Looking Back at '23 and Ahead at '24 - Year End Panel

All right, good afternoon, good morning everyone. Thank you so much and welcome to the Industry 4.0 Club. I'd like to wish everyone good morning, good afternoon, depending on your time zone and where you're joining us from. And before we start today's year-end panel, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the Industry 4.0 Club and today's conversation. The main purpose of this group is to accelerate the evolution to Industry 4.0 by having engaging discussions among innovators, leaders, and manufacturing professionals. Typically, we are interviewing a guest, but today we are gathering all of our co-hosts around to discuss this past year. This is Women in Manufacturing. It's our Tuesday conversation with a focus on tech, and manufacturing. In this space, we touch on perspectives of women in the industry, and we'd like to welcome you to the last livestream of 2023. We're very excited to have all of our hosts here today to close off the year and just give a big shout out to all of our audience for tuning in and kind of coming along with us this year on all the conversations we've had. So I'm Grace Donovan. I'm an Industry 4.0 Club co-founder. For many years, I worked with entrepreneurs in manufacturing and heavy industry, helping innovators to grow and scale their companies and advance technology and ecosystems in South America as well as the Midwest. And I'm currently serving as the director of the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center, which is helping rural communities connect with university resources to tackle pressing community challenges. I'd like to thank all of our listeners for joining us throughout the year, and a special thank you to our new hosts, for your contribution to the Industry 4.0 Club and making our Women in Manufacturing shows a place where we can share our stories and weave together manufacturing, advanced technology, and our personal journeys. And it's so nice to have more people around us in the Women in Manufacturing channel. So I'd like to introduce, um, kind of for the first time as a group, Angela Thurman, Karen Rivera, and Kate Art, who are all here with us today. Typically, Carol Mitchell-Lynn would also be here as well, but she has been my faithful co-host for many years, but she's under the weather today, so we wish her well and a quick recovery. I'd like to just pass the mic around so that y'all can introduce yourselves as a group to our audience in case they haven't had the chance to meet you yet. Let me just start with Karen.

Hello, cyberspace. My name is Karen Rivera, and the best way to describe what I do is I'm a tech translator. I'm passionate about bringing business and technology together and ensuring that there's seamless communication amongst the diverse teams. I'm a seasoned Salesforce and Marketing Cloud engagement strategist, and I just thrive on unlocking the platform's potential, aligning the requirements and the proficiencies that the company is looking for. I work for an industrial boiler manufacturer, Cleaver-Brooks. Shout out to Thomasville. And when I'm not exploring the endless possibilities where technology and ingenuity meet, I am busy supporting, promoting, and helping inspire women in manufacturing as the state chair for the Texas chapter.

Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to have you. I'll pass it over to Angela.

Thank you, Grace. I am Angela Thurman, the founder and CEO of Thurman Co. I'm a project manager in high-tech industries providing services particularly for those highly regulated industries like aerospace, automotive, and telecom. And as a certified project manager— project management professional with over 35 years of experience, I give my clients the confidence that their projects are going to be delivered with the highest attention to detail. So for the past 2 and a half years, I've also served on the board of directors for the Texas chapter of Women in Manufacturing, along with Karen. And with, uh, when Texas. I use my love of numbers, statistics, and spreadsheets as the treasurer and director of membership.

Excellent. We have some— we have strong representation from the Women in Manufacturing Texas chapter. We love to see it. And Kate, over to you.

Sure thing. Well, I guess I'll just say, you know, following both of you women, or all of us, I guess we're kind of, you know, similar. I'm kind of echoing a lot of what you said, you know, Karen, that data, I guess the bridge between understanding technology data and like making it relevant to businesses, business use cases in a manufacturing setting is pretty much what I've been doing for the past couple years. And prior to that, I worked at ExxonMobil. Kind of serving manufacturers in a different way by selling them industrial lubricant. So I've had an amazing, I guess, career that's been another episode of How It's Made all the time, which I love. And yeah, I'm excited to, you know, be part of this group and learn from all of the wonderful women in manufacturing and get the chance to kind of, you know, pick brains of people who are super smart and also really passionate about women in STEM and hopefully encourage more women to get into manufacturing or stay in it and be a support system.

Thank you, Kate. I think as some— as the currently most seasoned co-host of this group, and I, I'm just so excited to have more voices alongside, you know, Carol and myself and women who bring different perspectives and different career paths within the industry. And it's just so invaluable. And I just want to kind of take a minute to appreciate you all and what you contribute to Women in Manufacturing. So I really appreciate all that you've done for us in 2023 and just joining us and look forward to what we're going to tackle together in 2024. So in 2023, we had a lot going on kind of as an Industry 4.0 club. It was a big year. And today we're going to go over some highlights from our Women in Manufacturing channel as well as some successes of the club more broadly. We're going to go ahead and share some of our favorite moments, some of the most impactful conversations that we had, and then take a look at manufacturing and what we're expecting to see in 2024. So with that, I'm going to toss it to Angela.

