307: Building the Factory of the Future - LIVE from Revere Electric's Executive Forum at UWM's Connected Systems Institute (Milwaukee, WI)

0:00Gotta be comfortable with understanding that disruption is the new normal. Plan A is no longer acceptable. You need Plan B, C, D, and E. And everybody needs to be on board with that. Welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour, the podcast where we get real about the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers. Manufacturing Happy Hour. Each week, we interview industry experts that are at the top of their craft and give you the tools, tactics, and strategies you need to take your career and your business to the next level. And now, your host, Chris Lukey. How are manufacturers leveraging automation and AI and operations to drive performance?

0:50That is the question we will answer in today's live episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour. recorded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at UWM, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. We have four guests and we will tackle this topic of automation, operational technology, and AI's impact on manufacturing performance from three different angles. One, operations. Two, workforce. And then three, the technology itself. Our guests include Joe Hammond of UWM's Connected Systems Institute. More on that place in a moment. Mike Klebar of Rockwell Automation. Phil Bush, also of Rockwell Automation, and Ryan Schneeberger of Revere Electric.

1:30Now let's head to Milwaukee to meet up with our four guests and the rest of the crowd for today's live studio recording.

1:44Alright, you guys ready? Yeah, alright, welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour. You know, yes, I know we're in a classroom at UWM right now, but, you know, it's okay if we get a little rowdy during the show. So feel free to clap, laugh, whatever it might be. So, hey, welcome to this Factory of the Future edition of Manufacturing Happy Hour here at the Connected Systems Institute at UWM. As we get going, this event wouldn't be possible without Revere and Rockwell Automation. So give it up for them for making this whole afternoon possible. Now, as we get into our conversation, I just mentioned we're here at the Connected Systems Institute, and you all have just been on a tour of this facility, but there are going to be a lot of people that listen to this podcast at a future date that are learning about it for the first time.

2:37So before we get into introductions, we always like to set the stage of where we're having the conversation, where we're having a beer. Oftentimes these interviews are at bars or breweries, but today we're here at the CSI. So Joe, I think you're the most appropriate person to answer the question, how do you describe the Connected Systems Institute if you're having a beverage with someone? Thanks, Chris, and thanks everybody for being here. So the Connected Systems Institute, we are a consortium of manufacturing and technology companies. And our purpose is to serve a mission of enabling the future workforce in manufacturing.

3:15We do that a few different ways. One, we create experiences for our students at the UW-Milwaukee to gain hands-on experience working directly with industry, to better prepare them for future technology-enabled careers in manufacturing. We also host a lot of convening events where we bring partners together like Revere Electric, like Rockwell Automation, around common topics of interest that helps them learn from each other as they're all on a common journey within advanced manufacturing as well. All right, we're going to get more into workforce, how education is changing and evolving as we get deeper into this conversation.

3:54But before we get there, let's get into some introductions first. So, Ryan, if you wouldn't mind leading us off, and then Mike and Joe and Phil will go to you after that. So, Ryan, how do you describe what you do as if you're having a beverage with someone? Great. Thanks, Chris. Ryan Schneberger, Regional Vice President for Revere Electric. I've been with the company for 27 years, actually, my whole career. Started in the technical side of our business and has transitioned into the sales side. Really what we do with Revere is we work with our customers to solve their problems that they're experiencing in manufacturing every day.

4:27And that's what we do, and we have a team of people here that are supporting us every day. A round of applause for them.

4:35All right, Mike. Mike Svalbard, Director of Operations for our Mequon and Milwaukee campus. Been with Rockwell Automation for 14 years. Various roles throughout our integrated supply chain. It's pretty easy for me to say what I do and how to explain it. Plant manager, essentially, right? You're responsible for the operations between the safety, quality, delivery, and cost of those facilities. I almost used my beer as a microphone. Again. All right, Joe, you already gave an intro on the CSI, but give us a little intro on yourself. Yeah, so Joe Hammond. I've been here at the CSI for about three years, coming up here in November.

