September 17, 2024 • 23 mins
Quality is more than just a feature; it’s a promise of reliability, durability, and consistency.
Upholding quality is integral to any company and reflects its commitment to excellence by delivering on promises made to customers. With the demands of modern energy systems, ensuring high-voltage product reliability is more crucial than ever.
In this episode, we invited Thomas Haas, Head of Quality for the High Voltage Products business at Hitachi Energy, to share in-depth insights about how building a quality mindset, combined with leveraging digital tools, can significantly improve the reliability and performance of every component manufactured.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
High voltage takes center stagein this season of Hitachi
Energy's Power Pulse podcast.
We promise to bring you great contentfrom the brightest minds in the business.
We'll discuss challenges, opportunities,and all the hot topics
any high voltage enthusiast
or anyone interested in sustainabilityfor that matter, is sure to enjoy.
This episode of the podcastis all about quality
(00:21):
and to tell you about qualityin high voltage,
we asked none otherthan the head of quality on as a guest.
He is Thomas Haas and will tell youabout how digitalization is
used as a tool to make high voltage safeand reliable.
Thomas holds a masters in ElectricalEngineering from the University of Aachen.
He's worked in the power industryfor just about 30 years
and is very passionate about all thingsdigital, especially the Digital Factory.
(00:44):
But how digital can a factoryworking with equipment,
from heavy machineryto small nuts and bolts, really be?
You'll have to stay tuned to learn.
Welcome back to Power Pulse.
I'm your host, Sam Dash, and todayI'm speaking with Thomas
Haas,Head of Quality for High Voltage Products.
Hi, Thomas.
Hi, Sam.
And thanks for the invitation. It'sgreat to be here.
(01:06):
You're very welcome.
Glad to have you.
Thomas, you've been at Hitachi Energyfor close to three decades.
That right? That's about right.
Yes, absolutely.
So when you reflect back,how would you describe yourself
when you first entered the company,what your passions or anxieties were
and then how do you compare that to now?
I mean, I was a young engineerwho was invited by a management member
(01:30):
from ABB at that time to cometo the first interview and then join.
And yes, I liked it and I was just curiousabout everything to come.
And for those of uswho don't know the history
of Hitachi Energy,can you say more about ABB?
Can you talk us through a bit of thathistory? Absolutely.
When I joined ABB at that time in Germany,by the way, ABB as such has been formed
(01:54):
out of two companiesfrom Boveri Company and Swedish ASEA.
And these two together formed the ABBthat was in 88.
Now I joined seven years later.
Then after many years,there was the split into the energy
sector of ABB – energy product relatedand the automation sector.
(02:15):
And then ABB decidedto divest the energy portion.
And that's what became Hitachi Energy-What became
Hitachi Energy,fully owned by the global Hitachi Company.
Yeah, yeah.
Thanks for talking usthrough that history.
That's really helpful.
Oh, we haven't had anyone contextualizethat yet for us.
How does your particular working knowledgeaffect your daily life outside of work?
(02:37):
Are you hyper aware of quality control
on a daily basisat home with appliances or vehicles?
Well, I wouldn't say too much in this way.
I mean, I have remained an engineerat heart.
Yeah.
Right, so I'm interested in everythingthat works.
A machine that works, controlledby electronics, by digital mechanisms.
(03:01):
And of course, it needs a certain quality,because I can become curious
if things stop workingas they are supposed to do.
So that is with my car and my TV.
I don't need a new one every day.
I would likesomething that lasts for a while.
So I feel like, maybe after this podcast,I should get your contact info
(03:22):
and give you a call whenever I need to buya new TV or a new appliance because I'm
sure that you do some really good researchinto what the best option is.
Maybe, but not always.
Yeah.
I'm still also one of thosewho get what appeals me.
Yeah. So let's get more into high voltage.
I want to understand just how digitizeda high voltage setting is.
(03:46):
We've learnedabout how parts get made and assembled,
and we've also learnedhow a factory is set up.
Can you explain this digitalization
process at high voltage in layman's terms?
Yeah, if you want.
Digitalization starts with introducing
a so-called enterprise resourceplanning tool.
(04:07):
I should not name a brand name,most probably, but there is some worldwide
known softwarewhich is used in many areas to control
all manufacturing processes and all thematerial handling in the factories.
Right.
This we have been using in our companyfor decades also as well.
I grew with these systems, which basicallytake care that all your products
(04:30):
follow a certain work step,a certain work flow
that you have feel of materials,which materials go into your product,
and that all these materialsneed to be purchased from suppliers,
from other companiesor other units in our own company?
Yeah.
And yeah, these partsneed to be taken into the system,
(04:50):
into the factory,but they also need to be registered.
So we would like to know at any timehow much or how many of which product
are in our warehousein a specific box on a specific pallet.
