Advanced Manufacturing Now

In this special episode of Advanced Manufacturing Now, the SME Editorial Team reflects on the highlights of 2025 and anticipates the trends and challenges for 2026. 

Let's eliminate material waste, accelerate production, and break down data silos between the front office and the shop floor. Discover the power of seamless integration by joining us in an exclusive co-hosted webinar with QBuild and ECI where they'll discuss how integrating your nesting software with your ERP system can revolutionize your fabrication processes.  In the session, you'll see how this powerful integration can help:  Supercharge Production Speed: Automate the nesting process and eliminate manual data entry, leading to faster job starts and reduced lead times.  Eradicate Data Silos: Ensure real-time data synchronization and eliminate the disconnect between your engineering, production, and management teams for accurate insights and streamlined workflows.  Know your Costs & Make Every Cent Count: Unlock precise insights into your jobs' true material and labor consumption – eliminate guesswork and drive profitability.   Boost Overall Efficiency: Make smarter decisions based on a single source of truth, leading to improved resource allocation and increased profitability.  Join us to unlock the full potential of your fabrication processes and drive your business towards greater success and stay ahead in a competitive market.  Speakers: Tim Watkins: Vice President - New System Sales, ECI Software Solutions | Hasara Sandul: Partner Manager and Sales Engineer, QBuild Brought to you by: ECI Visit https://advancedmanufacturing.org/webinars for more webinars and an interactive experience with visuals.  

In this episode of Advanced Manufacturing Now, Editor-in-Chief Steve Plumb sits down with Gary Shapiro, CEO and Vice Chair of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), to preview CES 2026, taking place January 6–9 in Las Vegas.

In this episode of Advanced Manufacturing Now, Editor-in-Chief Steve Plumb speaks with Silvio Memme, head of business development at P1-AI, about the rise of AI-based engineering agents and what they mean for manufacturing and product development.

Solving the Unstructured Data Challenge: Preparing Manufacturing for the AI Revolution Industry 4.0 has illuminated the transformative impact of real-time shop floor data. However, vast repositories of historical engineering and supply chain data, traditionally confined to back-office systems, continue to be underutilized. To fully leverage the capabilities of AI, integration of these disparate data sources is imperative. This includes critical information residing in various forms, such as sensor readings, machine logs, customer feedback, and especially legacy 2D drawings, handwritten notes, and "tribal knowledge" trapped within the minds of experienced professionals. Traditional data processing methods often struggle to make sense of this hidden treasure, leading to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and a hindrance to true digital transformation. American manufacturers are facing immense pressure, from intensifying global competition and economic uncertainty to skilled labor shortages and the impending retirement of senior engineers who hold decades of undocumented institutional knowledge. To thrive, manufacturers must unlock the full potential of their data and embrace the AI revolution. This webinar will delve into how manufacturing companies can overcome these pervasive unstructured data challenges and strategically prepare for an AI-driven future. Join us to discover how to transform fragmented data into actionable insights, enhance cross-functional collaboration, and drive unprecedented efficiency and innovation. What You'll Learn: The Criticality of Unstructured Data: Understand why traditional data processing methods fail to extract valuable insights from diverse unstructured sources, from drawings to machine logs. AI as a Game-Changer: Explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI), including machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), is emerging as a key enabler for structuring and utilizing unstructured data, augmenting human capabilities, and driving manufacturing evolution. Building a Data Foundation for AI: Discover how to digitize your entire archive of drawings, including old hand-drafted and scanned documents, and link them with crucial supply chain, quality, and procurement data to create a comprehensive "data lake". Democratizing Knowledge with AI-Powered Insights: Learn how advanced search capabilities, including patented similarity search (based on part shape) and keyword search, can empower all employees, from new hires to seasoned veterans, to instantly find relevant designs, pricing history, and supplier information, reducing reliance on individual memory or tedious manual searching. Achieving Tangible Business Outcomes: See how solving the unstructured data challenge directly leads to reduced costs, optimized supplier relationships, faster RFQ responses, improved design quality, accelerated time-to-market, and enhanced decision-making across procurement, engineering, and sales. Navigating the Future of Manufacturing: Gain insights into how embracing AI and a data-driven culture can position your organization at the forefront of the industrial revolution, fostering continuous improvement and sustainable growth. This webinar will provide practical strategies and real-world examples, demonstrating how transforming your data assets can create new value and drive long-term success. Meet Your Presenters: Chris Cope, VP of Engineering at CADDi: As VP of Engineering at CADDi, Chris will highlight strategies for leveraging AI to transform unstructured data and illuminate pathways for enhanced collaboration across engineering, procurement, and manufacturing teams. Aaron Lober, VP of Marketing at CADDi: Bringing deep expertise in the transformative power of manufacturing intelligence platforms, Aaron will highlight how cutting-edge technology directly addresses industry pain points and unlocks competitive advantages. Philip Carpenito, Former Chief Procurement Officer at L3Harris: As a leader in procurement for a major industrial organization, Philip will share invaluable insights into the strategic challenges and opportunities within complex supply chains, emphasizing the critical role of data-driven decision-making in optimizing procurement processes and supplier relationships. Don't miss this opportunity to revolutionize your approach to data and prepare your manufacturing operations for the AI revolution. Speakers: Chris Cope: VP of Engineering, CADDi | Aaron Lober: Vice President of Marketing, CADDi | Philip Carpenito: Former Chief Procurement Officer, L3Harris Sponsored by: CADDi Visit https://advancedmanufacturing.org/webinars for more webinars and an interactive experience with visuals.