Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell

In the late 1970s I worked in an engineering department where one of my responsibilities was the custodian and distributor of all engineering data. In addition, I did all the corporate new product quoting--such things as UPS truck bodies and the bodies for the original Atlanta Airport People Movers. Everything was paper and manual. Drawings to bills of material to routings to costing. Today we do the same tasks, except that everything is digital. The drawings are all digital files, the BOM--digital, sorting/costing/checking all faster and digital. We adapt and adopt technology to do things better. The problem remains--leadership and management of the systems to implement all these technologies in order to reap the rewards. That--is the challenge before us.

You are an engineer in a factory or plant. The machine or process is down. Production has stopped. The general manager is yelling. The CEO has vowed to investors, customers, and media that he'll sleep in the plant until production is back up. I've never had it as bad as the people at Tesla with Elon Musk beating on them, but I've lived that life. I helped start a magazine with the stated editorial goal of writing about the intelligent application of automation. After several years of Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, Industry 4.0, digital twins, digital transformation, I think it is past time to look at our projects in terms of how do we employ technology intelligently for improved profitability, work conditions, quality, customer satisfaction, supplier satisfaction, and environmental sustainability. Thank you to my sponsor for another year--Inductive Automation.

Recap of previous 199 episodes over the past 12 years. We reviewed Ethernet (when it was new for manufacturing), safety, video interviews, and thought pieces. Looking ahead, we are challenged to get tech out of the way while we support Lean, human decision-making, making work more meaningful, and solving difficult manufacturing/industrial business problems.

Despite all the dystopian views of technology promulgated over the past 20 or so years, artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for solving some complex problems. We in industrial applications need it as part of the tool kit.

It’s all about data. No matter if I attend an IT conference, like recently at Hitachi Vantara, or an OT conference, such as recently at Emerson Automation and Schneider Electric (Foxboro and Triconex), we are discussing and learning about data and digital technologies. Data must be discovered, gathered, trusted, secured, analyzed, and used. It is the basis of the Digital Transformation and used for the Digital Twin and Internet of Things. Then I digress into youth sports and how some leagues, coaches, and parents still don’t get it.

Mike Boudreaux of Emerson Automation assembled a panel discussion during Emerson Global Users Exchange 2019 comprised of two IT professionals and two OT professionals to discuss the Edge and Digital Transformation. The conversation among the two "sides" is growing closer and closer.

From Clark Griswold's cereal crunch enhancer to some of my experiences in engineering and manufacturing, I ponder how we need to work to benefit our customer and our society rather than being harmful and hurtful. Brought to you by Ignition 8 from Inductive Automation.

Every supplier provides customers with digital transformation these days. Just what is it? How does it relate to IT and OT? What is the business case? Sponsored by Ignition by Inductive Automation.

Platforms come and go--sometimes quickly with turns in technology. IoT platforms were all the rage. Just like IT/OT Convergence and other hyped tech. But engineers are quietly working together to apply the technologies to solve business and industrial problems. Don't watch the hype. Notice when everyone is using it.

This updates a conversation with Dell IoT CTO Jason Shepherd since I couldn't make it to Dell Tech World. We talked open source (the EdgeX Foundry project), cloud, device management, and more.

There are many reasons to go to IT conferences. There is a lot of digitalization activity in this area. Compute platforms, gateways, edge, IoT, networking, analytics, security, and more. This episode sponsored by Ignition from Inductive Automation and also by Schneider Electric's Foxboro and Triconex upcoming user conference.

If we are ever going to finally bring IT and OT together, indeed break through all of a company’s silos, it will be through adopting coaching as a key component of the manager’s tool kit. I reference Trillion Dollar Coach by Schmidt, Rosenberg, and Eagle—a book about legendary Bill Campbell and how his coaching made the difference for executives at Google, Apple, and many more Silicon Valley companies. I also take a look at another Bill—Bill Gates—whose 10 top tech trends and 10 top challenges to solve appeared in this spring’s MIT Technology Review.

The old IT and OT silo idea is finally a myth--whether you want to believe it or not. Manufacturing and production management are not stupid. They act on what they think is best. Structurally organizing so that IT and OT leaders are placed together and work together is solving the grand data problem of process data integrating into enterprise systems.

There are some things that drive me up the metaphorical wall. Especially concerning discussions of automation and jobs. I’ve contemplated this issue for years. Lately there was an issue of the Axios Future newsletter. There are times when they stop at a macro level with no understanding of underlying facts. That’s a common problem with both economists and journalists. My concerns: 1. Confusing robots and automation 2. Not understanding the jobs that were replaced 3. Advances in manufacturing that greatly enhance the quality of jobs 4. Confuse correlation with causation

I interviewed CEOs of two startup companies who are developing products based on powerful, yet inexpensive technologies, that promise to disrupt several use cases.

There are few things I find as exciting as exploring revitalizing manufacturing or production facility. When people and technology come together to make useful products in a clean and safe manner is art to me. This podcast reflects on my trip to Ford Livonia and FlexNGate in Detroit on March 19. This episode is sponsored by Ignition by Inductive Automation and by Bright Wolf.

As march into Women’s History Month, I welcome Isabel Yang, CTO at Advanced Energy Industries. As a minority woman in a C suite position at a publicly traded manufacturing company, Isabel has a plethora of unique insight on her path to success as well as advice for all women looking to spearhead their careers. “I believe women need to shape their own destiny in their careers and lives. Now more than ever, we must work to establish a set of core skills early in our careers and gradually grow ourselves into experts, then progressively branch out to learn about adjacent areas or new areas to acquire new skills.”

In the beginning there were M2M and Internet of Things. Then came Industrial Internet of Things combining the two. Add a stream coming from standards such as Industry 4.0 and we started talking about Digital Transformation. Gary talks about emphasizing business processes and sustainable profitability using all these technologies and strategies plus people. Going beyond IIoT.

Without standards, shipping by ship, train, and truck would be chaotic. Just so, developing manufacturing standards such as OPC, FDT, EDDL, ISA88, and ISA95 has had great benefit to manufacturers and producers. The Open Process Automation Forum, part of The Open Group, consists of users and developers of technology hoping to build a standard of standards lowering total cost of ownership and total cost of upgrading.

Gary responds to a New York Times opinion piece that is yet another "robots will replace all workers" lament. These are all so wrong. Where do you go for manufacturing news that's realistic?