Home Podcasts Manufacturing Hub
Manufacturing Hub

Manufacturing Hub

Vlad Romanov & Dave Griffith 249 Episodes Aug 20, 2026

Manufacturing Hub brings you manufacturing news, insights, opportunities, and cutting edge technologies. The podcast aims to inform, educate, and inspire leaders and workers in manufacturing, automation, and related fields.

Episodes

Ep. 270 - How to Start a Systems Integrator: Scope, Hiring, and the Bottleneck That Is You
Ep. 270 - How to Start a Systems Integrator: Scope, Hiring, and the Bottleneck That Is You Aug 20, 2026 4505 Most people who start a systems integrator expect to keep doing the engineering. Dylan DuFresne explains why that stops being true inside two years.Ask ten people what a systems integrator is and you get ten answers, so Dylan DuFresne starts from first principles: a third party that connects systems which used to sit isolated. The market then splits in two. One is the generalist who has s
Ep. 269 - Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace: Digital Transformation SMB Manufacturers Can Afford
Ep. 269 - Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace: Digital Transformation SMB Manufacturers Can Afford Aug 12, 2026 4433 Siemens says a small manufacturer can start production optimization for $2,000 a year. Martin Valkysers and Flemming Kongsberg explain what that buys you.Most digital transformation advice assumes a budget and an engineering bench most plants do not have. Flemming Kongsberg, who runs the SMB focus inside the Siemens CTO organization, discards the usual revenue and headcount definitions: a
Ep. 268 - David Nichols of Loupe on Claude Code, AI Retrofits, and the End of the SI Moat
Ep. 268 - David Nichols of Loupe on Claude Code, AI Retrofits, and the End of the SI Moat Aug 6, 2026 4081 David Nichols of Loupe explains what actually changed in automation engineering this year, and why control retrofits just got far cheaper.Nearly twenty years into building high performance controls, David Nichols is blunt about what AI did to his business: what used to take six weeks now takes two, and his team ships roughly five times more software per sprint. An engineer dropped the raw
Ep. 267 - Ujjwal Kumar of Siemens on Deglobalization, Reshoring, and Adaptive Manufacturing
Ep. 267 - Ujjwal Kumar of Siemens on Deglobalization, Reshoring, and Adaptive Manufacturing Jul 30, 2026 3743 Deglobalization is rewriting where factories get built, and Ujjwal Kumar of Siemens explains what has to change on the plant floor before reshoring actually works.For thirty years the manufacturing playbook was labor arbitrage. Move high volume, low mix production to wherever disciplined labor was cheapest, then ship it back. Ujjwal Kumar, President of Automation for Siemens Digital Indus
Ep. 266 - Automate 2026 Reality Check: AI, Virtual PLCs, Ignition, and Plant Modernization
Ep. 266 - Automate 2026 Reality Check: AI, Virtual PLCs, Ignition, and Plant Modernization Jul 18, 2026 5277 After several weeks away from the podcast, Dave Griffith and Vladimir Romanov return to Manufacturing Hub to unpack their experiences at Automate 2026 and discuss what the event revealed about the current state of industrial automation.Automate showcased an enormous range of robotics, industrial AI, machine vision, software, cloud connectivity, and emerging automation technology. However,
Ep. 265 - Automate 2026 Survival Guide: Booths, Networking, and a Production Line Demo #scada #mes
Ep. 265 - Automate 2026 Survival Guide: Booths, Networking, and a Production Line Demo #scada #mes Jun 18, 2026 2102 Automate 2026 lands in Chicago next week, and Dave and Vlad break down how to work the show floor, where to network, and what to expect from their live booth demos.Automate is the largest automation trade show in North America, and a four day event rewards preparation. Dave and Vlad share tactics refined over five years of attending together. The floor opens at 10:00 AM on Monday, and reg
Ep. 264 - Why AI Loves Automation: Siemens on Digital Twins, Guardrails, and Orchestration
Ep. 264 - Why AI Loves Automation: Siemens on Digital Twins, Guardrails, and Orchestration Jun 11, 2026 3854 AI can finally write back to the plant floor, but only if you can trust it. Chris Stevens and Annemarie Breu of Siemens explain how orchestration makes that safe.Industrial AI has reached a turning point. Manufacturers can already collect data, contextualize it, and surface insights, but the hardest step has always been turning insight into action on real control equipment. Chris Stevens
Ep. 263 - Why Industrial Protocols Win on Business Not Technical Merit, with Horner Automation
Ep. 263 - Why Industrial Protocols Win on Business Not Technical Merit, with Horner Automation Jun 4, 2026 3837 Industrial network protocols decide whether a machine talks or stays silent. Chuck from Horner Automation breaks down how they win, fade, and converge.Chuck has spent 36 years at Horner Automation and lived through what the industry once called the fieldbus wars. Before Horner became known for its all in one controllers, it spent a decade building specialty IO modules for GE Fanuc during
Ep. 262 - The Human Side of Manufacturing Change: Incentives, Pain Points, and Operator Buy In
Ep. 262 - The Human Side of Manufacturing Change: Incentives, Pain Points, and Operator Buy In May 28, 2026 3927 Change management is the reason most manufacturing improvement projects quietly stall, even when the technical work is sound and the tools are right.Vlad Romanov and Dave Griffith unpack their own change management war stories from across two decades in industrial automation. Vlad frames change management as understanding risk to the business and to every stakeholder, then putting the pro
Ep. 261 - Change Management in Manufacturing: Operators, Tribal Knowledge, and the Industrial Elder
Ep. 261 - Change Management in Manufacturing: Operators, Tribal Knowledge, and the Industrial Elder May 21, 2026 3771 Change management in manufacturing breaks down at the people layer, not the technology layer. This episode explains how engineering leaders actually drive adoption.Ronald Sherrod is a Staff Automation Engineer at Regeneron deploying a global event based architecture and Unified Namespace rollout across pharmaceutical operations. Ron, Vlad Romanov, and Dave Griffith dig into the parts of c
Ep. 260 - Why Ignition Is Winning: Colby Clegg and Carl Gould on SCADA, Open Access, & Industrial AI
Ep. 260 - Why Ignition Is Winning: Colby Clegg and Carl Gould on SCADA, Open Access, & Industrial AI May 14, 2026 4236 Inductive Automation cofounders Colby Clegg and Carl Gould go deep on the origins of Ignition, the road to 8.3, and what AI means for industrial automation.Vlad and Dave host Colby Clegg, CEO, and Carl Gould, CTO, of Inductive Automation together for the first time to trace the full arc of the company. The story begins in 2003, when Sacramento systems integrator Steve Heckman brought Colb
Ep. 259 - Logan Terry of LSI on Change Management: The Soft Side of SCADA, MES, & ERP Projects
Ep. 259 - Logan Terry of LSI on Change Management: The Soft Side of SCADA, MES, & ERP Projects May 7, 2026 4080 Change management decides whether your MES or digital transformation project lasts, or quietly gets shut off six months after go live.Vlad Romanov and Dave Griffith sit down with Logan Terry, who leads digital transformation at LSI, to dig into change management as the deciding factor in any automation or MES rollout. Logan defines change management as a methodical approach to moving an i

Recommended