Access to the correct assets, equipment, and raw materials at the right time is vital for maintaining production schedules in a busy factory. Workers can spend up to 20% of their time searching for missing tools, leading to delays, frustration, and increased safety risks. These inefficiencies can cause significant downtime, especially in high-value manufacturing environments. […]
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As manufacturers continue to navigate evolving demands, supply chain complexity, and fast-paced technological change, the need for scalable, intelligent, and resilient systems is front and center. The MESI 4.0 Summit 2025, hosted by Critical Manufacturing, offers a platform for manufacturing and technology leaders to explore how MES and Industry 4.0 technologies are being applied to meet these […]
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In my 15 years in Industry, I haven’t seen a technology move as quickly as AI. The timeline from writing funny Haikus to showing up on the factory floor was a lot shorter than I expected.AI is exciting, but what’s hype versus what’s real? Where is it being used today? How could it be used […]
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Enterprise IoT is forecasted to account for 72% of market revenue by 2028, up from 70% in 2023. This shift highlights how industries are rapidly investing in smarter, connected technologies to drive the next phase of automation.Automation has long been a part of industry. What’s changing now is the intelligence behind it. Traditional systems followed […]
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Volatility has become the norm in global manufacturing—driven by trade tensions, shifting tariffs, talent shortages, and fragile supply chains. In this environment, agility isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a competitive necessity.That’s the focus of “Thriving Amid Uncertainty: Building Agility in the Manufacturing Industry,” a forward-looking panel sponsored by Critical Manufacturing, airing during IIoT World Manufacturing Day 2025, May 21, between 10:00 […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, John Harrington of HighByte offered a timely reminder: as AI races ahead in the industrial sector, the infrastructure supporting it—specifically, DataOps—needs to keep up.While AI dominates the headlines, its power is fundamentally limited without access to the right data. Harrington put it bluntly: “Data is the oxygen for AI.” But not just any data—clean, […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a battleground of ideas. While many vendors promise intelligence, Francisco Almada Lobo, the CEO of Critical Manufacturing, offers a structured, visionary framework for how manufacturing will truly evolve in the next five years.It starts with recognizing a shift already underway: manufacturing is entering the third wave of […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, the conversation around digital transformation in manufacturing felt more urgent than ever. But amid the excitement, Stephen Graham, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Nexus, offered a grounded reminder: for small and mid-sized manufacturers, the future will not be won by those with the flashiest technology—but by those who learn […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, the excitement around industrial AI was palpable—but beneath the buzz, Ozgur Tohumcu of AWS shared a candid view of where manufacturing still lags and where AI is starting to deliver measurable value.Despite years of investment, many manufacturers are still struggling to turn decades of collected data into real-time, decision-grade insight. The […]
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An industry conversation with Pugal Janakiraman, Global Manufacturing CTO at Snowflake, and Evan Kaplan, CEO of InfluxData. Manufacturing’s Data Mindset Is ChangingManufacturers have long relied on data to understand what went wrong—after the fact. When a production line stalled, or equipment failed, teams scrambled to gather scattered information to trace the root cause. That reactive model […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, I sat down with Mathias Oppelt, Vice President and Head of Customer-Driven Innovation at Siemens Digital Industries, to explore what manufacturers really want from digital transformation—and what’s still holding many of them back. The conversation moved well beyond buzzwords like AI and digital twins, touching on deep structural shifts, mindset changes, and the […]
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At Hannover Messe 2025, InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan and HighByte CPO John Harrington discuss how manufacturers are shifting from data collection to data intelligence and what’s required to support that transformation. Below are the most important insights that emerged from the conversation: The Purpose of Data Is Shifting—from Monitoring to Control Historically, manufacturers used data […]
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