HMUSA 2022 Conference: The Start of a New Era: The Democratization of Industrial Automation

About the presentation
We’ve never talked about industrial automation as much as we have in 2022. Yet most manufacturing plants in North America have little to no automation. There’s a simple reason why many manufacturers can’t profitably automate their production: automation technology was developed (and priced) for high-throughput manufacturing. Most North American manufacturers with high-mix production and volumes less than a few thousand units simply don’t have the scale to earn back the steep investment traditional automation technologies command. Today’s industrial automation technology is complex to evaluate and integrate. Most manufactured products are unique to the manufacturer and often require unique production equipment. In other words, most industrial automation is a non-productized market requiring custom solutions. If access to automation technology is limited to those who can afford premium engineering services or customized integrations, incumbent component manufacturers aren’t under any pressure to democratize technology. The result? A status quo benefits current industry participants but leaves most manufacturers (the ones who would benefit from technology democratization) behind. All industries go through phases from complex, to democratized, and back again. One example is computers. We went from complex mainframes in the 1960s and 70s, to much simpler PCs in the early 2000s. We’re now slowly moving toward another complexification phase with quantum computers. At each phase, new giants emerged, and some were left behind. As cloud technology, robotics, and machine vision converge, industrial automation is initiating its own phase of democratization and ushering in new players. That’s good news for the automation industry and high-mix manufacturers

Registration
Powered by AMT and managed by GIE Media, The IMTS 2022 Conference features 69 different sessions you won’t want to miss so register today. Focused on a range of topics that include process innovation, plant operations, quality/inspection, and automation, The IMTS 2022 Conference addresses improving productivity; improving part quality; and developing a stable, competent workforce to lower the cost of manufacturing in the United States and create new levels of market demand.

Meet your presenter
Etienne Lacroix is a business leader and entrepreneur with deep experience building and turning around engineering-intensive businesses. He’s the founder and CEO of Vention. Before Vention, he spent five years at McKinsey & Co. as an associate partner with the operations and product development practices. In this role, he led enterprise-wide strategic, operational, and turnaround programs at global industrial and high-tech companies. Before joining McKinsey, he held various positions in product management, product development, and supply-chain operations at General Electric as part of the technical leadership program. Lacroix holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the École de Technologie Supérieure.

About the company
Vention helps innovative manufacturing companies automate their production floor in just a few days. Vention’s online-first, manufacturing automation platform (MAP) enables its clients to design, automate, order, and deploy manufacturing equipment directly from their web browser.