Milwaukee Pipeline Series: A Look at the New Impact Wrench & Ratchet

That's the fun part of the job, is your ability to take feedback from 100, 200, 300 different people,

which probably all have different viewpoints on what this tool should be to come into one product and deliver it.

We get another really exciting episode here at the Milwaukee Pipeline event.

This one, I think I'm, I don't know, I can't say most excited because they've all been great,

but I'm really, really excited about this one because in front of us, we have two tools that we're going to talk a lot about

that I think are really impactful to most technicians daily lives.

So, this will be a really fun conversation, but my guest today, Eric Rusch, Director of Product Marketing at Milwaukee Tool.

We're going to learn all about you, Eric, and really all about these wonderful new products that are hitting the market.

So, how are you doing today?

I'm great. Thanks for having me.

We're really excited about these two new products and hopefully kind of pull, get behind the curtain a little bit

and talk about what went into it and what ultimately got us to the finished product that you're seeing here.

But likewise, we're very excited.

These two tools are used day in and day out by every technician.

And hopefully it'll make their lives easier, make them more productive and safer every single day.

We're going to really dive into these two products, but before we do that,

we're going to do another thing that I get really pumped up about, which is to talk about you.

And hear a little bit about what you do on a daily basis, as well as how you got into Milwaukee Tool in the first place.

So, let's start with kind of your upbringing.

Was there always an interest in tools or what really led you to this point?

Yeah, so from the very beginning, my grandpa had a farm.

My dad grew up on the farm and while we didn't necessarily grow up on the farm, I was always helping at my grandpa's farm.

So, whether it was bailing hay, putting it up in the barn or just putting it around on the different pieces of equipment,

that's really where it all started, was on my grandpa's farm.

And from there, I went to go throughout high school and went to go work by my dad.

And they basically move soil all around, big soil.

They provide it for the landscapers, et cetera.

And with that comes all the heavy machinery, the loaders, the back hose.

The fun stuff.

All the fun stuff.

Yeah.

So, not only did I get to drive all that, but I got to also work on them here and there as well.

So, really from birth, I've been around tools around this space.

And it's really driven the passion for me to continue to develop solutions for guys like that.

What was your favorite piece of equipment?

By far, the front end loader.

Yeah.

It was the one that I drove all the time, but you can maneuver around pretty quick.

And pretty smooth, too, for the most part.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So, that was probably my favorite thing.

So, did you know when you're coming out of high school that this is a path that you want to go?

Absolutely not.

You threw me there.

I was like, oh, he's one of them that's like, yeah, this is it.

You know, I'm like, all right, well, I want to get into business.

I want to get into marketing and did not really even know of product management going into college.

I knew that I wanted to be on the business and marketing side of things.

And, you know, just so happened, you know, that my path's crossed to get to Milwaukee.

Well, and it didn't hurt that you have this great company in your backyard.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I grew up in Wisconsin.

I grew up 25 minutes, still live about 25 minutes away from our office.

And, you know, Milwaukee growing up is nowhere near what it is today.

No.

And, you know, it's exciting to have a part of this transition in the industry to cordless

and being a big part of that is something that we all take a lot of pride in.

And we talk about the growth of Milwaukee as a whole.

You just mentioned it.

It's incredible.

I think if you looked in a shop, say 10 years ago, 15 years ago, other than that SAZA that

we all talk about, you probably didn't see a ton of Milwaukee.

And if you fast forward to today, it's everywhere.

The growth has been incredible.

You've been a big part of that.

Well, it's, you know, I've been fortunate enough to work on great products and with

a great company like Milwaukee.

Part of that growth is all stemming from the time that we spend in the field, time we talk

to the techs, whether it's in the auto garage, the diesel shop, the service guy in the road.

We spend countless hours just focusing on what their needs are, what their frustrations

are, how we can improve their process day in and day out.

And it's something that we truly take a lot of pride in and try to come up with solutions

that make their lives easier and get their jobs done faster.

And it's really propelled us to what you see today.

But more than anything, we're not stopping there.