5:14However, I believe I've got a pretty fun job. You know, again, our role here at the CSI is to connect students to manufacturers so those students are ready for the future. So we do a lot of partnering work with, again, companies like Rockwell, like Revere Electric. I see a Husco shirt. Husco is one of our partners here as well. I also spend a lot of time working with other manufacturing companies through our Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Co-Innovation Lab partnership, where we're working to deploy more focus on AI skills in the manufacturing sector. Thanks again, everybody, for being here.

5:49All right. And Phil? Last but not least, and like Ryan, I've been at my company my whole career. So I started, I've graduated from Marquette, which I mean, I could plug in even though this is UWM. But graduated and went to work at Rockwell, and I've been there 23 years. Currently, I am our global competency program manager, which is a lot of words that simply means I'm responsible for the teams that train internal workforce in the form of all of our service engineers, field labor, the folks that are going in and working right next to the manufacturers on their technology, getting it up and running, fixing it when it breaks, which the Roppo stuff never breaks.

6:32But when it does, we have teams that can fix it and whatnot. And then I also manage an external workforce training program, our Academy of Advanced Manufacturing, which is really cool in my opinion. But we basically bring in U.S. military veterans with technical background. We train them up. We host them. It's free to the veteran. They come in. They get trained up as a controls technician, that frontline resource that's going to go fix the problems when they occur. So we host that program. We train them up and we get them hired at our manufacturing customers so we can help solve the workforce program.

7:10So the short answer is we train people so stuff happens. Yeah, Phil definitely has one of the coolest jobs at Rockwell, if I do say so myself. Maybe we could have planned it better because I, too, am a Marquette alumni. So literally 40 percent of our panel is from the other university across town here today. But I will introduce myself quickly as well. My name is Chris Lukey. I host the podcast Manufacturing Happy Hour, which the way I describe it, it's oftentimes a leadership podcast disguised as a manufacturing podcast. We talk about the latest trends and technologies in manufacturing and the issues that we're all facing as industrial leaders in a candid way, as if you were having a beer with someone or in scenarios like this where we're literally having a beer with each other.

7:54So that's a little bit about me. And to add one additional plug for this panel, I was thinking about it as I was coming out here. When it comes to talking about the factory of the future and the future of manufacturing, what's unique about this group is we have four individuals up here that represent workforce development, education, daily operations inside of a manufacturing facility, as well as someone that gets to see manufacturers of all shapes and sizes on a regular basis from a commercial standpoint. So we're really getting a good range of perspectives, and that's what we're going to dive into as we explore how the factory of the future plays into operations, the impact workforce is having on it, technology, etc.

8:35But to kick things off, Mike, the first question is going to be for you. Actually, the first couple of questions are for you, because if we're talking about the factory of the future, let's go back to that manufacturing happy hour standpoint. You know, how do you describe the factory of the future as someone that works in a facility that inevitably has a lot of characteristics of that future of manufacturing? Yeah, great question. I would say, you know, how I look at it as is you've got to be comfortable with exposing your vulnerabilities. Right. And that starts with understanding what I would call some of the dark places within your your plant.

9:10And what I mean by that is where are there operations that are taking place that aren't being measured? I think one of the latest and greatest right now is production logistics. That's the latest rave, right? Because as we've continued to evolve and continue to look at direct labor automation that we're implementing within the facilities, production logistics is the next wave here, right? So right now we're starting to implement our auto AMRs within our Mequon facility. That's being piloted right now within the month of September. We'll start rolling that out. It's going to be a shift, obviously, from the workforce perspective as well.

9:50You know, a lot of challenges where they're asking questions of, are you taking my job away? And it's, no, we're enabling you to do other tasks that are more critical to continuing our operations. You know, you think about not only the AMR aspect of it, but then the autonomous operations It's something within Rockwell's strategic framework that we're building towards. We worked on, you know, as we went into this fiscal year, you know, we've got our major investment in our new facility that's going to be a million square feet that will be in New Berlin. And all the, you know, operations and autonomous operations that we're looking to implement there, it's been a fun journey thus far, and it's only going to get more enjoyable.

