Industry Visionaries Share Thoughts in the new series, “The World According To…”, presented by IMTS+To make a long manufacturing story short, IMTS+ asked manufacturing industry leaders to summarize their outlook in just one word in the new series, The World According To…. These visionaries represent leadership and change in manufacturing technology, and they bring a combined wisdom exceeding half a millennium to this new IMTS+ series. In a world filled with disruptive technology and events, listening to their words brings a sense of having a calm and confident captain guiding the ship: Speed. Jim King, President and COO, Okuma America Excitement. Larry Robbins, President and CEO of SMW Autoblok USA Continuous. Dan Janka, President of Mazak and Chairman of the Board at AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology Change. Mike Defer, President and CEO, JTEKT Machinery Americas Promising. Brent Holden, President, Heimer USA Optimism. Eric Gershwin, Chief Executive Officer, MSC Industrial Supply Digital Transformation. Brian McMinn, Business Segment Manager, Siemens Technology and Training. Brian Such, President and COO, Marubeni Citizen-Cincom Integrity. Ken Merritt, Chief Operations Officer, SolidCAM Evolution. Michael Mugno, President of Tsugami America Renaissance. Solay Quaranta, Vice President of Sales, Tsugami America Opportunity. Mike Csizmar, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Horn USA, Curious. Pat McGibbon, Chief Knowledge Officer (retired), AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology “Our goal with ‘The World According To…’ series was to capture insight from the people guiding our industry as we head into IMTS 2024. These leaders have innate understanding of how technology, trends, and the world’s macro issues converge to shape our lives,” says Peter Eelman, chief experience officer at AMT. “Viewers of this new IMTS+ series will learn that the steady hand of leadership produces an infectious sense of untapped opportunities. The world is moving at supersonic speeds, and these leaders show us how they stay ahead of the curve.” Character Counts The leaders in The World According To… series share the story of how they started in manufacturing. Several were born into it through the family business or got their start through friends. Instead of being born with a silver spoon, they pushed a broom and learned the operations from the ground up. One of the company presidents recalls showing up to his first job in a suit and tie, whereupon he was told to go home and change into a jeans and T-shirt because he was to clean machines. For another leader, self-learning AutoCAD 9 on an old IBM “opened up a whole new world to me.” While the paths to leadership are as varied as the individual, these subjects share common traits, including a crazy strong work ethic, a dedication to life-long learning, a passion for manufacturing, a drive for excellence in customer responsiveness, and deep appreciation for the skills of their people. Technology Trends The World According To… is like watching a passion play for manufacturing, and that includes how technologies are evolving to provide higher accuracies, faster speeds, higher throughput, and greater flexibility from CNCs, workholding, software, and more. Insightful takes are made, including noting that while we need automation and AI, digital manufacturing doesn’t move forward without a highly skilled workforce — and those are the type of jobs that will attract “a continuous pipeline of young folks” to enter the world of manufacturing. From reshoring to change management, a theme emerges as manufacturing visionaries use terms that describe an unstoppable forward movement in a world of positive, unending motion. Catch the spirit of IMTS+ Original Series “The World According To…” on IMTS+. IMTS.com/World-According-To.
To make a long manufacturing story short, IMTS+ asked manufacturing industry leaders to summarize their outlook in just one word in the new series, The World According To….