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Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
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We sit down with experts, world-changing innovators, creators, and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts, and more.
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Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow's World Today.
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And today we have a special guest.
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His name, Ramsey Hermez.
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Welcome.
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How are you, George?
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I'm very good.
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And he runs a very large company.
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It is called Carlex Glass America.
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We're hoping you're going to share your story with us today.
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I'm excited too.
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Why don't we start off with a little bit of background about the company and if you could run us up to speed on maybe a little history and the size of your organization?
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Yeah, when you look at Carlex Glass, it really began in 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee.
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And that, our largest plant and headquarters, was a former Ford Motor Company glass facility, and that's where they had centralized all their glass production for their vehicles.
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At that time, they were very vertically integrated.
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The business was sold in 2000 and then subsequently had a number of different owners.
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And through Atlas Holdings, we purchased the business in May of 2022.
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And that facility has been exposed to a number of different things from the various economic swings and various challenges.
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And when we bought it, we saw a unique opportunity in this business to do something different.
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And we have a number of facilities.
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This one is our largest and really is the foundation of a fully vertically integrated manufacturing site from raw sand to a finished product.
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And it's the only facility like that in North America.
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So that's a lot that's been accomplished in a short period of time.
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I think it might be really good for our audience to learn a little more about the manufacturing process.
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I mean, you've acquired the company.
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And if you could talk a little bit about that and what does this manufacturing process look like for the common person out there?
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Okay, when you when you think about what we saw with the business, first of all was talent.
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Load full transcript
We were really impressed with the people that we met.
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And anybody can buy capital, but what makes the difference of a piece of equipment, it can be valuable, but what makes it priceless is the talent that runs it.
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Yes.
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And so when we looked at that, we saw a diamond in the rough, something that we can build.
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And when you look at how that business and that process works from a manufacturing for glass, it starts with raw sand.
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And we bring in 12 train loads of sand basically a day.
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Okay.
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And these rail cars come in.
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We're dumping sand in sand, dolomite, soda, ash, iron oxide gets mixed together.
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In 1500 degree Celsius, it's melted, and which is about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit.
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So high temperature environment, the the manufacturing process, it's a basically a five-story, five stories tall.
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Three of it is below ground.
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So we have a basement three stories down, two stories up, and sand comes in with these other ingredients, heated up, floats on a bed of tin, and this is why it's called float glass, and it rides on this tin, it's slowly pulled through like a ribbon, and then it's heated up, it's then it's slowly cooled down after it gets mixed through, and then cut and shaped post.
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And so the the line is about a quarter mile long, and it runs, the piece of equipment runs for 15 years nonstop.
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If we don't have use for the glass, we crush it, which you don't want to do.
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So you always want to have a use for it.
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But the equipment never stops.
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And so you're pulling basically 17 miles of glass a day, we make.
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And when we talk about when somebody says, Well, how do I quantify 17 miles?
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It would basically be putting, if you've seen the entire Empire State Building, it would basically be resurfacing with glass the Empire State Building every day, 365 days a year for 15 years.
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So it is it's a very complicated process, but we've been making glass for thousands of years in in different forms over another.
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But it is uh it's really exciting when you see what we do.
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It's interesting because like like a lot of products, it's like a special recipe.
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You know, when you first started the description, it's like it maybe for baking, you know, you have your flour, you have all your other goodies you put in there, and then you bake it.
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In this situation, it's another recipe, right?
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And uh do you how often would you change a recipe?
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Or is it so perfect, do you leave it the way it is because there are certain specs?
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Well, you're trying to accomplish different things for different pieces of glass.
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And so color matters.
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How the glass is going to perform, the thickness from how you how you manage that, and how you give it various strength and cr criticality to the performance.
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So we walk through the glass making process, but then we take that glass to make a windshield, a side light, a backlight, and then it goes through a number of other pieces where that glass is cut and ground, then it is bent, so it's heated up again, and then it's formed into a shape, and then it goes through various lamination processes, and and so there's a number of steps to get it to the optical quality that you need for a windshield.