Thanks, Grace. So as we look back over 2023, we're happy to share that our combined number of guests and event panelists totaled 20 inspiring women. And this group of women were simply amazing. Each shared their own personal experiences, including robotics, building industrial software to collect data in manufacturing automation, optimal methods of collecting the data for business insights, product development methods, and much, much more. And we're grateful for all of those women who contributed to Women in Manufacturing in 2023. I'd like to hand it over to Karen.

Sure. Hey, not only did we discuss Industry 4.0 because it's what we do, but we also exchanged thoughts, guidance, insights on enhancing mentoring skills, discovering mentors, fostering partnerships, and continuing to establish or grow the community, which I am so grateful for. Our guests What amazes me most is they led by example and inspired to drive more positive transformations in STEM education, in our professional journeys, and in the corporate settings as a whole. So I'm super excited about this past year and glad that I was a part of it.

Yeah, I mean, and I joined a little bit later in the year, but I know that we've had some really awesome panels. I think you all have alluded to them. You know, like the one back in February in California basically had, I think, 2 live panels at the advanced manufacturing stage. And also a big shout out to our partner Informal Markets. I also got the pleasure of meeting them in New York in June. And speaking of great mentors, we collaborated with the Society of Women in Engineering. the Orange County chapter in order for these panels to, you know, go off as well as they did. And as far as, you know, those mentors that got involved, we want to, you know, give a big thanks to Morgan Zaminella, who is the SWE president, for the fact that she was willing to moderate this panel. And then we also had also a very big Thanks to the secretary of SPE at the Orange County chapter, who is Vanita Palanivelu. I hope I said that right. And Courtney Fernandez and Laura Armstrong, who were incredible subject matter experts that helped really bring that panel to a holistic view. So thank you guys so much. Really awesome. Really awesome work.

I think, yeah, IME West was the I think the first time a lot of the Industry 4.0 co-founders were actually able to meet each other in person. And we got to meet a lot of our guests and former guests on the shop, like on the, I say on the shop floor, but it was really on the exhibit floor. It was really fantastic to where we, like an instance where we see a lot of the online communities and relationships that we've built kind of manifest in person. And so that's— Something that we just so thoroughly enjoy. So that was February of 2024. Then later in the year, we've also put together a panel at IME East. And actually, Kate, you were a part of that panel, so you got a chance to meet some of the Industry 4.0 co-hosts. And I've never actually met Carol in person, so I'm a little jealous that you actually got that opportunity. Carol, I've been talking for so long, it's like we practically know each other. actually never met in person. So we had— we exhibited at the Advanced Manufacturing Stage in New York City in June of last year on leveraging data to improve business. Carol moderated the panel, and alongside Kate, we also had fellow Industry 4.0 founder Catherine Briley, as well as Victoria Grumple. So that was a really fantastic panel. Kate, what was your experience like?

Phenomenal. It was awesome. Also meeting Catherine in person and Victoria, you know, awesome women, and really cool to build that network network. But I was really surprised, you know, just that was probably my first panel in person that was so— I don't know, after COVID most of my panels were not as crowded, but that was pretty, pretty wild. Um, so it was really cool to be part of that, and I learned a ton from that advanced manufacturing stage. So really glad to have participated.

Nice. Um, I'm Thrilled. And that's kind of how we also solidified our connection with you. So that's another great benefit that came out of it. Just quickly have to showcase Rhiannon's comment. Do we need to take up and get a Grace and Carol together in-person fund? I really appreciate the sentiment, but we'll find a way. We will find a way. Thank you, Rhiannon. Excuse me. So, and well, kind of again this next year, we're also preparing right now for to go back to IME West this year. So February 6th and 8th, and Vanita will be returning from SWE to moderate a panel on what motivates the Gen Z workforce. And this is something that I have been puzzling with so hard in my current role, trying to engage college students and getting involved with just a career path. I'm personally really excited to see what comes from that, and I hope that anyone tuning in can make their way down to California. It's a truly fantastic event. You get to meet a lot of wonderful people, and everyone is just so excited to collaborate and support each other. While I was working for a software startup and attending these events, that was something that was really positive and impactful for me personally. Definitely encouraging everyone, the vibes are great. And excuse me, let me just take a drink here. All right, my voice is not really cooperating this morning. Um, but kind of transitioning from talking about some of the in-person events, which we're so thrilled to be able to participate in as a club that started on Clubhouse and has now transitioned to LinkedIn. Again, we've been a very virtual community for a really long time, and it's So important and for us to be able to participate in these in-person events. I wanted to also transition then to the conversations that we do have on a very regular basis here on StreamYard and kind of wherever you're viewing. Most of you tune in through LinkedIn. And at the end of all of our live streams, we take a few minutes at the end of the conversation just to reflect on the conversation that we've had and think about our final takeaways. And I wanted to do that here today. And this is something that Carol really started. And so we want to do this in her honor. Could you share your favorite takeaway from 2023? You don't have to necessarily stick to that, but maybe your favorite moment or the most impactful thing that you learned. Now we'll look for volunteers. It sounds like—

