Augmented Ops - Episodes Tagged with “Industry”

Reindustrializing in 2025 — AI, Scale, and the Future of U.S. Manufacturing with MIT’s Liz Reynolds

Tulip — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:15:00 -0400

In this bonus episode, our guest is Liz Reynolds, manufacturing and workforce expert at MIT and strategic advisor to Tulip..

Fresh from Detroit's Reindustrialize conference, Liz and Natan share key insights on America's urgent push to bring manufacturing back home. They explore the "Spring of momentum" in reindustrialization efforts, from AI moving beyond hype to real implementation on the shop floor, and break down the massive scale challenges facing US manufacturers across critical sectors.

Drawing from major industry conferences including Reindustrialize, the Hill and Valley Forum, Industry Studies Association, and MIT's Initiative for New Manufacturing, she explains strategic workforce development approaches to address the 400,000 manufacturing worker shortage and the Department of Defense's $1 trillion budget impact on industrial capacity. Reynolds sheds light on how this Spring's discussions and strategic planning around technology adoption and workforce training are beginning to take concrete shape as the real work accelerates into Fall.

Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip, the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast or by following the show on LinkedIn.

Special Guest: Elisabeth Reynolds.

Episode 141: Reindustrializing America with Liz Reynolds

Tulip — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:30:00 -0400

In this bonus episode, Elisabeth Reynolds—MIT Professor of the Practice, former White House policymaker, and now Strategic Advisor to Tulip—joins Natan Linder to discuss the building momentum around reindustrialization in the United States.

Liz calls attention to the most important factors shaping the industrial landscape, and the need for a clear national strategy that can direct government coordination with manufacturers. Liz also explores the challenges in introducing software to the frontline workforce, ways manufacturers can address skill gaps, and the role of venture capital in fueling innovation.

Rendustrialize Summit
Reindustrialize Manifesto
SCSP Advanced Manufacturing Report

Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip, the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast or by following the show on LinkedIn.

Special Guest: Elisabeth Reynolds.

Episode 140: A Frontline Perspective on Industry 4.0 – Reflections on Season 1 of Augmented Ops

Tulip — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 07:00:00 -0400

This week marks the final episode of Season 1 of Augmented Ops! Natan Linder and Erik Mirandette sit down to discuss their takeaways from the first season—while trying not to get derailed analogizing frontline operations to the Celtics Championship win.

Natan and Erik highlight the advancements (and stumbles) in industrial AI, and the way that open, interoperable ecosystems have fundamentally changed the way manufacturing tech stacks are built. They also reflect the need to focus on the frontline worker, the power of democratizing advanced technology, and more.

Episode 139: How to Architect Your Digital Strategy with Jeff Kramer

Tulip — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:30:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Jeff Kramer, VP Technology & Digital Factory at Kason Industries.

Jeff discusses why manufacturers struggle to develop a cohesive digital strategy, and lays out best practices around governance, data architecture, and bridging the IT/OT divide. He also explains why it’s critical for organizations to empower their frontline personnel by using technology to enable a citizen developer approach.

Special Guest: Jeff Kramer.

Episode 138: Democratizing Computer Vision with LandingAI’s Kai Yang

Tulip — Wed, 29 May 2024 00:15:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Kai Yang, VP of Product at LandingAI.

Kai discusses the need for a data-centric approach to AI, why vendors should build tools rather than solutions, and more, sharing lessons learned from his career in machine learning and software development. He also explains how new tools like visual prompting are democratizing computer vision and enabling anyone, regardless of skill level, to develop their own machine learning models.

Special Guest: Kai Yang.

Episode 137: AI for the Frontline Engineer with Instrumental’s Anna Shedletsky

Tulip — Wed, 15 May 2024 00:30:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Anna Shedletsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Instrumental.

Having started her career as an engineer at Apple, Anna shares lessons around quality management, which manufacturing KPIs actually matter, and how to take an idea from prototype to production. Plus, she lays out why organizations should think about manufacturing as a profit generator rather than a cost center, and why being able to demonstrate ROI is vital for engineers to advocate for the tech they need.

Special Guest: Anna Shedletsky.

Episode 136: AI Takes Center Stage at Hannover Messe

Tulip — Wed, 01 May 2024 07:30:00 -0400

This week, Natan Linder, Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip sits down with Madilynn Castillo, Head of Marketing for a recap of their experiences at this year’s Hannover Messe — the world’s largest industrial trade fair.

They explore the lackluster state of AI in industrial software, the rise of composable software architectures, and how open technology ecosystems are becoming the norm throughout the industry. Plus, an overview of the latest developments from Tulip that debuted at the show.

Special Guest: Madilynn Castillo.

Episode 135: Bringing Spatial Intelligence to Operations with Zerokey's Matt Lowe

Tulip — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 00:15:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Matt Lowe, Co-Founder and CEO of ZeroKey.