And this is why we need to registerwhat comes in and,
and increase the counter of the partswhich are in a certain box,
(05:11):
and reduce that counteronce we consume out of this box.
And in very simple terms,I'm sure it's more complex than this;
is it something similar to how we usebarcodes at a store or in the supermarket?
Yeah, and now comes the point.
And that is about
what is now changing over timeand what we have now developed further.
The managing of inflowand outflow of material and counting
(05:35):
is something that can be done
with the delivery sheetsor with the purchase order of figures.
What we want to know.
We want to know more about eachand every individual product,
especially when it comesto really critical parts
that really definethe performance of our products.
Can you give us an example of whatthose critical parts are for a given piece
(05:56):
of machinery or equipmentthat you're wanting to keep track of more?
Yeah, I'm sure that you have introducedin some of the earlier episodes
some of our products,
and you may have come acrossthe commonality about all high
voltage productsis that we need to insulate voltages,
so we need to put insulating materialbetween two poles of voltage.
(06:17):
And I would like to take the exampleof a disc space insulator
or disc spacer or disc insulator,which is made from an epoxy cast.
Yeah.
This is a highly maturedor highly developed
and specific component of our products,
and it needs a very decent quality control
(06:37):
during mixing, during pouringand casting it into the final product.
That epoxy.
Exactly.
It's a bit like, you can compare itwith cookies where you have a dough.
Yeah. A kilogram of whatever put together.
You have a block of dough and thenyou make a lot of cookies out of it.
But you want to be carefulthat you're not trying to make that dough
(06:58):
that has butter, which has a melting pointat too high of a temperature.
Or you want to make sure
not to put that dough maybe in the freezerright before you're going to bake it.
Right.
So all of this depends on temperaturesand conditions. Yes.
And then the first thing is that weof course,
in our own factory,we have a factory to produce that part.
First of all,we have all the controls in place
(07:20):
to make sure that we have the best qualityyou can think of.
And it has happened that we delivera batch of these disc insulators.
It's like a batch of cookies. Yeah.
The entire number of piecesthat are made from one mixture
of this epoxy, for example,till reached our final assembly factory.
Then maybe we find one of the occasionalcases,
(07:42):
that one of these pieceshas not been ideally or perfectly cast.
Maybe it has a little air bubble insideor some impurity of the raw materials.
For whatever reason, there's just somepercentage of error that is unavoidable.
That right? Yes. Yes.
And then we would step inwith our new ideas and say, okay,
now we need to identify exactlythe one that has this issue.
(08:07):
It has a serial number.
But we would like to know, are thereany brothers and sisters of this product.
Which means other components which camefrom the same batch of raw material.
Right.
Which may be at risk.
And this is where we step in now.
Having each and every of these insulatorsmarked with a dedicated serial number
(08:27):
means they are all identifiable.
All we have on stock,maybe several hundred.
We can exactly tellwhich is which, and from where it comes,
when it was produced, and which others
had been produced at the same timefrom the same batch of material.
It reminds me of looking closely at DNA,what the make up is of a larger entity,
(08:50):
by looking at very specific chromosomesthat tell you how something is
made up, what that recipe is. Yeah,and that's the point.
You can also hear a bit,you brought the analogy of a supermarket.
Yeah.
And we all know in the supermarketthe parts have their barcode
which identify the material.
So the barcode contains a material number.
(09:10):
And this material number in a computeris linked to a price.
And then they scan itand the computer knows the price of it.
Right.
Now we would like to knoweven a bit more on our product.
We want to know which product is it
or which type of disc spaceror disc insulator, for example.
We would like to know who manufactured it.
We may have several, several suppliers.Yeah.
(09:32):
We want to know when it was produced.
So this is why we created something thatis like the barcode in the supermarket.
it’s a matrix code. Indeed.
It looks a bit like the QR codepeople know from their mobile phones.
Yeah.And that contains a bit more information.
It contains supplier of a part.
It contains the manufacturing date.
(09:53):
It contains the serial numberwhich exactly identifies which is which.
And that is our basic featurethat we need later to identify material
to relate it to neighbors, to capture itand to do and to work with it later.
And also, I would assume,to make sure you are constantly
trying to evolve these materialsand make sure they improve.
(10:17):
Absolutely. I mean, it's all about data.
Yeah.
Once you come across an issue or a failure
of a component,you would want this to be registered.
You would want this incident
to be registered to the material code,to the manufacturer,
to be able to aggregate,to do analytics on this data,
to find out, like a Pareto,what is the biggest contributor to issues.
(10:39):
And these are tackled first.
I mean it's not about the analytics.
It's not a goal as such.
It's just to guide a bit.
Where would you hook in and do your nextinnovation project or improvement project?
Right,it provides a foundation? Absolutely.
