Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Nick Haase of MaintainX explores the challenges manufacturers face as workforce retirements and labor shortages collide with the push for AI adoption. He discusses how disconnects between leadership and the shop floor can lead to ineffective technology and stalled implementation. The conversation highlights the importance of capturing tribal knowledge, improving system interoperability, and prioritizing frontline-friendly tools. He also outlines practical steps for building a digital foundation that enables successful AI use in industrial operations. 

This episode is sponsored by MaintainX.

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. In this episode, Joe considers five different common maintenance scenarios, and he decides: fact or fiction.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Jason Moreland of AlertMedia explores how changing weather patterns and climate trends increase risks for workers and organizations, and explains why proactive planning, communication and training are vital to mitigate impacts of extreme weather events across seasons.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, IndustryWeek's Dennis Scimeca and Machine Design's Rehana Begg talk all of the walking robots at Hannover Messe, the massive trade show that took place in Germany in late April. Amongst the automation equipment, software, machines and controllers were a lot of upright, humanoid robots. In nearly every hall at the show, robots walked arounds. Some danced, some picked up small objects and put them in a box, some waved to passersby and some did things that looked like they might be marginally useful on a manufacturing shop floor. 

Dennis and Rehana discuss the pros and cons of our new robot overlords with some help from Kal Mos, executive vice president for research & development at Siemens. If Dennis Scimeca is a skeptic on the need for robots to look like us, Mos is the opposite -- a believer that we've built the world for people and robots should adopt our form factor to get around. 

"Local manufacturing marketplaces" are regional networks in which value is created and retained - as opposed to being distributed outside the local economy. In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, management consultant Chris Bassett explains that manufacturers’ drive for efficiency in their decision-making causes them to pass by opportunities that involve less time and fewer communication challenges, and bring faster problem resolution and smoother product-quality management. 

The generative AI trend based on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT has for years dominated the conversation about artificial intelligence. When something like agentic AI enters the conversation it’s easy to conflate terms, confuse agentic with generative, and not get the full picture.

On this episode of Production Pulse we spoke with Ron Norris, former Director of Innovation at Georgia Pacific, and Nagadithya Nookala, product manager for data analytics and AI-related products and Sanjay Ahire, data scientist, both from Ford Motor Company.

Nookala explains the difference between AI agents and agentic AI using the metaphor of a Google search. If you ask Google about a topic it provides you with links and materials, after which you’re on your own. Agentic AI would not only identify the links and materials but also digest the material to provide summaries, recommendations, essentially do the research and draw the appropriate conclusions for you.

Ahire uses the metaphor of GPS systems used for navigation. Google maps provides directions on how to get somewhere. Agentic AI would not only identify the best route, it would also drive the car itself, using multiple data streams for guidance and navigation.

Norris says the ability to learn differentiates agentic AI from regular agents. Agentic AI not only suggests action but also understands cause and effect and can therefore explain why to take an action.

Companies that adopted generative AI have already purchased software, on-prem or cloud servers and other infrastructure to serve the new technology. Do those investments also prepare companies to adopt agentic AI tools?

The answer, thankfully, is yes you’ve invested in compute and software to support generative AI you have a leg up on adopting agentic AI. Agent development kits can integrate with existing systems and applications. You may need more stringent guardrails, however, to make sure humans always provide final authority before giving agentic AI permission to act.

This month, New Equipment Digest Editor-in-Chief Laura Davis shares her April picks—five products that caught her attention for solving real problems in manufacturing and industrial environments. On the list: the RUN coordinate measuring machine for shopfloor inspection, the MasterMover MasterHandler electric tugger for moving heavy wheeled loads in tight spaces, the Tormach 770MX CNC mill with upgraded motion control, the Goodwell Technologies VAC-DIV2-CAMKIT overhead inspection camera, and the RDI Technologies Iris aiOne motion amplification and vibration analysis platform. Learn more about the products in this episode:

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Plant Services chief editor Thomas Wilk talks with Adrienne Meyer, CEO of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA), about the evolving role of system integrators and the growing importance of automation in today’s manufacturing landscape. They explore how the ongoing skills gap is accelerating the adoption of automation, shifting its purpose from cost savings to maintaining operational continuity. Meyer also shares insights into how system integration is transitioning toward long-term partnerships and lifecycle services to better support digital transformation.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, EHS Today's Nicole Stempak talks with experts from BSI (www.bsigroup.com) about the current landscape of ESG, sustainability, and environmental regulations, emphasizing practical strategies for businesses to navigate complex compliance and leverage sustainability for business value.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, IndustryWeek's Jill Jusko speaks with Bryan Croft about how a small, family-run business unexpectedly became part of the Artemis II space mission. They explore how HC Brands’ Simply Stamps division was discovered through digital marketing efforts and tasked with engineering a highly specialized product to meet strict aerospace requirements. The conversation highlights the challenges of rapid prototyping, lightweight design, and meeting precise specifications under tight timelines. Along the way, they also reflect on the broader themes of innovation, company culture, and how even niche manufacturers can play a role in groundbreaking projects.