Siemens and OnLogic Partner On Industrial Edge
Siemens and OnLogic announced a strategic partnership to bring Siemens Industrial Edge to extreme edge environments. The collaboration pairs Siemens’ Industrial Edge software platform with OnLogic’s fanless, ruggedized edge computing hardware, enabling deployment in high‑vibration, wash‑down and other harsh conditions. Target industries include mining, energy and distributed infrastructure, where legacy equipment can now feed data into modern Siemens applications. The solution offers zero‑touch provisioning, low power consumption and sustainability benefits.
Frontline Workers Key to AI Adoption in Manufacturing
A PwC and Manufacturing Institute survey reveals that frontline workers remain the linchpin of AI adoption in manufacturing, yet 62% are skeptical and only 24% feel excited. Leaders point to insufficient training (40%) and unclear AI purpose (38%) as primary...
Aras PLM Conference Thoughts Coming Soon
The author announced that a detailed recap of the Aras PLM Community Event in Miami will be published soon, after a brief podcast and YouTube recap. He’s juggling a packed schedule, including research on AI agents, frontline‑worker solutions from ACE...
Details of Inductive Automation Update to Ignition 8.3
Inductive Automation released Ignition 8.3.5, adding a suite of security and performance upgrades. The update enables a Global Discovery Server to push OPC UA certificates, centralizing credential management across dispersed devices. A new file‑based Secret Provider lets administrators store encrypted...
Reshoring Yet Lack of Investment
U.S. reshoring momentum, which peaked in 2023, is now fading as new factory applications plunge 39% year‑on‑year and Interact Analysis cuts its 2026 construction outlook to an indexed growth of 76.0. The inflation‑adjusted construction‑value index, once above 12,000, has settled...
Podcast–Aras Community Event 2026–Rise of Agents
The Manufacturing Connection podcast recaps a three‑day Aras community event in Miami where Aras demonstrated large‑language‑model (LLM) agents embedded in its PLM platform. The agents, trained on internal product data and governed by strict controls, performed tasks that traditionally take...
Smart Manufacturing Second Take With No AI
The author used Claude.ai to produce a 3,000‑word essay on smart manufacturing, then reflected on the AI’s behavior. Claude dutifully supplied citations, praised the author’s style, and echoed familiar frameworks like the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture without critical questioning. The...
Smart Manufacturing: A System of Systems, a Holarchy of Value
Smart manufacturing is evolving from a buzzword into a structured, hierarchical system that combines real‑time data, lean principles, and advanced technologies. The essay frames it as a system‑of‑systems and a holarchy, where each component—from sensors to enterprise ERP—functions as an...
Cal Newport On Why AI Isn’t Making It Easier
Cal Newport argues that generative AI has not lightened workloads, echoing past tech disruptions. Research from ActivTrak tracking 164,000 workers shows AI users doubled time spent on email, messaging and chat, and increased use of business‑management tools by 94%, while...
Benedict Evans on OpenAI Business
Benedict Evans argues that OpenAI’s business model is fragile, lacking a unique technology edge or sticky consumer products. While the company enjoys a large user base, engagement is shallow and there is no clear network effect to lock in users....
Webinar: High Availability, Simplified
DH2i is hosting a webinar on April 16 at 12:00 pm EDT to demonstrate its newest high‑availability solution for Microsoft SQL Server across Windows, Linux and Kubernetes. The session will walk IT teams through automated scale‑up and scale‑down of SQL Server...
Podcast–Why AI?
The Manufacturing Connection released podcast episode 275, titled “Why AI in Manufacturing? Why not?” The host explores how emerging AI tools can augment knowledge work and manufacturing, while stressing the need for hands‑on experimentation to discover effective use cases. The discussion...
DNV Outlines Foundations for Achieving Trustworthy AI
DNV released a position paper outlining how traditional risk‑management principles can be adapted to assure AI‑enabled systems in safety‑critical industries. The research emphasizes a continuous, lifecycle‑wide assurance model that captures the full AI ecosystem, from data and algorithms to human...
High Availability, Disaster Recovery, and Operational Resilience Across SQL Server Environments
DH2i announced the general availability of DxEnterprise v26.0 and DxOperator v2, upgrades that bring advanced high‑availability, disaster‑recovery and resilience features to SQL Server on Windows, Linux and Kubernetes. DxEnterprise adds default database‑level health monitoring, automatic quorum enforcement to avoid split‑brain, and stronger...
TwinThread Launches Perfect Batch
TwinThread unveiled Perfect Batch, an AI‑driven analytics suite for batch‑process manufacturers. The platform automatically creates digital twins from historical data, learns optimal control limits, and recommends actions to replicate "golden" batches within hours. Integrated with the Thread Builder workflow engine,...