26th - 27th October 2026
Agenda
Day 1
08:00 - 08:50
REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST
08:55 – 09:00
CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS
09:00 - 09:30
Scaling AI and Digital Transformation at DuPont: Turning Operational Data into Measurable Business Value
- How DuPont is aligning AI, automation, and real-time data platforms to improve performance across manufacturing operations
- Moving from pilots to enterprise scale—establishing governance, data foundations, and standardized deployment models that enable repeatable value creation
- Embedding digital capabilities into workflows to drive sustained adoption and measurable outcomes at the plant level
- Linking technology investments to clear business use cases and financial impact, ensuring transformation translates into cost reduction and revenue growth
- Driving cultural transformation—enabling a workforce built on trust, continuous learning, and data-driven decision making
Alice Hilson, Senior Director, Digital Innovation and Enterprise Technology, DuPont
09:30 - 10:00
How P&G Leaders Drive “Digital Integrated Work Systems (IWS)” to Create Competitive Advantage for Your Business!
- Research shows that some 70% of (digital) transformations fail as the organizational- and people foundations are not ready to accept/implement the (digital) transformation. However, most transformation projects at P&G do succeed, which rases just 1 question: ‘What does P&G do differently?’
- With IWS, Procter & Gamble/’s OPEX program, P&G builds leadership and operator capability to drive continuous loss elimination, capability building, and engagement, all factors that are fundamental to transform an organization.
- The presentation shows a practical framework for how leaders established and effective OPEX program that engages 100% of their employees.
- Enable success through Digital builds on this OPEX frame work taking productivity and automation to the next level.
Tom Porter, Director, Manufacturing Innovation & Capability, Procter & Gamble
10:00 - 10:30
Speeding Time to Value
- Learn how your organization can accelerate software implementation and realize business value faster.
- Get real-world examples on proven strategies for successful deployments, including Papa John’s story, which highlights how Velotic SaaS solution delivered rapid time to value.
- Learn from machine connectivity use cases, offering practical insights into how connected systems can streamline operations, improve visibility, and drive faster outcomes.
- Leave with actionable ideas for reducing implementation friction and maximizing ROI from digital solutions.
David Molenda, Enterprise Business Consultant, Velotic
10:35 - 11:25
COFFEE BREAK
11:30 - 12:00
Shop Floor Impact: How DELMIA Turns AI, MOM and Augmented Reality into Execution
- Explore how AI, Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM), and augmented reality are transforming modern manufacturing operations
- Understand how DELMIA’s virtual twin technology connects planning, engineering, supply chain, and shop floor execution
- Learn how AI supports predictive maintenance, quality control, production optimization, and more informed decision-making
- Discover how augmented reality provides contextualized work instructions, improves inspections, reduces errors, and accelerates employee training
- See how these technologies help manufacturers increase productivity, strengthen supply chain resilience, reduce costs, and improve right-first-time quality
- Gain insight into the future of manufacturing through AI-powered virtual companions, connected workforces, and more autonomous operations
Kevin Sullivan, DELMIA Industry Process Consultant Senior Expert, Dassault Systèmes
12:00 - 12:30
Overlooked Utility Cost Savings – the Low Hanging Fruit
- Compressed Air is the 4th Critical Utility for plants consuming 10-20% of total energy
- Demonstrating Tamturbo how to reach Sustainability targets with energy savings and up to 90% recovery of the input energy.
- Learn how IoT tools offer data for setting and measuring KPI targets.
- Sharing a few success stories with leading companies.
Hannu Heinonen, EVP, Americas, Tamturbo
12:30 - 13:00
From gut feel to foresight: De‑risking manufacturing decisions with simulation and digital twins
- Manufacturing leaders are making multi‑million‑pound decisions using static models in highly dynamic systems
- Variability, interaction effects and uncertainty are the real reasons plans don’t survive contact with reality
- Simulation and digital twins allow leaders to explore “what happens if?” before committing time, capital or reputation
- Leading organisations now use digital twins as decision-support systems, not visual dashboards
Mandy Tague, Director of Business Development, Americas, Haskoning
PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS
- Continuous Improvement / OPEX
- Industry 4.0
- Lean Methodologies
- Additive Manufacturing / Factory-as-a-Service
- Connected Factory
- Net Zero
- Supply Chain Manufacturing Excellence
- Cybersecurity
- Robotic Automation
- Digital/Software Adoption
- MES / Shop-floor Digitization
- Machine Learning
- Digital Twin
- M2M Communication
- Remote Working
- Plant / Workforce Safety
- Wireless Connectivity
- Cloud, Edge & IoT Data Management
- Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0)
- Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Technologies
- Predictive Analytics / Condition Monitoring
- Green Manufacturing Practices & Initiatives
- Asset Management
- Data Analytics / Big Data / Data Management
- Cloud Computing & Sensors
- Sustainability & ESG Software
- Project & Resource Management
13:05 - 13:55
LUNCH
14:00 - 14:30
Building a Resilient Supply Chain with Forecasting and Scenario Planning to Navigate Disruption
- Disruption and uneven demand will continue to challenge manufacturing plans.
