Mar 30, 2026

Episode 275. Why AI in Manufacturing? Why not? I explore how new technologies for knowledge work, unlike in manufacturing, create even more busy work distracting us from our real work--thinking, deep work. Looking beyond the hype, AI tools are going to help us do things. We just don't know exactly what is best. We must...

Feb 17, 2026

I was intrigued by an item in News Items by John Ellis quoting the Wall Street Journal regarding the continued slide in manufacturing employment in the US and the prolonged slide in manufacturing activity. The first Trump administration elicited promises of moving manufacturing to the US with the building of plants....

Dec 18, 2025

Thoughts on organization structures and Rockwell CEO Blake Moret's experiments with bringing in outsiders and setting his own directions.

Thoughts on the industrial software market in general and Rockwell's evolution. What's happening with MES in particular.

Rockwell upgrading and building new factories using its...

Nov 17, 2025

We met in a conference room at an office in Barrington, IL. A place where sometime later a couple guys thought they’d screw me in a business deal. I came out ahead in the end, but the place has mixed memories.

This meeting involved thinking about the future of asset data and systems interoperability. We had a system...

Oct 25, 2025

An early essay by Karl Marx writing at the beginning of the industrial revolution argued that humans who were formerly craftspeople were now just cogs in the industrial machine alienated from the products they made and their work.

Today's podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation, makers of Ignition — the world's...