Manufacturing Tomorrow

Hosted by Ohio Manufacturing Institute

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Episodes

132

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Manufacturing Tomorrow is a podcast series brought to you by the Ohio Manufacturing Institute at The Ohio State University. Featuring the perspectives of manufacturing leaders, we focus on the advanced manufacturing innovations, solutions and partnerships that exist in our region now and that will propel industry in the future.Our guests include the unsung heroes of advanced manufacturing, from company C-suite executives and engineers to industry-facing academics, supportive government agencies and regional economic development organizations. Interviews cover the latest topics on products, processes – and groundbreaking relationships –the best manufacturers engage in to infuse entrepreneurialism in their daily operations.Our mission is simple: to provide a voice to manufacturers to educate the public on the value of manufacturing innovation to the U.S. economy and to showcase how Ohio’s technology resource support providers (e.g., higher education, technical centers, and MEPs) boost advanced manufacturing solutions. We ask guest speakers about catalysts needed to collaborate on manufacturing innovation, how to reduce academic-industry barriers, and technical resources that can truly bolster manufacturing productivity.

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60 recent

October 12, 202613 min

Vinny Licata, MISUMI Americas

Manufacturing output is at its highest level since 2021, but can logistics networks keep up? On this episode of Manufacturing Tomorrow , Vinny Licata, Director of Logistics at MISUMI Americas, a global supplier of customizable factory automation components offers his read on today’s manufacturing logistics and supply chains. Vinny has more than 25 years in manufacturing logistics, including 15 years at Fairchild Semiconductor and more recently leading global logistics and import compliance at Fictiv and now MISUMI Americas. He has managed networks serving more than 40 countries. Momentum meets capacity. Production has now expanded for ten straight months, and new orders for eight. Vinny points to a surprising signal: in July, shipment volumes fell 4.8% year over year while freight spending rose 9.1%. Manufacturers are paying more to move less, which suggests that capacity, not demand, is the bottleneck, especially in the LTL market. Building flexibility before you need it. Vinny says flexibility is hard to add in the middle of a crisis. Manufacturers are moving from single sourcing to dual or triple sourcing, treating their supplier base like a financial portfolio, and leaning toward regionalization and bonded warehouses to manage tariff impact. Watching the road ahead. Vinny is watching the gap between capacity and demand. If demand accelerates while carriers are not adding capacity, the strain could compound. Lessons from the long view. Vinny’s central lesson is that partnerships have to mean something. More recently, he helped customers who were surprised by tariff charges by showing them landed cost and lead time by country of origin, and by educating them on product classification. His advice. Build optionality now by qualifying a second or third vendor and setting up alternate trade lanes. Treat trade policy as a variable input, not something to wait out. Track cost per shipment. And invest in true partnerships with both customers and vendors. Keywords: Manufacturing, Logistics, SupplyChain

September 14, 202618 min

Nour Abochama, Qualitex

Quality and compliance aren’t a regulatory checkbox — they’re a manufacturing advantage. That’s the philosophy Nour Abochama has built her career on. As Vice President of Operations at Qalitex Laboratories, an accredited testing lab with facilities in Irvine and San Diego, Nour brings more than 17 years in laboratory operations, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance to the table. A chemical engineer, entrepreneur, and life-sciences executive, she’s founded three laboratories and a pharmaceutical company — and she’s seen firsthand how strong quality systems accelerate growth instead of slowing it down. In this episode of Manufacturing Tomorrow, we dig into what it really takes to build resilient, scalable life-sciences manufacturing — and what those lessons mean for the future of U.S. advanced manufacturing and biomanufacturing. Keywords: life sciences manufacturing, quality and regulatory compliance, advanced manufacturing, biomanufacturing

August 17, 202618 min

Richard Barnett, Fusion Risk Management

On this episode of Manufacturing Tomorrow, we sit down with Richard Barnett, Chief Marketing Officer at Fusion Risk Management, a leading provider of operational resilience software and services. Richard has spent more than a decade working directly with manufacturing and supply chain organizations as their risk exposure has shifted alongside increasingly digitally connected operations. The conversation centers on a counterintuitive finding from Fusion’s latest Enterprise Resilience Report: manufacturers report feeling more prepared for disruption than they did in 2021. On the surface, that looks like progress. Richard argues it may actually be a warning sign — because the threats manufacturers have built confidence around aren’t the ones now emerging on the plant floor. The discussion digs into where that confidence gap shows up in practice: AI-driven incidents that most resilience frameworks haven’t caught up to, the risks hiding in IT/OT convergence for plants running legacy systems, and resilience exposure that lives entirely outside a manufacturer’s own four walls — in SaaS platforms and supply chain partners they don’t control. Richard also traces the shift underway in how resilience is treated organizationally — from a compliance checkbox to a strategic capability with real leadership attention and budget behind it — and closes with concrete first steps for any plant manager or VP of Operations who suspects they’ve got gaps. Keywords: Operational Resilience, IT/OT Convergence, Manufacturing Risk Management, AI in Manufacturing

