On this week’s episode of The Maintainers, join David & Jake as they have the pleasure of speaking with Nikki Gonzales, the Head of Partnerships at Quotebeam and Co-Host of the podcast, Automation Ladies. Quotebeam is a collaborative digital procurement platform for industrial automation and electrical components, partnering with industrial automation distributors and their customers to connect them with the parts they need.

Nikki brings a slightly different perspective to the show, having always been primarily on the business side of operations, citing her long passion for wanting to match problems with solutions at a high level. And, while she might not be running production lines, she still has a keen interest in predictive maintenance as she shares how her father’s business is aimed at providing key monitoring for grocery refrigerators and freezers. 

David & Jake also find out more about the podcast Nikki co-hosts, Automation Ladies. Starting in 2022, Nikki and her Co-Host, Ali G, wanted to provide other women in the industry with content that resonated with them. In an industry that lacks gender parity, one of Nikki’s goals is to empower other women who might be struggling as they start their careers.

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Guest Bio

Nikki Gonzales started her career as a sales engineer for machine vision systems and mechatronics, where she spent 10 years in the field implementing and supporting automation solutions in a variety of industries. She then transitioned to the design side of engineering with multi-physics simulation for virtual prototyping and data analytics in the supply chain such as forecasting and inventory optimization. Today she is building an online marketplace and workflow automation platform for industrial automation distributors and their customers to collaborate and bring some sanity to the procurement process at Quotebeam.

When she’s not helping engineers and their procurement teams with Quotebeam, she’s probably out connecting with someone new on her podcast Automation Ladies or offering up her expertise at a live conference.

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Guest Quote

“It really does help to see someone that you can relate to in a position that you may be interested in. And there are a lot of great women out there in tech industries and manufacturing, but oftentimes, we are more reluctant to put ourselves out there…But through our network, we see that there are girls watching us that want to come into this as a career. And they feel empowered by watching our shows or hearing us talk.” – Nikki Gonzales

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Time Stamps 

*(01:21) Ice Breaker

*(02:03) Nikki's Background

*(06:39) Segment 01: The Maintainer Mashup 

*(07:13) What problems does Quotebeam solve?

*(12:11) Nikki's thoughts on predictive maintenance

*(16:39) Monitoring in grocery stores

*(20:36) Segment 02: What's in Your Toolkit?

*(24:29 ) The Automation Ladies Podcast

*(28:02) Segment 03: The Future of Factories

*(28:34) Advice for bringing more diversity to manufacturing

*(32:40) The importance of role models

*(36:15) Segment 04: Fix It Funnies 

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Links

• Connect with Nikki Gonzales on LinkedIn
• Listen to Automation Ladies
• Learn more about Quotebeam 
• Connect with David Lee on LinkedIn
• Connect with Jake Hall on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Tractian