commerce we are very thankful to our sponsors the first one can't record management they sponsor coffee time this morning they actually have provided our first door prize for the evening they are offering twenty five dollars and a gift certificate and chocolates and we already have our first winner t score design print and mail you of one that door prize so come up and collect that at the end of our program today both in terms of programming and community involvement amazing to see how many of you show up to a seven o'clock or early bird breakfast really only in west michigan winter norcross and we are the second largest michigan based law firm and we are the largest law firm headquartered in west michigan we have eight offices about two hundred thirty attorneys and over seven thousand clients and then you whom are in the room sure are each and so we are thankful to be able to come here and help support  er and other organizations like the chamber through volunteer afterwards and other leaders ship roles and our financial means so thank you for joining in the effort and being with us today valentine's day version of the tickets today do you have any valentine's day birthdays this morning anyone here celebrating wedding anniversaries that anyone was anyone brave enough to get married on valentine's day do we have any anniversaries today we have a second birthday we have controversy folks i apologize between scott and kim we need to figure out which one of you is the youngest and you will be the winner of that do we have any on no nobody on the fourteenth do we have any wedding anniversaries this week in the back sir yes the seven is that any one closer than that we have th morning everyone so happy to have a full house today at your place is a listing of all of our upcoming events such a can look at that you'll see many more things happening yet this month and early in march i want to introduce to you today two very special people to the chamber we have two new staff members first i'd like to ask dan norm campbell this is just enormous just a gift to the chamber he came into our office about three months ago and said i'd like to volunteer for the chamber for membership so i just retired as a bank president from northern michigan i moved to holland have a great quality of life here can evolve this time of year can i help out the chamber and so about a month later i said this is crazy you practically moved and let's put you on the payroll so nervous our latest and then our other new employees a very familiar face to the chamber of former chamber of acid herbivore of our current leadership class and that's jodi arias our city many of you know jodi from her time there at evergreen commons at network site and now as at the chamber a and you will see us all in red today because we are celebrating that we love our members so happy to have you with us on valentine's day and i'd like to ask up more of all of the accident find she's got a special  jane so who is accident we are the interest workers comp carrier for the chamber and we've been partnering with the chamber since two thousand and five to offer benefits to all of you as members of those benefits include a five percent upfront savings which sometimes can pay for your membership itself access to our work safe as well as a potential for a dividend payout based on the overall group's performance this year we are pleased to announce that we're returning fifteen percent back and with that being said jane i'd like to present this check to chamber members for two hundred fifteen thousand four hundred forty one dollar chamber building and then the after picture if you've been driving past and place close to a year ago david ball from t m p said i promise we will design a building that you will love and they have gone above and beyond on that so as you are starting to drive past now you will see what we're calling the lantern of light what's the new sky like in our building we sometimes call it the bow tie and the bow tie effect from the skylight the building is coming along just absolutely fabulous lee it's on time on budget and we have much twenty four for more than days so a lot of parties to come but keep an eye on what's happening in the chamber thank you thank you i think very much jay without further ado our guest speaker this morning brian jones is the chief executive officer ajay automation technology is there a leading capital equipment designer integrator and manufacturer based right here in holland brian jo february of ninety ninety six this is his twenty first year with the company previously served as the v p of sales and chief technology officer before he was appointed c e o in two thousand and fourteen although about g r automation they automation is changing our world i mean it is a big topic that being said we have a clicker let's spend just a second talking about west coast chamber i think we're really last in this because we've got some organizations like west coast chamber that really reach out into your business community in our community at large and connect us provide opportunities like this today where we can listen to hopefully what is  also throughout the year to connect us with all kinds of events in your lap and some of the things that have happened recently it is unique in this area and i think it's certainly a blessing for us special things as well to do hey we're center i'm going to stay out of here we're cent that we have three great organizations that reach into business community and help us in many ways as far as connecting us with each other as well as through local and state government providing in seven all kinds of other things i think what's unique about west michigan area is how well we work in concert with those people and how well they work in concert with each other and had an opportunity to have be in some other areas throughout the country where we're doing some expansion and looking at other sites  oldfield if you're not connected with these organizations i highly recommend that you reach out and get connected it's just amazing what they