July 13, 202621 min

Fabian Gerlinghaus, Cellares

Fabian Gerlinghaus, CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares, joins MFG TMW to discuss what it takes to manufacture living cell therapies at scale — and why doing it in America matters. Cellares operates the world’s first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization for automated cell therapy, runs Smart Factories in South San Francisco and Bridgewater, NJ, and recently earned the FDA’s first-ever Advanced Manufacturing Technology designation. We touch on supply chain security, the workforce implications of an 80% reduction in labor requirements, Cellares’ membership in the New American Industrial Alliance, and what its $600M+ in private capital signals about the future of domestic biomanufacturing. A must-listen for anyone thinking about the future of advanced, automated manufacturing. Keywords: Cell therapy manufacturing, automated biomanufacturing, supply chain security, reshoring / domestic manufacturing

June 8, 202617 min

Rick Kaun, Rockwell Automation

Manufacturers are connecting more of their plant floors to enterprise systems and the internet — and in doing so, they’re opening doors they may not know how to close. Today’s guest has spent more than two decades at the intersection of industrial operations and cybersecurity, and he has seen what happens when those doors stay open. Rick Kaun is the Global Director of Cybersecurity Services at Rockwell Automation, one of the world’s largest industrial automation companies, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At Rockwell, Rick leads the SecureOT practice — a unified suite of professional and managed security services designed to protect the complex, aging, and highly regulated systems that keep factories running. Before joining Rockwell, he served as VP of Solutions at Verve Industrial Protection and as Global Business Manager for Industrial IT Solutions at Honeywell Process Solutions. Today we’re talking about why operational technology security is fundamentally different from protecting your office network, what makes patchwork plant floor environments so vulnerable, and what small and mid-sized manufacturers can actually do about it — even without a dedicated security team. Keywords: OT cybersecurity, industrial automation, IT/OT convergence, ransomware, manufacturing security

May 18, 202636 min

Mike Adkins, Performance Results Plus (PRP)

What does it take to buy a 100-year-old precision manufacturer in the middle of a pandemic — and grow it? Mike Adkins, Owner and Principal of Performance Results Plus (PRP) in Columbus, Ohio, joins host MFG TMW to talk about stepping into an established operation and immediately expanding its reach. PRP’s core business is hydrological instrumentation — the precision equipment that measures flowing water for municipalities, agricultural districts, universities, and government agencies. Their customer list includes the U.S. Geological Survey, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson, and Yellowstone National Park, with a growing global footprint stretching from South Korea to Chile. In this episode, Mike walks us through what precision manufacturing actually looks like on the shop floor — more than 10,000 machined parts produced across steel, aluminum, copper, brass, and plastics — and explains why low-volume, high-precision production is a fundamentally different discipline than high-volume manufacturing. He also shares how lean principles drive growth, not just cost reduction, and how he’s extending that philosophy to other small Ohio manufacturers through Lean Performance Plus. We also discuss the headwinds every small manufacturer is navigating right now: tariffs, reshoring pressures, supply chain volatility, and workforce pipelines — and what Mike sees as the real opportunity hiding inside all of it. Keywords: precision manufacturing, hydrological instrumentation, lean manufacturing, small business, veteran-owned business Manufacturing Tomorrow is produced by the Ohio Manufacturing Institute at The Ohio State University.

