and and we're just trying to learn from some of the wonderful partners like like yourself, you know, how we've maybe had the whole journey of working with Eco, how to get started, what what what have you, how we've been able to be a partner with you, you know, what you're trying to accomplish. And so just anything you want to share there, I'd love to learn.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, basically, you know, I came in, this will be my third year this this year here at Trinity, and uh I've got years of experience with Eco and and Eaton as well, and just teaming up with them uh with the two, you know, Eco using, you know, the rep Eaton, and um have a pretty long-standing relationship in different states with Eco, uh in Arkansas and uh Texas as well as North Carolina. But uh coming in here, Eco has played a vital role in being able to help her plan be more successful, uh more reliable. Uh part of that is due to the sport that they they bring uh through Eaton as well as on-site technical expertise. Uh ECO's been able to have technicians come in to help us if we had issues with any of the VFDs, whether it be Eaton or ABB that they ripped, um whatever vendor that may be, they have someone on site that can come in and give us a hand if we need it, and um or if we have to get an order turned around overnight, you know, they usually work with us whatever hours of the day,

Modernization Support And Fast Turnaround

SPEAKER_01 5:05

no issues. Uh my sales rep is Matt Brandon, and he's he's exceptional. Uh with the one of the larger projects we have going on, uh pretty substantial size project, and we're a motor control center, and I've worked with Matt Brandon, uh multiple teams, multiple on their team, Rick Simpson, uh Will go Arnold. Uh I never can remember his last name, but yeah. Um Mike Rathburn, they've all been vital to us being able to be successful at this. I mean, we we purchased a couple of transformers, one for our new project and one as a spare that will act as uh a backup for one of our other transformers on the plant. So there's you know a good bit of engineering that went into being able to make it a transformer that would support two different motor control centers. So in doing so, we had to consider retrofitting from the new to the old, and then um to be able to have a spare for for either. And that's that's where Eaton and Eco is really work together to help collaborate and make that happen. And then as well, I mean I have Eco. One of the main success criteria that you would need to be able to keep the plant up and running is have the parts that you need on hand. So I've reached out to Matt since I've been here, and uh we've worked together as a team to to start a virtual uh inventory management. And uh they have uh someone that comes in bi-weekly, they do an inventory on what we have. We created barcodes, scan things in, and uh we quickly turn around and have those parts reordered when we begin to run out and adjust our inventory to be able to keep the plant up when it needs to stay up. That's if you don't have the parts on hand, you the production is everything. Uh reliability engineered, electrical reliability engineered, it's my responsibility to make sure the plant runs. In doing so, I try to keep the best parts on hand that I can do that with. Uh from my experience, I've I've dealt with multiple manufacturers in the past, the bigger names, and the Ethan is as good as they come. I mean, their motor control centers are very well built, uh better terminal striping them than the other leading brands, and um from my experience, more reliable in the communication department when it comes to being able to keep a system up without glitchy errors. Um we're putting in Smart Motor Control Center where we we use your C451s and the 455s to be able to uh uh

Engineering The MCC And Transformer Plan

SPEAKER_01 8:25

basically use Ethernet IP or Modbus RTU, Modbus uh IP. Um basically the same thing as Ethernet IP, but um everything will be Smart Motor Control Center. We'll be able to have all the defaults and air goods, the amperage that uh the leading brands have on the market. And I've installed and used the better of all of those, and I have to say that I was very impressed with what Eden had to offer compared to the direction that other manufacturers are going in. Uh right. And the primary factor there is I mean they they they have not cut cost in the areas where reliability would be uh I mean I think it's a more reliable product and uh because I've used it, used everything in the past, and it's it's pretty reliable.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah. Well, as you you kind of you have this new technology now, and it's smart MCCs, you have all this data that previously wasn't accessible. How are you guys what's the migration plan or path rather for utilizing that data for quicker decision making in the moment? Like how what's what does that look like for you guys right now? You maybe already be doing it. I'm just very interested to hear what this what that may look like in the future.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

What a lot of people don't really understand about some of the newer newer motor control centers and things that are that are coming out and being utilized. Um let's let's use for an example uh a pump. And most industries they will run uh like a low current cutout on a pump to keep the pump from being damaged. With the new smart motor control center, I mean, you typically only look at one phase. These are three-phase industrial motors. You only look at one phase uh when you're doing that. With this information, you can look at all three phases. Uh so it monitors average voltage on all three phases. You can access the voltage, average, ground current, ground fault current. There's a wealth of information that you're