Yes, yes.
So it's safe to sayyour factory is digitized.
Does this mean that every single item init can be tracked from the moment
(11:02):
it gets there?
And is this true for most productionthese days, not just at high voltage?
Well,I introduced the disc insulator. Yeah.
There are also other partswhich we don't track individually.
I see Like nuts and bolts, for example.
You get a box of nuts and bolts andthey don't have individual serial numbers.
And is the hopethat you will start to track those items.
(11:23):
Well, some is really not neededbecause their design is not decisive
of the final functionality, or–They're not as key to the efficacy
of the larger whole.
Yeah, because maybe they haveso much safety factor where they are
used that in the full tolerance rangethat they could
be, they cannot create an issue.
(11:44):
Right. Right. That makes sense.
So and this is why, we have materialthat is only counted.
So how much of this do we have on stock.
And there is this material
which we are focusing on
now where we really want to knowwhat is the exact identification,
what is the exact detail of whatwe have on stock in order to really track
and trace it backto their manufacturing process.
(12:07):
In this industry,with its very stringent safety measures,
I'd hope faulty productsdon't occur very frequently.
I'm sure we would all hope that.
But if this were to happen, how quicklycan something be traced back and fixed?
Yeah, that's a bit comingback to what I said before.
We have the possibility, oncewe identify a part that has had an issue.
(12:29):
Yeah. As you said,hopefully not too many. Yeah. Right.
And we can associate itto a production time
or to a production batchand then on a fingertip,
find all the other serial numbersthat belong to the same batch.
And that's what is tracking and tracing.
So first we track what is faulty andwhat are the others that might be at risk.
(12:51):
And then we tracewhere did the others end up.
And so in your experience,what is the sort of range of time
that a process like that can takewhen it's an easier problem to fix?
How long does that generally take?
Now in this digitalworld it takes five seconds
And that’s across the
board, even if it's a very complex, faultycomponent, you can do it that quickly?
(13:13):
Yeah, because it's a database behindand you can say, give me all components
from the same batch and the databasespits it out, if you like.
And what if it's a componentthat hasn't been digitalized yet?
You would take the elevator or the lift,go to the archive,
find the right binder,do your thumb cinema and try to find
(13:36):
all the other test reports that belongto the same batch, and then identify
what might be the other components,which we also have to withdraw.
Yeah. So it could take quite a bit longer.
It could take weeks. Yeah. Right.
And in my experienceI have had experience like this
where we had an issue on the customer side
(13:56):
and we had to identifywhich other products are at risk.
And it took us really weeksjust to find out
which are these other productsand where in the world are they installed.
Right.
This is, I think, a good opportunity
for me to ask you about whata Digital Passport is. Yes.
So I've heard the termused, Digital Passport.
What exactly is that and how does it work.
(14:19):
You know, just considerthat these very critical parts
have a passport like our travel passport.
Right. That is a data record.
It's not a piece of paper.
It's a record stored in a databasethat identifies the part,
like our name and our numberon our travel passport identify us.
(14:40):
It may also contain a couple of attributeslike, color of eyes or my height.
Yeah. Right.
And it may also collect eventsduring lifetime,
like visas, or stamps, travel stampswhen you use your travel passport.
Yeah, right.
So basically this data record accompanies
the product like a digital twin a bitif you like.
(15:03):
Accompanies through the entire lifetime.
Sort of like an ID cardthat you're always holding in your pocket.
Yeah.
From the momentyou're created to the moment
you pass on.
Yes. And you can link it –the Digital Passport System
is an add on,if you like, or complementary to what
I introduced at the beginning,the enterprise resource planning,
(15:25):
because we still go by the mainrequirement single source of truth.
So each and every informationshould only be stored at one single point.
So we have a bill of material that remainsin the production planning tool.
Yeah.
But we have now this individualtracking and tracing information
for all the quality datawe collect during assembly.
(15:49):
We make a measurement somewhere.
We see, does a product do its job?
Is it fast enough?
For example, the circuit breaker,is the opening closing fast enough?
We may measure this.
And by capturing all this measurement datain this Digital Passport
close to the product,we can compare it to their siblings.
We can identify.
(16:10):
The simple thingis, is a certain measurement
inside or outside of the tolerance band.
That's the usual.
And you get a yes/no decision,
which may allow you to move onor hinder you from moving on.
But you could also seeam I trending in a negative direction?
Maybe it’s still good,but I'm already trending
in a direction that is not goodif it continues like this.
(16:34):
Right, yeah.
So I imagine you have to bevery aware of patterns that may occur.
Absolutely. But you need the data.
Yeah. Like with the cookies. Yeah.
They may be still good.
But you seethey are becoming browner and browner.
And at some point of timethey will be burnt– So...
If you don't control it. Right.