I could go. I'm a little greedy. So the most— it's funny because the impactful advice that I've gotten has been sprinkled across all of the live streams, so it's almost like a compilation. Um, and one is the importance of resilience, assertiveness in navigating personal and professional challenges.

The—

it was almost like a common theme with the panelists that the different conversations helped emphasize the significance of embracing challenges as opportunities for growth and learning. I think that was one of my key favorites, the power of perseverance. It has helped me assert myself more confidently, actually seek mentorship, and that was a struggle for me, and proactively contribute to my unique perspective. to drive that positive change. And that's helped me a lot also with the chapter. And I've just extracted from all of these conversations how to overcome obstacles, fostering self-confidence, and achieving success both professionally and personally. And, and I'm grateful to the panelists. So if y'all are listening, thank you.

That was so eloquent.

Thank you.

And really touches on a lot of the things that I think a lot of us derive a lot of value from this channel for.

Yes, exactly. No, I completely agree. It's really, it's really nice to feel the support from this network and that it's, you know, a safe space to share experiences and be validated in your experiences and then learn from amazing leaders in the space who have you know, the experience and the, you know, street cred, if you will, getting to where they are. And then, you know, it's just a really cool experience being the person who gets to ask them these questions and kind of like pick their brain on things. So I think it's been just an amazing time, and it's really, it's really nice to have the chance to talk to people about this. And I think it's a really good message to share. Um, it's pretty encouraging, I think. for, you know, people also to see the representation of women in manufacturing and the leadership that we have brought onto this livestream has been really, really cool to learn from.

So I'm going to mention generative AI, which has changed the narrative almost everywhere since February. We all touch manufacturing or have different interests when it comes to manufacturing. So while we're all together, I'd be curious to ask what you think as we look forward to 2024. Is there something that you'd like to share about your experiences to date with GenAI? And would you like to offer an opinion or ask further questions about that? I can also just mention for myself, I'm using various AI tools every day in my work. Although I'm not directly in manufacturing, I support manufacturing every day. Recently I posted to LinkedIn that in one morning I had used 7 different tools that day.

Wow.

So I'm, you know, I'm embracing it and using it to lift my productivity. And I even offered my prayer group a brief little intro to AI class. So I'd just be very curious about your own experiences.

I'll kind of quickly jump in here. So at the start of this year, I was working for Andonics, which is a software startup based in Detroit. And we at that time were just beginning to integrate AI into the software platform, which is a connected worker platform that creates digital work instructions. But we had kind of a digital andon cord, so to speak, so that workers could raise problems. And we were beginning to integrate AI into that Andon cord so that, like, generatively we could help workers solve problems much faster. So based on, you know, past data and past failures, have you tried solution A? Have you tried solution B? Based on the different variables and inputs, can we help you solve problems faster? So that was kind of my most personal experience with AI in manufacturing. And I think it has tons of potential because there's so much information. I think we talk a lot about how manufacturers are managing data or how they're leveraging the data. It's a daunting task, but having AI bring it down and make it very practical and very easy to take action on is really fantastic. And then as a club, we've actually invested now in AI tools to help us with video editing and video production. So I'm really excited to see where— how this helps us like as a group because we're all volunteers, just to really advance and share more about all the amazing guests that we have on our channel and get those out in front of more people. So I'm really excited about that. And from the AI perspective, those are great examples, Grace. Thanks.

So yeah, I guess as an industrial engineer, I'm obsessed with efficiencies. And so I got really deep down the rabbit hole with the whole AI boom lately. And so it's funny, I guess my preface would be, or I guess so the generative AI label, I think has evolved over the past couple years as what's considered generative and what is truly generative versus some other, I guess, versions of AI, if you will. But the previous company I worked for was actually heavily I'd say our biggest solution at the time had to do with computer vision for manufacturers, and it had a lot to do with helping them with their quality optimization. But now the startup that I work for, we help essentially with our AI kind of corroborate what's going on in a process at a massive scale. It's something that, you know, a human could do a design of experiments with, you know, just like, you know, typical analytic tools. But what AI has allowed manufacturers to do now is kind of like, I really need a new name for this, but I don't have one yet, so I apologize. But a design of experiment like on steroids because you don't have to control for variables and it's so much data and it's evolving over time.

Mm-hmm.

