Welcome to Tectastic, where we navigate the intersection of technology and business, uncovering innovations that redefine our world. Meghan Kinley, it is wonderful to have you on it. It's techtastic, so lovely to have you here. It for having me. So you're with it's called German ionic, and you guys are doing an exoskeleton specifically for, like, safety in workplace. Was that right? Yes. So specifically, like logistics, manufacturing, warehouse type settings, and health care for, like, nurses?
My mother-in-law, my wife's mom, wasn't hers for years or whatever. Yeah. And there's two parts of nursing that are growing rapidly. One of them is geriatric care. And, right? You have a lot of people that are bedridden you've got to take care of them, which means a lot of lifting.
Yep. And another is obesity related illnesses and being in the hospital, which is even a more difficult thing And they're more women than men in nursing, which means that they also tend to be smaller than their patients in some cases, right? And so, assistance there is vitally needed. Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's a huge need and actually I think just COVID escalated it too of we need help. And so they actually were the ones, like, coming to us saying like, I think this could work.
And what we did is like some studies with one of the hospitals in Berlin, And it was like, yep, we're sold. Like, this is this is good because when patients are being lifted, oftentimes they're putting their own hands on their necks and pulling down. That's the worst possible ergonomic position to be lifting someone. And and it's leading to injuries and they're having retire early and all that kind of stuff. That's just not good.
Thinking of the logistics thing, the one of the big problems with, like, a Wayfair or anybody doing things of a radically different set of sizes is it's very hard to automate. Yep. So we had sofas. Those weren't the most difficult. The most difficult weird were rugs. We've heard that, actually. Good. Because it's true. It's terrible. There there's big floppy things that take multiple people to carry And there's never been a good, like, forklift. They weren't good at it.
They kinda made a mess of it. They're not easily wrecked. Only helped with, like, certain areas, and then it was like, well, we still need people goal to do it when it gets to a certain point. So it's like, what's the point? I'm spending all this money for this automated system that can do a piece of the puzzle when it's, is it really gonna bring that much value? And so something that allowed humans to be less likely of getting injured, being able to lift heavier low to, especially on the truck.
Jeez. I'm thinking of all the other use cases on the truck when you're doing, right, last mile delivery. Another huge place for it. Yeah. Even unloading the trucks that come in every single morning, we Hammer, like, retailers that get deliveries and they need people to unload the trucks. And even if they're using an automated system where they're sorting all the stuff, they still need that person to take it from the truck and put it onto the system, and that's a gap.
So we, we call ourselves like a hybrid automated solution because it, like, fills those gaps. Your point about from the truck to system and was really clear even in the FedEx facilities. That's a problem. There's nothing that goes into a truck and unboxes it. Even though, no matter how well it's packed, somebody's gotta go do that. Exactly. It it's funny how no matter what the organization is or what they're moving. They're similar use cases across all of them.
If we say, oh, palletizing, it's like, yep, we do that. Yep. We need help with that. Unloading trucks. Yep. We do that. Yep. We need help for that. So it really doesn't matter. And that's what's nice to see, like, the different verticals that pop up out of nowhere. And it's like, oh, great use case. So that you're you're at no shortage of use cases. No forensic use cases. Yeah. Just shortage of awareness. We're able to know that this exists. I have to imagine.
Now I have no idea what your product but it's gotta be less than a single medical claim. Yeah. Those are, I think, I wanna say I saw an average of, like, a $100,000 to a $150,000 first. Serious back injury. Yeah. And that's assuming that they can get back to work at some point. If they're permanently disabled, this is a lot worse. Yep. So it's it's a no brainer. Yeah. For 10 to $15,000 for one device, I think that's, pretty good ROI.
Yeah. $10,000 to $15,000 is a lot less expensive than having to replace people. Yeah. Or even sick days. Oh, man. Yeah. Well, especially in an industry, like, just thinking the warehouse, right, or the fulfillment center is what we wanna call them. There are so many places where the automation pieces just aren't possible. We're in a small facility when you're doing all things that can fit in a mailbox. Most of it's gotten automated because what we do. Right?
But when you're in the mediums to large parcel space, it's almost impossible to automate because you're talking about anything from, like, it can be a pretty small item that just weighs over forty pounds all the way up to, like, we ship buildings. Because people buy shots. Right? And that's a pretty heavy thing. It's also awkward. And it's the the awkward heavy big pick one of those. They're all three hard to deal with. Right.
