I wonder if you put enough sensors on the gun head, if you could map roughly where each zerg was in 3D space.... so if there was a set start point, a grease run could be conducted... in case not all points needed greasing up at the same time.
Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
71–80 of 152 posts
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#72So here's a question: if a company was suffering below average equipment downtime from lube problems, because they had somehow managed to have above average compliance to manufacturer's specs, would your sales pitch still work? Because as they said on Prairie Home Companion, "all our children are above average". No one thinks they have incompetent maintenance teams. There are industries where safety risks make lube h…
Hi Jeff,
Also on your comment, what we've seen on a number of sites is that they do have a good maintenance team but sometimes jobs just get missed. If there is a series of equipment failures that draw the team's attention towards urgent repair work, of course the greasing is not going to get done. Those sites see the benefit of then having the system there to flag the greasing that was missed so that they can be completed once the urgent repairs have been completed - or at least ensure the critical equipment is greased.
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting insights, thanks for taking the time to reply! Always interested in this kind of stuff after working in the water resources field on the software side of things. We pull in data from telemetered data loggers (like Sutron - https://www.sutron.com/ ) and then create data driven maps and dashboards on top of it. Cool to see you guys operating both in the hardware and software space.
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?
Used to work for LRE Water (https://lrewater.com/). Currently working for Stae (https://stae.co/) doing similar things but at a much larger scale. Freelance as well (https://www.lostcreekdesigns.co/).
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#74This may be due to my complete clueless-ness, but all these fittings look the same? https://www.greaseboss.io/our-product It looks like you're trying to list a variety of different fitting but copied the same image multiple times.
That's a simulated picture of the panel on the machine where all the grease lines come together for easy access.
Aha, thanks! Probably obvious to an actual tech :)
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#75What kind of customer lock-in do you have? Is the API/data format open or closed? Can I easily export my data? As a customer, I'd be concerned about longevity and data loss if/when you go away or pivot. Knowing that I could export my data, and re-implement my own backend using your open data standard if needed, would go a long way to easing my concerns. Most customers won't go through the effort to build their own so…
On this note, have you explored integrating your hardware/software into customer systems? I suppose customers may have existing logging applications they feed said paper forms into, and if you could feed that directly it would be useful.
The system has APIs, anticipating integration into maitenance platforms like SAP, Pronto etc. We haven't needed to do it yet, but our customers ask us every time.
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#76How do you perform the initial rollout and configuration ? Does someone have to manually associate the RFID with the specific zerk and machine and set up a maintenance schedule? How do you handle machines where greasing is a function of hours of operation and not wall clock time ?
Great questions For roll out, we try to upload the data into the GreaseCloud before going to site, then we have someone manually fit each tag to each zerk, they then use the head unit to read the code and map it into the GreaseCloud. Once it is in the grease cloud we can set the grease volume, grease interval, etc For the timing, we have a function to set the operating timetable of each machine - most plants this is…
This whole thing is a brilliant idea. The Navy has a ton of people working on planned maintenance [1], and anything that could improve reliability is worth its weight in gold. I know you mentioned ships already for grease, but just thinking of how many things need maintenance and how nice it would be if you could have a system that ensured it was all done. Please attach RFID's to filters to ensure they get swapped out!
1. https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Team-Ships/PEO-Ships/Suppor...
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#77I wonder if you put enough sensors on the gun head, if you could map roughly where each zerg was in 3D space.... so if there was a set start point, a grease run could be conducted... in case not all points needed greasing up at the same time.
Hi, awesome idea! Right now we’ve built in the ability for users to assign a preferred order to each zerk that is applied to the grease run. Obviously this isn’t practical for users with lots of zerks (some of our customers have 1000s of zerks!) but being able to automate the ordering process using sensors sounds like a good feature. I like to think of it as the google maps of grease runs. In terms of mapping zerks in 3D space- check out ‘digital twins’, this is something we are keen to explore down the track.
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#78Very cool! I live in a mining town and the number one issue is just getting the mines to adopt new technologies. A lot of people very set in their ways. I've heard of million+ dollar projects just sitting unused because people weren't bothered to charge an iPad.
Do you manage the installs, maintenance, and training yourselves? Have you had any issues with people purchasing the system, but not using it?
I wish you the best of success! It's a very cool field to be in with so much potential.
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#79Awesome! 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…
Great feedback. 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…
Modern day [public transport could use this in spaeds for morethan just greasing...
If you have maintenance RFIDs that alert to when action should be tacken BEFORE it has to be taken - you will instill confidence and reliabilaty into whatever system.
It would be wonderful if you open source access to your data regarding the frequency of maint to a vector of injuries/job loss/production downtime etc...
And provide the definitive source for how effective such a product is in whatever market.
The RFID gasket thingy you describe might well revolutionize the automotive market in general - but I would suggest focusing on getting those bitches into the giant CAT mining dumps post haste - heck, they spend $70,000 on a single tyre - so getting that readout on an engine might be bank.
Re: Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
#80Are you competing with equipment manufacturers at all? I worked with one big manufacturer briefly, and they were cramming telemetry and electronics into everything they could, so they could provide this kind of cloud-based preventative maintenance service (although i never heard anything specific about grease). Is there a chance you eventually won't be able to sell because machines already come with grease intelligence built in?