- Better demand signals improve material, capacity, labor, and scheduling decisions.
- More accurate forecasts reduce inventory waste, overtime, and expedited freight.
- Scenario planning protects critical materials, bottlenecks, and high-value products.
- AI accelerates analysis, while skilled teams provide context and judgment.
Vinicius Giarola, Executive Director of Consumer Supply Chain, Bridgestone Americas
14:30 - 15:00
Why Manufacturing Transformations Fail, and the Solution That Fixes It
- Since the mid 1980’s, 70% of manufacturing transformations have failed
- The reason is due to a systemic problem in global industry
- In this presentation, John will explain the systemic problem and present a solution that will unlock manufacturing value
- This concept is now gaining global momentum and will bring about a paradigm shift in the industry
John Robinson, Founder & CEO, The Quorum Principle Limited
15:00 - 15:30
Converging Lean and Digitalization: Building the Smart Factory Without Losing Lean Principles
- Lean as the foundation for digital transformation.
- Should Lean tools stay the same or be digitized?
- Aligning Lean maturity with digitalization.
- Using data, automation, and AI to support process improvement.
- Lessons learned from successful and failed implementations.
Raidan Lage, Regional Smart Factory Coordinator – Americas, ZF
15:35 - 16:25
COFFEE BREAK
16:30 - 17:00
From Visibility to Value - Why Data Alone Doesn't Improve Performance
- Why more data does not automatically lead to better performance
- The gap between digital visibility and operational execution
- Why recurring losses continue despite being highly visible
- The critical role of frontline capability, ownership and problem-solving
- What leading manufacturers do differently to turn visibility into business value
Shawn Smith, Director of Business Development – Americas, Performance Solutions by Milliken
17:00 - 17:30
The Bottom-Line Value of a Sustainable AI-Driven Planned Maintenance Work Culture
- AI technologies promise major gains in production capacity and asset performance. Yet more than half of asset-intensive manufacturing organizations still perform over 50% of their maintenance work reactively, resulting in frequent production stoppages and low workforce productivity.
- This presentation explores the essential maintenance fundamentals organizations must have in place to capture the full value of AI. Without these fundamentals, even the most advanced AI-generated insights cannot be translated into timely and efficiently executed maintenance work. Attendees will learn why a sustainable, AI-driven planned maintenance culture is the essential foundation for preventing production equipment breakdowns, increasing production capacity, improving workforce productivity, and reducing maintenance costs, delivering measurable bottom-line value.
Jean Charbonneau, President, CiM Maintenance inc.
PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS
- Continuous Improvement / OPEX
- Industry 4.0
- Lean Methodologies
- Additive Manufacturing / Factory-as-a-Service
- Connected Factory
- Net Zero
- Supply Chain Manufacturing Excellence
- Cybersecurity
- Robotic Automation
- Digital/Software Adoption
- MES / Shop-floor Digitization
- Machine Learning
- Digital Twin
- M2M Communication
- Remote Working
- Plant / Workforce Safety
- Wireless Connectivity
- Cloud, Edge & IoT Data Management
- Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0)
- Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Technologies
- Predictive Analytics / Condition Monitoring
- Green Manufacturing Practices & Initiatives
- Asset Management
- Data Analytics / Big Data / Data Management
- Cloud Computing & Sensors
- Sustainability & ESG Software
- Project & Resource Management
17:30 - 18:00
From Digital Twin to True Value. Successful Implementations of Digital Twins on the Manufacturing Floor
- Digital twins promise transformation, but what actually drives success in real-world operations?
- Marcel will share insights from 30 industry projects to reveal what makes digital twins succeed, and where they fall short.
- Learn a practical, realistic pathway to building digital twins that deliver measurable value: start small, design the right architecture, and apply technology where it truly pays off.
Dr. Marcel Schaefer, Sr. Research Scientist/Sr. Program Coordinator, Fraunhofer USA
18:00 - 19:00
DRINKS RECEPTION
Day 2
08:55 – 09:00
CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS
Dr. Marcel Schaefer, Sr. Research Scientist/Sr. Program Coordinator, Fraunhofer USA
09:00 – 09:30
The Last Mile for Connecting Workers
- Connected Worker Solutions end at the phone, tablet or headset
- Frontline workers that don’t have handheld devices suffer from lack of insights
- Operators at the machines need to be able to feed data back into the ecosystem
- Traditional walkie-talkies don’t store messages, perform business logic or translate languages
- Digital Radios connect all workers on the shop floor and boost safety, productivity and morale.
Scott Burkey, Senior Fellow, Smurfit Westrock
09:30 – 10:00
Beyond the Wi-Fi Wall: Building a Deterministic Data Plane for Edge AI and Real-Time Automation
- Explore how Private 5G can serve as a deterministic wireless extension of the industrial fieldbus, overcoming the limitations of cabling and traditional Wi-Fi.