10:32Yeah, so we're going to look backwards with this next question a little bit. and then Ryan, you'll be up after this. But Mike, you've been in operations roles at Rockwell since June 2020, I believe. And I'm curious how operations has changed in that six-year period. You were just highlighting AMRs and autonomy is a big thing you're focused on now. But maybe take us through what it was like back then and where it is now. What's been most challenging about leading manufacturing operations during this time period? Yeah, I'll actually take it further back. I was a supervisor about 10 years ago, and the hour-by-hour roto board that I had to write on of what was our output and our quality number for that specific hour for the entire shift, those are long gone.

11:22And the digitization that's required, it's business critical, it's mission critical now. It's no longer, I would say even from six years ago, it's no longer, hey, we're going to go pilot this and see if this works, you need it, and it needs to be scaled across the enterprise. Without that, you're going to be left behind, quite honestly. So I see that as one. And then the other piece of it, I would say, relative to supply chain, really, less than factory in the future, is you've got to be comfortable with understanding that disruption is the new normal. Plan A is no longer acceptable. You need Plan B, C, D, and E, and everybody needs to be on board with that.

12:06Without that, it's going to be a very challenging environment for your facility as it relates to operations. So that's a nice little piece of advice right there, Plan A, B, C, D. You know, Ryan, I'm interested to get your broader perspective on this because from a commercial standpoint, you get to see a lot of different operations every day. And I'm curious, you know, what are some unique challenges that you've come across recently? We just heard about it from Mike's perspective. What are some other things you're hearing out there? Well, I did want to highlight, I mean, in Mike's answer is something that our team hears every day.

12:41Workforce challenges are constant. And what's unique about that is the challenge of solving the problem at hand. So often we get in front of a customer and we're working on a situation where they're replacing some workforce that unfortunately isn't showing up. And so we're trying to solve that. So every day those workforce challenges are really key to what we work with our customers to try to solve and circumvent. Yeah, and we'll take a deeper dive into workforce here in a bit, especially as we start making a little segue to education. Because, Joe, I have a question for you as well. Based on the challenges that Ryan and Mike have both just highlighted from, you know, workforce to bringing in new technology, I'm curious, is there a gap between what manufacturers need and what traditional education is producing?

13:36Kind of a two-part question because the second part is how is the Connected Systems Institute, where we are today, helping bridge that gap? I think the answer to question one, is there a gap? Yes, absolutely, 100%. And I'll give everybody an anecdote here. I was out visiting a local manufacturer a little bit northwest of Milwaukee earlier this week. A mid-sized company, they make these larger electromechanical systems that get sold into biomedical applications. I was talking with their company president on a variety of topics, and Workforce was one of them. And he said, Joe, you know, when we hire a recent grad, whether that's students coming from UWM, MSOE, Marquette, et cetera, it's three to four years by the time that engineer is actually delivering at 100%.

14:35You know, said differently, there's a three to four year gap that we need to make up with educating these students differently so that when company president hires somebody, they have maybe a three to six month onboarding track before they get to 100 % versus three to four years. So it's real. That three to four year window might be a little bit on the stretchy side, but we certainly do hear from other leaders of human resources, other company presidents that said, yes, there certainly is a gap that exists with readiness. What's CSI doing, or more broadly, what's UWM or higher education doing to address that gap?

15:21I'll share one example that I talked about with the tour group I had earlier. This is kind of a fun one. I see one of our former students in the audience, Yash, who participated actually in a few hackathons that we have hosted here at the Connected Systems Institute. Hackathons have been a massively, I would say, fun and impactful activity for us, the university, to give students real hands-on experience in a relatively short amount of time, two days to two weeks depending upon scope, hands-on experience working to solve a real problem that comes directly from industry. So how the model works is we ask our partner, in this case we've done a few hackathons with Rockwell.

16:09Rockwell brings forward a challenge statement. We put that challenge in front of students, a mix of business and engineering students. We give them a certain amount of time to go and build a solution. Typically that solution building involves some technology. It could be something like the digital twin, Emulate 3D. It could be something artificial intelligence focused. Students build solution. They get to stand up in front of the room at the end of two weeks, put on a nice shirt, put on some nice shoes, give a presentation to, in this case, Rockwell, the sponsoring partner. And the teams that do the best job, they take home some cash, right?