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It's interesting because I don't think most people think about optical quality as an important feature when they're buying a car, let's say, and they're looking through that glass.
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A lot of people just assume it's gonna be clear.
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Can you talk a little more about that?
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A windshield has changed over the years.
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If you let's say a decade, 15 years ago or so, it really was just about seeing through it.
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And it was more of a protectant, so it was a windshield.
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It really is becoming more of a wind screen because there is more and more that's happening on that windshield.
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It's not just to keep, you know, the wind or the bugs from hitting you.
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It is now part of an active part of the vehicle performance.
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It is part about car cabin comfort.
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So the acoustic capabilities, there's acoustic capabilities designed into the windshield and different inner layers that you may not are invisible to the eye, but that are in there between the two pieces of glass.
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Your heads-up display.
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So the optical quality when you look at that, your ADOS systems, your safety systems, your automatic braking, your lane departure, your rain sensors, all those are built into the windshield.
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And why having the original equipment windshield is so important.
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And it's years of development.
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It's structural.
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So the in an accident, how the windshield performs and how it's part of the body.
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And now we have more complex roofs.
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So panoramic roofs are part of your vehicle.
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And that again is structural.
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It is not just a a a piece of art on your car.
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It is actually helps the rigidity and the performance of your vehicle.
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You know, the as you're speaking about this, I'm thinking about one of my cars has a H U, you know, a heads-up display.
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Right.
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And it's it's a little older now, but that tech when it first came out, it was very it just amazed people's minds, right?
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Right.
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Where it's gone today, and I I'd like to talk a little bit about you know, you're bringing up other communication features that are being displayed into the glass, among other things.
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So I'm curious.
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Can you talk a little bit about research and development and how do projects come into CarLex so that you know what the car manufacturers are going to want in advance?
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So the the innovation process, something obviously you're very familiar with, actually is it's multiple years, it's two or three years before the vehicle is even launched.
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So the brainstorming on what the consumer needs, you know, everything is safety is paramount.
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The first thing you start with is the safety of the piece of glass and how does it integrate to ensure safety of the vehicle.
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And then you start thinking about what does a consumer want and need.
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And when you look at, um, let's say for a roof, having a switchable roof, having it clear when you want to look up to the sky, having it dark when it maybe you you want your kids in the backseat to fall asleep.
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And having that switchable glass is important.
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On the windshield, and when we look at augmented reality, and and and take a step forward to an autonomous vehicle where you don't need a driver, you actually the piece of glass can serve as a different function.
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It could be augmented reality, it could be a TV screen, so you can sit back in the car and watch TV since you're not, you know, you have autonomous driving.
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And so what you're looking at and developing in the windshield is as much as you can imagine a TV can do, and what what you watch on a TV is the potential that we could be doing on a windshield.
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And those are the types of things that we're doing for working on vehicles of tomorrow.
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That is what that that's actively what's happening.
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That's exciting.
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It really is, actually.
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For a product you don't necessarily think about.
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Right.
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Something that originally started as a device to stop the bugs from, you know, and the and the wind from, you know, hitting you as as vehicles increased in speed.
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Right.
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But yeah, to see the differences today and to hear you talk about these new technologies, it's it's an exciting world.
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And it sounds like you're pioneering a lot.
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So where are you finding these pioneers to add to your factory?
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Trevor Burrus, Jr.
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It's our engineering department, it's what happens in the factories, it it it happens throughout the organization.
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And and part of w when we bought the business, it was creating a new culture, a culture of innovation.
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And how do you look at a business problem in a creative manner?
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So as much as we'll we talk about innovation in in a product, it's also innovation in our services, it's innovation in how we do work, it's innovation in how we're organized, because it all creates every dollar that we free up, we're putting back into capital, equipment, new tech new technology, putting it back into our engineering labs.