And with the ultimate goal to actually do closed-loop control, so feedback into the production process, the recommendations from whatever you're getting from that AI and your data. So that to me was the coolest thing I've seen this year because I've always been afraid to do that. I'm like, y'all, you know, this is scary. What happens if, you know, something goes wrong with this? So I've been really excited that that's happening and it's massively helpful to manufacturers over time.

Um, wow. AI, with its diverse manifestations and diverse applications, it's just captivating my imagination because you think of the art of the possible is on a whole other level. But it's interesting because Carl Schwab, in his work The Fourth Industrial Revolution, he urges leaders and people or citizens to collaborate in shaping a future that prioritizes people and emphasizing human-centric nature, nature of these technology tools created by people for people. So with all of the things that AI can do, I'm really looking forward to seeing the innovative approaches that companies are going to implement to adopt adopt reassigning existing employees to activities that add value and kind of dispel that myth that AI is going to displace people or replace people. Preparing the workforce for AI projects is going to be an ongoing endeavor because again, it's not very new but still pretty new. And as technologies advance, I want to see how businesses invest in learning and development to ensure that the employees possess the skills necessary for progression. The other thing that I'm interested in seeing what 2024 brings, right, wrong, or indifferent, companies do their best work and have their biggest innovations when things don't go so well.

Yeah.

The pandemic, geopolitical tensions, the global emphasis on sustainability. It's just, they experience— companies experience more gains and losses throughout periods of uncertainty than they do in stable times. Look at all of the advancements were done since the pandemic. It's— it was unfortunate, but look at all of the good that came out of it. Um, so as we're looking still geopolitical tensions, economic instability, I want to see what they come up with next. It's like a real-life reality show. What are these companies going to come up with next? And I'm like sitting with popcorn like, okay. Who's going to beat who to the punch? So as scary of times sometimes, it's exciting because you're looking forward to what are they going to innovate next.

I think you touch on 2 really important points. One being is that how are we kind of leveraging this new technology to support people? One thing that underpins Industry 4.0, and now that we can peek around the corner and see Industry 5.0 coming down the road, it's It's all focused on people and enhancing people like through technology. And so sometimes technology takes the spotlight, but behind all of that is kind of the people and kind of making sure that that value proposition that like, you know, people bring their creativity, the value that they can add is ultimately, I think, the focus. And it's gonna be exciting to see how we can leverage that. And, you know, as Angela mentioned, like how do we make it work for us? You know, not the other way around. And then failure. I love talking about failure and challenges. I love it because it's so much more interesting than talking about what went well. Because it really gets us to— A, I think it really breaks down barriers and/or kind of people's maybe even like walls, right? Like how, you know, it makes us all a little bit vulnerable. We've all shared in failure. But there's also so much to learn, as you mentioned, Karen. So there's some unfortunate circumstances or challenges that cause some failures, like specifically the labor shortages. And we're going a few years back now, but the supply chain shortage— I didn't have a car for 6 months because of supply chain shortages and chips not being around because mine failed at the height of the supply chain. you know, backlogs. But those instances, you're right, like really unlock people's creativity. They really unlock how we can use tools like generative AI to kind of get around some of these challenges. And it's just so intriguing to see how creative people are and just how we can advance in the face of adversity. So I love talking about failure.

Well, Grace, that gives me kind of another Leaping point. You can just— you can design a much more robust product when you conduct a failure modes and effects analysis.

Mm-hmm.

So when, when you, you know, turn your engineer's creativity loose to think about what are all the different ways that this thing might fail, and then you proactively design to mitigate those failures. And I mean, if you have just a plain vanilla design that is designed for success, that is not a good design.

Failure, failure is opportunities to excel. Keep in mind, Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, you don't know how strong a woman is until she's in hot water. The same happens with innovation.

Exactly.

For sure. And I think something I like, a kind of a little phrase that I took away from a previous job was failing forward. So, and I think like failure tends to propel you that way unless kind of your mentality might get in the way. But if we're talking at an institutional level, like failure is progress because you're learning from past mistakes and doing it better the next time. We've all seen those, like you've only had one job, you know, did you show this design to anyone else because they would've said it was terrible? You don't ever want that to make it all the way down the line, right? Those, I always get a little kick out of those.