And if you don't intervene.Absolutely. Yeah.
So how much of that intervention is
(16:56):
digital is left to a digital world or AI?
And how much of that is human interventionat this point?
I would say at this point of time,we collect a lot of data
and then we make downloadsand work with it, with analysis tools.
But we are justat the beginning of a journey,
and that may include more and morealso artificial intelligence.
(17:18):
Right.
That we see the patterns in the recorded
data, maybe with self-learning methods,
maybe identifiedas going into the wrong direction.
Yeah.
So we may find out,or the machine may at some point of time
have better means to find outlittle deviations
than our operators have that compareone data with the other., right.
(17:41):
Right.
It's hard to know at this pointwhich will be more effective.
Is that right?
We don't know.
But we know, example applicationsin other areas which we are now
looking at and see, where can we start,where can we set pilots.
And that's a super exciting journeybecause it opens up
absolutely new possibilities to be earlierin the entire case,
(18:04):
to not clean upafter something has happened, but
to identify issuesbefore they reach a customer.
To avoid– Yeah.
–catastrophe or mistake or... Absolutely.
Because whatever we find in our factory,the repair of it is much more convenient
and cheaper than if we have to do itat a customer side.
(18:25):
Yeah.
And before it's maybe had any interfacewith people and the public.
Absolutely.
You've already touched on thisa little bit just now, but
why is it so relevant to go fully digital?
And are there any downsideswe need to be wary of?
Are there thingsthat should not be digitized in your mind?
First of all, it's speed and dataconsistency.
(18:47):
Speed is obvious.
We talked about it,how fast you can get relations
to other componentsto other material, for example.
Consistency is aboutwhatever is linked digitally
and like a measurement devicethat uploads the measured data digitally.
You don't do typos.
Right.
Though,rather than typing what you measure
(19:09):
with a ruler,you type in the measurement value.
But if that ruler has a digital interface,that cannot be lost.
So that's data integrity.
But of course, you name it –is there a risk?
Yes, of course.
Big data always has a certain riskif it falls into the wrong hands.
Or if there is an opportunityto step in and manipulate.
(19:32):
Right,because it is important to be trusted
and to have trust in the datacollected, is not manipulated, is really
the true unmanipulated data– Is factualand not sort of– Absolutely, yes.
Yeah.
And– Is not sort of laden with bias.
Yeah.
And of course, we don't wantto disclose to our competition
(19:53):
if we have had issues with our engineeringdrawings and, and, and so on.
There's a certain level of privacyyou want to maintain. Absolutely.
And this is why we put a lot of efforton using industry
standard basic toolslike the database in the cloud.
But, with the best technology behindand with the best in class suppliers
(20:13):
that guarantee intrusion protectionand all this cybersecurity activities
so that we don't have to investand develop this our own.
But there we hop on and work with partnerswho know better.
Yeah.
And so if you were to give us a takeawayon why you feel that
Digital Passports are important for us,across the world, across the board,
(20:35):
what would your simple way of telling usabout why they're important?
That's a good question.
Often I hear this question,why do our customers need our Digital
Passports?
My answer is our customersneed reliable products.
They want to sleep well.
They want productsthat don't cause trouble.
And the Digital Passport is a toolfor us to improve quality,
(21:00):
to get feedback for new development,for improvement of products
and by this, make sure that we can offerthe best reliable products.
So it's not about disclosing all the data
to our customersbecause we use it, we improve,
but we are sure that we can react faster
on issues that the customer might have.
(21:23):
We can do better for our productdevelopment and so on and so forth.
So it sort of sounds to me and correct meif I'm wrong as though
the Digital Passport really providesmore support to the consumer.
Is that right?
Yeah.
First of all, to us as a producer,
to make better products and to be fasterin case help is needed.
(21:44):
Yeah, yeah. We have some side effects.
You can download the product documentationfrom this system.
So there are few benefitsalso for customers.
Right.
But basically it'sfor us to be a trusted quality provider.
Right.
To be recognized as a quality leaderand also be transparent and demonstrate
(22:05):
we can show you all datathrough the production process.
We don't hand it outbecause it's also sensitive.
Right. But we are transparent.
You can see it
and you can trust that we work with itand that we work on improvements.
Right.There's transparency within the company.
And then that has a onwardeffect to the consumer and the client.
Exactly, yes. Yeah.
(22:26):
Yeah.
Thomas,thanks so much for joining us today.
You’ve really helped us understand the insand outs of maintaining quality
standards at various stages in high
voltage products,and how this process continues to evolve.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode ofPower Pulse.
Until next time.
And that's it for today.
We'll be back soonwith some more great content.
But before you go,remember to give us a follow
(22:48):
so you don't miss an episode.
Thanks for tuning in. See you soon!