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And so it's kind of a little bit of word of mouth.
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We our team is global, while our manufacturing is 100% in the United States, and something that we believe strongly in, and we've actually continued to invest and bring manufacturing to the U.S.
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We've won business that was ex somebody else was importing into, we won it with new c new customers, and we're manufacturing it here in the United States.
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So that's that's important to us.
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But our engineering team is global.
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A lot of advanced technology and glass happens in Europe.
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So we wanted to get people who are on the forefront of that.
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We have a strong European team of engineers that are headquartered in in Italy that are designing, they are looking to the future, and then how do we localize that technology with the team here and bring some pretty creative products forward?
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Well, you know, innovative products.
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One of my folks were telling me about windshields could potentially have a power source or become a power source.
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Could you talk a little bit about that?
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Is that accurate?
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So that is accurate.
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So it's photovoltaic and it would be what you would put on your roof of your
car.
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So if you think about a solar panel on the roof of your home, think about that on your vehicle.
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So as your your vehicle's out there being able to create energy that could charge your battery or help extend range of an electric vehicle, because while the roof may not be enough to completely recharge the battery, it could run your AC unit or it could run your stereo system.
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So it can support the production.
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So that technology, we have it.
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We're developing it, you know, further developing it to commercialize it.
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Because you know better than most, innovation in itself is a great thing, but the ability to commercialize it and making it manufacturable and repetitive.
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I mean, this is something that when when we design a windshield, we're designing it for the life of a vehicle, which could be 15-20 years.
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So the the the OEM wants a very robust product, wants it to perform over time under a wide range of thermal conditions.
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I mean, you think about that car's gotta perform in in a desert environment and it's gotta perform in the coldest of environments.
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You know, the more I think about, you know, how you're talking about energy and how it can go into a windshield, in general, it's technology and innovation, as you're saying.
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Sometimes the jump from thought or need, you know, requires a lot of experimentation, right?
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And that process of prototyping and failing your way forward to identify how to manufacture something at scale, at a price that the market will absorb and see the benefits of.
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Is that a part of the formula as to how you look at innovation?
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As is it scalable?
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Can I fill a need that is not being filled by competitors currently to give me an advantage?
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Can you paint a bit of a picture as to the thinking from your office as you're shaping your investment?
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Is that part of it?
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It is.
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So if you think of the the role of the CEO, in many cases it's around allocation of resources.
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How do you decide where you should split your time, talent, and treasure of your team?
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And when you look at what we do from a development standpoint, it is trying to understand one, what are what our competitors are doing, what is the market looking for, and then is there a white space or a gap that the market's underserved served or the consumers underserved?
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And that is a big part of how we start.
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So it's looking at the products, it's it's experimenting, and failure is a good thing.
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And and how do you how do you promote the, you know, really a fail fast?
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I mean, so you don't want to work on a bad idea for a real long time.
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So if it's not making progress or you don't see something, you know, one of these things is fail fast, fail frequently is in a case of any development, but then how do we how do we find what we're doing?
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And then once you have a great idea, and once you make some prototypes, once you experiment with it, then you have to look at the you have a product idea, then how do you tie process technology?
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Yes.
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And so a lot of our innovation is not only in the product, but it is in creating a repeatable process that we can make millions of units on that will perform every time.
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And what we're also driving is traceability all the way back.
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So we can know what's happening in a piece of equipment.
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A year in the past, go back and say, okay, we had this product, we made it.
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What was the temperatures of the ovens?
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What were what was the bending?
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What was the tooling?
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We have that traceability, that's part of our manufacturing process.
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That makes sense.
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So you're able to look at analytics, so to speak, and find out if you can find that sweet spot on volume down the line, temperature that you got your best performance, et cetera, et cetera.
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Lowest scrap rate, highest throughput, highest yield.
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Yes.
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And a lot of this is done through simulation.
