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Mr. Larry Olson with Picavi Talks about the power behind wearables in logistics

In this week's Industrial Talk Podcast we're talking to Larry Olson, Senior Sales Manager at Picavi U.S. about “Innovative Wearables that Maximizes Productivity and Improves Customer Service”.  Get the answers to your “Wearable Logistics” questions along with Larry's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!

You can find out more about Larry and the wonderful team at Picavi on the power behind wearables by the links below. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2020. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy!


Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-olson-52484025/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/picavi-us-inc/about/

Company Website:  https://picavi.com/en/




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Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go. Alright, welcome to the industrial talk podcast absolute honor. You know, it is an absolute honor that you have joined this particular platform that celebrates you, industry heroes, that's who you are. We celebrate you, the companies that get it done because you are bold, you're brave, you're daring greatly. You solve frickin problems. And you innovate like nobody's business. You're changing lives and you're changing the world. That is why this platform is for you. It's a doc on industrial celebration. How about that? All right.


And I say it every time. I say it every time. Great interview, absolutely great interview because industries, wonderful people, full of wonderful people with big hearts. This gentleman by the name is is Larry Olsen. He's with a company called Makati. And we're going to be talking a little bit about supply chain, logistics and everything that's going on. He brings a lumber let's, let's get a crack in here.


All right. Before we get going with the interview, got a couple of things that are that's on my mind. And one of the thing is okay,


you know that the industrial talk, industrial talk.com is dedicated to education, right? It is, it just is if you go to industrial talk.com. And you'll see all of the individuals that are within industry that are just passionate about your education. That's what we're about, right? And I've had conversations upon conversation, hey, Scott, how can I find the right person with the right skills and listen to what they have to say about a challenge or problem I'm dealing with? And then how can I reach out to them? Fear not. Industry talk for tube dot o is is right around the corner. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be creating a landing page, that landing page is


as simple as any filterable. How about that. And I can find the individual for the industry and their their capability plus everything about them on their landing page. You can listen to them, you could do everything that you ever want, and then reach out and solve problems because it's about collaboration. That's what that's about. And it's about innovation. Big, big time. All right. Another thing I want you to get your paper and pencil out. That's right. Oh, wait just a few second paper and pencil out. We've got an event. And it is sponsored by the lobby. And you're saying yourself, Scott, you mentioned that company's name. Yeah, that's right. And we're going to be talking to Larry Olsen. So this is a huge event. And now we're going to have it out on industrial talk.com. I'll have that link and everything's all right there. The event is called How to master the challenges of the never ending peak in logistics. You know, what's interesting about it as I go out to that landing page, and I'm looking at the speakers, and it's not that much of a time commitment. Come on.


And we get people that are just mad about delivering value. Oh, look at it. It's it's like, it's like the best technology baseball team I've ever seen. By the way. I just published you have cartoners, which is he's the founder and CEO of auro inks podcast on this particular platform.


That's real time, baby. All right, Larry. There you go. How are you doing?


Well, Scott.


Well, yeah, no, no, I'm excited about this particular event out there. So once again listeners it's gonna be out on industrial talk. It's gonna be slapped against Larry Olsen's


podcast landing page so you can find Larry and this incredible event which is March 11 2021. calendar, put it on there.


Hang tight.


What's what is CET see the agenda is that for si t that is what is that


timezone? It is but it's I get the central standard time I it's not Central Standard Time. Don't look at the CET don't don't look at that. Yeah, the CTS are European counterpart. There you go. If you're in Europe, which this is a global platform, if you're in Europe, the time is there for you. But it's only T's it's only just a little over an hour commitment. Learning from the best of the best right there. Hell, I do it. I think I've already done it.


All right, for the listeners out there, Larry, Come on, give us a little 411 on who you are, because I've looked at your stat card out there. And I'm pretty excited about this doggone interview talk to us.


Yes got so


Hey as he said, the senior sales manager for Picavi here in the in the US branch prior to that worked 25 years or so in the three PL industry for global COBOL three PL providers. So a lot of background and experience from the from the three PL and warehousing supply. Right now you're saying three p o Three?


Three PL Yeah, three third party logistics.


