2024 MX.0 Southeast Agenda

Many perceive technology as the easy part of digital transformation; managing people through digital-led change has been said to be the challenge.

Join this panel of digital transformation leaders to unpick how you steer technology-led change, taking your people with you along the way. Avoiding 'leadership spiel' and 'management speak,' the panelists detail the incremental steps and processes needed to execute new tech-led business plans.

Take away details of what works, which tried and tested failures to avoid, and answer common questions, including:
- How do you sell your ideas for digital transformation to your boss, influence change and bring your people with you?
- How can you prepare people for integration and engage those who seem resistant?
- How do you effectively educate different teams on new integrated processes and technologies?
- What are the quick wins, ‘easy buttons’, and powerful tools that you can implement to kick-start tech-led innovation?
- What is the best approach to fostering new working relationships between teams, identifying problems, and reacting quickly with new processes and training?

Proving the ROI from your digital investment and reporting the results of data-driven technologies is not a standardized procedure. With not all project leaders having budgetary sign-off and OT-IT friction still existing within manufacturing businesses, getting a scalable deployment off the ground can feel slow.   

‍This session dissects common questions that those leading tech-led innovation within their manufacturing businesses face, detailing:
- How technologies, tools, and change management methodologies can help you overcome clashes between different functions.
- How to install data-driven visibility to allow different teams to accept changes more easily and be encouraged by results.
- How to weed out the solutions that will genuinely help you to report and act upon new operational insights, in a streamlined,transparent way.

Join for an in-depth exploration of AI's impact on manufacturing as we explore real-world case studies. Learn to kickstart AI projects, choose the right use cases, and blend human expertise with technology for practical results. Gain valuable insights from best practices, data strategy, governance, reusable architecture, common pitfalls to avoid, and pathways to success.

Be inspired by shop floor implementations where AI-driven visual inspections enhance product quality, free up the workforce for value-added tasks, boost capabilities, and improve ergonomic conditions. Understand how AI becomes an invaluable toolbox, optimizing factory maintenance and traceability, elevating design, and production to new heights of efficiency and product quality.

- How do we plan out the steps needed to build sustainable practices based on policy and customer demands?
- Who drives the change? How do we engage employees and leadership to get sustainability on the agenda and invested in?
- What targets do you need to set to drive outcomes?
- How do you overcome the challenges of legacy infrastructure and assets and get the data to back up the investment?
- What do scalable and successful sustainability practices look like?

Join this interactive presentation and demo to dive into the innovative approaches now engaging employees by bringing shop floor instructions to life.

- Learn the simple steps now being taken by leading manufacturers to change the way workers interact with machines and applications, on and beyond the factory floor.
- Pinpoint the technology and infrastructure needed to digitize standard operating procedures and understand how to empower your workforce through their mobile phones.
- Don't miss the opportunity to learn how routine tasks such as training, operation, and maintenance can be completed more efficiently and with improved safety.

AI's potential is recognized and accepted, but how to use it effectively in a production setting remains unclear for many. Join the panel of manufacturers to unpick the actions needed to ensure you have accurate data and the right tools and technologies to achieve the business outcomes you plan to yield from AI.    
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Hear detailed examples of how to apply AI to: 
- Planning: Setting a manageable AI implementation and measurement strategy that fits your business needs.
- IoT Analysis: How to use AI to leverage data at a machine level.
- Optimization: Using AI to enhance throughput, removing bottlenecks and reducing downtime.
- Quality Control & Process Improvement: How to reduce defects and improve using AI.

Learn how Milliken & Company is executing on itssustainability digital roadmap to achieve meaningful insights, processes,forecasts, and capabilities.

Join Larry Megan, a digital leader fostering cross-departmental relationships to break down silos between IT and OT and scale digital transformation at a medium-sized manufacturing business.

Taking a 'how to' approach, Larry details the exact steps he's taken to:
- Build and engage an internal team. that supports digital transformation plans and bridges the gap between business and technology.
- Create a partner and vendor ecosystem that meets the needs of midsize manufacturers.
- Build a foundation for digital transformation by modernizing our ERP, MES, and cybersecurity platforms.
- Redesigning the day-to-day life and tasks of operators by introducing automated and data-driven tools.
- Create new value from the proactive use of data across our manufacturing, quality, supply chaining, and procurement functions.