And god forbid you have something go wrong where you need actually a human to be able to stop it because, I mean, automated is automated, and that's it's always doing the same thing. Sure. There's things that can be addressed that you can program in there, but the unpredictable is where humans are pretty good at solving those issues. So we always say, like, flexibility of having people stay in the work job is something to be said. That's huge.
And the rate of turnover that you have in those types of facilities quite high, because it is a physically demanding job. Yeah. By the time somebody's trained on how to do it right, how to do it safely, that was an amazing part of it. Like, the fact that you guys are focused on the safety part of it, it's really important in those facilities. Yeah. Even basic stuff. Like, I don't know. I I'd speculated on things that the features could be on this thing. Right?
Like, if it would warn me if I was going the wrong way down an aisle, or that there was a a lift imminent or something like that. So it's less of the real time triggers because we've found that some of the devices that are out there, if they're constantly annoying you with your posture, you're like Absolutely no way in wearing this. Like, the adoption is just terrible because it's a hindrance to your job.
So the data that we provide is more so giving organizations the tools to make changes in the environment to mitigate safety things. So if they're finding that in a certain area within the workspace, this certain group of workers are having more like twists in their bins. They can say, okay, is this like a training problem, or is this an environment problem where they just clearly don't have enough space to do a safe lift?
And let's address that or if they're having to walk a really long way to move one object to another one, is there a way that I can move things around so that they're gonna be more productive in addition to being safe? So the device itself kind of I like to say it kind of works best when you're doing something really bad. So it's there to be the mitigator and it helps you more when your posture is maybe not the best. So it's keeping you in the ergonomic position is protecting the spine.
But it's also giving you power when you're doing lifts every every single day. Yeah. I mean, you could easily walk a mile in a facility without getting anything done. Some of those buildings are mass of I'm curious about the, like, I'm guessing it's battery powered because it would be impossible to have it be diesel or something. Right? Yes. We do we actually brought it on a Makeda Hammer. Like you would use with your drone. Wow. Okay. And how long does that battery last? So, like, ranges.
So our device has certain, compensation levels. So it goes from 10 to a 100% of force that will give you when you're lifting up the same with 10 to a 100% of resistance when you're going to and down. So depending on how strong you have it, it lasts anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, but it is hot swappable, so you don't take the device off and recharge it. You just take the battery out, put a new one in, and and pop it back on the charger.
Hopefully, people would have a break within the the 4 to 6 hours to get lunch or, if charge the Hammer, but, yeah, it can, it can last a pretty decent amount of time. Yeah. I mean, you're you're pointing out that that's, like, the right length 4 hours that I'm taking a lunch break, and then I'm getting back out. Right? Yeah. TriNet charges fairly fast. I think it charges to fall in, like, 23 minutes or something. Yeah. You guys have really nailed this down.
I'm like, I'm I wanna find places to poke holes out, but it sounds like a wonderful product. Yeah. The other places that I think have also, like, construction, right, like, you're out in the field on the outdoor elements, and that does require So we are so we are IP 54 rated which basically means it's, water and dust resistant. So up to a certain level, I wouldn't throw it in pool. Up to a certain level, we are protected in in the elements. So we do have construction companies that are using it.
We have one up in Canada that's using it for commercial roofing. They're having to to lift tiles. And just that element of it is huge. And then we have others that are using it more for the prolonged bending of laying bricks and that kind of stuff. So the resistance that I mentioned, you can bump that all the way up. And it's basically like you're hanging in a harness.
And that also is helping to take stress off your back because if you're just constantly bent over in that position, that's also, like, lower back pain that I don't wanna do for hours upon hours. So it's helping to mitigate that when they're doing those kind of tasks too. I love this product. I'm really excited by this one. I'm like, this is something I kind of want myself.
I have a small farm, and we have horses in the, like, taking care of them can often like, I've currently got a shoot up elbow and shoulder because of them. But you just do a lot of stuff all the time, and it's like 4 hours of charge and not having to worry about it. And I the roofing thing I had to roof the bar not that long ago. And Yeah. I always say, like, this would be perfect. A few years down the line that you could just, like, rent it, like, any other tool from, Hammer Depot or Lowe's.