Yeah, well, and Karen mentioned something, uh, also about, else about, you know, what she was looking forward to for 2024. So that I think gives us another discussion point. What, what are we each looking forward to in, in 2024? Kate, can we—

Sure. Yeah, I'm just kind of on the note of failing forward and like trying to learn from our mistakes. I guess it's kind of funny too because of just the nature of AI. It's— you kind of don't really know some of the hurdles that you'll come to until you're in it. So like OpenAI, I think right now, like, they're hiring people to try to prevent it from becoming rogue. And so like, or, and/or Like, I don't know if y'all have noticed if you're using ChatGPT, like some of mine have become a little not that helpful and they've learned how to kind of like, you know, get out of tasks. So it's kind of funny. And so learning from that, I think is just going to help us evolve. And I'm excited to see some of the workarounds. And I'm thinking the failures, so to speak, we've been seeing are highlighting where we need the most work. And some places, like, I'm pretty risk-averse, so it's kind of scary for me to think about AI in some applications. But where I'm excited about the potential, assuming it's done the right way, is in the healthcare space. I think that given the nature of healthcare being so siloed, we've not been able to leverage data in a multifactorial personalized way that, you know, can be more holistic about people's, you know, health data to understand what could be going on at a deeper level. And I think that there's a lot of work going on in that space now to unlock some of those bottlenecks. So I think that there's a lot of opportunity, you know, in that space as well for some major innovations and better healthcare, hopefully.

Hopefully. I mean, every time I walk into a doctor's office, I'm like, and fill out kind of the form.

The same form over and over again. And then telling them my symptoms, I'm like, isn't there a list somewhere? Like, and also, you know, it's just, um, the only thing that's a little scary is, you know, that data is the reason it, you know, is so private is it is sensitive and there are ramifications if it gets into the wrong hands. So Just all those factors need to be considered too, because generative AI, as much as it's working for us, you know, put in the wrong hands can be working against us as well.

So. There are a lot of guardrails that I think, as you mentioned, need to be in place. And it's an important challenge that requires a lot of consideration. But while we're on the topic of AI, I wanted to quickly bring up this comment from Rhiannon. So AI and application review and hiring can bring forward the biases of the patterns that already exist in manufacturing. So that is an area where women in manufacturing need to maintain our voice. So kind of while we're on that, I just think it is, you know, wanted to bring this to the forefront. And thank you, Rianne, for this comment of making sure that we're continuing to have this conversation and ensure that kind of, again, we know that biases like racial and gender. Like, humans are imperfect, and so the technology that we produce is oftentimes imperfect. And so it's really important to have, you know, representative samples around, around this technology, um, so that we can also hear from, like, intersectional identities and some, like, the most vulnerable in society or, like, in a certain environment, that to make sure that, you know, what AI is helping us to do is not at the same time harming somebody else. There's anyone else who wants to comment on that, but thank you, Rhiannon, for, for sharing that.

No, that's a great example. I mean, one company that comes to mind that had to learn that lesson the hard way, uh, is AWS, or I guess Amazon, um, because when they used it for recruiting, they trained it on, you know, their current, you know, leadership, and, and, you know, basically they wanted what they were trying to do was train the model to understand what it would be to be a successful employee at Amazon. But because a lot of these, you know, people that were in that training database were male, the AI learned that male was essentially a better indicator of success.

Wow.

And so basically anybody that had women in their resume, like women in manufacturing or SWE, like They were automatically filtered out and they started realizing like, why do we only have male resumes? Like, where are the female resumes? And that was one of the aha moments to them that they were like, oh, so it's—

What do you know?

Be cognizant of that, of that. Because it's, yeah, it's something that sometimes you learn after the fact, but especially in like the higher risk situations really needs to be well thought out before it comes to Something like that.

Yeah, that speaks perfectly to making sure that, you know, women and people of color and people of all identities are like involved in, in this. But that's not necessarily an AI problem. You know, that's a challenge that, you know, people have to, to really confront. And that means confronting a lot of like biases or, you know, ways that we work. I think You know, but it— oh, go ahead.

I think, Grace, I disagree with you in terms of it's not AI problem because we train AI.

Oh, that's, that's what I'm trying to communicate. Yeah, like it's not necessarily an AI problem because that problem is like really nested somewhere else.

Yeah, I think it's great. With great power comes great responsibility, and, and the power that AI gives us to do so much We still need to be good stewards because it's still just a tool and it's not just, oh, we'll just let AI do it. Yeah, that's why we have checks and balances. That's why we make sure that it's trained properly. And like you said, the different voices are represented so we don't just redo the mistakes of the past just with different tools.

Exactly. Um, no, thank you. I think that I appreciate the clarification because the way I phrased it was, it was confusing. But I think it's also too important to recognize that, like, all systems are perfectly designed to deliver the results that it produces. And if we don't like the results, then we have to really reexamine, you know, the system that we've already put in place, like we as a royal collective. So, yeah, those are important things to keep noodling on.

I like that, noodling.