can do for you please look into so what is automation if you do a google search on it in point substantive point six seven seconds you will come up with one hundred twenty four million answers as to what automation is there are a lot of different definitions my dictionary as to what automation is you can look at the more you look the more you'll find all kinds of different things and it's important to acknowledge that automation means a lot of different things to a lot of different people whether you're in the banking industry whether it construction or whether you're building parts for automotive food processing all the motion of the automation is something different and and it's ok great everybody's got a different perspective it means something different for everyone so i just want to make sure that we all have that in context for today's discussion we're going to be looking at it from the perspective of devices machine software that eases or moves us from the task at hand automation is all about taking away task from us so that we can focus on other things that are more important whether it's washing the dishes whether it's doing laundry whether it's driving in the mail in a piece of wood there are all kinds of different forms of automation that are available today and that we use every day that's already affecting our life there are some neat things headed our way technology is moving very quickly we'll talk about some of those things and try to show some examples of that why do we automate a lot of business owners in this room right we are made for productivity reasons we want to do more with less we want to make sure that we're using our happen all effectively we want to make sure that we're using our human resource that we have effectively and the we're using them with the talent sets that they have available we want to make sure that the a part that is not up to standards as we've seen from a number of recalls who recently what what turns out to be a very simple thing can devastate a company so certainly automate from an overall quality perspective and  safety it's a wonderful thing to be able to go to work it's also a wonderful thing to be able to come home from work but all those things add up for opportunity and automation provides a way for us to generate more opportunity with under different business segments and within the products that we produce so we've got a couple of videos that we're going to show and we're heaters and technology the first video that we're going to show is kind of the current state of automation some of the things that are currently going on  our floor and want to talk to that this would be automation that that this today's standard if you will of automation there's a lot of things going on here you can see that there is robots that would be moving parts from one station to  another there are a number of things going on from an overall sensor point of view where the quality of the part is being checked through every one of the operations all that information is then the two to an overall control system that control system that is making decisions based on what happened in the previous operation as to what needs to happen in the next operation if you look you can see the robots obviously moving things in and around but you also see a lot of what is what i put hard tool  pieces and parts have to be of a certain caliber of quality and consistency but the overall scope of the automation that is today  the things we do is all so good but in general automation works within a given parameter of parts that the device that you see in front of you now starts to move that envelope a little bit where you're working with something that is not as consistent as a given part with a given tolerance a bag you can about imagine all the different things that it can do or potentially do using vision system tied with robotic system to pick up a piece of or a box of candy in this case and then the collaborative robot taking that bag fully and shut and presenting it to the person that's requested it so so that's kind of the the state the current state of automation some of the different things that are going on from from that overall perspective so you can see there's there's a lot of need technology as an integrator jarrett mission builds bridges between a number of different technologies to bring those all together into a system that provides a function definition if you will that goes along with that if we move to our next video this is moving a little bit more towards future state some of the things that are happening within automation we'll kind of talk through some of the things are going on here how many people are here are familiar with boston dynamics so hopefully if you don't have a number if you haven't had an opportunity go online and take a look at some of the youtube videos that are available but show off some of the things that they're currently doing you can see in this situation they have a ton of i used if you will a robot that is walking through a snow covered field forest woods or you can see obviously very uneven train train that is slippery and you can see that the device not only is making its way through that as it is directed to but it's also accounting for variations in the traction it's getting on the ground it's balance it's able to maintain itself and this is where we're going so there's a number of different sensors if you will that this device is employing and you can see the bridges between the technology is getting much much smaller the devices the sensors the pieces and parts are becoming much more connected with one another and that the magic if you will this is how all those things coming together f where the technology is going here is working with a coworker can see the system is very adaptive it's able to account for what's going on around and it's very willing to take advantage of the sea to ation and do what is require so the other thing that i encourage you to consider is that this is multiple year old videos the stuff that we're seeing online today the things that we