Not only is he a contributor to major open source projects like Linux and Arduino, Matt is the inventor of Quantum RTLS, a system that uses ultrasound to achieve 3D position tracking of objects with an unmatched level of fidelity. He explains what makes ultrasound-based positioning systems ideal for manufacturing environments, how spatial intelligence offers new ways to solve problems on the shop floor, and how open architecture can eliminate the need for system integrators.

Special Guest: Matt Lowe.

Episode 134: Building Industrial Architectures with MQTT with HiveMQ’s Dominik Obermaier

Tulip — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 00:30:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Dominik Obermaier, Co-Founder and CTO of HiveMQ.

With over 10 years of experience serving on the MQTT technical committee and helping organizations build their data foundations using HiveMQ’s MQTT platform, Dominik shares his deep expertise on the technology. He explains what makes MQTT such an important communications protocol, why the emergence of the Unified Namespace matters for manufacturers, and debates the merits of on-prem vs. cloud solutions.

Special Guest: Dominik Obermaier.

Episode 133: Rethinking Our Approach to AI with Dr. Jay Lee

Tulip — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:15:00 -0400

This week’s guest is Jay Lee, Director of the Industrial AI Center at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Lee shares his experiences from the early days programming machines with punch cards, to eventually developing advanced machine learning applications for industry. He explains how AI and ML are reshaping manufacturing, the workforce, and global supply chains. Plus, he lays out his vision for how our education system needs to change in order to train the next generation of AI practitioners.

Special Guest: Jay Lee.

Episode 132: Open Source Software for Manufacturing with UMH's Alex Krüger

Tulip — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:30:00 -0500

This week’s guest is Alex Krüger, Co-founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub, or UMH.

Alex shares his journey from working on integration projects in consulting fresh out of college, to founding UMH and building an open source alternative to the offerings from incumbent vendors. He breaks down the role of the open source software movement in manufacturing, how the Unified Namespace architecture compares to the traditional ISA-95 model, and how IT can best enable OT to solve problems. Plus, he shares his vision for how microservice-based MES solutions can disrupt the existing monolithic applications.

Special Guest: Alex Krüger.

Episode 131: MQTT, Unified Namespace, and The New Industrial Data Stack with Litmus’s Vatsal Shah

Tulip — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:30:00 -0500

This week’s guest is Vatsal Shah, Founder and CEO of Litmus.

Vatsal discusses his journey from an automation engineer at Rockwell, to building a new industrial data platform from the ground up after becoming frustrated with the limitations of the offerings from established vendors. He discusses manufacturers’ exodus from on-prem to cloud systems, the pros and cons of data protocols like MQTT and Sparkplug B, and why the Unified Namespace architecture is getting so much attention. Plus, he shares his vision for the future of edge computing and how an open ecosystem of interoperable tools is transforming the industry.

Special Guest: Vatsal Shah.

Episode 130: Democratization, Gen AI, and the Future of Industrial Analytics with Seeq’s Lisa Graham

Tulip — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:30:00 -0500

This week’s guest is Dr. Lisa Graham, CEO of Seeq.

Dr. Graham discusses her journey from process engineer, to using Seeq’s platform as a customer, and now leading the company as CEO. Drawing on her extensive experience in operations, she discusses how advanced analytics, generative AI, and the emergence of an interoperable technology ecosystem are reshaping industries. Plus, she shares best practices for IT/OT collaboration, her vision for the future of historians, and how the democratization of data science is paving the way for a more efficient and sustainable future in operations and manufacturing.

Special Guest: Lisa Graham.

Episode 129: AI and the Human Element in Industry 4.0 with Jeff Winter

Tulip — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:30:00 -0500

This week’s guest is Jeff Winter, Sr. Director of Industry Strategy for Manufacturing at Hitachi Solutions.

Jeff offers his insights into the history of the Industry 4.0 movement and how he expects it to evolve in the coming years. His discussion highlights the balance between AI and human ingenuity, the role of frontline workers in an increasingly automated manufacturing environment, and the untapped potential of manufacturing data.

Special Guest: Jeff Winter.

Episode 128: From Tailor to Technologist: A Digital Transformation Journey with Joachim Hensch

Tulip — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:15:00 -0500

This week’s guest is Joachim Hensch, Founder of Joachim Hensch Consulting and former Managing Director of the Hugo Boss factory in Izmir, Turkey.

Hensch shares invaluable lessons learned about digital transformation through his over three decades of experience working in the apparel industry in roles from the shop floor all the way to management. His unique journey from tailor to digital transformation leader illustrates the realities of implementing Industry 4.0, challenges in traditional manufacturing, and the pressing need to empower workers with digital tools. Joachim discusses how manufacturers can balance artisanship with mass production by adopting new tools while retaining a deep appreciation of the frontline operators and their critical role in the industry.

Special Guest: Joachim Hensch.