You don't acronym the hell out of our listeners. They're making work too hard. Okay, third party logistics. Yeah, there you continue my friend. Yeah. So then join the team here. And this great product we're gonna talk about today for


it is cool. Now, listeners out there. It's Picavi is the name. And it's pretty cool. Because we're talking about wearables for logistics, right? Correct. Yeah, wearable device. There's that covers a large gamut of devices. I mean, everything from for headsets, eyeglasses to even some of the ergonomic wearables you're talking to there's they're even specific conferences related directly to work. Yeah, so what's the problem? What is this? I know the problem, I feel the problem. But let's explain to the listeners what the problem is. And and let's start right there. What are you trying to solve? Yep. So so we're really focused within the warehouse operations, we all know the term supply chain, it covers kind of gamut of everything from you placing an order to you getting product delivered, whether you're, you know, residential, commercial, etc, right, it's all it's all a supply chain process. So within the warehouse, you have people whose jobs right or, or to take what you ordered, go find it within that warehouse, pick the right you know, pick the right quantity, pick the right material, get it put into a box, and then and then shipped out to you so, so we're really solving for that, that that person in that process is really trying to simplify or over simplify their process, from a training standpoint, and then just from an overall use standpoint, I mean, it's, you know, the products, you look at the industry, they have to be ergonomic, they have to be, you know, relative to, you know, from a cost standpoint, relative to what what the activities are, and the people using them, they have to be comfortable, they have to be easy to use, right. So that's, you know, as we see as electronics are, are evolving here, all that's coming into play, you know, lighter weights smaller, easier to use. See, and, and


my recent experience was not good in the world of supply chain, logistics, whatever I was ordering online, it's easy for them to take my money. But then through customer, I mean, this whole customer service thing I I'm just telling you,


you want that right, because customers have this outrageous expectation. Thank you, Amazon, for delivering things in one day. Thank you, Amazon. And our expectations are very high. And really,


I think a lot of this has to be solved through technology like wearables.


Yeah, I would agree. I mean, but it's it's both the efficiency is you as you alluded to, right? It's it's how fast can we get it? And then it's the accuracy of it. It's, I mean, just because I get it fast if I get the wrong thing fast. I'm still not happy. Yeah, I I agree with you. 100% on that one, because I received something and it was inaccurate, and I'm still upset. In fact, I was so upset. My ears started. No, I didn't say my ears started bleeding. So. So now I can sit there and say, Okay, I've got an order.


This wearable looks like glasses. Am I right? Correct. It's a device just like you and I are ordered glasses here. Very, very similar. In fact, it can attach to prescription glasses for you know, it's a common question. Right? How do you you know, I take these off? Can I really still see it? I can some some people need a corrective lens. Right to see it. But that's, that's pretty typical of a lot of people. Right? You look at the number of reporters out there. Yeah. Yeah.


So let's walk through a use case scenario. I get online, I order a part that goes into whatever company I ordered from. And then it goes into whatever system they have. Take us through that. Yep. So goes with the system they have. So that system, if you look at what they're doing today, there they're probably picking with either paper. That's kind of the base basic process. I mean, that still happens.


It happens. Yep. So I mean, yeah, I think there's there's companies out there, you know, small, very small companies all the way up to you know, super large companies. You mentioned Amazon, probably the biggest right so, so there's paper, there's


We call it RF gun. So it's a handheld device or a handheld computer that's providing instruction to the person. Or, you know, I'd say one of the technologies came out 2025 years ago was voice where, where a system would actually tell talk to the person and tell them where to go, where to go, and what to get, etc. So each one of those over time has been an advancement. Now we have this advancement of glass, it's kind of pooling all of that together. So you have a visual, we really just have a almost a computer screen floating in the air in front of you. So it's called assisted reality. So it's not virtual reality, which I think most people probably know the term virtual realities, you're consumed within the environment, right, you're wearing goggles, and you don't want anybody walking in, you know, too far distance, they can't see anything, they tend to run into things. So yeah, we have augmented reality, which is overlay of that of images on what you're seeing. And you probably have seen this and, you know, your phone will do it, your phone has a camera on it, you have, you know, I believe Home Depot, I've seen it, I've seen some furniture stores where they say, oh, you're interested in this product, see it in your room, and you hold your camera up in your room, and it places the product in your room. That's augmented reality, right? It's an overlay. And then you have assisted reality, which is what we're talking through here, it's more of a screen presentation to the person providing them with relevant information. It's got, you know, really anything and everything you can put on the screen pictures of the product, here's a picture of the product, you need to pick, here's a description of the product, here's a view of the 10 locations in front of you in which location to pick the product from, here's when you pick that product, if you need to put it in one of four boxes, because you're working for hundreds at one time, it tells you can you can pinpoint them to which box to put it in all this visual cue, then there's audio cues, you still have the spoken it's, you know, this these units have, they have speakers in them. They have microphones in them. it's it's a it's essentially a cell phone, the functionality of your cell phone, but but a wearable device on your hand.


