George Ficken founded GSI Machinery four years ago with the purpose of strengthening American industry by “passionately serving those who build America’s critical infrastructure.” GSI operates on honesty, integrity, and grit. HONESTY means they will not lie or misrepresent their solutions; INTEGRITY means they will do the right thing even if it does not benefit them; and GRIT means the company will be relentless in its efforts to serve their customers and their industry.
GSI is passionate about American industry, jobs, and sustainability. They serve their customers with a passionate vigor to ensure their success on critical projects. GSI understands the critical nature of the projects our customers take on and takes every measure to ensure details are not overlooked so that they deliver the proper equipment for each job.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeficken/ – GSI Machinery | Serving Those Who Build America’s Critical Infrastructure
Company: GSI Machinery
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
George Ficken: Good to meet you, thank you for having me! My name is George Ficken, president and founder of GSI Machinery. I founded GSI with the purpose of strengthening American industry by passionately serving those who build America’s critical infrastructure.
We do this by selling and supporting the most innovative machines that fuel production in our most critical industries such as power generation, petroleum refining, semiconductor manufacturing, pulp & paper, nuclear energy, aerospace, and shipbuilding.
We are currently seeing a stark decline in the skilled labor market, meaning that we do not have enough skilled trades workers to keep up with the demands of our heavy industries. It is our aim and mission to backfill these missing workers with automation to keep our critical infrastructure supported here locally.
We feel that this initiative is critical to the future of our country, as we will have serious challenges keeping the grid running if our trades continue to dwindle and our demands continue to rise so rapidly.
What specific areas of your business have been most impacted by AI, and how?
George Ficken: By harnessing the power of AI, our Rotoweld machine is able to make real-time weld parameter adjustments to compensate for pipe misalignment, which means that even with poorly aligned pipe or uneven bevels, this machine will produce a perfect weld. The vision system allows the computer to constantly read the weld puddle and gap and look ahead of the weld puddle to see any upcoming misalignment.
Then the machine can adjust every welding parameter (such as travel speed, amperage, oscillation width, oscillation dwell time, etc.) in real time to ensure that a perfect weld is produced. Rotoweld is produced by Tecnar in Montreal, Canada, which has a team of in-house software engineers who work hand-in-hand with experienced welders to program the machine to make the correct adjustments when it is presented with a given scenario like a high-low misalignment.
How are you ensuring ethical considerations are taken into account in your use of AI?
George Ficken: By harnessing the power of AI, our Rotoweld machine is able to make real-time weld parameter adjustments to compensate for pipe misalignment, which means that even with poorly aligned pipe or uneven bevels, this machine will produce a perfect weld. The vision system allows the computer to constantly read the weld puddle and gap and look ahead of the weld puddle to see any upcoming misalignment.
Then the machine can adjust every welding parameter (such as travel speed, amperage, oscillation width, oscillation dwell time, etc.) in real time to ensure that a perfect weld is produced. Rotoweld is produced by Tecnar in Montreal, Canada, which has a team of in-house software engineers who work hand-in-hand with experienced welders to program the machine to make the correct adjustments when it is presented with a given scenario like a high-low misalignment.
What advice would you give to other CEOs looking to integrate AI into their business?
George Ficken: The advice I would give others looking into AI is to be careful before you roll out a new product using AI. Take the time to test and retest the product, and make sure you feel confident that the AI program you are running is well-informed.
Tecnar trialed the AI software that is in the Rotoweld machine for over two years before making it commercially available so that the software had time to see all sorts of different real-world applications and scenarios and learn what to do when presented with different situations.
How do you see AI evolving in your industry over the next 5 years?
George Ficken: I see AI making its way into every aspect of fabrication and manufacturing, from CNC programming done with AI to the actual physical machines using AI like the Rotoweld to cut and weld metal. I think you will eventually see AI-based robotic arms doing everything from fitting, grinding, welding, and precision machining.
I think the skilled jobs will turn into programming, maintenance, and operations overseeing the machines and the production process. I don’t think there will ever be no need for skilled labor. I just think the easier, more mundane jobs will be automated, and the skilled people will be doing very skilled jobs mostly in the field that require experience and expertise that you simply cannot program into a machine.