Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

Vikki Young is the global research and development group leader for Sherwin-Williams high performance floor coatings. Vikki received her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota before working at Tennant Company for more than 20 years. Vikki recently spoke with Thomas Wilk, editor in chief of Plant Services, to answer a really interesting question: what goes into reliable flooring in EV battery production facilities, and how are these floors maintained to ensure asset reliability and worker safety?

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Laura Davis, editor-in-chief of New Equipment Digest dives deep into the world of robotics, exploring six inventions that are reshaping industries and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. From a baseball-playing drone developed by MIT to a flame-throwing robot dog, and from a beach-cleaning quadruped to a record-breaking Rubik's Cube solver, she covers an exciting array of robotic advancements.

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a manufacturing professional, or simply curious about the future of robotics, this episode offers fascinating insights into the latest research and development in the field. Listen as Laura unpacks these innovations and discusses their potential impact on manufacturing and beyond.

In this “Talking EHS” podcast, Katie McLaughlin, manager-HSE RAVS with ISN, shares her insights on the implications of OSHA’s new worker-walkaround rule, as well as the impact the new rule will have on safety managers.

IMTS 2024, the International Manufacturing Technology Show, is back, and companies are talking about a little bit of everything. Typically, two days into a show, a clear theme emerges, but this year, not so much.

Discussing this are:

• Sharon Spielman, technical editor of Machine Design

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Industry 4.0 influencer Jeff Winter and Smart Industry's Scott Achelpohl take on an issue that has topped technology conversations all year: artificial intelligence.

AI: Is there any other topic, inside or outside of manufacturing, that is quite as hyped? A lot of technological people are confused about what their companies should be doing (or not doing) with AI. Some rely on their normal software vendors who provide ERPs or other systems for answers to their questions. Others seek answers on their own. Influencer Jeff Winter and Smart Industry Managing Editor Scott Achelpohl use their monthly chat to cut through some of the clutter and take listener questions about AI.

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 maintenance micromanagers prevent workers from making decisions and learning from their mistakes. 

The International Manufacturing Technology Show starts up Monday, Sept. 9, bringing every type of machine and technology that might be useful in a plant to Chicago's McCormick Place. 

The massive show always draws media coverage, especially from publications such as IndustryWeek and our partners within Endeavor Business Media. Discussing what we're looking forward to seeing at this year's show are:

• Robert Brooks, editor-in-chief of American Machinist

It's no secret there is a labor shortage problem in manufacturing, with many more jobs available today than people to fill those jobs, and a growing chasm between people entering the industry versus those leaving.

Lurking in that labor challenge is maybe the biggest threat - a "great retirement" where the biggest threat is older, more experienced workers retiring and taking with them a career's worth of skills, experience, and best practices. In the race to close that gap, technology can play a crucial role in mitigating the manufacturing "brain drain" by automating repetitive tasks, preserving institutional knowledge through digital documentation, enabling remote collaboration, and enhancing training with virtual simulations.

In this podcast, Anthony Offredi - director of Customer Advocacy at Quickbase and a veteran of the manufacturing world - will discuss this brand drain and highlight technology solutions that can help combat this growing challenge, helping to attract and retain talent by capturing that knowledge while making work more engaging, efficient, and adaptable to new challenges in the industry.

For a long time, compressed air systems were a massive time drain on stretched maintenance personnel, with plants reluctantly willing to make a tradeoff of continuous manual intervention in exchange for constant air delivery. However, things are different these days. In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Ron Marshall of Compressed Air Challenge reviews some of the key changes in the compressed air world over the past 10 years have dramatically improved things for compressed air users.

Read "Compressed air innovations in industry: A 10-year retrospective"

At the IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit in June in Indianapolis, IT and OT experts discussed how to connect people with technology to make digital transformation work. In this frank panel discussion, manufacturing experts talked about why so many projects fail, how to justify spending more money on new tech after the old project failed and how to get the needed buy in to continually improve tech adoptions.

Speaking are:

• Scott Achelpohl, managing editor of Smart Industry