by Gary Mintchell | Aug 4, 2025 | Podcast
I seldom interview people for my podcast Gary on Manufacturing. In this case, I had an opportunity to talk with Travis Cox, Inductive Automation’s Chief Technology Evangelist about the upcoming Ignition Community Conference as well as the upcoming release of Ignition 8.3.
ICC 2025 has moved from the Harris Center in Folsom to the SAFE Credit Union Convention & Performing Arts District in downtown Sacramento. This enables enough capacity to double attendance from about 800. They also are introducing more ways for you to pick up ideas from projects on display from integrators. It’s always been a great place to meet smart people and learn new things.
Ignition 8.3 promises to be a hugely important upgrade to Ignition with more IT integration possibilities and user interface upgrades. You’ll learn more about it in Sacramento.
Oh, and you can find video of the interview on my YouTube channel.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 14, 2025 | Podcast
AI has generated more hype and obfuscation than all the words from ChatGPT. OK, maybe I exaggerate, but the amount of scare talk is endless. I try to take a more rational and down-to-earth look at the issue from the point-of-view of manufacturers. I argue that AI now and in the future should be viewed as a tool that will help humans work better and more productively. I use an example from an interview with Mike Payne, co-owner and president, of Hill Manufacturing–a production machine shop operation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mike was introduced to me by Hexagon. This podcast is sponsored by the Ignition Community Conference by Inductive Automation.
This podcast reflects some of my current thinking about AI hoopla.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 25, 2025 | Podcast
CEOs in a recent survey complained they were not seeing results from digital transformation. Too much complexity, dashboards too complex, information not clear, silos of data. Maybe we’re looking at the wrong part of the problem. Maybe it’s not technology; it’s people.
Listen on Overcast or your favorite podcast app or on LIbsyn. Or, watch on YouTube.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 20, 2024 | Podcast
This podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation. Two topics dominated my inbox this year–and will probably continue to do so. These are AI Large Language Models and Cybersecurity.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 8, 2024 | Commentary, News, Podcast
I’ve been swamped with a project for the past 10 weeks. It ends next Tuesday (supposed to end Saturday, but you know how projects go).
The travails of Google with the US DOJ and Apple with the European Union focusing on the issues of monopolistic mature market and openness spurred some thoughts on similarities with the control and automation market. Those thoughts coalesced around the podcast.
Gary on Manufacturing.
Gary on YouTube.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 16, 2024 | Commentary, News, Podcast
Podcast Audio and Video Posted
Many times in my career I have hired into a company during the initial surge of a market. Good jobs. Excitement. Opportunity to work on new things. Then the market matured or collapsed usually due to external forces such as technology changes or consumer behavior.
I hit recreation vehicles at a high point followed by high inflation and gasoline price surges. Then a consumer product company where Consumer Reports published a poorly researched article—but the external market also changed. Then PC peripherals. The latest was automation where a few of us started a magazine to cover it. The market was good for about 10 years. Then we went into brief cycles of IIoT, edge, networks, collaborative robots, IT companies looking at the manufacturing market.
This podcast began life in 2007 as Automation Minutes. I morphed it into Gary on Manufacturing to make it more general. That was more than 10 years ago. Must be time for another change.
That all is quite mature now.
Where do you think the offsetting new technologies or customer behavior will lead now? Or, is the market just going to begin to either consolidate further or split? What do you think?