I was about to use a term from, like, my philosophy professor in college, but I was like, that won't land. Kind of Aristotle. Oh, I vividly remember this from college. My philosophy professor talked about the value of like just having time to think, which sometimes today we don't have as much time of unless we're very jealous of our personal time of just like pondering and considering because there is a lot of drive to be productive, which I think is a little bit of a downside of generative AI if we're kind of on theme for what we see in 2024 is that there's so much demand to be productive that there doesn't necessarily, unless you are very intentional about that, again, set aside time for kind of thinking critically. And my philosophy professor referred to this as noosing. So like to the last, like Greek word was to, you know, on thinking was noose. And Aristotle really spent a lot of time doing that. So my professor would just be like, are you noosing enough? Are you thinking enough?

I like it.

Now I'll probably use it and no one will get it.

So that's awesome.

No, it's just called Aristotle.

I come from a culinary background, so my mind immediately went, let it marinate.

There you go. Let it marinate. Another good one.

Yeah, and like the intentional thing, right? You want to figure out what the goal is, but I don't know, the doomsday idea behind AI, or like one of the theories about how it's going to take over the world is if, you know, there's an example, if we train— if the goal for the AI is to manufacture a paperclip, you know, humans get in the way of manufacturing a perfect paperclip. So there's a chance that, you know, we might be on the other side of that, you know, error removal, uh, in the paper manufacturing process. And it just is a funny but also scary idea. It's a little bit of a hyperbole, I hope, but just one of those things like we have to be really intentional about what we want the outcomes to be, what guardrails are in place, who's monitoring it. But yeah, there's not a lot of manufacturers at this point, I don't think, that are deploying AI at such a intense scale that I don't— I hope that's not risk yet.

Yeah, well, you mentioned like being a little bit— maybe you said not risk-averse, and I think oftentimes manufacturers are quite the opposite, right? And understandably, you know, we all— we understand kind of like the innovator's dilemma, and if you have something of value, bringing in a lot of change can be quite scary. Although we of course know many manufacturers are embracing this kind of outright. But there's still a lot of progress to be made in the area. I think the conversation, kind of where we are existing in this conversation, tends to be much more advanced oftentimes than where the majority of manufacturers are. Of course, you have kind of like the first, the early adopters. And so we're still kind of working our way up that curve, which I think is kind of a good way to put it. Because yes, there's some very innovative manufacturing companies at the forefront of all of this. But if we look at specifically small manufacturers, which are the bulk of manufacturing, you know, there's a lot, you know, their pockets aren't necessarily as deep. And so there's a lot more risk there. So this is something that they will also benefit from kind of seeing the mistakes of others and seeing the failures and learnings of others as we go. And that's going to make it also more approachable as they see more of the ways that you can avoid risk, but then also the benefits that you can capture. And I think to kind of tie into what I'm hoping to see a little bit in 2024 is how that can attract more of a younger workforce. So kind of alluding to the panel that we're going to see at IME West in February of like attracting Gen Z, a huge thing that I saw when I was working directly in manufacturing was how do we connect like kids, you know, young folks want to be able to leverage technology in their job. They don't want to go back to, you know, how it was in the '80s with just a lot of paper and pencil and doing all of things like this. And I have been on many shop floors where that is the case. where then on break everyone's pulling out their smartphones. And like, let's not like make these opposing forces work against each other. But if you want to create an environment where, you know, younger generations really see a future for themselves and they're excited about work, technology is going to be a huge part of that. And so that's certainly one thing that I see and what I hope for, because for so, for so many of us and for a lot women in general, manufacturing offers so many promising career paths and also unexpected career paths and ways that we can flex our skills, that it's just so critical to have that kind of— just to get that out of— manufacturing can be a really, really wonderful career path. And I see Karen nodding, and I know we've all come into manufacturing in different ways, so I'm just excited to see how more people get into it.

I think a big part of that also is just the awareness in, in that dispelling myth, dispelling that myth about the dark, dirty, and dangerous. And, and with the work that we do with the Texas chapter, the first conversation that I always end up having is, you're looking for a career change, and I'm willing to bet my salary you haven't considered manufacturing, and I'm here to tell you, you might want to do that because there's a lot of opportunity and options and things that you can do that you probably— it hasn't even crossed your mind. Now, to get the younger generation interested early on, that is the goal because I don't want to work forever. I don't.

Someone come in so we can retire.

It's like transition that knowledge. Here's the baton. Go work your magic. I'm gonna go to the beach.