16:46So this is a fun activity. Students get to learn by doing. They get a connection to a very real problem that comes from a partner company. The company, by the way, gets access to anything that's been developed. So it's open innovation for them. So Rockwell now walks out with some unique ideas about how to advance their product development or their maybe operations improvement. And the students now maybe have a connection to get a job. So that's what we're doing to close the gap. Again, we've got a long ways to go, but the hackathon programming has been pretty fun for us. We've got two events on deck for this fall and already a couple we're planning out for the spring semester.

17:26Yeah, I love that example, Joe, because when I talk to people about what the Connected Systems Institute is, that's often the first thing I like to highlight. The hackathons brought by companies like Rockle Automation that present a real problem and the cash prizes that you can walk away with as well, which is awesome. And I think it's one of those things that does truncate that learning timeline that you were just highlighting. And Phil, I'm bringing this one to you next because I think everyone in this room, everyone listening to this podcast, very familiar with the fact that there's a skills gap.

17:59No doubt about that. You know, I'm curious, Phil, from your perspective, what's something relative to the skills gap that's not being talked about enough yet? Right. I think what Joe is just sharing around the timelines to get people spun up is one thing. But I'm curious, what are some other areas that aren't being talked about enough? Yeah, I think one of the things that's not really being talked about is that we aren't necessarily taking skills off the table that you no longer, within manufacturing, that you no longer need to have. We're piling on additional skills. And one of the frameworks, I remember about a decade ago, someone came out with the idea of the industrial revolution, but it's, you know, milestones along the way.

18:42So there is industry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0. And I'm doing this off the top of the dome, so apologies if I get the nomenclature wrong. But 1.0 was like mid-18th century, and that was the mechanization of manufacture. 2.0 was late 18th century, early 19th century, and that was the electrification, right? We're bringing motors and systems into this situation. Then 20s on through the 60s is kind of the productivity. We're starting to see early automation. you know 70s until now maybe over the next couple of years is the digitization that's industry 4.0 right and then the future is industry 5.0 autonomous AI all these technology integrations but I would challenge you go go to AI or your google search engine or whatever and say hey give me the skills list for each of these industrial revolution milestones along the way and what skills were required in those milestones you'll look at that list and you'll go huh, every one of those skills is still required, right?

19:45The industry 1.0 skills, those are still there. So we can't forget those things. We can't abandon those things. So we have to find ways to efficiently stack, you know, five industrial revolutions worth of knowledge and domain expertise into the human body that's going to be doing that work. And I think the other piece that gets missed a lot because the future is autonomous, unattended, you know, the lights out manufacturing, and that's really cool and that's awesome, but that's really the front of the house, right? That's the operators, the materials handlers, those are going to be the folks that are going to be the front of the house that you're used to being in manufacturing, and everything's going to be autonomous, right, and technology driven, but somebody's got to feed that on the back end, right?

20:33Skynet isn't real. It's not self-sustaining. It's not self-maintaining. It's really cool technology. It works. But when it breaks, somebody's got to fix it. And those are the skills we've got as part on a consistent basis. And if we're putting skills into people and maintaining those skills, industry 1.0 through 4.0, as 5.0 becomes real, it's a matter of just stacking on those additional skills as opposed to starting from square one. So we've got to maintain the past to be able to build for the future. Yeah, I think both of those tie together pretty nicely, right? You need the skills of the past as you prepare for the skills of the future, right?

21:11We're just widening the toolbox of what skilled work looks like. Mike, I'm interested to hear what you're seeing around workforce challenges, maybe within your own operation, and some of the things you're doing to solve that. What are you seeing in your operation? What are things you're doing to get ahead of some of the challenges that happen when you don't have the people that you need? Yeah, maybe just to piggyback off what Phil mentioned there earlier, though, when you introduce the autonomous operations and Lights Out Warehouse, you're no longer in a position where if you're running 24-7, 24-5, where this breaks down on third shift, we'll just wait for first to come in.