April 20, 202626 min

Milind Karnik, Elementary

What if a machine could learn your quality standards just by watching your production line — and start catching defects in minutes, not weeks? In this episode of Manufacturing Tomorrow, Milind Karnik, CEO of Elementary, shares how the company’s AI-vision inspection platforms inspect over one billion parts annually across six countries for Fortune 500 manufacturers. Milind brings 30+ years of experience commercializing cutting-edge technology — from AI and cybersecurity to semiconductors and storage systems — and has led organizations of more than a thousand people delivering nearly a billion dollars in revenue. Under his leadership, Elementary developed VisionLink , the first machine-vision system that learns quality standards directly from the production line, eliminating weeks of traditional setup time. We explore what AI-powered inspection really looks like on the factory floor, how manufacturers can escape pilot purgatory and scale fast, what Industry 4.0 adoption means for the workforce, and where the future of smart manufacturing is headed. If you are a manufacturer ready to modernize — or just want to understand what intelligent quality assurance looks like in practice — this is your episode. Keywords: AI vision inspection · machine vision · quality assurance · defect detection · Industry 4.0 · smart manufacturing · manufacturing automation · workforce development · process engineering

March 16, 202615 min

Chuck Ridgeway, Horner Automation

In this episode, we are excited to welcome back Chuck Ridgeway , Automation Technology Manager and Senior Customer Advocate at Horner Automation , a division of Horner APG headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. With more than 30 years of experience in automation and robotics, Chuck is a trusted voice in the field and a dedicated advocate for helping practitioners, educators, and learners apply industrial automation technologies. Chuck’s expertise spans programmable logic controllers (PLCs) , operator interfaces , I/O systems , and industrial networking . He is frequently featured on podcasts and industry stages, sharing insights on emerging trends in automation and teaching. This conversation centers around Horner Automation’s recently launched Academic Program , designed to strengthen automation education, expand access to hands-on learning, and support the next generation of engineers and technicians. Keywords : Workforce development, OCS controllers, automation education This episode offers valuable insights for educators, industry leaders, and anyone interested in preparing students for the evolving world of automation and manufacturing technology.

February 23, 202617 min

Michael Lefenfeld, Hexion Inc.

We sit down with Michael Lefenfeld , President, CEO, and Chair of the Board at Hexion Inc. , a global leader in adhesives and performance materials headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Since joining Hexion in early 2023, Michael has been leading an ambitious transformation—positioning the company as an AI‑first, technology‑driven materials innovator. From manufacturing and supply chain to R&D, he’s integrating artificial intelligence and advanced analytics across the enterprise to reshape how the company operates. Before Hexion, Michael served as CEO of Cyanco, led SiGNa Chemistry, founded Alkami Consulting Group, and launched Blood Gas Diagnostics. He holds more than 100 patents and patent applications, was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and guided SiGNa Chemistry to win the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Award. In this conversation, we explore: The breadth of adhesives and performance materials Hexion manufactures What it truly means to shift a global organization to “AI‑first” Practical examples of AI in plant operations The biggest operational gains from predictive maintenance, process optimization, and energy management How to overcome legacy systems and data integration challenges What mid‑sized manufacturers should know before starting their AI journey The future of sustainable materials—including bio‑based chemistry and lignin adhesives How AI accelerates the development of greener, smarter materials The emerging technologies poised to reshape manufacturing over the next 3–5 years Join us for a forward‑looking discussion on AI, sustainability, and the future of materials science with one of the industry’s most innovative leaders. Keywords: AI Manufacturing • Materials Innovation • Sustainability • Industry 4.0

January 26, 202625 min

Kyle Ewing, TerraSlate

In this episode, we’re joined by Kyle Ewing , Founder and CEO of TerraSlate —a Colorado-based manufacturing company and global leader in waterproof, tear-proof paper and ultra-durable printed materials. Kyle has grown TerraSlate from a basement startup into a $40 million vertically integrated manufacturing enterprise , serving customers ranging from the U.S. military and NFL teams to Michelin-starred restaurants and Fortune 500 manufacturers . Remarkably, he built the company with zero outside funding and still owns it outright. TerraSlate is a compelling example of modern American manufacturing in action: lean operations, same-day fulfillment for 95% of orders, in-house innovation of nano-coated and military-grade materials, and a culture-first leadership approach. The company competes head-to-head with low-cost imports—while keeping production in the U.S. and pushing the boundaries of advanced materials. Kyle also brings deep insight into scaling without outside capital , building resilient manufacturing systems , and leading teams with kindness, clarity, and discipline . He is the author of Ideas to Empires , where he shares lessons on building factories that can scale sustainably—even without the founder in the room. Join us for a conversation on growth, innovation, operations, and culture—and what it truly takes to build a successful advanced manufacturing company from the ground up. Keywords: manufacturing leadership, advanced materials, vertically integrated manufacturing, workforce culture

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