Sounds great. Yeah. One thing. So I'm based in Oregon now, and we are one of a few states, I believe, that has— that's really capitalizing on kind of the new CHIPS Act funding. Coming, you know, down the pipeline. And there's so much need for more manufacturing workforce in this state. And, you know, we are seeing a little bit more, you know, nearshoring. I think, again, one of the outcomes, I'll say, kind of of the pandemic and understanding the importance of having kind of a supply chain network rather than just a single chain. And that's a huge oversimplification, of course. But one of the things that I just appreciate so much about the conversations that we all have on a regular basis kind of with this channel is being able to identify different skills that some of our guests bring to the table and what are some of their core strengths. Because understanding the transferable skills that it takes or that people bring into the industry and knowing that if, oh, if I have this core skill, I could also be successful here is just so impactful. And I think it really opens up the horizons and the possibilities of imagining a career path for yourself in a way that you might not have before. So I think that's— I just want to thank all of our guests who have, and of course all of you and our co-hosts who have shared all those insights and kind of shared the skills and the abilities that they bring into the industry because it's so multifaceted that now kind of as I see this happening within the state of Oregon, They need to hire a lot of manufacturing workforce. And where are they going to find that? They're going to have to start looking at people with transferable skills because you're not going to be able to wait until, you know, kids graduating from a STEM track in high school are entering the workforce. There's just not enough time for that. So I just think that's so invaluable. And as part of the work that this group does is kind of spotlighting what are some of the transferable skills. and the abilities that people can bring from totally different career paths into manufacturing and see a future for themselves there.

I completely agree with that, Grace. As you know from our conversation around Semiconductor 101—

I learned a lot from you there. I'm so glad.

Texas is another one of the states that is really capitalizing on the CHIPS Act. As well. We have 2 major hubs for semiconductor foundries and processing. One is north of Dallas, and then the other is around Austin. We have a huge number of companies that are, if not headquartered in, at least manufacturing in Texas. And the growth in that industry is, is huge. And it impacts not only the companies that are actually doing the manufacturing, but the entire supply chain.

Yeah.

And construction. We have a great deal of construction right now going on to build new factories related to the CHIPS Act. And it's just as you said, we can't wait. That money is available now. And so the iron is hot. The time to strike is now. And it's really exciting to be a part of manufacturing, specifically that high-tech manufacturing, to see that taking place in Texas.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's exciting. Thanks.

And Angela touched an interesting point because a lot of people think, oh, chip semiconductor, that's like for engineers and those kind of people. Yeah, tell that to the construction worker that just had his contract extended because they're either building a new facility, expanding a new facility. And so the plumbers, the electricians, the welders, All of those people get impacted as well. And, and I think one thing that we really need to help people see is how the dots connect, that it is not this siloed thing that just impacts engineers or impacts people in tech. No, it impacts the entire economy, the local economy. And like Angela said, strike while the iron is hot and have these local economies really take advantage of what's being offered.

And it's a huge geopolitical, on like a, like, I don't wanna say issue, but matter or concern or bottom line across, you know, the different countries, you know, it's an enabler to empower us in technology. So the more advanced we are in our competitive edge to, you know, have a competitive edge in the chip manufacturing process here is what is also going to be an enabler to how well and how fast we can adapt these new technologies. But also from a consumer base, like Grace's car, you didn't have your car for 6 months.

Correct.

So it's definitely really interesting. It's a market that I am very intrigued by, and they're definitely at least in my experience of all of the industries I've worked in or with, it seems like they're, if not, they're extremely advanced in their usage for AI in their production process. They're very, very digitally mature. So it's pretty exciting to see what they're coming out with. And I think that's massive. It's like a massive example to the market of what could happen if you do invest in technology.

And that's always the fun thing about seeing, you know, almost like greenfield, you know, factories being set up in the sense of like everything's brand new. And so they can pull from all the best and the latest. It's a lot easier to do that when you don't have decades of investment and equipment that you'd have to completely revamp or find new homes for. And so if I think in terms of redoing the image. There's so many— it's exciting to see like new factories go up that definitely don't— that do not conform with that image of dull, dirty, and dangerous. They're like, they're bright, they're technology forward, they're exciting. So yeah, if you're looking for opportunities in manufacturing or chips right now, Oregon and Texas are the places to be. And I think Ohio— we'll throw in Ohio too.

Yeah.

So yeah, keep those places on your radar.

Where warmer.

Yeah, that's what you want. Good skiing, maybe come to Oregon. If you want warm climate, go to Texas, and then Ohio. I used to live in Michigan, so it's hard to say good things about Ohio. Ohio has skiing. Does it though?

Yeah, it does, it does. On the eastern edge.

The West Coaster in me cannot accept that, but I'll take it. I have not been. I will concede. So in our last 10 minutes, I wanted to kind of, again, focusing on what we're going to be talking about in 2024, we put out a poll to our LinkedIn audience And Karen, can you break down the results of those for us?

Yeah, sure.

We polled our followers and asked them what they were interested in seeing or seeing more of, and the people have spoken. All right, they're interested, definitely interested in manufacturing future and tech. Shocker, all the conversation that we just had. Coming right after that is women in manufacturing, so kudos. more often and more content, so yay. Coming in third, people, processes, and culture, including the future of work. Again, conversations that we've been having all along. And then rounding out the poll was fireside chats. But 70% were leaning towards the manufacturing future in tech.