21:57That's no longer an option. Obviously, operations are dependent right on this. The ROI is dependent on that as well. So having that skill set and that workforce that's able to solve those problems at the time it happens is mission critical. Going back to your question though, Chris, I would just say, I think one of the elements here from what we're doing at Rockwell and within the operations itself is we're trying to mold our operators from just an operator. They need to move more towards a hybrid operator technician because they're the first ones there working with this new automation that's being introduced into our facilities.

22:39They're frontline, right? So they're the ones that working with a panel view. This is how I clear the fault, right? and then my machine is back up and running, no longer waiting for a technician to come over on those simple items that really they should be solving at their level. I would say the other element of it is too, ensuring that they are aware of the digitization of the plant floor, meaning we have the screens up. But what does that mean? Not just red or green, how am I performing? and how is the operation itself performing holistically across the entire plant floor? Awesome answer. Ryan, we're going to wrap this round with you.

23:25I'm curious, do you have a story that illustrates the workforce challenges that you see out in the field, maybe how one of your customers is creatively solving the challenges they're running into around workforce? Yeah, we have a customer, they have a statistic that they gave us recently. Five out of 10 employees that they hire are gone within a month. And those are plant floor resources that are gone. So in turn, how do you run a production facility in that case? You know, what do you do? And so this is a little piggybacking off of what Mike said. So we worked with them to develop a solution, an automation solution that is nimble and can, the plant floor employee understands the system and it can apply across multiple production lines.

24:13So they can, if production line one is important, they can move that or transition that automation system to that line so that line can stay up and running. So being nimble and helping them create that system that offers ultimate flexibility is really what we did. And it's because one day they have a plant floor employee that doesn't show up. So they need that production line still producing the product, offering them an automation system that is flexible and it can apply, and then having a technician, an employee that can, you know, manipulate that without a controls engineer.

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26:06Awesome. As we get into our last two rounds of questions, this is where we get into a bit more of the tech. And Joe, you're going to lead us off on this round. In general, what's different about manufacturing education today? Your example of the CSI and the hackathons, I think, is one great answer to that right out of the gate. But maybe from a technology standpoint, like what do manufacturers need to operate efficiently today? And how are you prepping the folks that come through here for that? Yeah, so it's an interesting question. I mean, I'm an engineer by education. Before I came to UW-Milwaukee, I worked with a company locally called Regal Rexnord.

26:51For about 14 years, spent a lot of my time leading engineering and spending a lot of my time in plants. So, like, I was very much wired around continuous improvement and lean principles. And that still continues to be the foundation for how we educate engineers in manufacturing and related areas, think supply chain, et cetera, here at UWM. I think the difference now is there's a, I like to describe it as there's a layer of technology we put on top of that. So data literacy, and Mike touched on this very well when he talked about, you know, the, I forget the specific example you were saying about an area that's not measured on the plant floor, Mike, but, you know, data is everywhere.

27:37and what we're trying to educate our students on now is how to use tools to access that data early so you can do things proactively with it instead of waiting till that oops on third shift and saying, oh boy, we'll wait till first shift to fix it. So again, data readiness, certainly understanding tools, things like the digital twin, which we pointed out on our tour, things like basic understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning. We don't need every engineer or every business student that graduates from UWM or comes through a program at CSI to be an expert, but to understand where tools like AI and ML are appropriate, where they can add value.

28:23I'd share one example, and then I'll pause and pass the mic. I talked about digital twinning. right? We had a student who spent a lot of time working with us in a data analytics program. She did some great work understanding how our digital twin solution works. Another one of our partner companies, and I'll point to Husko again, came to us with an opportunity. They said, hey, we'd like to build a digital twin for one of the assembly cells in our operation. We've got a few things we'd like to test. Can you help us with that? So again, here we have a connection, right? Student learns data literacy.

29:03They learn new capability in the classroom. We're able to connect that student to company. And now we have company with a new capability that was enabled by that student's work in the classroom. So it's kind of that value chain of, again, data literacy, understanding some of the newer capabilities with technology, digital twinning, AI, et cetera, and then moving that forward into the workforce. Yeah, Mike, I've got a question for you, but I'm going to talk to the audience real quick. Sometimes in a situation like this, we play the AI drinking game. Anytime any of the panelists say artificial intelligence, everyone has to take a drink.