I had to giggle there for a sec is like Hey, hey, hey, don't put that pop, that that's not where it goes. Put it in the right spot. Is that the type of verbal commands does it give? Yeah.


It would be funny to see him what what do you what do you do? What do you think I'm the bad now. So that's cool. That's all great. What's the benefit? Well, why is that? Cool? I know it's cool. But why? Yes, we talked, we've talked about the quality aspect, obviously, right? The benefit really comes to the end customer and it's the end customer and the company, right? Because if the end customer isn't happy, that comes back against the company, you know, too much of that and you're going to lose that customer. Nobody wants that, right. So you have the quality aspect of it, it's one benefit, I'd say a second benefit is the productivity. And we're all about productivity now. Right. So doing things better, quicker and cheaper. So the faster we can, we can pick that part and get it out. So if I have a handheld device, like I have a handheld device in this hand, yeah. And I need to use both hands to pick something, I got to set that down first, before I can pick it up, I gotta remember to pick this back up, because this thing's telling me the next thing to do. So so your hands free with this device. So we use a it's a wrist scanner, it's worn on the back back of your hand. So that's Bluetooth connected, Bluetooth, very common, obviously. But that scanner Bluetooth connected to your, you don't have a device in your hand, you see your screen and for your face, you have a scanner on the back of your hand, your hands, or you're able to use your hands freely at will. I'd say the third aspect, and this is pretty common in the industries are a lot of turnover in this industry. So they're seasonally. And there's a lot going on.


So the training time, or whenever you're


50 to 60% reduction in training time. So whenever a person, you know, leaves, or you know, maybe they weren't a good performer for us, and I have to replace that, that that worker, whenever they come in that, you know, a 50 to 60% reduction in training time to where I get them in the operation and they're a productive worker for me. That's a huge, that's huge. That now that's that's bottom line value. But I think the biggest part is is the customer satisfaction. Yep, that's that's money. That's money. If you if you're taking people off, not delivering the products that they need at the right time and the correct the right amount, whatever it might be. Yeah, that's money. So let's say more and more people. Let's just let's just lay it out there more and more people are using and getting online, purchasing online doing the things online and making, making decisions online, whatever. It's everything's online right now.




is the tool How does the product How does a solution deal with returns?


So, yeah, it's a good question. So that, you know, it's not people don't always return material just because you ship them wrong thing, you know, they're there, they typically ask you, when you're processing your turn, it may just be it's as easy as I don't want or need this anymore. So I'm returning it to you, that returns process when the material comes in, it's a very similar process, it's reverse logistics, right? It's the reverse of what we just did we picked product and send it to the customer. Now the products coming back from that customer, so we can use, you know, use glasses as part of that, that process to to process that material, we can we can show on the screen, right? What What was the material was supposed to be returned, because the person said, You know, I bought a ball, but I, you know, I returned you a stick. So just because they you know, there was something in the box that came back, you know, that whole logistics process? That's that's a process in its own.


Yeah, but it does it create greater accuracy, because that's, that's inventory. I mean, that's correct. There's that there's a lot of other financials, the refunds and whatever it might be, and, and, and our validation that the ball is returned and not a stick, right? There's a lot of other stuff, the glasses, the wearable takes care of that


helps with the accuracy, especially when you can put the picture of the product on there. Right. So that's, that's really what we're what we're driving here is the the visual aspect of it. And it's it becomes a matching game for a person, right? Where, where I see I see one thing physically, I see another thing here on the screen that's in front of me, if the two don't match, then I know I have an issue. If they match, then I know. So again, we're trying to simplify the process as much as we can. So is the price point in the right. I mean, if I'm a small company, that seems pretty doggone sophisticated. Is there? Are you agnostic to let's say, your inventory management system?


Your API's that sort of link it together and do all this stuff? Yeah, I would say the ending. So most companies run what you call a warehouse management system. Yep. Right, that's managing the flow of material in and out of the warehouse. So really, we're I would say we're agnostic to any any of those systems, even even a paper based system, because I think a paper based system, if data is just being data, it's data that's being sent to a printer, that then comes out on hardcopy, you can take that same data that it sent to the printer and send it to something like this visual unit, and then visualize the data for the person versus printing it out on a piece of paper.