- Learn the connectivity requirements for supporting edge AI, computer vision, and real-time industrial automation at scale.
- Examine the architecture needed to deliver sub-10ms latency, zero frame loss, and seamless mobility for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs).
- Discover how native Layer 2 industrial protocols, including PROFINET and PROFIsafe, can operate over cellular networks.
- Understand how integrated core-to-edge management enables secure IT/OT convergence with zero-trust principles and centralized visibility.
- Review real-world manufacturing and industrial deployments that demonstrate reliable wireless connectivity for mission-critical operations.
Eric Lunn, Vice President Global Enterprise Sales, North, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions
10:00 - 10:30
The 5am Walk: Restoring the Lost Art of Operational Leadership with AI
- Manufacturing leaders consistently rank operational productivity and profitability among their top three priorities, yet few give it the attention that ranking deserves
- Lessons from an unannounced 5am factory walk: why the truth about performance lives on the shop floor
- The power of AI in the hands of the C-suite: reconnecting leaders with what’s really happening in their factories
- Practical steps manufacturing leaders can take now to put AI to work on operational performance
James Magee, Global Chief Executive Officer, OFS
10:35 - 11:25
COFFEE BREAK
11:30 – 12:00
Lean and Digital Transformation: Designing a System That Solves the Right Problems
- Are we digitizing the right work, or just making bad processes faster? Explore why technology alone does not guarantee transformation.
- See how Digital can act as a force multiplier, amplifying both strong operating models and hidden waste, complexity, and poor decisions.
- Learn what Lean adds to Digital Transformation beyond traditional Lean tools: value focus, process clarity, problem solving, and continuous learning.
- Understand why Lean without Digital can leave significant potential unrealized, while Digital without Lean can scale work that should not exist in the first place.
- Walk away with a practical way to think about Lean, Digital, and governance as one transformation system focused on sustained business performance.
Richard Gordon, Operational Excellence & Digital Transformation Manager, Valent BioSciences
12:00 – 12:30
Skip the five-year vision. Prove it in 90 days.
- The gap is the data foundation, not the strategy
- Tools that make an operator’s work easier are the ones that get used
- A proven rollout with measurable results in one quarter, not an open-ended pilot
Jon French, Solutions Consultant, Factbird Inc.
12:30 – 13:00
Stop Buying Applications. Start Building a Foundation
- Pilots rarely fail. Scaling does. The first plant works because a heroic team makes it work. The second plant shows that the data, integrations and apps were custom-built for one site. Plan for plant fifty before you start plant one.
- Connect, don’t replace. Your MES, quality management (QMS), maintenance (CMMS), SCADA and ERP systems aren’t the problem. The problem is that they disagree about the same work order. Keep what you have and give every system one set of facts to read from.
- Software ages like fish; data ages like wine. Applications become outdated within a few years. A governed data foundation gains value with every plant, line and use case you add, so treat it as the lasting investment.
DJ Bensch, Director of Connected Operations, Fuuz
PLANNED INVESTMENT AREAS
- Continuous Improvement / OPEX
- Industry 4.0
- Lean Methodologies
- Additive Manufacturing / Factory-as-a-Service
- Connected Factory
- Net Zero
- Supply Chain Manufacturing Excellence
- Cybersecurity
- Robotic Automation
- Digital/Software Adoption
- MES / Shop-floor Digitization
- Machine Learning
- Digital Twin
- M2M Communication
- Remote Working
- Plant / Workforce Safety
- Wireless Connectivity
- Cloud, Edge & IoT Data Management
- Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0)
- Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Technologies
- Predictive Analytics / Condition Monitoring
- Green Manufacturing Practices & Initiatives
- Asset Management
- Data Analytics / Big Data / Data Management
- Cloud Computing & Sensors
- Sustainability & ESG Software
- Project & Resource Management
13:05 - 13:55
LUNCH
14:00 – 14:30
AI Won't Take Your Job, But Someone Using AI Will. Become That Someone.
- Get a personalized AI assessment for your specific manufacturing role: plant manager, quality engineer, maintenance lead, supply chain planner, and more
- Learn practical AI applications specific to your role
- Walk away with prompt templates for everyday manufacturing tasks for your role
- Build a step-by-step AI workflow tailored to your plant or function
- Leave with a clear implementation roadmap to start using AI immediately, no coding required
Hao Dinh, Founder, Grow by Design & Vice President Technology, Enpro Inc.
14:30 – 15:00
Augmented Intelligence: Manufacturing's Next Chapter in a 100-Year Story
- Augmentation has a history — AI is the next chapter
- The frontier has moved from physical to cognitive
- Decision-making is the new production line
- Old metrics can’t capture the new value
- Processes and org structures need redesign
- Leadership development matters as much as workforce development
Steven Moskowitz, Founder and Principal Advisor, Industry 4ward LLC