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So we've spent uh a lot of those dollars have been in our ability to simulate and and look at and take the math and the data, and this is where AI comes into play from analytics and looking at a mass amount of data that we get from a piece of equipment.
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How do we take that to find out how different things relate to each other?
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So the speed of the the oven with the throughput, the temperature, what was the thickness of the glass, for example, all this comes back to say, can you increase the yield a little bit?
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Can you can you m push it through the process a little bit faster?
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Is there a way to reduce scrap?
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Yes.
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Uh Ramsey, I like this interview because uh, you know, the a lot of the thinking you're doing, I'm doing as well with our organization.
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Very different companies.
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But that same kind of thinking is going on.
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Right.
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Yeah, best allocation, we're scaling, innovation.
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And so the understand how you're doing it sounds very familiar.
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Um thank you for sharing that with the So let's uh if we could talk to the audience in a different way for a moment.
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Just kind of like project out beyond where you are today, if you could.
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What should we come to expect windshields to be in the future?
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I do see it as that windscreen.
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I I see it as an active part of the consumer, the the drivers, or in this case, maybe the passengers experiencing a vehicle.
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And it won't necessarily be in only a car, but it could be in a bus, it could be in an airplane.
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That your piece of glass, when you look at that screen, you have a certain image.
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And you can watch the show, you can watch tomorrow's world today on a screen as you're coming into the office, as your car's driving you.
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And that interactive, the passenger next to you would be looking at the same screen, but have a different vision.
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It can be done because of angle that you're sitting, how you're approached, and so it's going to be a very interactive part of the vehicle for the passenger, for the rider.
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But also, again, all your ADOS systems, your automatic braking, your lane departure, all those are housed inside that piece of glass.
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So the safety part of glass is so critical, and how it's used in the vehicle architecture is critical for the consumer.
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So we're gonna drive in an autonomous vehicle, you are gonna drive faster, you're gonna drive closer to each other because the vehicles are gonna be talking to each other.
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The ability to have that optic clarity, the optical clarity in that piece of glass is gonna be only more critical.
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The ability to make sure that it performs and it has the strength and it has the integrity, the acoustics are gonna be important.
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And so it is going to be an exciting part of it.
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And then you think about that's the windscreen.
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Then you have the roof, and then to be able to have a switchable glass or be able to lean back in your seat and project on the ceiling or the ceiling of your car, again, will also be part of it.
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If you want to look at the stars, if you want to understand the constellation, you can do interactive things on your windshield as well.
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And these are technologies we're working on already, and some of them, not all the way to the extent I've described, but are in process or in prototype or customers' OEMs are are looking at looking at them.
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Trevor Burrus, Jr.
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Ramsey, that is so exciting.
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It is.
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I mean, it's never did I think this is what I'd be involved in, but it is pretty cool.
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Aaron Powell You know, for a product that's been around a long time, it's it's really advancing quickly.
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And I uh that's exciting to me.
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I think our audience are gonna find that very exciting in the future.
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Aaron Ross Powell And and one of the things, George, is it's not only what we're doing on the original equipment side of a piece of glass, but also when you replace a piece of glass.
00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:39.599
And unfortunately, this is a product that is designed to last the life of the vehicle.
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:45.759
So if you have your car 10, 12 years, 15 years, this windshield is designed to perform to that level.
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:47.839
It is designed with that robustness.
00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:54.640
The camera bracket stays in place, the sound quality that it it it manages, it is all designed.
00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:59.759
Unfortunately, a rock from some a truck in front of you can hit and break your windshield.
00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:13.200
And this is where we, from our perspective, and what I would always tell a consumer is to replace your glass with the original piece, original equipment brand in piece of glass.
00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:17.440
Because there's only one piece of glass that was completely designed for your vehicle.
00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:26.960
You talked about your heads-up display, to have it so it doesn't ghost that it's crisp crisp and clear, the sound quality that goes into the acoustics.
