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Speaker at WEST: John Carpenter, Founder, Owner, President, Excellerant

WEST Session: Things are changing quickly. Five years ago, we were telling welders to learn the code, now we're telling coders to learn to weld. How can manufacturers, who live and die by process reliability and scalability take advantage of tools that can't seem to do simple addition reliably. As the saying goes, 'there's no such thing as a bad tool, only the wrong tool for the job'. We're about to witness a step change in the adoption of true continuous improvement methodologies, and most people don't even see it coming.

Speaker at WEST: Jordan Dugosh, Account Executive – TOLA/LATAM, Dispel

WEST Session: Manufacturers face constant pressure to improve output while controlling costs, yet productivity gains are often pursued through equipment upgrades or process reengineering alone. A critical but overlooked lever is the frontline workforce—the people running machines, moving materials, and maintaining operations every day. When employees are disconnected from the information, communication, and tools they need, even small inefficiencies compound into significant losses. This presentation explores how targeted technology investments can unlock measurable productivity improvements, sometimes as much as 25%, by empowering frontline employees. We will examine the most common friction points that reduce performance, such as paper-based reporting, limited resource access at work stations, delayed reporting and task triggers, inconsistent training and retention, and siloed communication. We’ll then show how software solutions can extend existing ERP, HCM, and MES systems to the shop floor, creating a single hub where employees can access workflows, compliance updates, and real-time alerts. Attendees will see how manufacturers are achieving faster response times, reducing downtime, streamlining onboarding, and improving compliance by modernizing the employee experience. The session will provide a practical framework to quantify workforce productivity losses and demonstrate the ROI of equipping employees with the right digital tools.

Speaker at WEST: David Hallac, Founder and CEO, Viaduct

WEST Session: A recent MIT study, highlighted by Forbes , found that 95% of corporate AI pilots have failed to produce meaningful results or delivered ROI. There are many challenges and complexities that contribute to these failures, including company-wide strategy, technical system integrations, and internal cultural adoption to AI. As for the successful pilots, they often involve systems that learn, admit uncertainty, and integrate deeply into workflows, focusing on back-office functions where ROI is direct. This presentation will share lessons learned and successful use cases from the field and reveal the Top 5 focus areas every manufacturer should prioritize to turn AI pilots into ROI generating engines.

Speaker at WEST: Anmol Singh, Founder and CEO, Fabriom

WEST Session: AI promises to transform manufacturing and service operations, but for most teams the challenge is not algorithms—it’s integration and adoption. This session will be co-presented by industry experts who will share real-world lessons from deploying AI-powered workflows at an e-recycling facility and in design-for-manufacture (DfM) and quoting. Attendees will learn a practical framework for deciding when to use deterministic software workflows, when to embed AI as an enabler, and when—if ever—to rely on autonomous AI “agents.” Using concrete metrics, we’ll show how hybrid approaches reduce cost, latency, and risk while delivering measurable gains. We will also describe the importance of human feedback in improving accuracy metrics. This is an inside look at what’s working (and what isn’t) as we automate inspections, quoting, and compliance tasks across the physical and digital sides of manufacturing. You’ll leave with a decision surface you can apply immediately to your own operations.

WEST Session: Manufacturing is undergoing rapid digital transformation—driven by predictive maintenance, AI-driven insights, and smart factories. Yet IT/OT convergence is not achieved in strategy documents; it is lived daily through remote access, where people, vendors, and data cross into critical environments. This presentation explores the unique challenges CISOs and OT teams face—legacy patching debt, vendor access sprawl, ransomware pressure, and compliance demands—and why secure OT remote access is the essential bridge to efficiency, resilience, and productivity. Through industry case studies, we’ll examine how leaders are standardizing connectivity, reducing downtime costs, and enabling AI-driven operations—while ensuring security never falls behind transformation.

Speaker at WEST: Olivier Thenoz, Principal Product Manager, Production Machining Software, Hexagon