This episode was brought to you by HitachiEnergy.
Createdand introduced by Bárbara Freitas-Daniels.
Content and scriptwriting by Cassandra Inay.
Guest speaker, Thomas Haas.
Hosted by Sam Dash.
Produced and edited by Creative Chimps.
High voltage takes center stagein this season of Hitachi
Energy's Power Pulse podcast.
We promise to bring you great contentfrom the brightest minds in the business.
We'll discuss challenges, opportunities,and all the hot topics
any high voltage enthusiast
or anyone interested in sustainabilityfor that matter, is sure to enjoy.
This episode of the podcastis all about quality
(00:21):
and to tell you about qualityin high voltage,
we asked none otherthan the head of quality on as a guest.
He is Thomas Haas and will tell youabout how digitalization is
used as a tool to make high voltage safeand reliable.
Thomas holds a masters in ElectricalEngineering from the University of Aachen.
He's worked in the power industryfor just about 30 years
and is very passionate about all thingsdigital, especially the Digital Factory.
(00:44):
But how digital can a factoryworking with equipment,
from heavy machineryto small nuts and bolts, really be?
You'll have to stay tuned to learn.
Welcome back to Power Pulse.
I'm your host, Sam Dash, and todayI'm speaking with Thomas
Haas,Head of Quality for High Voltage Products.
Hi, Thomas.
Hi, Sam.
And thanks for the invitation. It'sgreat to be here.
(01:06):
You're very welcome.
Glad to have you.
Thomas, you've been at Hitachi Energyfor close to three decades.
That right? That's about right.
Yes, absolutely.
So when you reflect back,how would you describe yourself
when you first entered the company,what your passions or anxieties were
and then how do you compare that to now?
I mean, I was a young engineerwho was invited by a management member
(01:30):
from ABB at that time to cometo the first interview and then join.
And yes, I liked it and I was just curiousabout everything to come.
And for those of uswho don't know the history
of Hitachi Energy,can you say more about ABB?
Can you talk us through a bit of thathistory? Absolutely.
When I joined ABB at that time in Germany,by the way, ABB as such has been formed
(01:54):
out of two companiesfrom Boveri Company and Swedish ASEA.
And these two together formed the ABBthat was in 88.
Now I joined seven years later.
Then after many years,there was the split into the energy
sector of ABB – energy product relatedand the automation sector.
(02:15):
And then ABB decidedto divest the energy portion.
And that's what became Hitachi Energy-What became
Hitachi Energy,fully owned by the global Hitachi Company.
Yeah, yeah.
Thanks for talking usthrough that history.
That's really helpful.
Oh, we haven't had anyone contextualizethat yet for us.
How does your particular working knowledgeaffect your daily life outside of work?
(02:37):
Are you hyper aware of quality control
on a daily basisat home with appliances or vehicles?
Well, I wouldn't say too much in this way.
I mean, I have remained an engineerat heart.
Yeah.
Right, so I'm interested in everythingthat works.
A machine that works, controlledby electronics, by digital mechanisms.
(03:01):
And of course, it needs a certain quality,because I can become curious
if things stop workingas they are supposed to do.
So that is with my car and my TV.
I don't need a new one every day.
I would likesomething that lasts for a while.
So I feel like, maybe after this podcast,I should get your contact info
(03:22):
and give you a call whenever I need to buya new TV or a new appliance because I'm
sure that you do some really good researchinto what the best option is.
Maybe, but not always.
Yeah.
I'm still also one of thosewho get what appeals me.
Yeah. So let's get more into high voltage.
I want to understand just how digitizeda high voltage setting is.
(03:46):
We've learnedabout how parts get made and assembled,
and we've also learnedhow a factory is set up.
Can you explain this digitalization
process at high voltage in layman's terms?
Yeah, if you want.
Digitalization starts with introducing
a so-called enterprise resourceplanning tool.
(04:07):
I should not name a brand name,most probably, but there is some worldwide
known softwarewhich is used in many areas to control
all manufacturing processes and all thematerial handling in the factories.
Right.
This we have been using in our companyfor decades also as well.
I grew with these systems, which basicallytake care that all your products
(04:30):
follow a certain work step,a certain work flow
that you have feel of materials,which materials go into your product,
and that all these materialsneed to be purchased from suppliers,
from other companiesor other units in our own company?
Yeah.
And yeah, these partsneed to be taken into the system,
(04:50):
into the factory,but they also need to be registered.
So we would like to know at any timehow much or how many of which product
are in our warehousein a specific box on a specific pallet.
And this is why we need to registerwhat comes in and,
and increase the counter of the partswhich are in a certain box,
(05:11):
and reduce that counteronce we consume out of this box.
And in very simple terms,I'm sure it's more complex than this;
is it something similar to how we usebarcodes at a store or in the supermarket?
