How Generative AI Is Solving the Manufacturing Skills Gap
The manufacturing industry is in the middle of a labor crunch. As experienced workers retire and skilled talent becomes harder to find, many factories are struggling to maintain consistency, efficiency, and quality. Generative AI is emerging…
The Startup Edge: How a New Generation of Innovators Is Rewiring Smart Manufacturing
You can tell something’s shifting in manufacturing—not by the headlines, but by the way small teams are solving problems that used to be ignored. At IIoT World’s Manufacturing Day in May 2025, a group of founders…
From Pilots to Progress: How Manufacturers Can Scale MES and Industry 4.0 Initiatives the Right Way
At the MES & Industry 4.0 event in Porto, Jeff Winter, VP of Business Strategy at Critical Manufacturing, outlined a practical roadmap for manufacturers ready to move beyond experimentation and into scalable transformation.Start with a Purpose-Built…
A Source of Industry Inspiration: Inside Škoda Auto’s Manufacturing Transformation
Interview with Andreas Dick, Member of the Board for Production & Logistics at Škoda AutoŠkoda Auto, a Volkswagen Group brand, was founded in 1895—making it one of the oldest car manufacturers still in operation today. This…
Aligning People, Data, and Priorities: A Real-World Strategy for Scaling Digital Manufacturing
At the MES & Industry 4.0 Summit in Porto, May Yap, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Jabil, offered a clear message for manufacturers navigating global digital transformation: technology isn’t the hard part—alignment is.Across dozens…
Rethinking MES Architecture for the Age of AI and Edge Computing
At the MES & Industry 4.0 Summit in Porto, Adélio Fernandes, VP of Engineering and Co-founder of Critical Manufacturing, shared forward-looking insights on how MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) must evolve to meet the needs of today’s…
The Urgent Shift in Automotive Manufacturing: Data Ownership, Shorter Lifecycles & Trust in AI
As manufacturing becomes increasingly digital and sustainability-focused, automotive leaders are confronting new pressures that reach far beyond the factory floor. In a recent interview at the MES & Industry 4.0 Summit in Porto, Dr. Thomas Kaufmann,…
Subscription MES: A New Path to Digital Transformation
What if deploying MES didn’t require a massive budget, a year-long integration plan, or buy-in from every corner of the enterprise? A growing number of manufacturers are shifting away from all-in-one MES rollouts and embracing a…
Still Using Excel on the Shop Floor? Why That’s Costing You More Than You Think
Despite years of digital transformation buzz, many manufacturers still rely on spreadsheets, paper-based records, and siloed systems to run critical operations. As Augusto Vilarinho, Head of Global Sales at Critical Manufacturing, bluntly put it during the…
From Execution to Intelligence: Generative AI’s Role in the Future of MES
At the second edition of the MES & Industry 4.0 International Summit in Porto, Portugal, Lucian Fogoros, Co-founder of IIoT World, spoke with Francisco Almada Lobo, CEO and Co-founder of Critical Manufacturing, about how generative AI is evolving the role…