29:38Honestly, I think if we did digital twin is the term today, we'd probably have a few more sips than us at this point, but we'll enact that rule going forward. But Mike, I want to hear from your perspective on the factory floor today. How are you leveraging technology and innovation? I know you've talked a little bit about this so far, but how are you leveraging it to address some of the operations and workforce challenges that we've covered in the conversation so far? Again, to hear from someone that lives and breathes this every day. Yeah, so I think one element here is in Mequon, we introduced a tour control program.

30:14So we're responsible primarily for all the drives that are sent out from Rockwell. And over the course of that journey, you know, year two, we identified while utilizing this torque control program, we saw a 40 % increase in first pass yield. For context, we do 15 million torque drill downs per year. So to get that was not only a huge benefit from a labor efficiency perspective, but quality. Then the next element of that is we're going to continue this with now introducing in certain aspects within process automation. And with doing that, that obviously helps alleviate some of those workforce challenges.

31:00But it also is important that we're empowering our employees to understand this, the importance of this. So I'd say that's one story that I think has been a very successful one for Mequon. Awesome story. Ryan, let's take this from the commercial standpoint this time around. This is a question I've been looking forward to asking you as someone that spent the first decade of my career in sales as well. Where are manufacturers willing to invest when it comes to new technology right now? And then where are they holding back and why? First, let's start with Digital Twin. drink up cheers good job cheers everyone yeah i i would say where where a lot of manufacturers are willing to to invest today is in where they get instant roi it's where they see that instant roi is where they're going to invest their their money where they're not willing to invest is what we're talking about actually here because it they're cautious they don't know exactly what the outcome is going to be.

32:05They hear us talk. They have people come in and give them guidance all the time, but they're still cautious because how does that relate to an ROI? What is the end result that they're going to get from going down a path of AMRs or utilizing AI in their factory? So that's where they're not willing to spend that money quite yet. Yeah. I am curious, what are, in your perspectives, what are one of those quick ROI areas that people are getting comfortable with? Because I think it's great that you brought up AMRs actually, because that's one of those areas that, you know, it's no longer a science project, right?

32:40People like, oh yeah, this works. We've seen it work other spots. You know, it's not just the early adopters now that are going after that, but what's one of the spots that you do see as a quick ROI or maybe that, you know, manufacturers out there seeing as a quick ROI right now? I would say that AMRs is probably the hot topic right now where you see many manufacturers exploring that, again, just because of the challenges they're having in the workforce. And that's a heavily labor-intensive activity that they're doing there. And then if they can replace those resources and repurpose them in other places of the plan, it's a very easy one to tackle.

33:20So sticking on this immediacy topic, Phil, I'm curious, what technologies are you focused on in your training programs that are providing immediate impact when folks get out to the field? I think this is a nice way to kind of bring things back together because, Joe, you led off with talking about, hey, sometimes it takes engineers, you know, a few years to really get ramped up. But Phil, I'm curious to hear, where's the immediate impact right now in some of the areas you're focused on in your training? Yeah. Well, and I will legitimately use digital twin in this response, but we'll throw that out early.

33:56Yeah. We're going to get good in sauce here, folks. No, I think, and they're never problems. There's always opportunities. When I look at training, technology cuts two ways. One, we got to train on technology. As these new technologies become available, we need to train on them because you got to fix them, you got to deploy them, you got to manage them. So those require skills. But we also have to utilize technology to support the training environment. One of the critical things we see in training, and I want to kind of circle up a couple of different comments that came from Ryan and Joe and Mike, you know, we are very explicitly talking about skills within the context of manufacturing.

34:39And what we're not talking about necessarily is a degree or like a finite, you know, like credential that I'm getting that takes me an amount of time to get. And what we're really seeing in evolution in both the training and the employment space is capturing skill frameworks. What skills does my job require? And then how do I get those skills in a hands-on way to make sure that person is job ready for that? So when we look at the training and the technology we evolve is how do we put discrete skilled training in front of somebody that's hands-on or leveraging digital twins and simulation to give them that real world experience?

