Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Future industrial professionals will look back on the year 2023 as the year that artificial intelligence truly started to scale and reshape plant operations. The increasing integration of software into manufacturing processes plus massive cloud compute power has laid the foundation for plant teams to apply AI to drive better business decisions, from supply chain and resource planning and scheduling to improved physical asset management. Michael DeMaria is a product manager for Azima DLI, which is part of Fluke Reliability, where he manages the hardware platforms and integrations, diagnostic software and AI tools, and user portal deliverables and business metrics. Michael’s background is in Navy nuclear engineering, but he has been working in the vibration-analysis arena for more than 30 years. In the following interview, DeMaria explains why starting with a pre-trained AI is critical to successfully using AI for machine condition monitoring.

With SEC rules forcing disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents, it's time for all companies to assess their immediate cyber risks—so what are the biggest network vulnerabilities and potential damage from a successful hack that manufactures need to worry about and what preventative measures can they take immediately? Our Dec. 7, 2023, livestream featured: Dennis Scimeca, senior editor for technology at IndustryWeek Ryan Cloutier, CISSP, CISO at Synaptech Services Avishai Avivi, CISO at SafeBreach

In this “Talking EHS” episode of The Tool Belt, Dave Blanchard and Nicole Stempak offer highlights from EHS Today’s recent Safety Leadership Conference, and offer their insights into the best practices companies are using to keep their workplaces safer and healthier.

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 new podcast series, 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 on how to best measure productivity.

Rick Baldrige, CMRP, CAMA, has worked at Cargill for over 40 years, most recently as the company's Global Reliability Leader. He has also served as chair of the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP). Before retiring, Rick spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk at the SMRP Annual Conference. The pair talked about the future of SMRP, where the organization and the conference is headed, and SMRP's aproach to training and certification.

Jim Fitch is the CEO of Noria Corporation and is the founding director and a former board member of International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML). Paul Hiller is ICML Marketing Manager. Jim and Paul recently spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk at the SMRP Annual Conference about the importance of industrial training, overcoming challendges associated with oil analysis, and the new ICML 55® standard.

With high-profile attacks on Clorox and Boeing, cybersecurity has been top-of-mind for manufacturers for the past few months, reiterating advice offered from experts about the need to guard against attacks and be prepared for their fallout. While we at IndustryWeek have certainly been writing a lot about it, we haven't been alone. Several other publications from our parent company, Endeavor Business Media, joined us to discuss where the industry is with cyber defense and what's coming next. Joining us on Nov. 9 were: Scott Achelpohhl, managing editor of Smart Industry. Scott recent wrote about the growth of digital adoption in manufacturing, noting that cybersecurity is a driving factor for many companies.  Alix Paultre, editor-at-large for Electronics Design. Alix recently hosted a podcast discussing the cybersecurity implications of quantum computing.  Bruce Geiselman, senior staff reporter for Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing. In a recent podcast, Bruce spoke about steps manufacturers can take to defend against attacks.  Jason McDaniel, editor of Bulk Transporter magazine and part of Endeavor's fleet group that also includes FleetOwner and Fleet Maintenance magazines. Jason recently covered cyberthreats in commercial trucking, including a demonstration of hackers taking over commercial truck antilock braking systems. Steve Lasky, editorial director of Endeavor's security group which includes SecurityInfoWatch.com and Security Technology Executive. Steve's recent work includes a podcast about digital twins.

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 new podcast series, 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 on how to make necessary budget cuts.

Karen Griffin is the Vice President at Hargrove Controls and Automation, and she's also the new chair of the Control Systems Integrator Association (CSIA) Board of Directors. When Karen took the role of chair in May 2023, she said, “I'm incredibly excited to help lead CSIA as board chair and proud to be the first woman to hold a position. The future looks challenging, but bright for system integration, and I'm honored to have a hand in leading the industry into it.” Karen recently spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk about why plants need a good integrator partner to help identify where data is stored or siloed and to help bring datasets together to really draw insights from that data on how to improve operations.

With October's Manufacturing Month nearing its close, IndustryWeek invited people who participated in a recent survey about why they chose careers in manufacturing to share their stories.  Larry Gates, a process engineering manager for Fortune Brands' Fiberon division, talked about moving from design to the shop floor where he felt he could be more creative. Salvador Martinez joined us from Costa Rica where he's been a process engineer for 40 years, most recently as a freelance consultant.  Both had participated in a single-question survey that simply asked why people chose careers in this industry. While many people talked about the desire to work with their hands or family connections to the manufacturing world, other responses focused on the ability to find creative solutions to problems. One of the most frequent answers was the sense of job satisfaction that manufacturers gain from seeing a finished product and knowing that they contributed to making it -- something that's a little less obvious in many fields.