So you pretty much but but from a price point perspective, is there? I mean, you can you can get it in line with let's say my financials in some way, shape or form. Yeah, so I'd say so we'd write a lot of ROI is obviously for different companies, right, as we're exploring this and say, 10, you know, our proof of concept starts at 10, we'll have some companies that maintain that 10. So if you have 1010, pickers, right, or 10 users within a warehouse that are doing some type of activity, it's kind of the baseline entry point. And that's, that's pretty small. Right? That's, it is, it absolutely is now, I have to be the I have to bring this up. What


sounds great. What are the push backs?


outside of the fact that you better not lose those pair of glasses? or break them? Or, you know, the classics is like, the human?


Yeah, I mean, it's just, I mean, the materials we use in the warehouse, I mean, obviously, paper doesn't have a lot of value to it, but the RF units, right, those are handheld computers, there's value to them, there's value to these glasses. Yeah, I mean, take taking taking care of them. I mean, you are as much as you and I don't drop these glasses on the on the ground and break them or step on them, even though it that accidents always happen. Right. But it's, it's not very common, right, that they're you treat them like you would be almost your prescription glasses or a good pair of sunglasses. So so. So that kind of takes care of that aspect.


Yeah, so I mean, that


push back Well, yeah, I mean, it's like, what's, uh, you know, it's not always pink elephants and, you know, cotton candy. What, what, what's the pushback?


Yeah, it's newer technology. Right? So I think the the ergonomics of it and just the concept of a person being able to see that screen out in front of them. That's something completely new and different to a lot of people. So you know, everybody uses uses cell phones today. So I think the that aspect of the technology, you know, that's, that's the easy one. No, we're coming


to the ergonomics, you know, seeing something here, you're seeing something here in front of my face, because that's, you know, we don't have things right. We have our computers here in front of us, and, you know, we do that


on daily basis, while you're walking around, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but trust me once people get used to it, that they never go back. Yeah, I can see how that that be the case. Now let me ask you one last question here. Where's it going in the future? I mean, that that's, I love that. I'll be the first to, to explain. I love technology. I love innovation. I love all of this stuff. I love the, the thinking around it and all the the great things that are taking place. Now, where do you see this stuff going?


Yeah, so it's good question. Because I mean, we're only about four and a half, five years into into this product development, that's pretty early. And we we as a company are still inventing things, right? The ability to, you know, maybe not have to attach it to glasses, but the way to where I can wear my own glasses and see the screen in front of me. So there's a, I'd say the thing I'm most excited about, there are a lot of sensors in the unit that we haven't taken advantage of. So just like your phone can tell you how many steps a day you've taken, how many stairs you've climbed, etc, etc. So there's sensors within that unit that we can start evaluating ergonomics and safety, it, etc. With that unit, so taking advantage of the data, that's a lot of data, right? That's got to spit out of those sensors, but the


decisions based on that, see, that is where it's going, you're gonna you're gonna do your own little


data transformation data journey, whatever digital this digital that industry for Dotto, and I've had a number of conversations with companies that are from a safety perspective. And, you know, there are people that don't really care about the fact that, you know, big brother's watching me, but it is a pretty important thing. If I know that you're out on the field, or in the warehouse, or wherever you're at. I know that you've got your there. I mean, there's just a ton of I mean, you got the tech on your head.


pretty doggone cool. Now,


are you active out there on LinkedIn? Absolutely. Epic. LinkedIn. Alright. Me in our company.


Yeah, but but


probably a handful of Larry Olsen's out there.


Baby, that's what you do you go there.


You type in Larry Olsen, comma, that thing. Type in Picavi which is p IC a VI. I guarantee you, you'll see that guy flowing head of hair with a guy that's got some wearables on it. pretty doggone cool. Love this.


Larry, you were absolutely and I love this particular product. I love the what you're talking about.


That's an exciting time.


So much for being on the industrial talk podcast. Alright, listeners, you know, we're gonna have another incredible interview right around the corner. And and once again, do not say Scott, I'm trying to get ahold of Larry, don't come to me. Go to industrial talk.com. Right, go to industrial talk.com find his podcast, and everything else about him will be out on his landing page, his special landing page because that's how we roll here on industrial talk. Alright listeners. We'll be back with another great interview just around the corner. Larry, you take care.


All right. Thank you listeners. We will be back shortly.


You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network.

About the author, Scott

I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.

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