Yes, we're seeing success.

We're seeing more and more guys convert from air to cordless and in particular Milwaukee

cordless.

But we know we have a long way to go and we're not stopping anytime soon.

Well, that mindset is what has driven Milwaukee Tool to end up in the position

that they are today.

And I don't see that ever letting up, right?

You guys are just kind of constantly pushing.

Absolutely, it's the constant paranoia of making sure we remain that solution

of choice for the user.

And if we rest on our laurels and rest on, yeah, we see red in the shops,

that's where you're going to get out-innovated.

And it's that paranoia within our culture that really separates us

from many others is making sure that we focus on the user and continue

to be that solution of choice for them.

Hopefully, that will continue for many, many years to come.

Well, and I love the pride behind it.

Every single employee at Milwaukee that I've talked to has really

referred to that end user and making sure that they get good quality.

And you haven't lost the sight of that as you've grown.

And I think that is such an important piece with a great company is that

you have to remember who's actually using the tool and make their lives

easier.

Absolutely, it's the lifeblood of everything that we do.

And our viewpoint on the transportation user has changed.

When I first started 10 years ago, it was, let's look at the automotive channel.

Well, when you actually look at that channel, the vertical and break it down,

there's a big difference between the paint and body shop, the lube tech,

the service tech, to the heavy duty shops and everything in between.

So we've changed our viewpoint to be more defined for what each individual

needs and why you see solutions like you see here, stuff that we've launched

in the past and more probably what we're going to see in the future is

that focus, that dedication and segmenting out all the specific

users within the transportation vertical has allowed us to hopefully

continue this momentum in the future.

Yeah, I don't think there's going to be much that's going to slow you

guys down.

Before we get to the product side, I do have to ask you kind of a fun

question.

Do you remember your job interview at Milwaukee?

I do.

Were you nervous?

Oh, I was very nervous.

Absolutely.

Yeah, when I was working at a different company before coming here

and Milwaukee was this upstart.

It was this company that was starting to get some momentum

and you would start hearing them at different distributor shows

that I would be at but with a different company.

And what you'd see that momentum coming into play.

And so, you know, for me it was, you know, I had some connections

here.

They said, hey, come check out Milwaukee.

And it was nerve-racking because it was this completely

different culture than what I was used to previously.

And but as I went through the interview process and truly

understood what Milwaukee was all about and how we are

truly trying to innovate for the user and change people's

lives and don't accept anything but the highest of

expectations from everybody, it was something that could

immediately tell that it was a great fit for me.

And luckily they saw the same thing.

I think I remember in my prior lives, the prior jobs,

the interview process and just sitting in the parking

lot ahead of time and being like, this is terrifying.

And when you see a company like this, you almost maybe

put some undue pressure on yourself to get that job.

And I always love asking people about their interview

process because it is nerve-racking.

And maybe that young person that's out there listening

right now that might want to come work at a Milwaukee

tool, give them a little bit of confidence to say, hey,

you can walk in those doors.

You can talk to people and really learn a lot about

a company in that process.

Absolutely.

We don't need you to be the expert on the tools.

We can teach that, but more probably the user will teach

you how to be the expert in what we need to go deliver.

What we are looking for is those culture statements,

the stuff that embodies Milwaukee, being hardworking,

making sure you're going the extra mile to get the

product right, call out when something's not right

and we've got to take a step back to get it on the

right path.

I think that's really what separates us and who we

look for in individuals to have the critical thought,

be candid if things aren't going well.

We've got to change it and that's what separates us

and that's who we look for when people come into

to try and get a job here at Milwaukee.

That's a lesson that every shop that's listening

to this, I hope you listen to that and I'm going

to point at the camera and make sure that

you're listening to this.

You're hiring for your culture and you can see

that everywhere in Milwaukee.

When you walk into the building, there's a

sense of pride with everybody.

There's a similar kind of just refreshing

personality it feels like on everybody.

It gives a lot of compliments to all of you as a

company because it is such a pleasure to talk to

every single one of you and it's because it's

intentional in the hiring process.

