Factory of the Future Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E89, Documenting the Family Recipe: Systematizing Your Operation with Adi Levit Join us as we discuss:  - Tribal knowledge and what actually defines a business  - Knowledge traps and single points of failure - The prioritize, capture, optimize, implement process - Treating applicants like customers And so much more. Get in touch with our guest:  E...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E88, Closing the Skills Gap: Apprenticeships, AI, and New Career Paths Join us as we discuss:  - The Department of Labor's goal of 1 million apprenticeships by 2030  - AI, job displacement, and emerging roles - $162 million in new apprenticeship funding - The role of community colleges and universities And so much more. Connect with A.W. Schu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E87, Bryan DeBois on Autonomous AI vs. Generative AI  Join us as we discuss:  - Why generative AI stays off the plant floor  - Industrial knowledge graphs as the foundation for grounded AI - Infrastructure assessment as the starting point for AI readiness - An aging workforce and the race to capture expert knowledge And so much more. Connect with...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E86, Securing Your Data Supply Chain: Cybersecurity Law Meets the Factory Floor with Dr. Steven A. Wright Join us as we discuss:  - Preventive legal strategy as a cybersecurity risk mitigation tool  - Deepfakes, data poisoning, and data suppression as emerging threats - Operational technology as a growing attack surface — the Colonial Pipeline les...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E85, The Labor Shortage Myth: Why Manufacturers Can't Find Workers Join us as we discuss:  - Accessing a broader labor pool of people with real-world commitments  - Matching labor capacity to actual demand, not forecasted averages - Why staffing to averages creates burnout and drives attrition - Rated worker pools without the traditional temp...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E84, Mineral War: How China Weaponized the Supply Chain That Feeds Manufacturing with Tomasz Nadrowski Join us as we discuss:  - Why there is no manufacturing without critical minerals  - China's export controls across 24 mineral sectors — and how they became a weapon - Low-hanging fruit: brownfield restarts, red mud and tailings recovery, sm...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E83, When AI Speeds Up Everything and Causes Burnout in Humans Join us as we discuss:  - Victoria Kunova explains how AI drives burnout when companies chase productivity gains over transformational value  - The case for measuring success by human skills AI can't replicate rather than raw output volume - The organizational barriers to transfor...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E82, Why Anonymized Feedback Beats AI Resume Screening Join us as we discuss:  - How AI automation of technical roles is forcing a redistribution of manufacturing talent  - Christian introduces TrueGem, an HR tool that builds defensible, auditable hiring by anonymizing reviewer feedback and structuring evaluations—deliberately not using AI for ini...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E81, AI or Bust: Five businesses, Five Ideas Join us as we discuss:  - Rapid-fire AI ideas across industries - Same business; two different approaches: using AI for measurement accuracy and quality control versus automated before-and-after marketing campaigns  - Autonomous AI agent communities And so much more. Connect with A.W. Schultz  Email: aw...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E80, Kate Assaraf on Local-First Manufacturing and Conscious Consumerism Join us as we discuss:  - Sustainability as a fluid concept, not rigid rules  - Why DIP avoids Amazon, Target, and hidden shipping plastic - How a team of seven cracked the secret to salon-quality bars that last - Building a company culture that puts people and quality first...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E79, From Solitary to Advanced Systems: Christian Torres on Decision Intelligence Join us as we discuss:  - Manufacturing inside Unicor - ISO internal auditing & Lean Six Sigma  - Founding Stark Analytics & the rise of decision intelligence - The four types of analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive - AI as both opport...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E78, 2030s– The Decade of Dark Factories Join us as we discuss:  - Dark factories & lights-out manufacturing going mainstream  - Skills-based hiring vs. the four-year degree - Labor shortages driving advanced automation - Part-time work re-entering the market And so much more. Connect with A.W. Schultz  Email: aw@awschultz.org  Personal Websit...