Virtual Inventory To Keep Running

SPEAKER_01 10:50

going to get over Ethernet that you wouldn't normally get. And you typically wouldn't have this, the average on every motor. In doing this, we have the average on all three phases on every motor. We can historically trend the average. If we lose a phase, we'll know very quickly if we if we're recording that data and historically, you can go back and you can look, okay, what happened here? And you know, and if you go back and you look at a historical trend on all three phases and you drop amperage on one phase, you can more quickly identify, okay, we have a we lost a leg at some point on this and the motor single-phase. So you're you're bringing in more and more uh data from the motor, more data on the your production line, and uh you can more quickly identify root cause analysis. That being said, you're not spending your time trying to figure out, okay, what happened. So if you you go in and you you can look at this, if you take and utilize this to the the best of the capability with technology today, and you're using historical trending, you can go back and you can even more quickly identify a pump's failing or um the list goes on and on. You know, yeah, your voltage of the ground, things of that nature. Uh we have ground grid, resistant ground grid in one of the systems that we're using. And when that triggers, we'll also bring that back historically. And when a motor starts, you can go and you can look at that historical data to see which motor started when you saw the ground ball alarm. So it helps you more quickly identify where the ground fault is. Because typically a resistive ground gives system that comes with anyone's NCC, um, you don't look at that. I mean, people fail to utilize that to its best capability.

Smart MCC Data For Root Cause

SPEAKER_01 13:06

That's one thing that we will do. You know, we'll overlay the data. Uh we're we put in, we spent money on power quality monitoring with Eden's new four-seer system. And uh ECO's worked directly with us with that as well. They basically came in and they've developed a lot of the modules that we need for the different manufacturers that we have for our harmonic filters or or our rectifiers, and we're utilizing that with everything that comes in now that's new. We monitor our 23 kb or 48 volt gear, uh the average, voltage, harmonic distortion, etc., and all that data to be able to for root cause analysis. You we can use that historical data to go back and look at okay, what happened on the the power side. Uh and it's not so much to say, hey, was this your fault or our fault? It's it's more of uh if it is our fault, we want to know which unit caused it more quickly. And with a high-speed system that'll monitor that power and the disruption within, we can pinpoint that. Okay, was this this unit versus this unit, or did it come from a uh our 40 both side? We can identify if we had a fault somewhere. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Right. Power distortion. Yeah. So and so if I'm hearing that correctly too, our solution architecture team was able to come in and help with the design, the build, and even down to the implementation of some of that, some of those solutions.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yes. Basically, I mean, uh our plant uses different vendors, manufacturers for certain machines and things. And uh your solution architects came in and they developed the communication to specific devices that they didn't even have the drivers for. So they had to custom come in, come in and customly write the drivers for these units to gather the data, design the system, uh so that we didn't interfere with anything that's going on in the plant now, pull some of this data out of uh serial uh Modbus RTU. Uh we're pulling from data from auto-transfer switches, 23 kV switch gear, harmonic filters, Citech devices, uh to, you know, to look at all the details and pull all the data from the different machines we have in the plant. Um, and then we're adding more 23 kV capability for the newer projects that are coming up, and we'll begin to pull all those systems into this fire quality as well.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. I mean what what a great accomplishment you guys have. So, I mean, it sounds like growing by leaps and bounds, more data than ever, actually utilizing the data, which is encouraging. We we hear a lot of people who do they have access to the data and they don't know what to do with it, but you have a migration path, and that's that's that's outstanding, Bruce.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

The eco is always, even if we had something that they didn't currently support, you know, won't go into too much detail on that, but uh uh for instance, uh conduit, things of that nature, if they didn't stock it, they they began to stock it. Um specific types, they I mean they they've done very they've worked with us on on everything, you know. They they've either been able to give us a direct replacement or get the same part. Uh very flexible, very good to work with. I've been super happy with the ability and the response that I get back. You know, when you have a plant that's down response in a timely manner is one of the most important things. A lot of people don't like to wait, a lot of people don't understand when you don't answer the phone, but I've seen a lot of dedication and a lot of um just determination to do the job right from A to Z. Um not a more professional team that I've ever worked with anywhere. I've been in the industry since 1993. I don't think I've ever had another company, and I've worked with vendors all over the world that have worked with me as well as Eco has.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Wow. What a what a great testament and testimony. And so we're so thankful for you for that. And I mean you you're definitely one of our key partners that we just so appreciative of, Bruce, you know, everything that you do for us and with us. And uh if if she had to summarize, you know, your relationship with Eco, maybe for somebody who hadn't used us before, like what would be your encouragement to that one who hasn't uh reached out to Eco yet.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