Awesome. And thank you. And thank you to the audience and everyone who responded. We really appreciate that feedback. That's really valuable for us, not only as individual channels, but also as a club to really understand as we strategize about what kind of content that we're going to be putting out. I'm curious as a group, you know, what your reactions are. Is there anything that you also want to see the club do in 2024? That's maybe slightly different than what we've done in the past.

I'd have to say 2 things. I'm, I'm of the team, um, people, processes, and culture. Um, that shouldn't be a surprise to folks. But my other one is to integrate the different shows that we have and have like cross-hosting and Having a Women in Manufacturing program is great, but we are models for others to follow, and integrating Women in Manufacturing with just manufacturing, period, to normalize that. The having this space for women is fantastic, but we need to integrate Women in Manufacturing into manufacturing so people see that it is one and the same.

I wholeheartedly agree. And I think some of the changes that we've seen kind of with our co-hosts throughout the year, you know, we have folks join and then we have folks who need to step back again because this is all volunteer. And so that's certainly something where we used to have more women across the board in a lot of our channels. And I think that's something that's really important for us to, to focus on and do more integration. I really like that idea. Personally, I really enjoyed some of our early conversations were very much kind of individual profiles on women and kind of their career trajectory. And I think that's something that I'd like to see more of that we do this next year. And that's something that Carol and I are certainly planning on to do a little bit more deep dives into, you know, individuals like a day in the life, like what's your life like working in this industry? Because again, that really shines a light on, you know, what are the skills that you employ every day and how did you come to this industry, which is really important for, you know, helping people see the possibilities for themselves in manufacturing. Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry. I have to agree with Karen. I really like the idea of people and process and culture. Because as, as a woman who's been in engineering and manufacturing for, you know, 35 years, I've, I've seen some trends. And, um, I think that it would be, it would be really, uh, good to be able to share some stories and, and, and have women, um, from different generations share stories about how manufacturing and how the industry is evolving and to give those kinds of insights. And then, you know, around processes, I'm a very process-oriented person. I love standard operating procedures and how do you go about creating those standardization processes. I think that our, our founders, our co-founders, as well as the guests that could be invited in, could probably offer some great insights and, and tips.

Thank you, Angela. Kate, is there anything that you'd like to see going into 2024?

Well, as far as our content, you know, I think that's really great feedback. And I guess, you know, I love the idea of being, you know, a platform that creates content based on what people want. So as much feedback as we can get, you know, we would encourage that. And, you know, we love hearing ideas and love questions. So I think it'll be A cool— I think it's really cool that we're taking this feedback in and we'll kind of strategize to create that programming accordingly. And with that said, I mean, we have a couple more minutes. I don't want to like close preemptively, but I guess I was just wanting to mention too that we do have another host coming next year, which I'm really excited about as well. Her name is Lucy Ashton, and she couldn't be with us today, but, you know, it'll be really cool working with her as well. And just like you said, like, having the opportunity to have this, you know, group of voices. But also, we would love to have, you know, as many volunteers as we can, especially you mentioned intersectionality earlier. So I think kind of encouraging people to volunteer if they want to get involved is is something that I would look forward to if we can pull that off.

Yeah. And just to echo that, I think for any of our audience members, if you think— if you know someone who you think would be a really interesting guest or they have a really great story in manufacturing, like, send them our way. We would absolutely love to meet them and bring them on the show and share their story. So we're always open to recommendations and feedback, as we've mentioned. There is one other question, and I'll kind of show this for Angela. Maybe we know the answer, maybe we don't, but we had a question from— I'm sorry, from an unknown user, we can't see your name on this platform— of do you know of any new foundry capacities being built for gallium nitride versus silicon chips in Oregon or Texas? And I think, Angela, you might be the best candidate for this one.

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I will certainly inquire. I participate in a monthly forum for the chip industry, and I can post that to my fellow forum members. So I'll just make a note, gallium nitride foundries.

Awesome, thank you.

And so we just encourage you to actually, Angela, Yeah, I used to work at a foundry that produced gallium arsenide. We didn't— I don't think we dabbled in nitride though.

I knew you'd be the right person for this question. Awesome.

And for that person who commented, if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, I'd be sure to follow up with you.

Excellent. So yeah, head over to Angela's page and Hit that connect button if you're not already.

Yeah.

Well, awesome. And just to wrap us up though, if you like conversations like this or you want to get involved or be notified of any of our, you know, future content or live streams, feel free to follow the Industry 4.0 Club on LinkedIn. And we also have a newsletter called Shaping the Future. Our website is industry40club.com. And we really wish you the best holiday season and, you know, stay safe and healthy and looking forward to seeing y'all next year.

Sounds great.

Thank you all so much for closing out the year with us this way. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

Happy new year.

Happy new year.

All right, take care, everybody.