Tulip Interfaces: Rony Kubat & Erik Mirandette

Digitizing the factory isn’t always easy. A former counter-intelligence officer and former reality TV star talk about how they hope to bring modern data tools, IoT, and Lean Manufacturing to every factory floor.  Manufacturing technologies have been changing fast. And it’s amazing what you can make custom and on-demand, and how you can iterate in the physical world. But transforming a factory to digital manufacturing is not so easy. And that’s where this week’s guests come in.  Rony Kubat and Erik Mirandette are from Tulip Interfaces, a company spun out of the MIT Media Lab. Through their work with lab sponsors, they realized how hard it was to digitize a factory. And so they set out to change that. A company can get started with no programming experience and as little as $3,500. I was a little skeptical at whether some techies can just waltz in and transform a factory. So I was eager to see how it works and hear about what they learned along the way. We hear their lessons learned about implementing lean manufacturing and removing paper and pen from the factory floor. They also tell stories about riding motorcycles across Africa, surviving civil wars, counter-intelligence missions, and being on reality TV.   Links and social handles: Website: http://tulip.co Social Media: @tulipinterfaces Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tulip-interfaces/   For more information, bios, and links, check out the show notes at http://makeitinla.org/tulip.