Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Electric vehicle sales were flat in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to the third quarter, but automotive experts are still calling last year the Year of the EV because of the market's rapid growth. EVs accounted for 8% of vehicles sold last year, more than 1.2 million units.  Still, the industry mood has been less optimistic lately as slowing growth rates have led GM, Ford and others to slow investments in new plants and lower some of the lofty sales targets they'd initially offered for 2024 and beyond.  In our bi-weekly manufacturing livestream, Production Pulse, we discuss those issues with two automotive experts. Speakers Kristin Dziczek is a policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a long time analyst of all things automotive. As she notes in the podcast, the opinions offered are her own, not an official report of the Federal Reserve. Stephanie Valdez Streaty is director of Industry Insights for Cox Automotive, a retail automotive giant with brands such as Kbb.com and Manheim Auto Auctions. Before joining Cox to spearhead EV research, Valdez Streaty spent decades in the auto industry including 15 years at Nissan.

Do you love the world of manufacturing technology? Are you always looking for news about the next cool tech invention? Do you wonder how everyone always knows about new products for the industry? Or maybe you just want to know how to choose between different machines. Listen to New Equipment Digest’s new podcast series for all things products for manufacturing.

Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence. Contributing to the podcast are 14 seasoned manufacturing journalists from Endeavor Business Media’s Manufacturing Group. In this round table episode, editors from American Machinist, EHS Today, Foundry Management & Technology, IndustryWeek, Material Handling & Logistics, New Equipment Digest, Plant Services, and Smart Industry share their plans and expectations for the new podcast series. 

Rue Phillips is the co-founder and president of SkillFusion, a platform that connects electric vehicle operations and maintenance service providers with a nationwide credentialed talent pool for electric vehicle service equipment O&M obligations. Rue has been at the forefront of developing online platforms that connect cleantech asset owners with a local and on-demand installation and service workforce, first in the solar sector with 365 Pronto and now in the EV charging sector. Rue also hosts EV Chat, a podcast with a rock'n'roll spin elevating industry leaders and making their knowledge and insight accessible to those across the electric vehicle space. Rue recently spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk about the challenges of finding skilled workers for the EV infrastructure industry.

In this episode, Smart Industry Managing Editor Scott Achelpohl previews predictions for the new year we gathered from more than 20 experts in the areas of AI, machine learning, IoT, condition monitoring, and more.

As we prepare to close the books on 2023 and look ahead to the new year, IndustryWeek gathered top editors from several manufacturing media titles to discuss the year that was and the one to come. Sibling publications also owned by IndustryWeek parent company Endeavor Business Media offer unique insights on what manufacturers in different specialty markets have in common, and what's different. The panel included: Karen Langhauser, chief content director for Pharma Manufacturing Lynne Sherwin, managing editor of Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing Jon Katz, executive editor of Chemical Processing Anna Townsend, manager editor of Plant Services and Control Design Robert Schoenberger, editor-in-chief, IndustryWeek

In this “in case you missed it” edition of Talking EHS, you’ll learn from two Travelers experts about the most common causes of worker injuries, and how to mitigate the risks of injuries on the job. Read the article here

Ron Marshall is the founder of Marshall Compressed Air Consulting, a compressed air energy efficiency consulting firm, where he provides technical advice, system auditing, and training. He first developed his skills as an industrial compressed air systems expert at Manitoba Hydro, where he worked for 38 years, supporting more than 600 energy efficiency projects. Ron is a level 2 instructor with Compressed Air Challenge and conducts training internationally. Ron recently spoke with Plant Services editor in chief Thomas Wilk about his most recent cover story, "8 ways to justify upgrades to your compressed air system," as well as how to persuade teams to invest in the compressed air equipment they need.

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