Augmented Ops

This week, we're at Hannover Messe, the world’s largest industrial trade show. We’re foregoing our usual episode this week, but, we’ll be recording our annual on-site episode at the show later this week covering the state of the industry, analyzing the trends we’re seeing, and cutting through the hype to figure out which of the latest technologies on display here at Hannover will have real impact...

This week’s guest is Audrey Van de Castle , Senior Director of Operational Excellence Technology at Stanley Black & Decker. Audrey breaks down the challenges of scaling digital initiatives across 100+ manufacturing sites, how to balance governance with citizen development, and the need to move past the buzzwords and invest in technology that can make a difference on the shop floor today. She a...

This week’s guest is Erik Udstuen , Co-founder and CEO of TwinThread. Erik shares insights from his 30+ years in industrial software, discussing how AI and digital twins are transforming manufacturing by standardizing data, optimizing operations, and driving operational excellence. He also dives into the challenges of industrial data standards, the importance of empowering engineers with no-code/l...

This week’s guest is Nicolette Naya , Senior MES Engineer at a leading luxury jewelry manufacturer. Nicolette shares insights into how she helped digitize centuries-old manufacturing processes, the challenges of introducing technology to the shop floor, and the importance of a structured governance model to successful digital transformation. She also explores the role of citizen developers, sheds...

This week’s guest is ZJ van de Weg , CEO of FlowFuse. ZJ shares his journey from an intern at GitLab to now leading FlowFuse, how open-source technology is transforming industrial operations, and why Node-RED has become the go-to platform for low-code manufacturing connectivity. He also takes a deep dive into the challenges of scaling open source solutions in enterprise environments, the value of...

This week’s guest is Vijay Chinnasami , former COO of Ultra Clean Technology. Vijay shares an inside look into how electronics supply chains and manufacturing practices have evolved over his 35+ year career, the rise of EMS and ODM business models, and how the semiconductor industry is shifting in response to global pressures. The discussion also explores best practices for building a culture of c...

This week’s guest is John Harrington , co-founder and Chief Product Officer of HighByte. John shares how his experiences working on Kepware at PTC led him to co-found HighByte, why Industry 4.0 requires a fundamentally different approach to interoperability, and the importance of contextualizing data in manufacturing. He also breaks down the real value that a Unified Namespace (UNS) approach can b...

This week’s guest is Kence Anderson , CEO of Composabl. Kence and Natan explore the role of AI agents in industrial processes, how manufacturers are using them to solve complex problems like scheduling or machine control, and the challenges of building startups in the manufacturing space. Kence also lays out how his concept of machine teaching differs from traditional machine learning techniques,...

This week’s guest is Fabio Violante , CEO of Arduino. Fabio and Natan explore the importance of open source technology in manufacturing and how the democratization of embedded systems development is reshaping the industry. Fabio also shares the history of Arduino, and how he led the charge to evolve their approach from focusing purely on makers and hobbyists, to supporting enterprise grade applica...

This week’s guest is Kevin Kidd , Director of Software and Analytics at RFK Racing. While advanced manufacturing might not be the first thought that comes to mind when you hear the word NASCAR, Kevin sheds light on the complex processes and digital tools that go into building high performance race cars. He also explains how citizen development helped the team go from running on Excel to building t...

This week’s guest is Marc Nash , SVP of Operations and R&D at Outset Medical. In an industry dominated by legacy players, Marc explains how Outset set out to redefine what is possible when it comes to patient health, and how they leveraged an equally disruptive approach to manufacturing to give them a competitive edge. He also explains how they are taking advantage of IoT to improve their prod...

This week, Natan Linder , Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip sits down with Tulip CMO Madilynn Castillo to reflect on the second annual Operations Calling conference and what it means for the future of frontline operations. Natan and Madi discuss what makes Operations Calling more than just another user conference, the importance of authenticity, and building a community around frontline operations. They...

This week’s guest is Daniele Iacovelli , SVP, Global Head of Digital, Analytics (AI) & Operational Excellence at Roche. Although regulated industries like pharmaceutical manufacturing can be slow to digitally transform their manufacturing operations, Daniele lays out how changing trends in the industry have led Roche to architect a new digital production system, with a focus on a composable, f...

