Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Glenn Jacobs is the Mayor of Knox County, TN. Heavy industry in the State of Tennessee is booming, especially automotive, and Knox County has added more than 2,500 jobs and seen $217 million in capital investment under the leadership of Mayor Jacobs. In this podcast, Plant Services chief editor Thomas Wilk gets in the ring with Mayor Jacobs to talk about several projects that are growing this manufacturing and industrial base.

Kiteworks CISO Frank Balonis, a 20-year veteran of IT support and protecting manufacturing data, joins Smart Industry’s Scott Achelpohl as a follow-up to an April article he wrote for SI in which he riffs off cyber threats that threaten the factory floor—both industrial OT and IT—and which methods of data intrusion require the most urgent action. The proof is in numbers from Kiteworks: The average cost of a data breach in manufacturing has reached a staggering $4.47 million per occurrence. Much has been said about OT and IT defenses in manufacturing environments, which often are at the very least fragmented to combat the threat, so these companies are vulnerable to this kind of financial loss should they suffer an attack. Frank discusses for how stealing private data is the objective for a majority of the malicious cyberattacks in manufacturing, with the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report indicating private data is compromised 58% of the time in cyberattacks in the manufacturing sector.

IndustryWeek's annual IW U.S. 500 list of the largest publicly traded manufacturing companies in the country offers a glimpse into the health of the overall industrial economy. Editors have worked tirelessly in recent years to rid the list of companies such as Apple, Nike and Monster Energy that seem like industrial producers but in reality farm out the hard work of manufacturing to their supply chains. Editor-in-Chief Robert Schoenberger discusses who's up, who's down and describes a manufacturing sector stuck in the blahs, waiting for anything (well, one very-specific something really) to spark some excitement. Listen to hear about: Why some materials producers are having great years while others suffer How one product and one company is sinking the healthcare sector What's up with Ford, General Motors and Tesla

Matt Doherty, managing director of workplace management with Sikich, discusses what California bill 533 could mean for all employers in terms of providing a detailed workplace violence prevention plan for their companies.

You know the stereotype of frontline industrial workers when it comes to soft skills: they're poor communicators with great ideas and a lot of rough edges. But how true is that stereotype really, in an age where good soft skills are required for the average plant worker to succeed on the job? And for managers who do want to polish their skills, what methods are proven to work? Join Lisa Brownlee, the owner and founder at Leader’s Imago, for a conversation on these topics and more. Lisa holds both BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering. She worked for 11 years for a major engineering and manufacturing company in Columbia, SC, and is also a Lean 6-Sigma Master Black Belt. Her experience spans operations, continuous improvement, training development and delivery, and product assurance. 

Environmental phenomena, regulatory standards, expanding consumer demand - and disappearing generating capacity have combined to create an impossible dilemma for manufacturers that depend on electric utilities. 

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on starting your reliability journey and achieving financial independence. In our monthly podcast miniseries, Ask a Plant Manager, Joe considers a commonplace scenario facing the industry and offers his advice, as well as actions that you can take to get on track tomorrow. This episode offers insight into how to get your team to support communication, accountability, and asking for help when they need it.

The IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit is approaching quickly. The inaugural event, slated for June 26-28, in Indianapolis, will address important topics from continuous improvement and smart technology adoption to workforce and leadership dynamics. In this episode of Production Pulse, we are joined by two of the conference speakers, who discuss their upcoming presentations in the Summit's Continuous Improvement track. GE Healthcare's Sarah Tilkens speaks on optimizing talent for operational excellence, while Mercury Plastics' Carl Livesay addresses the challenging task of sustaining lean gains. Both are keen proponents of continuous improvement and unlocking the potential of your employees to drive manufacturing success.  This episode also shares an overview of the complete Summit program. Register for the event by May 3 and save $200. Speakers are:  Sarah Tilkens, Sr Manager - Operational Excellence - GE Healthcare Carl Livesay, General Manager - Mercury Plastics Jill Jusko, Executive Editor - IndustryWeek Laura Putre, Senior Editor - IndustryWeek, moderated the conversation

From personalized 3D-printed bandages to robotic hair restoration, discover how cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing healthcare. Dive into the world of biomimetic robotics inspired by nature and the latest advancements in 3D-printed cranial implants. Read about this episode's inventions on our site: Skull Sculpting With World’s First 3D Cranial Implants Strand by Strand, Robots are Changing Painful Hair Loss Treatments Roll Up: Pangolin-Inspired Robot is Designed to Travel Within the Human Body 3D-Printed, Drug-Release Bandage Advances Treatment for Burn Patients

So far in April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued three major rulings on chemical producers that could have far-reaching impacts for manufacturers, food packaging and water infrastructure. And, more regulations are likely coming soon.  It's an election year, and the Biden Administration must get new rules finalized on the books well before November, or new rules will be easy for the next president to overturn if Biden loses his re-election bid. That's the view of Lynn Bergeson, managing partner of Washington law firm Bergeson & Campbell PC.  Bergeson was a guest Thursday on a bonus episode of Production Pulse, IndustryWeek's live video series in which editors discuss important news topics with experts and manufacturing leaders. Typically, episodes run bi-weekly, but we wanted to get the regulatory episode in front of an audience right away, givien how active April has been. Speakers were: Lynn L. Bergeson with Bergeson & Campbell   Jon Katz, executive editor of Chemical Processing Andy Hanacek, senior editor of Food Processing Bob Crossen, editorial director for Water World and Endeavor Business Media's water group