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> The idea for GreaseBoss came when Steve and Tim saw frequent machine breakdowns
Were you doing the dirty work, or were you watching from the office? Those RFID washers look a whole lot different to the guy with the wrench than they do to the guy with the keyboard.
This was precisely my reaction. And then on the flip side, when you see a deceptively simple solution like GreaseBoss, it seems so obvious in hindsight. Well done!
What's your tech stack? Are you looking to build out your software team?
Awesome! HaaS is a thing. You just made it one. Regarding the business model: You ever thought of a Franchise model? Perhaps train a few folks (perhaps folks who were incorrectly greasing before) who can then take contracts for the large job sites? I have seen this practice with diamond coring machines of companies like Hilti in markets like Dubai (building contractors don't need the machine , they just need the hole…
We are exploring the franchise model, one of our customers has a contract to manage the greasing for 18k zerks at a number of different sites. They want GreaseBoss to drive their manaul greasing business, they can reduce head count and reduce admin overhead.
I used to go to Papua New Guinean gold mines and the use case of not being able to get a spare part for months is very real. These are the early adoptor operations we are targeting
Brilliant concept and impressive execution. I saw you write in another comment thread "its one of those things that you would never imagine is still a problem." This was precisely my reaction. And then on the flip side, when you see a deceptively simple solution like GreaseBoss, it seems so obvious in hindsight. Well done! What's your tech stack? Are you looking to build out your software team?
Thanks for your support.
Stuff like this could have incredible value, but be aware that you are up against once of the most powerful forces in the universe: people that don't give a shit. > The idea for GreaseBoss came when Steve and Tim saw frequent machine breakdowns Were you doing the dirty work, or were you watching from the office? Those RFID washers look a whole lot different to the guy with the wrench than they do to the guy with the…
I used to sell and commission equipment in the field, this meant visiting lots of sites and working in the service crews as a junior (getting tools, pumping grease, sweeping floors) to install and commission what was sold. I had a mix of field and office duties.
You are right in saying our RFID tags are not as rugged as they could be, we are currently making them by hand, while we wait for our injection moulding tooling to be delivered
This is a good idea. So your system verifies that the right grease gun, with correct grease, is used on the correct port?
Stuff like this could have incredible value, but be aware that you are up against once of the most powerful forces in the universe: people that don't give a shit. > The idea for GreaseBoss came when Steve and Tim saw frequent machine breakdowns Were you doing the dirty work, or were you watching from the office? Those RFID washers look a whole lot different to the guy with the wrench than they do to the guy with the…
PS> we are already working on the next iteration of the product tag to make them more hardcore.
Cheers
I guess the industrial cloud is actually a thing.
I'd love to see a teardown of one of your grease guns and how you keep the delicate components safe.
Heavy industry is where things made of steel plate die hard deaths. How have you hardened your electronics? What's the price point owning the "system" when realized into a annual TCOO assuming a certain amount of tool breakage?
Applying the wrong grease is also a big problem. At one facility I worked at, we had about 15-20 difference greases for different equipment in our facility. We did a lot of training on the topic of grease selection and importance of not screwing this up... yet some techs still got it wrong from time to time. With some grease combos, you do not have long to catch the mistake before bearing damage, or even failure, occ…
I heard a story from a nearby power plant the other day of the incorrect grease being applied to a bearing. The two mismatched greases reacted poorly and turned to a wax inside the bearing. Needless to say, the bearing failed catastrophically very soon after. Our system not only tracks the grease type digitally, but we also have colour coding on our tags and head units to help humans easily match colours to ensure they have the right grease in the gun too.
Cheers