Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Plant Services chief editor Thomas Wilk speaks with Andy Foster, Chief Product Officer at IOTech, about the growing use of edge AI across discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and energy operations. The conversation explores how manufacturers are using AI for predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, production optimization, and distributed energy resource management. They also discuss why organizations are moving AI closer to the edge to improve latency, reliability, and data security in mission-critical environments. In addition, the episode examines the evolving governance, lifecycle management, and workforce responsibilities required to safely scale industrial AI systems.

Small and medium-sized manufacturers have a skilled labor shortage - and the last solution proposed to address that (automation and robotics) is about to encounter the next proposed solution: agentic artificial intelligence.  A recent article introduces they interesting possibility that “Agentic AI Could Make Robots Affordable for Small Businesses.”
In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, American Machinist's Robert Brooks talks with IndustryWeek's Dennis Scimeca about whether this new approach to programming change how manufacturers program their robots and cobots. Will AI reduce the complexity of implementation, or introduce new risks to their organizations?

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Virginia Tech's E. Scott Geller muses on how workplace safety has improved—and worsened—over his 50-plus year career.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, IndustryWeek's Anna Smith speaks with Ben Johnston, COO at Kapitus, about the new tariff refund portal launched by U.S. Customs and Border Protection following the Supreme Court’s ruling on IEEPA-related tariffs. They discuss how manufacturers, importers, and customs brokers can navigate the refund application process, including key documentation requirements and common filing mistakes to avoid. The conversation also explores the potential financial impact of tariff refunds across the supply chain and the continued uncertainty surrounding U.S. trade policy and future tariff enforcement.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Thomas Wilk meets up with Rosemary Coates of the Reshoring Institute to catch up on how current events are impacting manufacturers who were already shifting their reshoring strategies. Despite geopolitical conflict and energy shortages, Coates identifies are few sectors that are thriving (semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and plastics) and emphasizes the importance of community colleges in preparing workers for a new, more volatile manufacturing normal. 

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.