“We did a survey in 2022 on all aspects related to smart manufacturing,” Dyck shared. “When we asked for the headwinds around implementing and creating value around using smart manufacturing, number one was talent. Numbers two and three were the cost and the complexity of implementation. These are all core components in how we’re investing and moving forward.”

With manufacturing productivity on a continuous decline, Dyck emphasized the need to create a more productive manufacturing environment for future generations.

“Manufacturing is the hallmark of innovation in this country,” he said. “But it’s important to recognize that, certainly in the last decade, manufacturing in Europe and Asia has been eclipsing the investment in manufacturing in the US, specifically in smart manufacturing.”

In his more than 25 years of experience with building and implementing systems, Dyck said he’s seen a 25% to 30% capacity gap across the board between plants that manually record data and plants that use digital systems for data collection. The gap is created by following a “gut feeling” about the data vs. mining real data. In other words, companies that rely on manual data collection may have additional capacity in their plants they didn’t know they had.