We talk a lot about that with our shops that

are out there.

Don't be so reactive in hiring.

Take some time to actually get to know somebody.

Make sure they fit who you are as a company

and you're going to have more success.

Absolutely.

We can train the skills.

We can train how to do the job, the core

foundation of who you are and you got to be

selective and find the right people to

continue to drive progress in what you're

trying to accomplish as an organization.

I'm not sure nobody's done it better.

Technicians, have you checked out Wrenchway yet?

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Wrenchway makes it easy to explore opportunities,

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With Wrenchway you can see detailed job

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Links are in the show notes.

Now, on to the product side and we'll

see if I can actually say sub-compact

impact wrenches.

Hey, I got it.

But we're going to talk about this new

M12 fuel sub-compact impact wrench

and the M12 Gen 2 ratchet, both of

which I think are phenomenal.

Let's start with the impact wrench first.

Can you tell me a little bit about what

we're looking at here?

Yeah, so kind of the history on this

product was probably about

five, six years ago we said,

all right, we launched our compact

wrenches in 18 and 19.

We had the stubby, the original M12

fuel stubby impact and we kept

driving more new product launches.

We had the mid torques that we launched.

We had the high torques that launched.

We kept elevating performance and torque

and what we noticed and what we were

hearing from the field is the torque

is great. We love the torque.

When we need that sub-compact

faster to come off, we got the tools

for that.

But what we were hearing is we also

want solutions that are going to

be using 80 to 90% of the time.

And 80 to 90% of the time you

don't need a solution with

1600 foot-pounds of torque.

And that's really how the

M12 fuel stubby that we launched

last year came into play and how

we set our targets based on what

the user was asking for.

Give us something that's lightweight,

compact, but can still pack a punch.

That had 550 foot-pounds.

With this product, we knew

we were elevating the performance.

But we knew that there's still a lot

of smaller fasteners, plastic fasteners.

Solutions that don't require a lot

of torque, but if you're using it

all day, they want a lightweight solution.

And that's really what we were

focusing on here.

Driving out size, driving out weight.

And I think we've delivered on that

based on the feedback that we

heard from the tech through all of

our testing is this solution

is a great product that fits

well in their hand, can go

on their tool belt if they're on

or their tool cart's in right there.

And it's great for all-day use.

And that was exactly kind of the

inspiration of what this product was

meant to deliver is something

lightweight, compact, but for

all-day use, it'll do a large

portion of their job.

And just picking it up, the feel

of it is really, really nice.

We spent a lot of time also

on the ergonomics, right?

That's the big piece of

what we do. Yes, it's

about trying to hit a torque spec and a

size spec, but we don't overlook

the form factor, how it fits

in the hand, what angle should the tool be

at for the right ergonomics and the

common points that they're working on

in a vehicle or on a piece of equipment.

We take all that into consideration when

we're designing a solution like this.

How do you take that feedback

from a customer and put it

into a number? So like when I say

that, we're talking up to

225 foot-pounds of nut-busting

torque. So when we

look at that and you get that feedback

from a customer that, hey, we want that

torque, but we also want it to last

as long as we can, what is

that happy medium? How do you find

that? And how do you get to the point

to where you're like, okay, this is the

number. This is what we've got to get to.

It's not black and white. No.

It is spending hundreds,

if not thousands of hours talking

to customers in the shop

or on the service truck

trying to understand what are the

applications that they're trying to do

and use the application

to determine the torque value

that we need to determine the size

that we need. And that's really

where we focus is if we can

make sure that we deliver on the key applications

that we think this tool should be delivering

and what the user is telling us it needs to deliver

that will drive the specs.

Now on the flip side,

if you ask a technician, yeah,

I want a thousand foot pounds

in a tool that size. Like that's

a bit unrealistic. Probably not going to happen.

So that's where a big part of

me and my team's role is to

work through those trade-offs.

Yes, we can put more torque through it, but typically

you have to grow the size of the tool.