see and you too the things that we're talking about so so that's one example of where the technology's going i want to show another video from the boston dynamics that kind of puts it into a little bit different perspective as far as interaction and i said i really encourage you to go online and take a look at some of the stuff that's out there right now there are some amazing things online that are that people are showing off in this situation you know everybody's most people have a dog dogs are wonderful things th and you can see he's taking the body out with him as well but again if you take a look at the overall technology that's coming together here when they first started showing these kinds of things they had cords tethered to him because they couldn't generate enough power on board to make it happen and in the way to a situation where they actually had a motor on it with a generator and now all that is replaced with battery technology so that the technologies are all continue to come out the sensors are coming up the batteries are coming out all those things are working in concert  the systems that are driving these are getting better and better as they continue to move forward the software or the interaction that software or it will process that data all those things are coming together to perform  and make a number of different things possible assuming that you've had someone that's actually will put the dishes in the sink in the first play there is an opportunity to do things like clean up around the kitchen pick up trash taken purred away and again this is stuff that is online and is a couple of years old so again magine where the technology is going to imagine how fast it is moving forward take this one step forward into the industrial environment and start to consider what implications that has within the factories that we have how we are the people that we're working with in the task that they're doing how we move them forward we can actually stop the video move back to the slides now and it just gives you some idea of some reference to consider it take to consider the other big thing that's happening how many are you familiar with watson in some of the work that i b m is doing as far as the thinking computer of the different things that are going on there watson was built on two thousand and ten hardware and it continues to develop the things that we're hearing about watson right now the things that we're seeing watson do right now is basically built on a two thousand and thirteen timeframe two thousand and thirteen timeframe it's kind of like dog years right it's it's unbelievable how far the technology has surpassed what was happening in two thousand and thirteen the amount of computing power that's available it is said that watson can produce irked and basically process a million books in a second that's the rate at which i processing data that's the way it's going through things there's a number of health things going on with watson right now as far as what is looking at four k should she be cancer patient care and providing guidance for the doctors and nurses based on lots and lots of data and how you bring that data to bear on a given problem there's a number of other people that are doing amazing things with watson and there are robotic occasions now where the robots are talking through a data plane back to wat you will or that type of a computer system for learning and how do you improve the overall situation of the efficiency of the robot operations so stage two if that's not impacting your business or your life it certainly soon will   and kind of see what's going on know that the stuff that you're seeing online and that you're reading about is multiple years old i b m is not showing you their latest and greatest boston area is not showing you their latest and greatest  so so be familiar with what's going on and understand what's going on and know that there is just amazing things that are happening out there so what's driving this we've got a chart here that shows technology advancements over the course of the next five years it's anticipated that the technology will move forward thirty two times in the course of this next five year period and this is proving data if you look back over the course of the last five to ten years this this is exactly what is happening and so when when this chart is shown and when we talk about this this is not something that ok now we're going to go forward and produce produce or we're going to prove at this rate this is a rate that has been proven this is a rate that continues to happen and when we put that in perspective of what happens next ten years you can see the what's happening in the next five looks like a flat line this stuff mood fast the technology is moving east really fast it is enabling things that were once you and it is hard for someone who is in the business of trying to understand technology to grasp all of that i encourage you to reach out to others or others within your organization and make sure that you're in bracing  i i hope that everyone takes away from this short little presentation this morning and that is be aware and be engaged in know that there are amazing things happening from an overall automation point of you know  there are obviously things happening from the real thing out to one of you can gauge in those things if you're not the one in your organization that needs to be aware of those things and find the person that's passionate about it has the wherewithal to be successful in empower them to do those things it is critically important i think for west michigan to continue to grow and expand our presence if you will with all the technology that is represented in this area the statistics for area that we have two times the national average of engineers untenable people in this given area compared to others it is a huge asset that we have in this area use it for it and power it let's make absolutely sure  that we are pushing and that we are drawing people into those directions partnerships and that's the other thing i think that is quite