Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Floor space in a plant can be precious, and providing your compressed air system with ample room for ventilation and service can be hard. Yet cramming compressed air equipment into a space can cause unexpected costly issues. Whether you are adding equipment to your compressor room, expanding the room, or building new there are several key considerations to promote air system performance, reliability and equipment longevity. We discuss these points in our second episode of The Hidden Costs of Compressed Air series.   Additional resource: Compressed Air System Installation Guide

Mark D’Agostino is the Sr. Vice President and General Manager of Hunter Industrial Fans’ Commercial Division / Industrial Division. Mark studied Business Administration at Lock Haven State University, and has held the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Power-Flo Pumps & Systems; President & CEO of Raven Products; and President & CEO of Wilo USA. Mark recently spoke with Thomas Wilk about HVLS fan systems, including the ROI on fan investments and the benefits of HVLS fans at your facility.

Peter Christian’s resume includes working as executive director at the Crayola Corporation, and he’s also worked as founding partner and president at the business consulting firm, Enterprise Systems Partners, Inc. His current focus is on why businesses and managers succeed or fail, and he has written two books on this topic, ‘"What About the Vermin Problem?’’ and ‘’Influences and Influencers,’’ both of which are available at www.petechristianbooks.com and on Amazon.com. Plant Services chief editor Thomas Wilk had the chance in May to connect with Pete to discuss his thoughts on success and failure in leadership and maintenance and reliability, as well as what is happening to Lean programs in the post-COVID age.

What would you do if your digital assets stopped talking to each other? Are you confident that you could find them all if they vanished from a network map, from large machines to tiny remote sensors? Ellen Boehm is VP of IoT strategy and operations at Keyfactor, which along with the Ponemon Institute recently released the first-ever State of Machine Identity Management report. Ellen spoke recently with Plant Services Chief Editor Thomas Wilk about how this new dimension of asset management is expanding traditional maintenance responsibilities.

Dylan Erwin is the Technical Sales Manager for Fluke Process Instruments and has previously worked as a product innovation manager and regional sales manager, among other responsibilities. Dylan received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Montana State University and spent the first few years of his professional career in the industrial automation market. Dylan recently spoke with Thomas Wilk about the many uses of thermal imaging devices on the plant floor and the future of the technology, including the release of the TV40 Thermal Imager from Fluke Process Instruments.

Cloud computing is drastically changing the way many organizations operate. Forward-looking maintenance and reliability teams across industry are starting to explore how the cloud can help them improve their asset management practices. IFS recently launched IFS Cloud, which is the next step forward from IFS Applications 10 and which enables companies to manage the customer, people, and asset elements of their business in a single solution. During the launch event, Plant Services had the opportunity to speak with Colin Elkins, Vice President of Manufacturing Industries, and learn how IFS Cloud is leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to fill some of the pressing needs in manufacturing today. PS: What innovations in IFS Cloud help differentiate it from previous IFS software releases?

In mid-2020, ARC Advisory Group and Wind River collaborated on a survey of manufacturing leaders to better understand the challenges industry faced during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain production as a result of disruptions to their supply chains and operations. That report, “Industry 4.0 and 5G in the COVID Pandemic,” explores Industry 4.0 initiatives and manufacturer's increased focus on supply chain improvements, innovations, and remote operations support. Nermin Mohamed, the Head of Telco Solutions at Wind River, talked with the Plant Services editors Thomas Wilk and Anna Townshend about some of the findings in this report.

Paige Morse is the industry marketing director at Aspen Technology. Morse enables digital transformation progress at companies worldwide. She has significant experience with leading operating companies, including Shell, Dow, Sunoco and Clariant, covering R&D, marketing, commercial and strategy roles. Morse recently spoke with Thomas Wilk about the upcoming OPTIMIZE 21 event and the benefits MRO professionals could attain from attending the virtual conference.

Compressed air is inherently expensive. On top of that, very often it is produced inefficiently. But it doesn’t have to be. Taking a look at your compressed air system’s equipment, layout, performance, and environment can help you improve the overall system’s reliability and efficiency saving you money on energy, maintenance, and life-cycle costs.  A review of thousands of compressed air systems reveals that, on average, users operate below 50% of system capacity. Oversized compressors are among the most common problems in air systems. In this episode of The Hidden Costs of Compressed Air series, speakers Matt McCorkle and Neil Mehltretter address why oversizing occurs and how an oversized system reduces reliability and increases maintenance and lifecycle costs. Additional resource: Over-sized and Under-utilized: An Epidemic

Haven Allen is CEO and co-founder of mHUB, a leading hardtech and manufacturing innovation center, and is a managing partner of mHUB’s $15M Seed-stage product impact fund. Allen is an entrepreneur and technology strategist who most recently concentrated on growing the manufacturing industry and strengthening its community throughout the greater Chicago area. Allen recently spoke with Thomas Wilk about how companies are using digitalization to stay competitive and what organizations like mHUB are doing to attract the next generation of workers.