35:25and yep, come on guys, you know, get that real world experience, that hands-on experience that they're going to see out in the field, but do it in a safe, you know, a digital twin is not going to break you or hurt you. So that digital experience is going to be great for a training environment, but how do we rack and stack these skills that are going to be applicable and rack them and stack them that we still have value right when Joe talked about that manufacturer that they said hey it takes three to four years to get an engineer to be 100 % valuable you know I myself am also a recovering mechanical engineer right like I came came from that that field but I wasn't useful for a while because it was a lot of theory not a lot of practical and so I think that's the technological training evolution is how do we get practical, discrete experiences into people's hands so they're job ready, but we want to build it within the framework of how do I advance my career through educational opportunities?

36:30Maybe it starts as a simple credential. I work on the job, I then get an associate's degree, I then get a bachelor's degree, and maybe I go on for a master's or whatever, but there's a pathway where I'm stacking skills that results in the end outcome That's been traditional. But I've got practical knowledge that I can apply to the job directly. So it reduces that that time of ROI around the technologies. If I can if my company can deploy the technologies and I can rapidly support those technologies, that's a huge ROI gain, you know, off the jump. Yeah. And one of the fun parts about my job is I get to have conversations like this basically on a weekly basis.

37:12And Phil, I'm glad you brought up, like, let's say the shift to skill stacking and collecting those certifications and ultimately getting back to some of those more traditional degrees, associates, masters, whatever degree we're talking about. Right. But that is something that I would say is a trend we're hearing on manufacturing happy hour more often, that skill stacking, collecting those skills and certifications is becoming more of that new normal in industry. So, you know, at this point, I'm looking to go down the line to get a final piece of advice for the audience, something people can go do to help bring out, whether it's their factory of the future or take their operations to the next level.

37:53Mike, we're going to start with you and we're going to go down the line to fill. And after that, I think we're going to have time for maybe a couple questions. We'll get to that as time permits. But, you know, first, as we wrap our conversation, we've covered everything from operations, workforce to tech. What advice, Mike, would you give to the manufacturing leaders out there? You already had a great one right at the start about plan A, B, C, et cetera. But what are the what's another action someone could take to really bring about the factory of the future or the future of their manufacturing operations?

38:25Yeah. So I would say, you know, as you look at capital investment into automation, you need to look at it as capital investment and automation and workforce development together. They're not separate entities. They need to be together because that's how you're going to move it forward more quickly. Like I said earlier, too, you know, being comfortable exposing your vulnerabilities, being honest with yourself and your team. And so what are our challenges here? How do we course correct them? It's not going to be overnight. It's going to be a journey. Awesome. Joe? Yeah, my short answer would be get started.

39:05Try something, right? Start small, learn from it. It's probably not going to be perfect, but you'll be better the next time. And maybe the other parting shot that I might ask everybody for a little bit of help with. So our work, our service here at the CSI is only as good as the feedback we get from industry. And so my ask for all of you would be as you're out working with your partners, working with your customers, trying to understand their challenges, please pass that back to us. That informs how we educate students. It informs how we build workforce programs that, again, are directly feeding your future as manufacturing leaders.

39:44So please don't be afraid to stay in touch and let us know. Yeah, and I'll say for the folks listening to this podcast at a future date, it's good advice to be engaged with your local institutions, whether it's the universities, community colleges, etc. Great advice on bringing that information back to the variety of educators that are in a region. Ryan? Yeah, this one's easy, an easy answer. As you can see, there's a panel of individuals here. There's a group of participants in the audience, and it's resources that our customers and the manufacturing community can take advantage of. So leveraging those resources when you don't necessarily, you're afraid to take that leap, you know, start small.

40:28We can help facilitate that. Many people can help facilitate that. So it's leveraging the resources that are at your fingertips, critically important. You don't have to do it alone. Awesome. Phil, take us home. Yeah, well, cheap plug. There's always the Academy of Advanced Manufacturing. Feel free to participate in that and get the workforce you need. But in all seriousness, like I think the panel has a really awesome perspective from a technology and an experience standpoint. I think the biggest thing is kind of repeating what I said in my previous answer. Skill framework. Start looking at your workforce, like the technology you build out, the environment you have.

