Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing

HaaS is definitely a thing. PMaaS, as well! (Preventative Maintenance)

I know a number of industrial robotics manufacturers have been pushing data-driven preventative maintenance initiatives. Ideally (for the manufacturer) this work is performed by the manufacturers techs during scheduled operator downtime, including the lubing of mechanical systems.

Have you all thought about presenting an alternative arrangement for the lubrication responsibilities of specialized systems, like industrial robotics, that might already have maintenance responsibilities (possibly contracts) in place?

I think we're agreeing :) I was getting at the fact that full integration would be cool because then you both wouldn't need to remember, or even pay attention to setting it.

>On the hardware side: we put RFID tags that fit like washers under each zerk. These are read by a head unit that is retrofittable to existing grease guns, which includes a custom RFID reader integrated into the nozzle. It also includes a flow meter and supporting electronics. Our device has 4G, Wifi and LoRa for comms, but also operates in an offline mode for customers in remote locations. Our hardware is rugged, dust proof, and water proof for some of the toughest operational environments (and operators..)

Sounds expensive, grease zerk's are cheap, and easily replaceable, these sound expensive and likely just as prone to failure as a simple one.

>On the software side, we record each greasing in the cloud, right as the worker greases the zerk. Since most industry is still tracking this using paperwork, you can imagine how much more efficient this is. Our customers get back to production much faster.

This sounds like an over engineered, expensive version of a maintenance schedule. It's a management problem if they're not scheduling maintenance.

Workers are still stopping to grease machines, they're still using the same amount of grease, greasing the same spots at the same scheduled times. Tracking this by cloud adds nothing really from what I can tell.

This whole system would have driven me nuts when I was working machines doing biweekly greasing and maintenance.

It would have been just one more thing to worry about inside the machines and believe me, every little thing inside a machine that can go wrong, will go wrong at some point.

A couple of the machines had a few parts that were greased by a computer controlled auto greaser, it was always prone to trouble and needed to be adjusted frequently.

As you say yourself also, greasing maintenance is incredibly important to avoid downtime and machine damage, why should a company rely on your third party cloud for this?

What guarantee is there of its continued support and existence?

What happens if there's internet outages?

How does having a third party between me and the maintenance of my machines benefit me?

My comment sounds a little anti-blue collar, so I should clarify what I'm getting at. I grew up with roughnecks in and around oil fields. I'm looking at this through their eyes.

When they look at electronics, they see another thing about to break. These are guys that are used to dealing with industrial grade hydraulic systems and the like.

They also feel like they know what needs to be done to get the job done, and they are highly uninterested in introducing another way for the boss to more efficiently hassle them.

IMHO that means your biggest challenge is making fans out of the guys on the wrench through absolutely bulletproof reliability and convincing managers to not use it punitively.

Thanks Tyler. Your line of work seems interesting. We are probably not there just yet but in 6 months or so, it would be interesting to see how we could extract more value out of the data we're receiving. What is the name of your company?