Our guest on today’s show is Benjamin York. Benjamin’s company, Theory 168, makes a product called Tool Life that collects and analyzes data on machine tools to optimize efficiency in machine shops.

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Main Points

Benjamin talks about his company, Theory 168. He says the company focuses on optimizing machining processes, particularly in Swiss machining. He says his constant mission has been to “take the art out of machining.” He wants to approach machining from a scientific standpoint rather than believing there are “ghosts in some machines,” as he was originally taught when coming up in the industry. When machine glitches seem mysterious and won’t go away, Benjamin’s attitude is to keep digging deeper, rather than using hacky short-term solutions. (2:45)
Benjamin talks about his background. His father operated machine tools, and Benjamin started spending time with him at the shop when he was 4 or 5 years old. As an adult Benjamin worked in machine shops, and he has been a consultant for machining companies since 2009. (6:15)
Benjamin says that most shops don’t reach their potential for productivity. He says many companies continue to purchase equipment and hire employees while they could get a lot more out of the capacity they already have. (7:30)
Benjamin’s company, Theory 168, builds a product called Tool Life for the purpose of helping companies boost their productivity and utilize the capacity they already have. It uses Web-based software that collects data about machining processes and then analyzes the data so shops know how they can improve their productivity. One of the most significant processes the software is intended to optimize is tool life on a machine, hence the product’s name. (8:20)
Benjamin says he wants to make technology work for the people using it. He wants to make jobs easier. He says one of the potential benefits of making processes less complicated is that companies can hire workers who have less experience. They can hire people based on their potential to grow and create a good company culture. (9:20)
Benjamin explains how Tool Life works. The product measures a myriad of factors such as quality, tool changes, and offsets. (14:00)
Benjamin discusses Tool Life’s physical hardware, which the company calls a “machine weather station.” It’s a 4 x 4 box that connects to machine tools via magnets. It collects data with various sensors, which it transmits to a Web-based cloud via WIFI. Each machine requires its own localized box because of the specific data unique to a machine. For instance, Tool Life collects vibration data relating to a bar feed, various inputs of temperature, and cycle time. After all the data is analyzed the user knows the options available to optimize a process. Perhaps the machine is being operated poorly, the company needs to buy higher quality tools, or change the tools more frequently. (15:00)
Benjamin talks about an add-on product to Tool Life called Shop Map 168 that tracks the location of people in a shop and prescribes how to make the shop more efficient. (25:00)
Benjamin says that after the data is collected and the root cause of the untapped productivity is revealed,