State of the Industry: Your Guide to the Future of Smart Manufacturing

Dave Vasko, Rockwell Automation Director of Advanced Technology speaks with Katie Martel about how some manufacturers are reinventing themselves and thriving at the same time other are closing their doors. We see companies everyday announce that they are closing. Some of these companies were probably going to close anyway and the crisis accelerated their demise. Others are thriving and doubling, tripling or even at 500% production prior to COVID. Sometimes we see both behaviors in the same industry. In Wisconsin I see restaurants closing at the same time others have long lines for carryout on Friday Fish Fries. The difference is, just like Madonna and Paul Simon, some businesses can reinvent themselves.

What is the best path for companies seeking digital transformation? Technology is important but more important is changing your organization and allowing technology to be an enabler of your vision. The focus should be on how your organization can be different. Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology for Rockwell Automation, learns how companies are building "digital-ready" cultures in this discussion with Dr. George Westerman, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and principal research scientist and facility director for workforce learning at the MIT Jameel World Education Lab.

How do technologies such as augmented reality and machine learning shape the future of work for people? And how can we use these innovations to augment human potential and build a bright future? Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology for Rockwell Automation, examines these relationships in a discussion with Case Western professor Susan Helper and MIT professor Elisabeth Reynolds. These experts share their perspectives on talent, skills and workforce issues relevant to digital transformation and explore how institutions need to evolve.

What will it take to move highly specialized regenerative medicine – the engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues and organs – from the lab to production? Manufacturing scalability, process and partnership. The next breakthrough can help provide artificially produced tissues and even whole organs to people with serious injuries or diseases. Learn more as Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology for Rockwell Automation, explores the future of biomanufacturing and the work of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute and BioFabUSA with Dean Kamen, renown inventor and entrepreneur. Part one of a two-part series.

What will it take to move highly specialized regenerative medicine – the engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues and organs – from the lab to production? Manufacturing scalability, process and partnership. The next breakthrough can help provide artificially produced tissues and even whole organs to people with serious injuries or diseases. Learn more as Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology for Rockwell Automation, explores the future of biomanufacturing and the work of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute and BioFabUSA with Dean Kamen, renown inventor and entrepreneur. Part one of a two-part series.

Mixed Reality, AI and cognitive services offer transformative potential for industry. For example, with Hololens companies can approach curriculum from a new point of view when workers can investigate, walk around and delve inside their subjects. And AI can provide a guided work process in that virtualized experience. Learn more as Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology for Rockwell Automation, discusses current applications and future uses with Neal Meldrum, business strategy leader at Microsoft.

Why is Edge computing increasingly important in the industrial world? What types of applications need to run at the Edge? And why is Edge computing different from control room or traditional IPC applications? In this podcast, Dave Vasko, director of advanced technology, Rockwell Automation, discusses these topics and more with Barry Dellecese, director of product management, Stratus Technologies, at the 2018 Automation Fair event in Philadelphia.

What are the digital trends driving the future of manufacturing? Dave Vasko, director of Advanced Technology for Rockwell Automation discusses topics from artificial intelligence (AI) to the next-generation workforce with guest Keith Larson, group publisher and vice president of content for Putman Media.

In this podcast, Dave Vasko, director of Advanced Technology for Rockwell Automation, talks with Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). They explore how robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence will affect the next-gen workforce.

Advances in technology encourage new levels of innovation and partnership between industry and academia. Dave Vasko talks with Mark Mone, chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, about how these relationships foster innovation, including the Connected Systems Institute, a program focusing on the IIoT.

Blockchain is getting attention for its applicability in industry – particularly its ability to transform the supply chain. Dave Vasko talks with Tim Biernat, senior software architect, about why blockchain is a growing part of the conversation in manufacturing and industry.