Yeah, and now comes the point.
And that is about
what is now changing over timeand what we have now developed further.
The managing of inflowand outflow of material and counting
(05:35):
is something that can be done
with the delivery sheetsor with the purchase order of figures.
What we want to know.
We want to know more about eachand every individual product,
especially when it comesto really critical parts
that really definethe performance of our products.
Can you give us an example of whatthose critical parts are for a given piece
(05:56):
of machinery or equipmentthat you're wanting to keep track of more?
Yeah, I'm sure that you have introducedin some of the earlier episodes
some of our products,
and you may have come acrossthe commonality about all high
voltage productsis that we need to insulate voltages,
so we need to put insulating materialbetween two poles of voltage.
(06:17):
And I would like to take the exampleof a disc space insulator
or disc spacer or disc insulator,which is made from an epoxy cast.
Yeah.
This is a highly maturedor highly developed
and specific component of our products,
and it needs a very decent quality control
(06:37):
during mixing, during pouringand casting it into the final product.
That epoxy.
Exactly.
It's a bit like, you can compare itwith cookies where you have a dough.
Yeah. A kilogram of whatever put together.
You have a block of dough and thenyou make a lot of cookies out of it.
But you want to be carefulthat you're not trying to make that dough
(06:58):
that has butter, which has a melting pointat too high of a temperature.
Or you want to make sure
not to put that dough maybe in the freezerright before you're going to bake it.
Right.
So all of this depends on temperaturesand conditions. Yes.
And then the first thing is that weof course,
in our own factory,we have a factory to produce that part.
First of all,we have all the controls in place
(07:20):
to make sure that we have the best qualityyou can think of.
And it has happened that we delivera batch of these disc insulators.
It's like a batch of cookies. Yeah.
The entire number of piecesthat are made from one mixture
of this epoxy, for example,till reached our final assembly factory.
Then maybe we find one of the occasionalcases,
(07:42):
that one of these pieceshas not been ideally or perfectly cast.
Maybe it has a little air bubble insideor some impurity of the raw materials.
For whatever reason, there's just somepercentage of error that is unavoidable.
That right? Yes. Yes.
And then we would step inwith our new ideas and say, okay,
now we need to identify exactlythe one that has this issue.
(08:07):
It has a serial number.
But we would like to know, are thereany brothers and sisters of this product.
Which means other components which camefrom the same batch of raw material.
Right.
Which may be at risk.
And this is where we step in now.
Having each and every of these insulatorsmarked with a dedicated serial number
(08:27):
means they are all identifiable.
All we have on stock,maybe several hundred.
We can exactly tellwhich is which, and from where it comes,
when it was produced, and which others
had been produced at the same timefrom the same batch of material.
It reminds me of looking closely at DNA,what the make up is of a larger entity,
(08:50):
by looking at very specific chromosomesthat tell you how something is
made up, what that recipe is. Yeah,and that's the point.
You can also hear a bit,you brought the analogy of a supermarket.
Yeah.
And we all know in the supermarketthe parts have their barcode
which identify the material.
So the barcode contains a material number.
(09:10):
And this material number in a computeris linked to a price.
And then they scan itand the computer knows the price of it.
Right.
Now we would like to knoweven a bit more on our product.
We want to know which product is it
or which type of disc spaceror disc insulator, for example.
We would like to know who manufactured it.
We may have several, several suppliers.Yeah.
(09:32):
We want to know when it was produced.
So this is why we created something thatis like the barcode in the supermarket.
it’s a matrix code. Indeed.
It looks a bit like the QR codepeople know from their mobile phones.
Yeah.And that contains a bit more information.
It contains supplier of a part.
It contains the manufacturing date.
(09:53):
It contains the serial numberwhich exactly identifies which is which.
And that is our basic featurethat we need later to identify material
to relate it to neighbors, to capture itand to do and to work with it later.
And also, I would assume,to make sure you are constantly
trying to evolve these materialsand make sure they improve.
(10:17):
Absolutely. I mean, it's all about data.
Yeah.
Once you come across an issue or a failure
of a component,you would want this to be registered.
You would want this incident
to be registered to the material code,to the manufacturer,
to be able to aggregate,to do analytics on this data,
to find out, like a Pareto,what is the biggest contributor to issues.
(10:39):
And these are tackled first.
I mean it's not about the analytics.
It's not a goal as such.
It's just to guide a bit.
Where would you hook in and do your nextinnovation project or improvement project?
Right,it provides a foundation? Absolutely.
Yes, yes.
So it's safe to sayyour factory is digitized.
Does this mean that every single item init can be tracked from the moment
(11:02):
it gets there?
And is this true for most productionthese days, not just at high voltage?
Well,I introduced the disc insulator. Yeah.
