Podcast 277—An Integrator’s View of Applying AI
Nothing in industrial technology news annoys me more than the hype around artificial intelligence—AI. I recorded this podcast on the eve of the Automate trade show and conference in June 2026. Looking to for realistic use of Industrial AI, I’m bringing in an interview...
Rockwell Automation Introduces FactoryTalk ResilientEdge to Enable Autonomous, Scalable Manufacturing Operations
Rockwell Automation ’s software group has undergone substantial change over the past few years. It seems to have settled into a groove lately. I’d imagine that its story at this year’s Automation Fair in November in Boston should be interesting. The TL;DR of today’s...
Industrial manufacturing: US Deals 2026 midyear outlook
PwC sends regular merger and acquisition and related reports. This update seems timely as I’ve heard from a number of companies restructuring. It’s been some time since I attended a Hexagon conference where they announced spinning off manufacturing software now known...
The Algorithm of Elon Musk
Given my interests about manufacturing, Lean, strategy, leadership—and dealing with strong bosses with mental health issues—I couldn’t resist reading a promo copy of a book covering all of those. And, recommending it. Go, get the book, study it with your team. It's...
AI, God, and the Pope
Secularism, scientism, rationalist Richard Dawkins wants to end any influence of “religion.” In doing so, he actually tries to start a new religion. This new secular religion most likely began with French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. The coterie of...
The Ends Don’t Justify The Character
I have appreciated Kevin Meyer’s thinking on Lean, manufacturing, leadership, and life for many years. He recently wrote on his blog: Bob Sutton posted something on LinkedIn this week that stopped me mid-scroll. He was flagging a Brené Brown interview in the Financial...
Siemens and HighByte Partner on Industrial Data Operations
When the three people I knew formed HighByte in the Industrial DataOps market, I thought they had a good thing going. Perhaps revenues have not rocketed as much as hoped, but they keep moving. They added work in unified data namespace. This partnership just announced...
Random Thoughts on Journalism and Business
I’ve been reading about the brouhaha over new owners and management at CBS and specifically 60 Minutes. I haven’t watched the program for more than 30 years. I haven’t a strong opinion about the journalists or the program. When Mike Wallace was the lead guy, he...
Deepgram Delivers Private Voice AI to Regulated Industries with On-Premises Deployments Powered by Fortanix Confidential AI and NVIDIA Confidential Computing
Deepgram continues to roll out extensions to its real-time voice AI platform. Deepgram and Fortanix are the first to bring confidential computing to real-time voice AI, allowing organizations to protect sensitive conversations and AI models even while they are...
Operational Decision Intelligence Service Launched
Here is a new service—operational decision intelligence. Also a company new to me—SteelTree. They define an operational decision intelligence service as something designed to help industrial teams improve awareness, reduce friction, and coordinate action across...
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