This week’s guest is Rick Bullotta , longtime veteran of the industrial software space and co-founder of Lighthammer and Thingworx. Rick and Natan explore the history of MES solutions, how Frontline Operations Platforms are democratizing the development of industrial software, and what this means for the future architecture of the manufacturing tech stack. They also break down the hype vs. reality...

In this bonus episode, Elisabeth Reynolds—MIT Professor of the Practice, former White House policymaker, and now Strategic Advisor to Tulip—joins Natan Linder to discuss the building momentum around reindustrialization in the United States. Liz calls attention to the most important factors shaping the industrial landscape, and the need for a clear national strategy that can direct government coord...

This week marks the final episode of Season 1 of Augmented Ops! Natan Linder and Erik Mirandette sit down to discuss their takeaways from the first season—while trying not to get derailed analogizing frontline operations to the Celtics Championship win. Natan and Erik highlight the advancements (and stumbles) in industrial AI, and the way that open, interoperable ecosystems have fundamentally chan...

This week’s guest is Jeff Kramer , VP Technology & Digital Factory at Kason Industries . Jeff discusses why manufacturers struggle to develop a cohesive digital strategy, and lays out best practices around governance, data architecture, and bridging the IT/OT divide. He also explains why it’s critical for organizations to empower their frontline personnel by using technology to enable a citize...

This week’s guest is Kai Yang , VP of Product at LandingAI . Kai discusses the need for a data-centric approach to AI, why vendors should build tools rather than solutions, and more, sharing lessons learned from his career in machine learning and software development. He also explains how new tools like visual prompting are democratizing computer vision and enabling anyone, regardless of skill lev...

This week’s guest is Anna Shedletsky , Co-Founder and CEO of Instrumental . Having started her career as an engineer at Apple, Anna shares lessons around quality management, which manufacturing KPIs actually matter, and how to take an idea from prototype to production. Plus, she lays out why organizations should think about manufacturing as a profit generator rather than a cost center, and why bei...

This week, Natan Linder , Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip sits down with Madilynn Castillo , Head of Marketing for a recap of their experiences at this year’s Hannover Messe — the world’s largest industrial trade fair. They explore the lackluster state of AI in industrial software, the rise of composable software architectures, and how open technology ecosystems are becoming the norm throughout the in...

This week’s guest is Matt Lowe , Co-Founder and CEO of ZeroKey . Not only is he a contributor to major open source projects like Linux and Arduino, Matt is the inventor of Quantum RTLS, a system that uses ultrasound to achieve 3D position tracking of objects with an unmatched level of fidelity. He explains what makes ultrasound-based positioning systems ideal for manufacturing environments, how sp...

This week’s guest is Dominik Obermaier , Co-Founder and CTO of HiveMQ . With over 10 years of experience serving on the MQTT technical committee and helping organizations build their data foundations using HiveMQ’s MQTT platform, Dominik shares his deep expertise on the technology. He explains what makes MQTT such an important communications protocol, why the emergence of the Unified Namespace mat...

This week’s guest is Jay Lee , Director of the Industrial AI Center at the University of Maryland . Dr. Lee shares his experiences from the early days programming machines with punch cards, to eventually developing advanced machine learning applications for industry. He explains how AI and ML are reshaping manufacturing, the workforce, and global supply chains. Plus, he lays out his vision for how...

This week’s guest is Alex Krüger , Co-founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub , or UMH. Alex shares his journey from working on integration projects in consulting fresh out of college, to founding UMH and building an open source alternative to the offerings from incumbent vendors. He breaks down the role of the open source software movement in manufacturing, how the Unified Namespace architect...

This week’s guest is Vatsal Shah , Founder and CEO of Litmus . Vatsal discusses his journey from an automation engineer at Rockwell, to building a new industrial data platform from the ground up after becoming frustrated with the limitations of the offerings from established vendors. He discusses manufacturers’ exodus from on-prem to cloud systems, the pros and cons of data protocols like MQTT and...