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Speaker at WEST: Adelle Murphy, Account Executive, Limble

Speaker at WEST: Paolo Ciampa, Commercial Manager, Kintek S.p.A

Speaker at WEST: Camryn Banuelos, Sales Representative, Kintek/ All Industrial Services CNC

Speaker at WEST: Brian Ellis, Founder, Docket

WEST Session: Your next efficiency breakthrough isn't hiding in a machine learning algorithm. It's walking around your shop floor right now. While manufacturing obsesses over AI, 85% of operations still depend on human expertise. The CNC programmer who knows exactly when to adjust spindle speeds. The veteran welder who spots perfect joints in seconds. The setup technician whose alignment cuts cycle times. These operators don't just run your processes, they've mastered them. They hold the institutional knowledge that separates good production from great production. But your systems can't see what they know, creating a costly blind spot. Mid-market manufacturers nationwide face the same challenge: valuable knowledge trapped in individual heads instead of being scaled digitally. The result is lost efficiency because operator expertise can’t integrate with core systems. Companies overcoming this aren’t layering more machine learning. They’re building systems that amplify human intelligence. They digitize workflows, connect teams to real-time data, and create interfaces designed around how operators think and work, not the other way around. In this session, Docket will reveal how shop floor digitization platforms close the gap between operator expertise and digital execution. You’ll gain practical insights into smart manufacturing systems that support your frontline, enabling faster setups, higher accuracy, and smoother production. At a time when manufacturers chase the next big overhaul, don’t overlook the team that got you here. The goal isn’t replacing human insight, it’s designing systems that can multiply it.

Speaker at WEST: Sean Ramirez, CEO, Tera Engineering

WEST Session: Brought to you by SME

WEST Session: This session explores how connected manufacturing processes can unify production, inventory, scheduling, and financial data into a single, real-time source of truth. By integrating critical business functions—from sales orders to production planning, quality control, and shipping—manufacturers can break down silos, eliminate redundant processes, and improve responsiveness to market changes. With access to accurate and timely information, decision-makers gain the visibility needed to identify bottlenecks, reduce errors, and optimize resource allocation. Attendees will learn how adopting a connected approach not only increases efficiency and collaboration but also positions manufacturers to adapt quickly to evolving customer demands and market conditions, ensuring long-term competitiveness and growth.

WEST Session: The R&D Tax Credit is a powerful federal incentive that rewards manufacturers for innovation in product design, process improvements, and new technologies. It directly reduces tax liability or payroll tax, freeing up cash to reinvest in equipment, workforce, and growth. Manufacturers often face challenges such as rising production costs, global competition, supply chain constraints, and the need to modernize with automation, robotics, and sustainable practices. The R&D Tax Credit helps offset these pressures by turning day-to-day problem-solving—like improving tooling, enhancing production efficiency, or developing prototypes—into measurable tax savings. To qualify, activities must pass the IRS “Four-Part Test”: seeking to resolve technical uncertainty, relying on science/engineering, involving experimentation, and aiming to improve a product or process. Eligible expenses include wages, materials consumed in development, and contractor costs. Two paths provide benefits: the Standard Credit , which reduces income taxes, and the Payroll Credit , which offsets up to $500,000 annually in employer payroll taxes—especially valuable for manufacturers reinvesting in growth. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (2025) restored immediate expensing of domestic R&D costs, eliminating the burdensome 5-year amortization. It also allows companies that capitalized expenses since 2022 to retroactively accelerate deductions. Strategies for manufacturers include building stronger documentation systems, aligning R&D tracking with engineering workflows, and leveraging tax planning to maximize credits year after year. Together, these updates give manufacturers powerful tools to manage costs, stay competitive, and invest confidently in new technologies.

WEST Session: This presentation will explore how modern manufacturers can eliminate delays and inefficiencies in MRO purchasing through a smarter, more connected procurement experience. Traditional indirect materials procurement is often siloed, manual, and reactive—creating friction across sourcing, approvals, and delivery. Vroozi’s SpendTech® platform changes that by offering an intuitive, self-service marketplace that automates requisitions, ensures contract compliance, and increases spend under management. Attendees will see how smart manufacturing systems can trigger AI-driven purchase requests, enabling real-time MRO fulfillment to keep operations running. We’ll walk through a real-world example of how a leading manufacturer accelerated response time and reduced downtime by digitizing and automating their indirect procurement workflows.