There are also other partswhich we don't track individually.
I see Like nuts and bolts, for example.
You get a box of nuts and bolts andthey don't have individual serial numbers.
And is the hopethat you will start to track those items.
(11:23):
Well, some is really not neededbecause their design is not decisive
of the final functionality, or–They're not as key to the efficacy
of the larger whole.
Yeah, because maybe they haveso much safety factor where they are
used that in the full tolerance rangethat they could
be, they cannot create an issue.
(11:44):
Right. Right. That makes sense.
So and this is why, we have materialthat is only counted.
So how much of this do we have on stock.
And there is this material
which we are focusing on
now where we really want to knowwhat is the exact identification,
what is the exact detail of whatwe have on stock in order to really track
and trace it backto their manufacturing process.
(12:07):
In this industry,with its very stringent safety measures,
I'd hope faulty productsdon't occur very frequently.
I'm sure we would all hope that.
But if this were to happen, how quicklycan something be traced back and fixed?
Yeah, that's a bit comingback to what I said before.
We have the possibility, oncewe identify a part that has had an issue.
(12:29):
Yeah. As you said,hopefully not too many. Yeah. Right.
And we can associate itto a production time
or to a production batchand then on a fingertip,
find all the other serial numbersthat belong to the same batch.
And that's what is tracking and tracing.
So first we track what is faulty andwhat are the others that might be at risk.
(12:51):
And then we tracewhere did the others end up.
And so in your experience,what is the sort of range of time
that a process like that can takewhen it's an easier problem to fix?
How long does that generally take?
Now in this digitalworld it takes five seconds
And that’s across the
board, even if it's a very complex, faultycomponent, you can do it that quickly?
(13:13):
Yeah, because it's a database behindand you can say, give me all components
from the same batch and the databasespits it out, if you like.
And what if it's a componentthat hasn't been digitalized yet?
You would take the elevator or the lift,go to the archive,
find the right binder,do your thumb cinema and try to find
(13:36):
all the other test reports that belongto the same batch, and then identify
what might be the other components,which we also have to withdraw.
Yeah. So it could take quite a bit longer.
It could take weeks. Yeah. Right.
And in my experienceI have had experience like this
where we had an issue on the customer side
(13:56):
and we had to identifywhich other products are at risk.
And it took us really weeksjust to find out
which are these other productsand where in the world are they installed.
Right.
This is, I think, a good opportunity
for me to ask you about whata Digital Passport is. Yes.
So I've heard the termused, Digital Passport.
What exactly is that and how does it work.
(14:19):
You know, just considerthat these very critical parts
have a passport like our travel passport.
Right. That is a data record.
It's not a piece of paper.
It's a record stored in a databasethat identifies the part,
like our name and our numberon our travel passport identify us.
(14:40):
It may also contain a couple of attributeslike, color of eyes or my height.
Yeah. Right.
And it may also collect eventsduring lifetime,
like visas, or stamps, travel stampswhen you use your travel passport.
Yeah, right.
So basically this data record accompanies
the product like a digital twin a bitif you like.
(15:03):
Accompanies through the entire lifetime.
Sort of like an ID cardthat you're always holding in your pocket.
Yeah.
From the momentyou're created to the moment
you pass on.
Yes. And you can link it –the Digital Passport System
is an add on,if you like, or complementary to what
I introduced at the beginning,the enterprise resource planning,
(15:25):
because we still go by the mainrequirement single source of truth.
So each and every informationshould only be stored at one single point.
So we have a bill of material that remainsin the production planning tool.
Yeah.
But we have now this individualtracking and tracing information
for all the quality datawe collect during assembly.
(15:49):
We make a measurement somewhere.
We see, does a product do its job?
Is it fast enough?
For example, the circuit breaker,is the opening closing fast enough?
We may measure this.
And by capturing all this measurement datain this Digital Passport
close to the product,we can compare it to their siblings.
We can identify.
(16:10):
The simple thingis, is a certain measurement
inside or outside of the tolerance band.
That's the usual.
And you get a yes/no decision,
which may allow you to move onor hinder you from moving on.
But you could also seeam I trending in a negative direction?
Maybe it’s still good,but I'm already trending
in a direction that is not goodif it continues like this.
(16:34):
Right, yeah.
So I imagine you have to bevery aware of patterns that may occur.
Absolutely. But you need the data.
Yeah. Like with the cookies. Yeah.
They may be still good.
But you seethey are becoming browner and browner.
And at some point of timethey will be burnt– So...
If you don't control it. Right.
And if you don't intervene.Absolutely. Yeah.
So how much of that intervention is
(16:56):
digital is left to a digital world or AI?
And how much of that is human interventionat this point?
I would say at this point of time,we collect a lot of data
and then we make downloadsand work with it, with analysis tools.