That's where we spend a lot of time going

in and out of the field, taking

prototypes out, taking SLS handles

to say, does this fit into this

application? Do we need to skinny it up?

Do we need to make it smaller?

Are we okay with decreasing torque

potentially if we want to make it smaller?

Those are all the trade-offs that have to

go into our decision matrix

to say, is this the right product for them?

So it's kind of a science

and that's the fun part of the job

is your ability

to take feedback

from 100, 200, 300

different people

which probably all have different

viewpoints on what this tool should be

for one product and deliver.

And sometimes, we might deliver one product

here, but it generates new ideas

for future roadmap items

down the road too.

So it's

a challenging, but probably

one of the most rewarding experiences

when you actually come up with this product

is it's taking all that feedback

and bringing it to life.

Yeah, in a really, really solid tool.

When you talk about that torque value

and that technician that wants that

very small package,

one thing that comes to mind is

at some level, you're almost protecting

the technician from themselves because

I'm sure I'm not alone in this,

but I have used a tool

that had too much torque for the fastener

that I was screwing in

and snapped the head off of it, right?

And there is nothing more frustrating

than when you do that.

You have to keep that in mind

and that's again

going back to spending times

in the shop. You'll hear about those pain points.

You'll hear about those stories where

you kind of have to know

when you're using

the 10mm socket, what's the

maximum amount of torque that we can actually put

through that type of fastener

to make sure we protect the user

from having to do a ton more

work to actually get that out

of the engine or whatever

application that they're working on.

So it is protecting

the user from what they're

doing, but it's also coming straight from the user.

This might be

somewhat of a rhetorical question,

but I would like to talk through use cases

of this. When you're in a shop

and you're seeing a technician use this,

is there any commonality in what they're using

or it's just that all-purpose

gun that you're kind of using on everything?

Yeah, for this tool in particular

what we're seeing is

it's a great tool for under-the-hood

type work. We'll do some

under-body jobs, but with this tool

all the smaller fasteners,

even some dash work

as well in interior, that's where you're going to see

the quarter inch and the 3a

shine is

becoming that every-aid tool.

This stubby will have its place,

the mid-torks will have its place,

but with this tool what we really saw was

again 80 to 90%

of the work under-the-hood

is where this tool really shines.

I like that and perfect size for getting your hand

where you need to get it

with that comfort level in the grip.

Just so many advantages

to having a tool like that in your toolbox.

Absolutely, and it's

for us it's making sure we give the users

the right tool for the job and

if this tool isn't the right one, maybe it's a ratchet,

maybe it's a right angle impact, maybe it's

something else, but

giving users the option

to do and use the right solutions for them

is another big part of what we're trying to accomplish.

So I'm reading about

one of the other benefits

a key feature

really,

four-mode drive control with auto-shut-off.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Yeah, so in this fourth mode

we have this feature

called auto-shut-off and

we've started to implement this into a lot of our tools,

but this tool in particular

has a more significant

value for it because you're working on

those plastic fasteners,

those lighter-duty screws,

the smaller screws, the smaller bolts

that you don't want a lot of torque.

That feature will automatically

shut-off below 10 foot-pounds,

so you will not

snap that faster to your...

That is a beautiful thing.

We're trying to, again, allow the user to

protect their

job that they're working on and get it done faster

and have a little more control over the work that they're doing.

I love it. Well, let's now

shift over to the Gen2 Ratchet.

What can you tell me about this?

This one is really exciting

and one that I love

both of these tools, but that one in particular with the Ratchet

it's been a long journey.

We started about five years ago

in the development of that tool

and when we were going out and trying to understand

where do we need to take this

Ratchet space?

We knew we had to make some big changes

if we truly wanted to solve the user frustration.

When we were going out and talking to users,

there were users that wanted

that had the high torque

but weren't really thrilled with the big head size

or the speed. There were users that

liked the high speed

but didn't like the torque output

and that's

a common theme across all Ratchets

within the industry is

you had to make a trade-off.

What we said about five years ago is

let's just start from scratch with the Ratchet.

How can we eliminate that trade-off

from the very beginning so

a user can just purchase one tool if they want

everything all the best

in both worlds?