41:07That's one half of a critical piece. The other piece is the workforce that's going to serve that technology or the technology is going to serve the workforce. Start looking at it from a skills perspective. Look at your jobs and your roles and your needs and start breaking down. What does my talent need to have? One that'll bring into focus what talent you actually need to go get, but also what talent you need to make. Right. We want to hire on attitude and aptitude and culture fit. And we want to train on skills and capabilities. That's going to be the easiest way to maintain that workforce to keep those operations up and running.

41:43So a skill framework is a really strong starting point. and kind of the catchphrase I would use, I'm stealing it from a movie, but I can't remember the movie. It was a comedy, but you don't have to get ready if you stay ready, right? If your workforce and your skill framework is there all the time, you're never having to play catch up because you know where you are in your journey and you're just adding things that you continuously are upgrading your workforce as you need to. You don't have to get ready if you stay ready. I wish I knew what movie that was from. It just reminds me from If You're Not First, You're Last from Talladega Nights.

42:18That's the first one that came to mind. But hey, in all seriousness, give it up for Mike, Joe, Ryan, Phil.

42:29I'm looking at the clock here. It looks like we have time for at least one question, maybe two if we're quick. Does anyone have any questions for anyone up here? Show of hands if you got one. Come on up. I'll have you ask it into the microphone so that way we can capture it for the podcast as well. So come on. Yeah, if you want to swing up here, you can just stand right in front of me and block me from the camera temporarily. Okay, you want me to stand like right in front of you here? That there is good. Yeah. I was going to say, I would hope that you, and this might be on the record, I hope you like your opinion so much that you stay on camera the whole time.

43:02Okay, I'm done. So to each of you guys, you know, because this event is called Factory of the Future, what does your Factory of the Future look like? It could be related to the industry you're already in, or it could just be your dream factory. I don't know. That's a great question. And Phil, I know you're the one with the time crunch here. So we'll start with you and we'll go down the line the opposite way this time. I mean, I think the factory of the future is continuous production with kind of seamless integration with a bunch of people working behind the curtain, right? That's really what the future is.

43:39I would say that, you know, a little bit of what Phil said there, expanding on that is it's the customer experience. I mean, ultimately, that's what we're trying to solve. The consumer, the customer experience, they don't feel that pain. There's unlimited supply, and we're meeting their demands. Yeah, I think I can't argue with what either of the first two answers were. I think the other thing that I might add is just clear visibility to what's going well and where do we have our opportunities. so that they can be immediately actioned. Yeah, what I maybe highlighted a little bit, as it relates to AMRs and autonomous operations, that also helps with leading to transactional integrity.

44:20So I think those elements there keep your plant running. Awesome questions, awesome answers. Anyone else? I think we got time for one more, if we have one more out there. Not seeing any hands going up right now. So if not, a couple more groups to thank, right? So let's give it up one more time for UWM, Joe, and the Connected Systems Institute for hosting us here this afternoon.

44:51And then on a personal note, I'll say it's always fun doing events like this. I think a lot of my regular listeners know this, but I spent the first decade of my career working with Rockwell. I got to work with guys like Ryan and Phil is actually an alumni of manufacturing happy hour. You know, shout out to folks like Burton, Andy, Donu, Aaron, folks from across like my entire career in this audience. So it's a ton of fun, but I'm using that as a segue to say, hey, let's give it up one more time for Revere Electric and Rockwell Automation for making today's event possible.

45:27and with that as we wrap our recording we'll end this with the manufacturing happy hour sign off so we'll do one final cheers raise your glass to everyone here you're all doing awesome things in manufacturing as well stay innovative, stay thirsty digital twin thanks for being a part of today's show cheers everyone hey everyone Thanks for listening. And thank you one last time to Revere and Rockwell for making this whole event possible and to UWM for hosting us. If you want to connect with any of our guests, head to the show notes page at manufacturinghappyhour.com and make sure you're subscribed to Manufacturing Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

46:10We'll catch you again next time. Thanks for listening to Manufacturing Happy Hour, powered by the Industrial Network.