Manufacturing Happy Hour · 5 Dec 2023 · 1h 12m
Chris Luecke interviews seven industry leaders, including Jeff Winter of Hitachi Solutions America and Habib Quazi of ExxonMobil, on the characteristics of smart manufacturing leaders at the 2023 Smart Manufacturing Experience. The guests discuss how to cultivate a smart manufacturing mindset by being agile, customer-centric, innovative, and data-driven, while avoiding 'random acts of digital' by focusing on holistic 'lighthouses' rather than isolated pilots. They emphasize that successful transformation requires integrating production with the entire value chain, leveraging off-the-shelf IoT and AI platforms, and ensuring data moves to the right people to solve business problems.
Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.
ManufacturingSAS Analytics for IoTOEE increased by 10%, unplanned downtime reduced by 30%
Georgia Pacific deployed over 16,000 machine learning models to monitor asset health and process conditions, which increased Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by 10% and reduced unplanned downtime by 30%.
“They have over 16,000 models running in their production system. They have increased their OEE by 10% and reduced their unplanned downtime by 30…”
Sanjeev Heda · Hear it at 47:27
large enterprises
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Brian Zakrajsek, Smart Manufacturing Leader at Deloitte, discusses how manufacturers can implement IoT technology, highlighting the convergence of IT and OT, the importance of data context, and the shift toward industry-specific solutions. He details Deloitte's Smart Factory in Wichita, Kansas, as a physical experience center and notes the company's move from pure advisory to implementation and managed operations. Zakrajsek emphasizes that successful adoption requires aligning technology with clear business value, managing change in high-turnover workforces, and leveraging AI to make sense of heterogeneous data.
Bill Remy, CEO of TBM Consulting Group, argues that manufacturing leadership gaps are as critical as front-line labor shortages, driven by the outdated practice of promoting technical experts without providing leadership training. He emphasizes that effective leaders must focus on process improvement, safety, and quality rather than acting as 'cheap firefighters,' and must actively engage with the shop floor to build trust and retain talent. Rey also advises midsize manufacturers to adopt a 'crawl, walk, run' approach to technology adoption, focusing on specific problem statements and change management rather than chasing trends like AI without clear business cases.
Jim Vaselopulos, founder of Rafti Advisors and host of The Leadership Podcast, discusses leadership principles for manufacturing executives, drawing on his early career at Rockwell Automation. He argues that leaders must apply the same rigorous root cause analysis used in engineering to people issues, emphasizing that 'insatiable curiosity' prevents lazy assumptions and helps uncover the real reasons behind performance problems. Vaselopulos also outlines his framework for managing time through sequencing, timing, and patience, and highlights the current 'manufacturing renaissance' driven by reshoring, which creates urgent challenges in talent acquisition and retention.
Barry Libert, Chairman and CEO of HiveMQ, discusses the critical challenge of moving industrial IoT projects from pilot to scale, arguing that companies must view themselves as data streaming entities rather than product manufacturers. He emphasizes that the primary hurdle is often poor data quality and a lack of alignment across technical, strategic, and economic leadership tiers, rather than the AI models themselves. Libert outlines how HiveMQ has evolved from a connectivity tool to an industrial AI platform, enabling agentic workflows that allow organizations to trade data sets for operational efficiency and predictive maintenance.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, CEO and founder of Instrumental, discusses how the pandemic accelerated digital transformation in electronics manufacturing, validating her prediction of five years of innovation in 18 months. She explains Instrumental’s cloud-based platform that collects engineering data from across the supply chain to identify defects and improve first-pass yield, moving away from opaque, just-in-time models toward resilient, data-driven collaboration. Shedletsky highlights the shift from Capex to Opex for manufacturing technology and the critical need for transparency between brands and Contract Manufacturers (CMs) to solve problems faster.
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