Since the pandemic, companies have been more drawn to robust and scalable ways to gain deep knowledge and insight into their day-to-day operations. They are looking at a more accurate monitoring and simulation solution. Hence, the drive for an advanced manufacturing process, like real-time monitoring process simulation, predictive analytics, production, and condition monitoring. The digital twin has been around the block for some time,but it has recently become a good tool to help companies gain more control of what happens on the shop floor in real time. Building a digital replica of processes and the ability to run a what-if scenario are the main objectives of Digital Twin. Leveraging process simulation, 3-D modeling, and real-time monitoring are keys to achieving a digital twin of any process.  Join this session to hear the steps to implementing a digital twin of any process within the manufacturing space.  

Hear details of:
- The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0)and current practices
- The roadmap for a manufacturing facility
- Real-time monitoring of processes and assets
- 3-D layout and process simulation
- Building a Digital Twin
- Otis’ current implementation strategy - a case study approach

How can AI make our production more sustainable? Hear tried and tested examples from Continental Tires. Dubravko dives into how they use AI to make production more sustainable and cost-efficient. Take notes from real-life use cases, productive implementations, and current initiatives, in addition to the potential Continental is seeing in the usage of AI for production.

Industry 4.0 implementation can seem dauting for many manufacturers; this session breaks down how to get started and gives step-by-step advices for going digital.

Hear experiences in:  
- Assessing the vendor landscape and sourcing the tools and solutions that match your business needs.
- Overcoming workforce challenges - conveying what Industry 4.0 is and engaging your employees in your plans.
- Successful problem-solving and setting targets and measurements.
- Build vs. buy – understanding the pros and cons of developing solutions in-house and working with an external team.
- Building up your AI and ML capabilities.
- Defining a three-year outlook.

Watch this space...

- Understanding and choosing the sustainability reporting standards and frameworks to use
- Identifying the traceability solutions that improve your supply chain visibility while maintaining brand value and meeting regulatory requirements
- Leveraging technology to improve raw materials and labor reporting to meet customers’ sustainability expectations
- Advancing your data analytics to analyze, predict, and collaborate, so that you can go from reactive to proactive planning

When embarking on digital implementation, inadequate planning, processes, and tools can prevent technology from reaching its potential. Discover the essential foundational planning needed to ensure the future is paved for sustainable and scalable automation.

Currently, many manufacturers are undecided on whether to purchase the "new" manufacturing cobots or go with the"old", but established industrial robots. Join this session to dive into the experience of ZF Group, a Tier 1 automotive supplier, as they showcase the pros and cons of each when used in complex manufacturing processes (part and size variations, bin picking, process automation, simulation, cycle time management, etc). Dive into the details to understand which concept might work best for your manufacturing setting and identify the pitfalls that you wouldn’t have known of before.

Stefan presents the realities of Industry 4.0's impact on heavy asset and assembly equipment monitoring within Magna's manufacturing plant. His enlightening presentation unveils tangible success stories where Industry 4.0 technologies actively redefine Magna's asset management and assembly processes.

Hear how they have harnessed real-time data analytics, IoT connectivity, and sophisticated sensor networks to optimize heavy asset performance and streamline assembly operations. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from Magna's tried and tested approaches to uncover the strategies and tools that can drive your organization's transformation and competitiveness.

High-quality data and a robust data strategy are critical to the outcome of your digital transformation goals, the effectiveness of AI, and your overall effectiveness as a smart manufacturer in today's competitive markets.  

Yet, despite the advancement of digital transformation plans and investments, common questions persist, such as how you capture data from your equipment, and when you have it, what do you do with it? Hear how these manufacturers built a profitable data strategy that gave their work force real-time visibility on operations and brought their business game-changing insights.  

‍Along with your questions, the panelists dive into:
- What are the best options for capturing shop floor data?
- How to build a plan for OT data: what do you need from different functions, what data sets are required, and how do you provide a secure environment?
- How much do you need to spend? Which technologies do you need to get the most from your data?
- What tools are available to empower your staff to use production data to make decisions on the go, and which are the good ones? How do you connect and digitalize legacy equipment?