It's like, okay, I'm doing roofing today or I'm moving. Yeah, I'm gonna rent that for the day or 2. To make sure that I'm safe. Well, if you start setting up franchises, but you're setting that up as a rental fleet type thing, that would be fantastic. Yeah. I'm in. Live on an island full retirees too, so they would probably all love to have something like that to rent. Perfect. Oh, that's really cool. So give me the pitch.
Like, if you were just coming into this blind and I didn't know a damn thing about it, tell me all about it. Sure. So the way I usually like to describe it is The exoskeleton is kind of like wearing a backpack. There's 2 motors on either side, and it's helping to follow your movements to help you by keeping you in an ergonomic position, but it also provides up to £66 of weight compensation for every time you do a lift. And from a user perspective, that's great because it's keeping you safe.
Less sick days, you don't have to retire early because of pain. You'll need to find a new job. It's also bound seeing the workforce, opening opportunities for females that might traditionally not be in those manual labor fields. But from an organization perspective, you're keeping your people safe, you're keeping them on the job. They're happier to work for you because they know that you care about them and wanna protect them.
But you're also getting valuable insights from the data that it's collecting to make changes, to make places more efficient, more safe, and more productive. So all around, I think there's benefits to both the user and the organization, and there's plenty of nitty gritty details that we can go into, but I think just from the high level, keeping people safe, keeping people in the workforce is really what it's all about.
I'm so happy about this particular product because it's something that like I said, my wife being in safety, her brother being in safety. Her father actually was in safety for, Texaco, shell also. And when you're in the oil field and gas world, there's a lot of dangerous situations you're put into all the time. Right? And anything that increases the safety of the individual increases their lifespan and job.
It's not just that it's better because it's better because you're saving people and you're making them not injured or dead. But it's also giving them the chance to stay in job a lot longer and not retire. And go home and be able to have their own lives too. I mean, you gotta have some people wear like, I'm beat at the end of the day because I've been lifting for 8 hours. I'm missing kids soccer games and that kind of stuff because I need to ice my back.
But we have people that now use it and they're like, I can actually play with my kids again. And that to me is the biggest compliment, I think, that we can get. Absolutely. It's so important that, like, you don't live to work. You work to live, and especially when it comes to those physically demanding jobs, it often turns out to be the opposite. Yeah. It takes it all. It's actually funny. Nine times out of 10, I would tell an entrepreneur to focus the problem first. Who are you solving it for?
What are you solving for? Don't worry about the solution. But this is one of those solutions that has such a wide potential use and all of it, like, as a no brainer, it was always going to be a solution that needed to happen. Now it's where can we use it? And I normally would shy away from that. I'm like, no. Worse. Don't do that. Focus. Focus. Yeah. Luckily, I think we're very focused on the back. They're exoskeletons out there that do overhead support, and they also have ones to do the back.
But I think the reason why we're so successful is because we've been very dedicated and focused on the back from the beginning. Like, this is our 6th generation off the device. We make changes every single time that something comes out, and we work closely with the customers to figure out what's needed, can we change from the 5th to 6th? We had feedback that the best could be a little bit more breathable and hotter since you patients. So we made that change.
So I think that's a testament to our development team that is super close to the customers. And they think about the user, not just the company because they're the ones that are gonna be the adopters and and actually using it every day. If I wanted to find out more about it, the website is turbine bionic.com. Yep. And we're all over social media too.
We'd like to do just like short clips of videos, whether it be like from customers, or we do have a series called, did you know where we talk about certain features of the device that are just like little things, but it adds up. Like, did you know that we have, a pouch on the device so you can put all of your, like, smaller tools or your phone throughout the day, like, that kind of stuff that is a nice to have, but still a nice feature.
Yeah. I have the thinking now of my track and all the attachments I have on it for different things. Like, I've gotta chainsaw holster, and I've gotta, you know, I've got the light bar on the top so that I can work at night or whatever. You could accessorize your bionic suit. Yes. We have lights on it, and there was a room where that they could change the light color. And I was like, oh, I'm in. I want pink. Yeah. No kidding. I would definitely have the pink and, blue from the tactic.
I love to have this conversation. It is a fascinating product. Yeah. This is fun. Thanks so much. And that's a wrap for this episode of Tectastic. Wanna thank you personally for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Until then, keep exploring and stay curious. Thank you for listening. If you are new here and enjoyed the content, please subscribe. It really helps us out. And if you are a regular listener, thanks so much for your continued support. Overwhelmed by tech debt.
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