In the backstreets of Cronulla local kids are discovering something they’d never expect: “Murphy”, a robot, making surfboards.
When Murphy joined the Force 9 Surfboards team, the nature of Sam Tehan’s job was turned on its head. And while some people think robots are out to steal our jobs, Sam believes he has Murphy to thank for his job as a surfboard shaper.
John: Sam, take me back to the very beginning. I know your dad was involved in the making of surfboards, doing the resin. How did you get involved in this industry, and what was your path into it?
Sam: Well, I started when I was growing up; Dad used to take us to the factory where he worked. We would go in there on the weekends and see all the boards being made, along with all the different custom things and individual items. The company back then was very customer-based and focused; everything was custom-made and individual. We used to hang around, pick up off-cuts, play around with those, and watch these guys having fun at work. My first job there involved cleaning up, sweeping, fixing boards, detailing boards, and learning bits and pieces about the process.
John: For people who don’t know anything about surfing or the industry, what are the basics in the shape of a board? What are the main things that make a difference?
Sam: The bottom curve, like the rocker—from nose to tail, how much curve the board has in it. If it has more curve, the board will pivot and turn a lot quicker and will handle bigger waves, but it doesn’t generate a lot of speed. A flatter board will generate more speed and be a bit quicker down the line, but it doesn’t want to turn as easily. There is also the floatation of the board, the distribution of the foam, and the rails. You can play with everything on the board. If you put a concave in the board, it creates lift, which can counteract the thickness of the board. You customize it for individuals to match how they surf. For instance, you might have one person who leans back when they surf; if you make a board that’s too thin, the board is just going to stall. However, the next person might lean forward, so that same board will work perfectly for them. One person will pick up a board and say, “I don’t like this,” and the next person picks it up and says, “This is the greatest board I’ve ever had!” It’s always a challenge to determine how a customer surfs by talking to them and finding out what they really want out of a board.
John: What about the shape of the tail and the fins? What is the significance there?
Sam: Varying your tail changes the way the board performs. A wider tail will have more slide and be looser in the back, whereas a pintail will provide a lot more drive. You see big wave boards have quite narrow tails so you can get them from rail to rail pretty easily at speed. There is a ton of different variables in every surfboard.
John: That makes it even more amazing that you’ve done what you’ve done. I’d love to hear the story about how you came to have a robotic arm that has become core to your business and actually lets you think more about how to better meet your customers’ requirements. How did this come about? How did you end up with a robot making boards with you?
Sam: We had a change in the staff at our company, so we were looking at how to meet our demands and how to make things other than surfboards with the skills we have. There is a lot of interest in the composites industry. We were doing a lot of composite work and didn’t really realize it until we started exploring those avenues. We saw that other people were doing basically what we were doing, and we were making surfboards rather than composite sandwich constructions. We thought about how we could produce other items. The machines on the market were strictly limited to making a surfboard. If we wanted to expand in any direction, we realized we didn’t have the flexibility or the freedom to do anything other than a surfboard shape. We started looking at what options were out there. We went on YouTube and found someone using one of these robotic arms to mill a table leg; they were following a complex curve, and we realized we could relate that to a surfboard. When we got down to it, we decided to see what we could do. We found someone who could do some programming and thought they knew how to get it going. Then, we found a second-hand robot that was coming off the BMW line in Germany.
John: Hang on, just back up a bit. You found a robot arm coming off a BMW line in Germany. How on earth did you manage that?
Sam: We pretty much just went online and started searching for used robots. There was a company that had some that hadn’t done too many hours and were within our budget. Instead of spending money on a surfboard shaping machine that we would have had to run flat out to make worthwhile, we decided to try something completely different and see where it went.
John: So you found this robot that had been making BMWs. Tell me what its job had been in its previous life.
Sam: It was welding the back quarter panel of the E63 line of BMWs. It was probably there all day, just moving over, putting a couple of spot welds on, and then moving back.
John: It was living in Germany?
Sam: It was in Germany, yes.
John: So what happened from there? How did it come to settle in Cronulla? How did you get it here?
Sam: We do a lot of consulting work for a company called Diab out of Sweden, which is one of the biggest foam manufacturers in the world. We managed to secure some shipping space in one of their containers and got it shipped to them in Sweden. Then they moved it down to Australia for us in one of their orders.
John: You said you found a person who thought he could reprogram the robot.
Sam: He said he could do it.
John: Where did you find this person who thought he might be able to reprogram a BMW robot from Germany to make surfboards in Cronulla?
Sam: He’s a fairly talented individual. He was studying Robotics and advanced Mathematics at university. We found him through a friend of the factory. We had tried to design our own machines before, so we had some people doing programming work for us. However, that project fell by the wayside, so we moved onto the robot and managed to find someone who could do this.
John: So you got this guy who studied Robotics. He came in and how did he go about reprogramming this arm? How long did it take him, and what happened?
Sam: He had no idea about surfboards; he’s not a surfer. He’s from Germany himself. He got in there and said we needed to learn the programming language of the robot and how to actually create a program. We basically printed out all the manuals and started playing with the robot to figure it out. We had to determine how we wanted to machine the board and how we wanted to finish it off, and then we had to relay that information to him so he could make it into a surfboard.
John: The robot has a name, I believe?
Sam: Yes. We named it Murphy. I think Murphy was the character in Robocop, so we figured “Roboshaper” was close enough for a name.
John: Tell me, you worked out how to assist Murphy through programming to make a board. How many different shapes and sizes of boards can Murphy make now, seven years later?
Sam: Pretty much anything we can design, we can machine. There’s no limit. The length limit is currently about ten feet six inches due to its positioning. Other than that, as long as you’re in the working envelope, you can make any surfboard shape.