I would I would say this, you know, keep an open mind. You know, if you have Ellen Bradley, uh which is your typical product line, or you if you have something that you have an application that you don't have the answers for, reach out to your local eco distributor, contact them, and I'll assure you that uh if they don't know the answer, they will find the answer. Um whether it's interfacing different devices to their MCC, I would challenge you to go look at what they have to offer when it comes to Motor Control Center. Uh I would challenge you to look at what they have to offer when it comes to the various products they have for variable frequency drives, et cetera. Anything in the industrial industry, contactors, motor starters, put them side by side and compare it. And uh they're directly compatible. Um Alan Bradley will talk to their stuff just as well as it will Allen Bradley PLCs will talk to their Eaton

Power Quality Monitoring And Custom Drivers

SPEAKER_01 19:45

smart motor control centers just as well as it will Alan Bradley's. Same data platform that'll come back, uh then the same detail of engineering basically. It's very user-friendly with all platforms. In our case, we're interfacing with uh DCS, which we've not had any issues with anything. I mean, from soft starts to VFDs to smart motor control centers, we've had no issues with anything so far. Wow. Um so if you have a question, reach out to them and let their solution architects work on your problems, help you find a solution. And and I believe, no, I'm certain that you'll notice a difference as the attention you get as a customer. Right. That customer focus people don't take into consideration a lot of times, and that I think a lot of the industry they're losing the focus on that relationship. The the day-to-day, hey, do you need anything? Not to the point that you're being a pest, but how can I help you? Not every day, maybe once a week, maybe twice a week. Can I come visit you and let's look at this? Let me help you figure out a solution. These are important things. Uh as professionals today in the industry, we don't have time to be looking over everything that uh can be delegated. And having that extra help will help you be more proficient at your job. Right. Uh you know, I always look at what does a team mean? Part of being on a team is having people that you can rely on, people you can trust to help you get the job done. Uh if you continue to work with people who continue to mess up and have failures, make you look bad, not meeting time frames, not meeting deadlines. You know, I try not to make the same mistakes twice. That's right. And it's really it's really helped me to know that I can rely on the team that I have with Eco. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to worry about Eden. I don't have to worry about Eco. If they come in they're gonna bring professionals in. And they have the help and the expertise to either solve your problem or help you to resolve it in a manner that's both timely and you won't have to worry about it again.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yes sir.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

So you know one of the I've not had one I'm just gonna say I've not had any comms issues whatsoever with anything I worked with with the eco smart MCCs.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know one of our Bruce we have we have you know company culture beliefs you know we've we've created and one of them is delight customers and it really is it's at its core is it's we understand and anticipate your needs and drive innovation for your benefit. Sounds great but from your experience do we do we do that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Well the to give you a good example of that when I began I was very skeptical I mean I I basically programmed one of the major platforms for twenty five thirty years.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

And uh and I was very very biased when it came to which was better which was and at one time I think they probably had the the leading edge on the market but being able to demonstrate that your system is good and interface with L Rally I mean with the lab that Eco has set up at their just for instance their office in Raleigh I visited their lab we looked at the Smart Motor Control Center I looked at the components now to the circuit level went into the architecture looked at what information I'm getting and just compared it you know apples to apples. That's one of the the main things being able to demonstrate and and show you so not only do they have these test stations built and set up

Choosing Partners Over Vendors

SPEAKER_01 24:45

motor control centers in a room you can you can actually go in the their room and watch them start and run the motor with an Alan Braille PLC drive and an Eden device. It's cross platform compatible and very robust not cheap IEC style terminal strips and connectors they may be IEC rated but they're they didn't compromise quality for reliability. Right and um so that being said we have company that sets up the demos you can go in there and you can actually see what you're going to be getting look at it watch and program it watch and start it stop it look at the data that you're getting actually run a motor look at the data that you can get on a display and it's it a lot of people say potato potatoes potatoes but the proof is in the quality that you get and your ability to be able to see it.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