But we are justat the beginning of a journey,
and that may include more and morealso artificial intelligence.
(17:18):
Right.
That we see the patterns in the recorded
data, maybe with self-learning methods,
maybe identifiedas going into the wrong direction.
Yeah.
So we may find out,or the machine may at some point of time
have better means to find outlittle deviations
than our operators have that compareone data with the other., right.
(17:41):
Right.
It's hard to know at this pointwhich will be more effective.
Is that right?
We don't know.
But we know, example applicationsin other areas which we are now
looking at and see, where can we start,where can we set pilots.
And that's a super exciting journeybecause it opens up
absolutely new possibilities to be earlierin the entire case,
(18:04):
to not clean upafter something has happened, but
to identify issuesbefore they reach a customer.
To avoid– Yeah.
–catastrophe or mistake or... Absolutely.
Because whatever we find in our factory,the repair of it is much more convenient
and cheaper than if we have to do itat a customer side.
(18:25):
Yeah.
And before it's maybe had any interfacewith people and the public.
Absolutely.
You've already touched on thisa little bit just now, but
why is it so relevant to go fully digital?
And are there any downsideswe need to be wary of?
Are there thingsthat should not be digitized in your mind?
First of all, it's speed and dataconsistency.
(18:47):
Speed is obvious.
We talked about it,how fast you can get relations
to other componentsto other material, for example.
Consistency is aboutwhatever is linked digitally
and like a measurement devicethat uploads the measured data digitally.
You don't do typos.
Right.
Though,rather than typing what you measure
(19:09):
with a ruler,you type in the measurement value.
But if that ruler has a digital interface,that cannot be lost.
So that's data integrity.
But of course, you name it –is there a risk?
Yes, of course.
Big data always has a certain riskif it falls into the wrong hands.
Or if there is an opportunityto step in and manipulate.
(19:32):
Right,because it is important to be trusted
and to have trust in the datacollected, is not manipulated, is really
the true unmanipulated data– Is factualand not sort of– Absolutely, yes.
Yeah.
And– Is not sort of laden with bias.
Yeah.
And of course, we don't wantto disclose to our competition
(19:53):
if we have had issues with our engineeringdrawings and, and, and so on.
There's a certain level of privacyyou want to maintain. Absolutely.
And this is why we put a lot of efforton using industry
standard basic toolslike the database in the cloud.
But, with the best technology behindand with the best in class suppliers
(20:13):
that guarantee intrusion protectionand all this cybersecurity activities
so that we don't have to investand develop this our own.
But there we hop on and work with partnerswho know better.
Yeah.
And so if you were to give us a takeawayon why you feel that
Digital Passports are important for us,across the world, across the board,
(20:35):
what would your simple way of telling usabout why they're important?
That's a good question.
Often I hear this question,why do our customers need our Digital
Passports?
My answer is our customersneed reliable products.
They want to sleep well.
They want productsthat don't cause trouble.
And the Digital Passport is a toolfor us to improve quality,
(21:00):
to get feedback for new development,for improvement of products
and by this, make sure that we can offerthe best reliable products.
So it's not about disclosing all the data
to our customersbecause we use it, we improve,
but we are sure that we can react faster
on issues that the customer might have.
(21:23):
We can do better for our productdevelopment and so on and so forth.
So it sort of sounds to me and correct meif I'm wrong as though
the Digital Passport really providesmore support to the consumer.
Is that right?
Yeah.
First of all, to us as a producer,
to make better products and to be fasterin case help is needed.
(21:44):
Yeah, yeah. We have some side effects.
You can download the product documentationfrom this system.
So there are few benefitsalso for customers.
Right.
But basically it'sfor us to be a trusted quality provider.
Right.
To be recognized as a quality leaderand also be transparent and demonstrate
(22:05):
we can show you all datathrough the production process.
We don't hand it outbecause it's also sensitive.
Right. But we are transparent.
You can see it
and you can trust that we work with itand that we work on improvements.
Right.There's transparency within the company.
And then that has a onwardeffect to the consumer and the client.
Exactly, yes. Yeah.
(22:26):
Yeah.
Thomas,thanks so much for joining us today.
You’ve really helped us understand the insand outs of maintaining quality
standards at various stages in high
voltage products,and how this process continues to evolve.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode ofPower Pulse.
Until next time.
And that's it for today.
We'll be back soonwith some more great content.
But before you go,remember to give us a follow
(22:48):
so you don't miss an episode.
Thanks for tuning in. See you soon!
This episode was brought to you by HitachiEnergy.
Createdand introduced by Bárbara Freitas-Daniels.
Content and scriptwriting by Cassandra Inay.
Guest speaker, Thomas Haas.
Hosted by Sam Dash.
Produced and edited by Creative Chimps.
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