Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast

How to Challenge Problem Employees with Reliability Excellence [Ask a Plant Manager]

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, is a former plant manager, engineer, and global reliability consultant, and he is now president of Lean Driven Reliability. 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. This episode offers insight into how managers deal with employees’ bad attitudes.

Making the Candy, Manufacturing for Halloween [Production Pulse]

Even if you're listening to this after Halloween, please enjoy this special treat of a group discussion around all things candy. Where does our candy come from? What are people eating these days? Why do kids like gummy candy instead of recognizing that chocolate is the only thing worth eating? 
Most importantly, what's coming up from food manufacturers in the future? What great product will add inches to our waistlines in 2025?
The ask and answer some of these questions are:
Linda Becker, editor-in-chief of Automatic Merchandizer and Vending Market Watch, titles that send her to vending machine and convenience store trade shows every year, candy-centric events at which companies share what's coming up in the world of sugar
Andy Hanacek, senior editor of Food Processing, a title that covers food manufacturers
Robert Schoenberger, editor-in-chief of IndustryWeek who does consider peanut M&Ms to be a salad

The Evolving Role of Technology in Workplace Safety [Talking EHS]

Ryan Magee, newly appointed CEO of Cority, shares his thoughts on the impact that technology, particularly AI, is having on workplace safety, and what the future looks like for EHS professionals hoping to leverage new technology.

How Major Tech Players Are Transforming Manufacturing Software Solutions

Greg Martin is founder at Equip LLC Automation Consulting, a software and electrical service provider in South Bend, Indiana, that works specifically with automated systems. Greg was in Chicago recently to explore the IMTS 2024 trade show, and met up with Thomas Wilk, chief editor of Plant Services, to trade their observations and reflect on the past 10 years of systems integration.

Translating AI for Small and Medium-Size Manufacturers: Live from IFS Unleashed

Editors Scott Achelpohl, Tom Wilk, and Dennis Scimeca sit down with Andrew Burton, the enterprise cloud software vendor's global industry director of manufacturing, about the IFS conference in Orlando, why the company wants to trailblaze with artificial intelligence and how, as its CEO said at the show, IFS wants to be the "undisputed leader in industrial software."

Re-Evaluating the Value of AI for Manufacturing

Nevermind machine learning … Andrew Halonen, founder of Amatrium and the AmatriumGPT tool, argues that LLMs offer multiple paths for manufacturers to expand their capabilities and extend their market reach.

Fighting Cynicism in Operations: How Lean Works in Spite of Organizational Change

Almost everyone's seen some version of this: You've got a great system in place that's producing measurable improvements, but your company gets a new division head or president or CEO, and some new shiny object becomes the focus. 
Ever wanted to ask an implementation person how they handle that? At the IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit this summer, an audience member put the question that bluntly to Marty Hallman, director of bearing operations at The Timken Co. Like most of us, Hallman's been through that sort of turmoil, and he explained how Timken keeps going with lean management principles, even when leadership changes.
Joining Hallman was Sam McPherson, president of the Lean Leadership Academy. In addition to talking leadership change, they discussed how to develop leaders internally, how to implement production-improving strategies and how to get the most of the training time they spend with up-and-coming leaders. 

What You Need to Know About Exosuits

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Laura Davis, editor-in-chief of New Equipment Digest, sits down with Mark Harris, CEO of HeroWear, to explore the cutting-edge world of exosuits. These innovative wearable devices are changing workplace safety and productivity, particularly in industries where manual material handling is a daily challenge.
Harris shares insights into the development of HeroWear's exosuits, designed to reduce the physical strain on workers' bodies while improving comfort and usability. From addressing age-old back injury problems to boosting productivity and reducing employee turnover, exosuits are proving to be a valuable piece of PPE in the manufacturing and logistics sectors.

How Electrification Is Helping Manufacturers Meet Their Net Zero Goals

Trevor Joelson is an energy and decarbonization service account executive at Trane. Over the past ten years, Trevor has held various roles in corporate energy and sustainability management and has become an expert in the energy markets and how the supply-side of energy connects to the built environment. In his current role, Trevor works with manufacturers to help them establish strategies and programs to meet decarbonization objectives. Trevor recently spoke with Plant Services managing editor Anna Townshend about utilizing electrification as a growing part of your plant’s emissions reduction strategy.

Keeping Cybersecurity Simple With Up-To-Date Password Practices

Not only is it Manufacturing Month, but October also is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. To mark the occasion, Smart Industry Managing Editor Scott Achelpohl recruited Joe Anderson of Ohio-based TechSolve to talk about how robust cyber defenses can start with up-to-date password practices and policies.
Anderson is a big “get” for Smart Industry—an IT and info security pro with over 25 years of industry experience, possessing several cybersecurity certifications. His company, among other IT services, helps small manufacturers (TechSolve is part of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Ohio) tackle cybersecurity compliance challenges and risk management.
For manufacturers and the shop floor, cybersecurity and secure OT and IT requires constant vigilance. One of the most common-sense strategies for this is password security—and for lots of companies, mandatory policies relating to passwords often become necessary. Look at examples like Clorox recently: A breach, any breach, can cost millions in “ransom” to cyberattackers and in production downtime. And passwords are often easily hacked.