It's hard to sell me on a new product when I've had experience with one that I know works but when I've pulled these apart and I looked at the component levels and looked at how how much simple some of this is compared to others that I've used I'm man enough to admit one I've I will a lot of people a lot of people won't but it's it's quality. It's good quality service and good quality uh product.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yes sir so it sounds like that lab experience for you is huge and just being able to also probably reduce some of the risk on your end and and and and increase your comfort level when you when you're you know implementing and adopting new technology you know so it's not having to learn on your floor you know have you so much as no hey be able to in that safe controlled test environment just be able to build that confidence up for you.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Yeah they they really done a a good job to sell the product and to demonstrate the product um always willing to reach out to the vendors that we need to support and bring them out hey let's let's let's educate our team you know if I need to bring a vendor in for heat trace or conduit or whatever they they've always worked with us to educate our team uh to help us develop what we need in order to to get there yes sir well this has been just phenomenal thank you Bruce for everything you shared anything else you'd like to to add on on this was eco's 100th anniversary here working with you well I continue to use them for my remaining time as I uh as I continue to to work with them in the future I

The Lab Demo That Removed Risk

SPEAKER_00 28:05

would I would encourage anyone to give them the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Uh I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the team uh the dynamics of how they work and how they bring their support in the fact that you're not hassled when you need support um they get you help when you need it and it's it's not always something that you have to pay for but uh there are times when uh that you you might have to issue a P or something for getting a technician out here or whatever but they're money's not always the first thing on their focus when you you get that. They're wanting to help you get your plant up. Remember why we're here. If your plant doesn't run you don't make money you don't look good. Eaton and Eco working together has definitely made sure that I know that their primary focus is not only on selling their product but helping me be successful.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

They make me look good it makes it a lot easier when you have a team yes sir and when you're having to design everything and do everything yourself just keep that in mind. Know that there are places there are vendors still out there distributors that will support you at a level that most of them only did 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

And ECO's one of 'em the better one that I know of so uh if anyone has any questions I don't care if anyone reaches out to me that's fine just uh I I thoroughly enjoyed the quality of service the quality of support can't say enough about my my sales rep and the team that they have yeah um oh um that's super encouraging Bruce uh thank you so much for just for sharing and being a wonderful partner with Eco for so many years and we look forward to many more in the future sir.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yes sir I appreciate the time to be able to I mean it's an honor for me to do this. You know there are many times I'm I'm pretty busy with the a vendor that spends this kind of quality time does this type of job it's not it's it's a no question for me to be able to uh say hey look you know I appreciate it and this is my way of saying I appreciate what Eco has done for our company and we'll continue to do in the future.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Oh well thank you thank you so much Bruce very thankful for Bruce for coming on and again thank for the testimony he shared the wonderful things that is happening in his inside his career inside Charity Manufacturing

How To Visit A Lab And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 31:06

again just what an honor for us to be able to share that with you and again the the labs that Bruce talked about the experiences he talked about that's across all the region so if you're listening to to Eco SY and you would like to visit one of our labs and have an experience the way Bruce had and he talked about just reach out to us there's actually in the in the links underneath the show notes we'll have links for you can schedule time directly in Virginia or South Carolina or North Carolina wherever you wherever you're located so that you can come visit one of our state of the art labs directly so we would love to walk with you to serve alongside you and to help you with your modernization goals as you move forward. So thank you again for listening thanks for hanging out again ecoonline.com is our website so that's ecoonline.com get your online account set up get get plugged in with us if you don't have a sales rep that is coming to see you we love to hear if you need support this is what we do we go out and we're all about remember delighting customers delighting customers understanding and anticipating your needs so we can drive innovation for your benefit so thank you for listening share this one out particularly for those that are in manufacturing share it out uh just a good it's always good to share and to encourage others that that are in this space we just want to we want to be uh an advocate and a voice so that's what we do here at eco ask why all right so thank you again give us a rating of review again eco.com is where you can find us and remember to eat at the white thank you for listening to eco as why this show is supported at free by let's go quick eco is refined expectation let's go to equality