John: At the start of the interview, we discussed the different variables that go into making a surfboard. I was thinking how incredibly intricate and customized everything needs to be and how you could possibly get a robot to do so many different things. But you’re saying that, in fact, you can customize infinitely within a certain area?
Sam: Yes, pretty much. We can design the board, load it up, get a program for it straight away, load it into the robot, and away you go.
John: How has having this robot changed the nature of what you do?
Sam: It’s definitely allowed me more time to spend on other aspects of the business.
John: Has that meant that you’ve been able to put more time and energy into thinking about how to meet a customer’s needs?
Sam: You can sit down for a lot longer with a customer and design things. If someone comes in with something unique, we can design it for them on the spot. They can see the board in 3D. If they want to wait, we can get the board machined and play with it while that’s going on. We can go from them walking in the door to having their board shaped maybe an hour and a half later. We can sit there and say, “This is what you wanted to design, this is what you had in your mind,” and start turning it into reality. It’s amazing when people want to change or adjust little things on their board.
John: In terms of the number of boards Murphy has made and the efficiencies that Murphy can bring, how many boards can Murphy make in a day if you put him to work?
Sam: You can do one about every 40 to 45 minutes, and that’s not going flat out; that’s just keeping everything running without putting too much stress on it.
John: And annual leave and coffee breaks?
Sam: Murphy loves them all! It just sits there. Whenever you go home, you turn it off; if you go for a surf, it just sits there. When you need it, you turn it on and away you go. That is one thing that has helped us. If we have a slow period or someone is away on holiday, we don’t have to worry about keeping the work up for the rest of the staff. We can ride the ebbs and flows of the business. When it’s flat out, we can run 24 hours a day and punch a lot of boards out. If we get into winter and everyone has gone on holiday to go surfing, we can just calm down for a little bit.
John: You’ve also instructed the program to do things other than just make surfboards.
Sam: Yes, we’ve done a few other parts and different items.
John: What are some of the other things that you’ve been exploring with Murphy?
Sam: The boss here, Jim, is into his drag bikes. Recently, we made a mold for the belly pan to catch all the oil in the bottom of the bike. The bike is also very customized and individual. We measured it all up, made the mold, and then popped out a carbon fiber belly pan that fits perfectly onto the bike. It’s allowed us to do those things. That was a personal project, but I’ve also done a few table legs and other bits and pieces for people.
John: I think you mentioned some people from the disability community even approached you?
Sam: Yes. We’ve had a few people talking about this, and we’re trying to find a way to integrate this as an option. They do a lot of specialized, customized parts for cars, like accessories to make things easier for people. There might be an extension on the brake pad or extension handles on the wheel. It’s generally customized to the individual person’s disability. It is something we want to look at because the person who came in to do that work was previously doing everything by hand. He was taking molds of people’s limbs and trying to reverse engineer from that. We realized you could probably 3D scan it and machine parts much more quickly, then adapt it for each car.
John: Coming back to the core surfboard making, would you see yourself now more as a curator of the perfect surfboard for individuals?
Sam: I don’t know. You’re always chasing the perfect surfboard! There’s always a compromise somewhere when you make a board. But you learn a lot along the way. We’ve managed to be able to make very minute adjustments from one board to the next. We give them to top team riders, and they can feel the differences. This makes it great when we’re testing different shapes and trying to get something right. You can always go back to version three or version four and combine the bits you like. It gives us that option.
John: People’s minds will be blown to think that there’s a robot at work in a surfboard factory in Cronulla. But having done it yourself, you must be looking at how other businesses could be using robotics and AI. Do you look around and see ways in which this might become the norm?
Sam: Yes, for sure. We get a lot of people walking into our factory, and when they see this giant robot in the back corner, they are amazed. The first thing they say to me is, “That’s going to steal your job.” I tell them no, it actually enhances my job and makes it more viable. If I were still doing everything by hand, I wouldn’t be able to produce the volume of boards we need to keep going. Our margins would be cut, and we probably wouldn’t be here. We would have been outdone by overseas competitors bringing in massive amounts of boards.
John: As you walk around the community and other businesses, what other applications do you think are inevitable for robots?
Sam: You see other manufacturing businesses and realize some tasks are quite dangerous from an OH&S point of view. You could set up a robot for a welding operation, for example, rather than having someone do it by hand. That would eliminate some of the dangers. I know a person who was welding muffler tips; he would set it up on a jig and do it by hand at each station. He could actually have a program where the robot follows a circle. He could load it up, press a button, and the robot does the work. He wouldn’t have that physical contact. Also, for dusty operations or picking and packing, you can automate it and create a fairly easy process that would help many small businesses where the cost isn’t too prohibitive.
John: Do you find people are freaked out by the concept? It must make for good dinner party conversation!
Sam: You get people who say this technology is going to take over the world. I know how much work we put in just to get a robot to this point. There’s a big step to go forward, but you can get it to do little things to help you out. Some people ask why you would do that if it takes everything away from you, and I tell them it’s making things better. You can actually remain competitive in those situations.
John: Finally, Sam, what advice would you have for businesses looking to innovate for their customers by incorporating technology? What would you say to anyone thinking they need to find a new way?
Sam: Don’t be scared to try something different. You can fit robots into a normal workplace. You could probably even have one there making coffee. I’ve seen one lately flipping burgers and handling various small parts. It also brings a lot of people into the shop. We have kids coming in all the time, and it brings new people into the business because they’ve heard about it and want to see it. A lot of kids don’t see manufacturing these days. When they see a robot, they say, “I’ve seen that on TV, that’s cool,” and then they see it in real life. We have kids who come in at three or four years old; they see the robot move and get scared, but the next time they come in, they are asking to see the robot again. It brings people into the business and helps the business along the way. It’s definitely interesting!
John: Fantastic. Sam, thanks so much.