a using about this area as compared to other areas of our country we have some amazing companies in this area software development companies spin dance twist thing there's all kinds of neat things going on there think about what does your design is doing you think about what there's countless different companies right each one of those companies specialize in a given area think about what gentex in the bigger companies are doing harmony where they work to or excuse me horsehead to be and some of the things that are going on there there is incredible technology being employed in each one of those locations and there is an incredible support network throughout our company earth drive our community that is available for us all to engage and engage in those partnerships the reality is this is moving way too fast for any one of us to sort of all get our arms around it the only way that i think we're going to be able to do in the future is through those kinds of partnerships we're straight up honest with each other and where we push each other too well and through our kids or whether of your local school system and through our employees we need to be all about the education we need to be all about making sure that that our kids and their schools are aware of what's going shame on us that our school people are coming through and they're saying things like i had no idea we had a great opportunity to reach out to our school systems and bring them into our factories in our sillies and share with them worse troubles are more challenges are and what the opportunities are associated with this we have young adults you know a few years out of college there are making bank i mean they're grabbing for drugs they're arriving all the stuff we've got kids that that have gone through apprenticeship programs they're doing phenomenally well for themselves how it's not is not user very one that's fine because there are some fantastic opportunities out there and you know what we need machinists we need  people that can put things together we need people to comply with wire and do all those kinds of things and i think we're going to need those kinds of people for a long time we also need to educate let's make absolutely sure that we're engaging the educational organisations and that we're making sure that they are aware of what it is we're doing and they're aware of what it is that we need i could go on for twenty years of all the things that are having an automation like i said it's different three each and every one of us encourage you to reach out to do the research engage go to some show i'm sure there's a rope with all story we're in the business of building specially with all robotics cylinders crosses all that wonderful stuff putting things together a few years ago we had our opportunity we took a group of people to the farm machinery show and the questions we got was are we on the farm she shows nothing to do with us it's open your perspective to all the new things that are happening out there and you don't have to go to las vegas to a show to see if it's right here in west michigan let's connect with each other let's be open to each other it's a it's an amazing thing  yes it's it's huge right i wouldn't ask you to put your hand up but i would imagine there's a few people in here that have been whole ransom for data or something like that where a virus has gotten into your company and those kinds of things we've been extremely fortunate we have a phenomenal software development group internally there really and ninety year of that really does rage out of attacking our systems and you have to do it right i mean you just absolutely have to do it there's a number of people out there that want to profit off of turning your systems down you need to have that that system in place and those people in place to make sure that you're protecting again you can do that two different ways you can do it internally you can do it internally with partnerships you can go outside and you can get it done through partnerships do it right and you just absolutely have to engage in that i mean it will destroy your system faster than anything we have a number of security networks that we do with our customers back and forth you can about imagine the things that are going on in some of these pieces of equipment to be able to control those to be able to look at them from halfway around the world as far as what's going on and then compile that data together does require very secure overall networks  it's just super important and i it's going to be different for everybody in this room know that it should be very high on your priority list gauging in that in the back  some military things that are really driving and pushing technology forward certainly boffo dynamics is it is a huge push in that area you can about imagine those devices are pieces carry loads through who knows where doing all kinds of different things that  you know government could do a really nice job in creating open space and letting people come into that open space through open architectures and different things and being able to collaborate more freely so again it's a you know it goes both ways right it's there's there's great funding out there that's being used effectively i think there's room for some of the regulation to open up so that people can move forward in those directions as the technology is driving i think we are getting we're in a situation now where some of the guidance and some of the regulation that's out there is limiting because the technology has moved so far past that or that world whatever that rule was put in place for just simply doesn't apply anymore based on the technology and where it's going so it goes both ways chaos and you know every vehicle gets through nobody gets hurt you know slow down and nothing ever stop so you think about thomas cars where they're going from that perspective you think about where infrastructure is today  everything you've done in west michigan we want to thank you for everything and we want to give you this is a token of appreciation this morning