00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:33.839
I mean, how many times I've heard from friends where they replace a piece of glass and they say, My car seems louder.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:45.759
And it because the OEM piece of glass, and they didn't use the OEM piece of glass, and they heard a TV commercial and they they replaced the glass with, you know, just without understanding.
00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:46.160
Yes.
00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:51.279
And they recognize that the OEM piece of glass was acoustically tuned to your car.
00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:54.880
So your hands free device is clearer.
00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:59.759
So when an OEM goes through in that years of development, is making sure that.
00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:04.319
It's how do your windshield wipers interface with that piece of glass?
00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:08.240
How does your stereo system interface with that piece of glass?
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:09.920
That's all part of replacement.
00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:23.680
And running all the experiments, the failure way forward as fast as you can.
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:34.319
That all takes a lot of commitment, talent, capital, and you know, there are always these lower, I'll just call it knockoff companies, the way we refer to them.
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.079
They're really not doing innovation.
00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:40.160
They're just trying to copy as best they can and and go at price.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:45.039
So I the value of getting the glass the way it's supposed to makes sense to me.
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:45.519
Right.
00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:54.079
I mean it it's they they fit the hole, but there's so much more than protect, as we said, before a piece of glass was a shield.
00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:54.640
Right.
00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:57.519
Now it's actually a safety item.
00:22:57.519 --> 00:22:59.119
It's a performance item.
00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:04.319
It's part of the quality that when you bought your car, you want to bring your car back.
00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:12.319
And and yes, sometimes you have to work with your insurance company to remind them on the quality and the importance, the safety of your family in that vehicle.
00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:12.480
Yes.
00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:14.960
And you want the OEM car the product.
00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.519
And you can tell the OEM because it'll have that brand.
00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:24.160
It will have the brand of the car company that you bought would be on the windshield, or maybe it'd have some other branding on it.
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:26.880
But there is a way to tell that you get the OEM product.
00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:27.920
And you should insist on it.
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:28.160
Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:32.480
Yeah, you know, I don't think I'm glad you're bringing it up because I don't think most people know that.
00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:38.079
They just see the ad, like you said, and they whatever it is, they just think a windshield is a windshield, and it's not like that.
00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:38.720
Aaron Ross Powell Right.
00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:50.160
And part of you know the great thing about what you do, and from a standpoint of communicating to students as well as communicating to us adults is the difference to help educate us.
00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:56.400
And so this is part of educating the consumer, one to understand what's in your windshield.
00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.559
Most people don't realize behind your rear view mirror there's that big camera bracket.
00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:17.599
Cameras are back there, heating elements are back there, that it actually is part of the performance and the robustness, the sound quality, the color of the glass is tuned to the the the HVAC system for your car.
00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:27.680
So if somebody says the glass is too clear, actually it makes the interior of your car work harder because it's not there's a color to it.
00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:36.960
And if it's too clear in an aftermarket, a generic knockoff, as you said, if it's too warm, then all of a sudden your HVAC system has to work harder.
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:40.960
And then if you're driving an EV, it's consuming your battery.
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:51.599
So then, like people have said, my car seems louder because I put in an aftermarket, my bat also my battery range seems less because the HVAC system's working harder.
00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:59.440
And the problem is you're you think it's your car, it was your windshield that you put in that was an aftermarket or a generic windshield.
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:04.480
And so I always tell people don't be fooled by creative marketing or advertising.
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:08.799
Request, demand that your vehicles replace with the OEM windshield.
00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:10.400
Well, you've opened my eyes.
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:12.559
And thanks for being on our show today.
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Thank you.
00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:13.599
It's been great.
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It's been a pleasure.
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Well, everybody, that's another edition of Tomorrow's World Today, and we'll see you next time.
00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:24.720
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.
00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:31.039
Join us next time as we continue to explore the worlds of inspiration, creation, innovation, and production.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:39.920
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