Advanced Manufacturing Now

This special Voices AMplified podcast features guest host John Barnes, CEO and founder of Barnes Global Advisors Group and Metal Powderworks. Barnes , the current chair of SME's AM Technical Leadership Committee, talks with Paul Gradl about his 18-year career in additive manufacturing (AM) and how far the industry has come. Gradl, a formally trained systems engineer, is a Principal Engineer and leader in liquid rocket engine combustion at NASA. Barnes and Gradl discuss the early days of AM and how the full potential is still yet to be realized. While the technology has matured, they note that there is still quite a bit of work to be done to educate the manufacturing industry on the application, uses and potential of AM.

In this podcast Plex's Gerry Abbey, Market Research and Intelligence Manager, and Tony Kaczmarek, VP of Product Management, join Contributing Lead Editor Amy Bryson in a discussion around sustainability in manufacturing. Topics include building the business case for ESG and sustainability, as well as its potential impact on building a purpose-driven culture that attracts top talent.

You can't manage what you can't measure, and, in many cases, manufacturers can't measure what they can't see. In this podcast, ThinkIQ's Rob Schoenthaler shares the company's vision for the future of smart manufacturing with SME Media Senior Editor Steve Plumb. In addition to the latest automated and digital solutions, companies must integrate older equipment and manual processes into their Industry 4.0 plans.

Want to know how to differentiate your product and beat the competition to market using the latest digital manufacturing technologies? In this podcast, SME Media Senior Editor Steve Plumb talks with Nathan Lasnoski, chief technology officer for Concurrency, a business management consultancy, about how to best implement and utilize advanced manufacturing technologies and services.

Join John Dyck, CEO of CESMII and Jeff Winter, Industry Executive of Manufacturing at Microsoft as they discuss opportunities manufacturers & the entire ecosystem have when they make the investment in Smart Manufacturing…

They cover:

• The US adoption rate of SM/Industry 4.0 compared to Europe and Asia
• The importance of investing Smart Manufacturing First Principles & why it's critical
• The factors impacting "pilot purgatory"
• How to get small, medium manufacturers involved and where should they start?

Today's industrial workforce has been underserved by technology. This is a paradox given that five decades of industrialization have been focused on scaling production using machines. All industrial managers are familiar with lean, a way of thinking (and acting) that focuses on eliminating waste and streamlining processes to save time, space, materials, and money. For years now, we have sought to achieve this through machine efficiency. However, that has not worked so well, because machines don't (yet) innovate and are not at the center of the production process. In addition, manufacturing is still full of paper-based processes, and even if companies are investing in expensive machines and even robots, in many cases their workers are not communicating optimally electronically. Instead, when you empower your frontline workers by giving them easy access to the tools and technology they need to do their jobs, you are investing in their growth, productivity, and loyalty. It's when people thrive that they innovate. Enter: The Augmented Lean Framework, which entails significantly more than lean plus digital. In this podcast, SME Media Senior Editor Steve Plumb and Trond Undheim, Lead Ecosystem Evangelist for Tulip, discuss the concept of Augmented Lean, and how we chart a new management framework for the important challenge of moving from industrial automation to worker augmentation. Trond's most recent book is Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations, co-authored with Tulip CEO Natan Linder.

When it comes to digital transformation, SMBs need to go from reactive to proactive. In this podcast, Mustafa Ozturk, COO of ProManage, outlines three easy steps SMBs can take for successful digital transformation, where the right enterprise-grade tools can give small and nimble manufacturers a competitive advantage.

In this podcast, Greg Farrar, Head of R&D and Plant Manager at CpK Interior Products and Graham Synott, Process Engineer – IT Systems at Linamar, will share their experiences in successfully getting pilot programs off the ground and quickly demonstrating ROI to stakeholders. They will be joined by Praemo's President and COO Paul Boris and Vice President of Strategic Accounts Mike McFarlin to discuss the challenges and opportunities with machine learning in manufacturing.

Foam, rust, skin irritation and odor—these are all potential problems that job shops face from not using and maintaining the right metalworking fluids. In this podcast, Joe Bennick and John Frauenhoffer from Castrol's Industrial business talk with SME Media Senior Editor Steve Plumb about the importance of proper fluid management to boost the efficiency and performance of factory machinery and equipment.

Manufacturers everywhere are looking to improve their operational efficiency and profitability. In this podcast, Rob Longfellow, CTO of Juxtum, shares his perspective on how companies, from small and mid-sized manufacturers to OEMs, can harness accurate, real-time, and actionable data to drive efficiencies, boost the bottom line, and manage the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape.