Hello, welcome everyone to Manufacturing Wellness, meeting challenges holistically, responsibly, and with purpose with Sandvik Coromant. We're here to explore incredible achievements of our customers using Sandvik Coromant's latest cutting tool technology, as well as some other aspects of the company. I'm your host, my name is Keith Brake. I am currently the regional product manager for Turning Tools Sales Area America for Sandvik Coromant. I've been with Sandvik for almost six years, but I've been in the industry for 32. I've been a metal cutter since my 16th birthday, so that sounds a little strange to say, but that's the gray in the beard, and that's the experience. So 32 years in the field. Today, I'm joined by Caleb Termorhuizen from Solventum. Caleb, welcome. You want to tell us a little about yourself? Yeah, Keith, thanks for having me on. Really appreciate this. Yeah, my name is Caleb, and I work for Solventum. Some may know us as previously we were three in healthcare, but over the past year, we transitioned to our own standalone company. And, yeah, so the brand that I represent is Litman Stethoscopes. So that is all of the turning that we do here in Columbia, Missouri. So, yeah, we like to say we're making better, smarter healthcare that improves lives. Yeah, and when you say you make Litman Stethoscopes, what you're really saying is you turn all of the world's Litman Stethoscopes. Is that a correct statement? Yeah, that's correct. We turn it all here and really have a lot of pride in doing so. Yeah. So, Caleb, you 3M previously and Solventum, a pretty good track record being a Sandvik Coromant customer. We've had a decent relationship in the past. But as business will and as the market does, it forced an evolution for you guys and Solventum. And we had an opportunity to be part of this important evolution. So we took something that we were maybe sort of a passive aspect of your manufacturing, and we were able to transition that into something that I believe is a very active part of your manufacturing process. So I think it's extremely exciting what you guys have been able to do. I think I'm proud to have been part of it. That's kind of one of the underlying things here for me. This was one of my last tasks as a turning specialist before I transitioned into this role. So I do have a little bit of attachment to what you have going on here. But can you kind of walk us through this evolution and, you know, what were your complications? What were the high points and how was Sambic able to help you get to where you need to be? Yeah, you know, just the great thing was we were really, we were strapped for capacity. And so as we were looking for increased capacity, we were talking about capital expenditure, bringing in new lathes, really expanding the room. But due to floor constraints and stuff, we couldn't really expand anymore. And so we looked at what can you do and improving our cycle time was really the best option. So that's really where you guys came in. And we had some grooving operations that we know we wanted to see an improvement in. And working with our local Sandvik rep, shout out Joe, we were able to find a really cool solution. And yeah, you guys came on site and helped us implement a dynamic roughing path, which saved us a tremendous amount. But that really started, I would say, like a waterfall effect. And we just started seeing what else was out there. And yeah, it led to this really cool partnership that we've had with you guys and developing this next product, the QD. We've enjoyed using it. You know, it's been a tremendous benefit to us. Every part we make, we have to do a cutoff. And yeah, this is about a 4.5% to 5% process improvement on every single part we make. So it's been tremendous and really improves the capacity of our room. Yeah. And to kind of put that in perspective for the audience who might not understand the impact of 5% on every part that you make, that eliminated the conversation of the CapEx, right? There was no more conversation of new machinery. That's how large and significant that this impact was to your process. Now, from the Coromant side, there's some things about that tool that you held up, Caleb, that we're proud of. That is a stock standard tool because of Solventum's commitment to the process. But the commitment didn't happen without the proper team atmosphere, the proper partnership, the comprehensive nature of which we were working together. You guys were already married to a parting and grooving system for parting off these components that you make. So what was it that set Sandvik Coromant apart and made you go with our system versus a system you were already basically married to? Yeah. You know, we were already, like you said, we're really convinced that two millimeters is where we need to be. We saw a big improvement from going from a three millimeter to a two millimeter in our yield. And so the thing that set you guys apart was, one, the speed that we can run at. You know, we can run this QD tool twice, two and a half times as fast as we could our traditional shank cutoff from the competitor. And, you know, the other thing was we already had a relationship with you. You know, we trusted you. We knew that if we had some technical problem that there is going to be a hard way around, we could rely on you. We could call you up. We're going to get service that, you know, we knew we had that background with you. And yeah, just made the decision a lot easier. And, you know, from as far as like a manufacturing standpoint, we want to standardize as much as we can. And finding our partners, that was, yeah, just made sense to go with Sandvik Coromant. Yeah. And you've touched upon something with that answer, Caleb, that is, it's a very passionate subject for me. It's, you know, people who know me, they know that I will say our competition is, they are very, very good. I will never take anything away from our competition. We all have excellent tools in the marketplace. But it's that partnership. It's that comprehensive support. It's the extra mile that, that Sandvik Coromant offers that I truly believe sets us apart from everyone else in today's market. Because if it's just a tool, then it's just a tool. Everybody's on the same playing field. But if it's a tool, plus Joe Toley, plus all the support that Joe bring to become something much different at that point, I feel. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Can't really replace the human factor there. You know, we need the support just like everybody else does. And we've got limited resources here. So knowing that we had a trusted partner in the industry and somebody with as comprehensive as a tool list, we don't just buy Y-axis cutters from you guys. You know, we buy everything. And it's a great place. And it's a great resource to have to know that, yeah, if I need an end mill, the same guy that's going to sell me an end mill, same guy that's going to support my end mill, same guy that's going to help me implement a brand new tool to the world. So it's just great. Yeah. Can you briefly tell us about that evolution? Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, we worked hard to make sure that our drawings and everything was going to be unaffected by the tooling changes that we made. But, yeah, we were able to really to challenge the status quo within our internal systems for, well, what's an acceptable change to make? And so one of those was switching over to using Sandvik through coolant drills on some of our operations. And we even had some technical challenges with the geometry. And you guys hooked us up with a nice end mill and we're able to know a little slack to give us some good geometry to start drilling on. So that was a place that we couldn't get you guys in before because we had some constraints and there wasn't a 1164th drill that I really wanted. So now that, you know, those constraints, we got out of those from our internal systems improvements. We were able to, yeah, rely on the tools that we were already using in other parts of the operation using Sandvik. And it just made a big difference. We're significantly faster and we're significantly more cost effective because we break less tools and we have longer tool life. Great. Yeah. Awesome. So part of what we touch upon with this new vodcast, which, by the way, you are the premier number one member of this or the number one guest of this, right? So, which means this is my first time hosting one as well. So part of what we talk about here on this vodcast is how this ties into our new way of working and our new message to our market, manufacturing wellness. So we're going to talk about three different aspects of manufacturing wellness that this situation, this partnership, this evolution that Solventum has gone through actually helps exemplify. And I think we can start here with, you know, one aspect of manufacturing wellness is embracing technology. It's very obvious the new technologies that you've embraced, but I mean, pretty point blank, Caleb, if you were resistant to technology, how much of this would have been possible? Yeah. Yeah. If we weren't willing to change the systems that we're already using, you know, we've been making stethoscopes for a very long time. We've been using some of the same tools for a very long time. If we weren't willing to embrace, you know, going to a new 860 drill for some of our operations, if we weren't willing to embrace, you know, finding a two millimeter cutter, yeah, we would be risking the, we'd be risking just falling behind our competition. And so knowing that there's a lot at stake there and knowing the market that we're in, we had to be competitive. And so we would risk, I think, you know, the capital at least, and then at worst, our marketplace. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's an interesting point that you make there and one that some may not always consider. You know, it's, you have competition as well, right? All of our customers have competition. So it's all about finding this holistic balance to be as productive as you can while maintaining control of what you're doing. So, you know, new technology can assist with that in a very large way as long as we understand how to control it. Do you have any more thoughts on embracing new technology before we move to the second point that we've chosen for today? Yeah. And, you know, I think new technology, I think if you're not going to adapt, you're going to be left behind. You know, we've seen lots of really cool and innovative tools from, you know, 20 years ago. We just don't use them anymore. We had to adapt and there's better grades, there's better drills, there's better end mills. And if you're not willing to adapt, you know, somebody else will and they will eat your lunch. Yeah. And that's, that's really what it's all about. Agility, flexibility, maintaining contact with the market, what the current needs are, understanding your market. This all plays into what we all do every day. Excellent point. And I'm, I'm, I'm happy that you brought it up because it's one that I think often goes a little overlooked. We get so focused on the technology of things and shop rat like myself, you know, I can talk to you about feed rates and all these things, but there's a business aspect that goes with this as well. And kind of to that point and something that is really close to the Sandvik core values is sustainability. And you guys obviously have a sustainability push as well, because part of how you arrived at this two millimeter wide parting insert was for the simple elimination of waste. Right. I mean, because this, when you first made this choice, you were not gaining productivity improvement for this. You were simply eliminating waste. So can you expand upon that part of your manufacturing wellness journey? How, how important is the elimination of waste to solve end? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's almost paramount. You know, when, when we look at what does it take to manufacture our goods, the largest component of that is our raw material costs. And so there's been just a tremendous push to see productivity improvements, but the productivity improvements kind of don't matter if you just waste a bunch of material. And honestly, that's the big cost. So as we made that improvement, you know, we were able to get a couple extra parts per bar out. That, that really starts paying for itself quickly. And coupled with the fact that, you know, we get better tool life out of this QD tool than we do with the rest of the competition. It's like, we get, we use less carbide. We use, we, we waste less material. You know, I have to buy less steel because I'm using it better now. That's a huge waste reduction right there. I don't have to put it on a truck and ship it halfway across the country. Yeah. There's, there's just, there's waste at every corner. And when you really optimize your, your process, you just, you just eliminate all of those things. So, yeah, I mean, I could go on for a really long time about, about all the benefits of, of seeing improvements in your machining process. But yeah, just some of those, like we're throwing less in the bin and we're keeping more going straight to our customers. So, yeah. And to, to put this in perspective for some who might not understand the magnitude of this, they think, oh, a couple of parts here and there. This translates into truckloads of steel over the course of a fiscal year, right? I mean, this is not. Thousands and thousands of pounds. Right. That's the kind of volumes we're talking with, with the, with the stethoscopes. And of course you don't get money from your customers. No one buys a scrap stethoscope from you. So the more, the more you get off the machine straight to the customer, as you say, you know, you're, you're much happier. So you've increased your, your hard profit, right? You've, you've decreased your soft costs. There's a lot going on here with, with elimination of waste. And then the third topic that we chose to, to chat about, we, we've talked about it. It's been a thread through our entire conversation. Can you just expand one more time in your own words on the benefit from strong partnerships and, you know, how, how important is it now to solve Vintom here on the 19th of November versus where it was last year, the first time that we came through your door for a sit down. How, how has your view changed and how important is that partnership now? Yeah. You know, one, one of the, one of the motifs that, that we've had to fight is, uh, well, it's, it's been like this for a long time. And so why would we change? You know, when, when I look back at that, um, I, I think I see a lot of fear behind those words and, and rather than being afraid of what's, what's out there and trying to protect what you have, you know, we, we were just trying, we're trying to go at all angles of this. You know, I don't know what I don't know. My master machine is, he doesn't know what he doesn't know. And so rather than sitting there in fear or trying to protect that, that old school mentality of, well, if anybody else knows, then I'm less valuable. That's not how it works. You know, we're trying to do a holistic change that is going to drive our business forward. And so I, I can't spend all day knowing everything there is to know about tooling. I can't spend all day knowing everything there is to know about, you know, speeds and fees and all of this stuff. I need to know enough that I can ask the right questions. But at the end of the day, I really need to rely on the people who already know this, who already want to help us. That's the other thing. Like we, we have people who are, who are really willing to, and it's part of their job description to show up and help us deliver cost savings. So it just makes the, the, the question of, should I do this? It's like, why haven't we? So it's made it easy, made it easy to, to bring you guys in and made it easy because we've seen the results. Yeah. And I guess just a real pointed question. How often do you consider something new without involving your Sandvik Coromant rep now? Very, very seldomly at this point. Yeah. We just had, we just had a rep visit last week and yeah, it was just really good. We got to talk through some of the ideas that we had and, you know, there's, there's some new ideas thrown out that were very outside of the box. So pretty excited to, to explore those and see what that's going to do for our process. So, yeah, I mean, at this point, if I need something, I'm just texting Joe. So, yeah. So it's, it's, and that's exciting for me to hear because it's always, I think, I think the ultimate win that we can have, that any business can have is to become a functioning extension of your clients. And it seems to me based upon our conversation that, that we're, we, the two of us, we've, we found that, we found that balance. So, Caleb, I appreciate you being here. Thanks for being our very first guest on the, on the new vodcast. And thanks for putting up with me and directly answering the questions. I'm excited to hear the, the success that, that you guys are having. And I'm, I'm even more excited to hear about how we're able to support you comprehensively and, and be a true valued partner. So Caleb, again, thank you. And I appreciate your time today. Yeah. Thank you so much, Keith. Have a great rest of your day. Yeah. You too, Caleb. We'll talk soon. And, uh, and for those of you who are listening in again, my name is Keith. I appreciate the time that you've spent with us and, uh, we hope you'll come back to, uh, see us again for our next episode of the manufacturing wellness podcast. Thanks everyone.