Five years ago,

it all started with the motor

and we completely

thought about the motor differently

than what we've had in the past.

With this new Ratchet,

we developed a new outer-rotor motor

is what it's called, a tongue twister.

I don't know if I can actually say that.

It's an outer-rotor motor

and basically

what our technical team

set out to go accomplish

is what can give us

that power that we're looking for

but how can we drive outsize?

A lot of the feedback that we also heard

from all cordless Ratchets is

it's nice but it's still really big in your hand.

We also set out

can we get the performance that we want

but how can we take outsize?

We found this incredible sweet spot

with this motor technology

and design that allows us

to accomplish all that.

Motor development takes a really long time

and that's why it started five years ago

and we're here today.

Building a motor from the ground up

is no small task

but it's really

unlocked a lot of

key things that this Ratchet is delivering for us.

So from the very beginning

to where we're at now

we saw what the motor can provide.

We also looked at how do we make it more comfortable?

If we can take the size out of the tool

how can we develop an ergonomic design

to take advantage of that size reduction?

We spent a ton of time

with our ID team

a ton of SLS samples

out in the field to say does this fit right?

Does this curvature on the handle

fit well into the hand?

And it's all those little things that went to the

design of this tool that I think is

going to get a lot of users excited

to use it beyond the performance

that it's also going to be delivering.

Yeah and I think when we looked

you showed me the visual earlier today

the difference between the Gen 1 and Gen 2 motors

and it was

like when you look at it at scale

almost hard to comprehend

that the smaller one

could do everything that it could

compared to what we had before

right? It's pretty wild.

And it's a kudos to our technical team

our engineers are

the best in the industry.

They continue to deliver products

that no one thought would be possible.

A few years ago was the first one inch

dehandling in the industry.

No one thought you could deliver a cordless tool

pneumatic and we did it again here

delivering a motor

that's 20% lighter but gives you

20% more power over the previous one

is like defies

physics almost.

Yeah we continue to

exceed

the expectations of ourselves

and again all kudos to our engineering team

we have a world-class engineering team

that continues to provide product like this.

And it is a phenomenal tool

very light

you can tell in your

own head just looking at it

how many different use cases you

have for that you can use that everywhere

that is a really really nice tool

I think

I've got a couple in my box I don't have that

that's not out yet. It's not it will be coming

in January but we can

hook you up. We'll make sure you get

the new one in your toolbox.

That's much appreciated.

My last question here

is how much patience

does it take when you're developing a tool

over five years

to not see your finished product

go out the doors for

a long time right?

You have to be more patient than I

am. It's the hardest

part of the job to be frank

but it's also the most rewarding.

Yeah you're starting out five years

you have to have the vision of what you're going to want to go do

and you have to hold on to that vision along that

journey and the most

important piece is the excitement

of putting this tool in the hands of the user

and actually seeing that launch

and seeing the feedback at an event like

Pipeline. That's the

rewarding piece. You got to keep the

sites at the end of the tunnel and

patience is definitely

something that you have to have it within the product

management role within the engineering role

but the small wins throughout

the project. Seeing a motor

that we thought we might be able to get it

but then you actually can deliver and in this case

it actually outperformed what we initially thought

to developing it all

new mechanism to make it more durable so

that we can shrink the head size

those small wins, those small trade

off wins within the project you have

to keep driving that with the team and

that's how it keeps us on that

path and keeps us excited for that very

long journey but again

it's the most rewarding piece on days like today

and more importantly next year when we start

shipping and seeing all the feedback

there's nothing more rewarding than that.

Well keep up what you're doing

you're doing some amazing work. This has been such

a fun conversation. Hope we get

to talk more about this someday

and see the evolution but an absolute

pleasure having you on. Likewise, thanks for having

me and hopefully we'll

talk again next year with even more new stuff

on your way. I hope so too. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so

much. Yep, thanks.

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Milwaukee Pipeline Series: A Look at the New Impact Wrench & Ratchet

Proton Gen2

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