Sara Lupien, contract and revenue manager, Caterpillar Inc., discusses new efforts to help condition machine workers to understand the value of data through the use of subscription services. She explains how this can maximize production for companies to overcome hours of downtime that can lead to losses of $100,000.

Avi Reichental, founder and CEO, XponentialWorks, says Industry 4.0 introduces a new renaissance in manufacturing to allow companies to do things in effective, flexible, and efficient ways. He describes this convergence of technologies in manufacturing as an adaptive muscle that must maintain a balance of core values while taking revolutionary steps.

Peggy Smedley talks about a new legislation that clamps down on cybersecurity in manufacturing in order to provide more reliability to IoT (Internet of Things) devices and keep sensitive data safe. She hopes this goes beyond market benefits for vendors to enable governments and bipartisan efforts in national safety to move forward.

Paul Vragel, president, 4aBetterBusiness, says that a common understanding of process when bringing generations together in manufacturing is essential. He also talks the dos and don'ts when it comes to effective technology implementation.

Dan Yarmoluk, IoT business development executive, ATEK Companies, talks about how the industrial sector is seeing aging infrastructure along with an aging workforce that is pushing a new paradigm to work smarter in manufacturing. He says service providers will help during this transition toward a "digital factory" to prove that emerging solutions will solve complexity while providing the same economic value as before.