Descent Into Normal--State of Automation Market
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
Release Date: 04/04/2024
277 An Integrator's View of Applying AI
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
Nothing in industrial technology news annoys me more than the hype around artificial intelligence—AI. I recorded this podcast on the eve of the Automate trade show and conference in June 2026. Looking to for realistic use of Industrial AI, I’m bringing in an interview with a practitioner. Bryan DeBois is Director of Industrial AI at RoviSys, one of the largest independent system integrators. He has 20 years in MES, historians, and plant floor software. He leads teams that operationalize AI and data infrastructure in live plants, working with the C suite and ops to turn goals into...
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Aras Community Event 2026--Rise of the Agents
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
A first summary of my three days with the Aras community in Miami. These PLM events always return me to the time when I did this sort of work--manually. Then my first taste of computers digitizing the bill of materials as a first step in our data management journey. Unfortunately, that company hit a big bump in the road and I was invited to try other things--at other companies. Aras product managers showed how LLMs trained on the data within the app along with proper governance worked with agents to perform a number of tasks. Tasks in many cases that would require days of pain-staking work...
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Why AI in Manufacturing?
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
Episode 275. Why AI in Manufacturing? Why not? I explore how new technologies for knowledge work, unlike in manufacturing, create even more busy work distracting us from our real work--thinking, deep work. Looking beyond the hype, AI tools are going to help us do things. We just don't know exactly what is best. We must play with the tools to find the best ways to help us. We also need to consider the limits of text-based LLMs. Researcher Yan LeCun has looked at the limits of these technologies. How can they work for things like bringing a robot into the house, for example, when they are...
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Manufacturing Jobs--Is Investment Enough?
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
I was intrigued by an item in News Items by John Ellis quoting the Wall Street Journal regarding the continued slide in manufacturing employment in the US and the prolonged slide in manufacturing activity. The first Trump administration elicited promises of moving manufacturing to the US with the building of plants. Little of that actually happened. The Biden administration invested a few billion, but what has that brought. The second Trump administration thought that tariffs would provide the protection from competition to jump start manufacturing. I pose the idea that it takes more...
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2025 Automation Fair and Software Market Thoughts
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
Thoughts on organization structures and Rockwell CEO Blake Moret's experiments with bringing in outsiders and setting his own directions. Thoughts on the industrial software market in general and Rockwell's evolution. What's happening with MES in particular. Rockwell upgrading and building new factories using its own products and services. Rok on Rok Repackaged cybersecurity offerings. Software defined automation--software distinct from the target controller--can target any Rockwell control. Question about IEC 61131 and targeting anyone's control fell on deaf ears. Thoughts on that market....
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Asset Data Interoperability
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
We met in a conference room at an office in Barrington, IL. A place where sometime later a couple guys thought they’d screw me in a business deal. I came out ahead in the end, but the place has mixed memories. This meeting involved thinking about the future of asset data and systems interoperability. We had a system diagram. The idea was to solve a huge problem for owner/operators of process manufacturing enterprises—flowing engineering data into other software systems for operations, maintenance, and enterprise. The incumbent system was a morass of paper (or pdf documents which was...
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People First—Toward A Humane Workplace
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
An early essay by Karl Marx writing at the beginning of the industrial revolution argued that humans who were formerly craftspeople were now just cogs in the industrial machine alienated from the products they made and their work. Today's podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation, makers of Ignition — the world's most versatile industrial automation platform for connecting data, systems, and people. With the new Ignition 8.3 release, you can easily manage time-series and event data, quickly create custom graphics with onboard drawing tools, and centralize control using Ignition's...
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Why Develop AI?
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
Why pursue AI? As a tool to help entrepreneurs add value to their companies. The appropriate roll out entails organizing small "pirate ships" empowered to experiment and implement with a budget and air cover. Many concerns about AI's impact on employment and organization are over blown. History shows that new technology winds up creating more jobs than it destroys. This podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation.
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ICC 2025 Recap
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
ICC 2025 Recap I recorded this as I was leaving Inductive Automation's Ignition Community Conference 2025 in Sacramento. The event team performed wonderfully moving ICC from the smaller Harris Center in Folsom to the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento with double the attendance. Lots of energy, many partners. The event had to be credited a success. Of course, the highlight was introduction of Ignition 8.3. This update included many long-sought additions. Note: Inductive Automation has been a long-term sponsor for my work. However, we do not have an "influencer" relationship,...
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Intelligent Application of Technology
Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell
When I set initial editorial direction for Automation World, I was focused on exploring the Intelligent Application of Automation emphasizing the teams that made it happen. Recently I interviewed Mike Payne, co-owner and president of Hill Manufacturing. His story of using intelligent applications of technology both for the machines and for software showed how even an old-line manufacturer can be new and profitable. Sponsored by Inductive Automation at https://www.inductiveautomation.com
info_outlineGary discusses the current state of the automation and control market. Why it seems to be a stable market and why the media in the market are shrinking. He riffs from Seth Godin blog
The Drift to Normal. As an organization grows in scale, the idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness that was originally informed by the taste of the founders moves toward the mean. Over time, things get more average.
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