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E77, Manufacturing's Future: Why Automation Is No Longer Optional for U.S. Plants Join us as we discuss:  - Why AI data centers may head to orbit—SpaceX's solar-powered data center test and the Anthropic–SpaceX partnership  - The energy and supply chain squeeze: storage challenges, reshoring momentum, and continued reliance on Chinese mi...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E76, How COVID, Reshoring & AI Reshaped U.S. Manufacturing in the 2020s Join us as we discuss:  - How COVID-19 exposed supply chain vulnerabilities and triggered a reshoring surge—roughly 360,000 jobs returned to the U.S. by 2022, a 53% jump  - On-the-ground pandemic realities: safety protocols inside plants, plus the personal cost and profess...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E75, From Food Truck to Robot Barista: How P!ng's Founders Are Automating the Coffee Drive-Through Join us as we discuss:  - From iRobot and Amazon Robotics to a food truck rush: how Rob's operator experience exposed the drive-thru bottlenecks p!ng now solves  - Hub-and-spoke model: central kitchens serving multiple pods, plus the Comete...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E74, Grid-Scale Battery Storage: Inside Inlyte Energy's Iron-Sodium Tech Join us as we discuss:  - Antonio's path from Stanford's Chueh Group and the Activate Fellowship to launching a utility-scale battery company - How Inlyte's iron-sodium battery uses a ceramic membrane and abundant materials like iron powder and table salt...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E73, Reinventing the Safe: Oscar Hedaya on Building Smart Security with The Space Safe Join us as we discuss:  - Oscar's "aha moment": why he set out to modernize a product category that hadn't meaningfully evolved in 30 years, and how The Space Safe combines touchscreens, cameras, and connected software  - Inside the build: ma...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E72, Leading with Character Across Cultures: Björn Vikard on Global Manufacturing Spanning 12 Countries Join us as we discuss:  - Managing unionized operations in India  - Stories of how Björn advocates for women in manufacturing  - Building an industrial park in Sri Lanka from scratch - The importance of self-awareness and listening skills requir...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E71, Unionization Crossroads: Ethical Leadership in Manufacturing Join us as we discuss:  - Core tension between operational efficiency and protecting workers’ safety and rights  - Two extreme approaches: actively obstructing unionization and fully embracing it - The “Mediated Ethical Bridge” framework with prioritization on transparency, open dia...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E70, Building the Future: Advanced Manufacturing, Workforce, and Tech with Bryce Carpenter Join us as we discuss:  - Advanced Manufacturing in Indiana   - Education and workforce development challenges and solutions  - The positive impact of technology adoption on workforce growth and wages - The evolution of manufacturing roles alongside automati...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E69, Beyond the Mold: How 3D Printing is Reshaping Supply Chains with Jason Rolland Join us as we discuss:  - Additive manufacturing technology and how it prints 10-100x faster than standard 3D Printers - The nuanced case for polymeric materials in medical devices, sports equipment, and performance footwear - Mechanical versus Chemical Recycling ...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E68, The Lost Decade: How China's Rise & the Opioid Crisis Decimated U.S. Manufacturing in the 2000s Join us as we discuss:  - How the "China Shock" drove a 1,156% surge in Chinese imports between 1991 and 2007, devastating industries like textiles, furniture, and home electronics  - Why the 2000s became manufacturing's &qu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E67, Electrifying Fleets & Automating Emissions Reporting: Inside GreenIRR's Carbon Accounting Platform for Supply Chains with Celine King Join us as we discuss:  - What trucking companies can do to reduce fuel costs while meeting sustainability objectives - How GreenIRR went from concept to commercialization - The technology carriers and...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E66, From Prototypes to Production: Building the Future of Bladeless Fans with CEO of Exhale Fans Join us as we discuss:  - Outsourced manufacturing and finding the right partner - How American made tooling is used offshore  - Energy savings of three dimensional air flow compared to traditional methods - Why hospitals, hotels, and other commercial...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Factory of the Future, E65, Manufacturing in the 1990s: ERP Implementations, Six Sigma Boom, and Job Declines Join us as we discuss:  - The birth of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems  - The beginning of lean manufacturing and the six sigma boom - The loss of 4-5 million jobs in manufacturing - Failed ERP Implementations–and what not to do  And so much more. Con...