In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Shaun Carvalho, chief safety officer at Shawmut Design and Construction, discusses how organizations can develop comprehensive safety and wellbeing programs that go beyond traditional PPE, emphasizing mental health, substance abuse, and inclusive communication strategies.

Joe Kuhn, CMRP, former plant manager, engineer and global reliability consultant, is now president of Lean Driven Reliability LLC. He is the author of the book “Zero to Hero: How to Jumpstart Your Reliability Journey Given Today’s Business Challenges” and the creator of the Joe Kuhn YouTube Channel, which offers content on starting your reliability journey and achieving financial independence.

In the monthly podcast miniseries Ask a Plant Manager, Joe and Plant Services editor in chief Anna Townshend consider a commonplace scenario facing the industry and Joe offers advice, as well as actions that you can take to get on track tomorrow. This episode explores maintenance and operator ownership and the problems with blurred accountability.

Manufacturing leaders face a hidden cost: fragmented data. This sponsored podcast episode, recorded with guest Keith Dunnell, VP, Global Head of Manufacturing Industry GTM at ServiceNow, is for operations leaders, security teams, and plant managers who know fragmentation is slowing them down but aren't sure how to fix it.

This podcast is sponsored by ServiceNow.

Recently, over 91,000 manufacturing professionals roamed vast exhibit halls in pursuit of technologies to make their enterprises more efficient, productive, competitive, or connected. Whether they realized it or not - all of them were looking for “manufacturing technology.”

Why is this label so elastic? At IMTS 2026, 1,788 exhibitors filled 1.17 million square feet of floor space with new applications in machining, programming, software, toolmaking, automation, plus networking, product design, market development, and more.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, American Machinist's Robert Brooks talks with IndustryWeek's Thomas Wilk about the insights collected by our visit to IMTS 2026, and what our impressions indicate about new technology and manufacturing trends.

The yard is no longer just the space between transportation and warehousing. It's where safety, execution, and business performance intersect. In this episode, YMX Logistics' Adam Buttgenbach discusses why yard operations are becoming an increasing focus for EHS leaders and how companies can move from reactive risk management to a more coordinated, proactive approach.

This podcast is sponsored by YMX Logistics.

Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, state organizations that help small and medium-sized manufacturers, have been in the news in recent months as some saw their federal funding suspended or delayed. Things are looking better in the latest round of awards, however, as the funds have been delivered on time, and suspended funding was restored to Ohio.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Carrie Hines of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition talks about the future of the MEP program and the services that these centers provide.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Smart Industry's Sarah Mattalian and Nancy Majure, the head of product for Adaptive ERP at QAD, explore how manufacturers can scale AI without adding headcount by improving real-time visibility, data quality and workflow integration. They discuss the role of ERP as a foundation for governed AI, along with the risks of fragmented data, shadow AI and bolt-on tools. The conversation also looks ahead to how contextualized data and AI-driven decision-making could help manufacturers optimize operations and manage complex trade-offs.

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Chuck Orzechowski and Josh Renicker of the COO Forum discuss how operations leaders are navigating AI-driven disruption and workforce change. They explore the importance of human-centric leadership, strong teams, and culture as new technologies reshape manufacturing. The conversation also examines how closing gaps between engineering and production can support operational excellence at a moment where the post-AI age is on the horizon.