150 episodes listed below
Industrial tech without the hype fog.
Gary On Manufacturing tracks the practical side of manufacturing technology without swallowing the hype cycle whole. Episodes move from AI and software-defined automation to asset data, plant investment, conferences, and the human cost of industrial work.
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Gary On Manufacturing is an industrial technology commentary show built around Gary Mintchell's long view of automation, software, and factory life. The pace is conversational. Ideas arrive through event recaps, press-release skepticism, personal memory, and market observation rather than tidy studio packaging. Recent episodes spend a lot of time on AI in manufacturing, but the show does not treat AI as magic. It asks why the technology matters, where it fits, how it can fail, and why people still need to check its work. Smart manufacturing becomes a systems question, with holons, wholearchies, systems of systems, predictive analysis, root cause work, and lean thinking all in the frame. The show is especially alert to announcement culture. Manufacturing investment headlines, AI company claims, reshoring talk, and vendor launches are measured against actual plants, brownfield realities, control migrations, and the slow work of implementation. Gary also reports from industry gatherings such as Automation Fair and Ignition Community Conference. Those episodes carry the texture of the floor: shirts, conversations, customer energy, release talk, and the small signals that show where a market is moving. Inductive Automation appears frequently as a longtime sponsor and as a recurring subject, especially around Ignition 8.3, Git, containers, time-series data, gateway changes, and industrial software architecture. One interview episode with Travis Cox gives the feed a rare guest format and focuses on Ignition Community Conference and the new release cycle. The show also reaches beyond tools. Asset data interoperability becomes a story about paper, engineering handoff, construction, operations, maintenance, enterprise systems, and why software has not automatically reduced complexity. A workplace episode turns from plant labor to craft, philosophy, and the humane meaning of work. That range gives the show its character. It is technical, but not sterile. It is skeptical, but not cynical. It favors concrete industry memory over fashion, and it keeps returning to a practical moral standard: technology should improve work for human beings.
Made for: For manufacturing, automation, and industrial software listeners who want reflective commentary from inside the field. It fits engineers, plant leaders, analysts, and vendor-watchers who care about what actually works after the announcement.
What sets it apart: The show pairs automation-market fluency with philosophical detours and shop-floor memory. AI and software trends are judged against real plants, old data problems, brownfield upgrades, and the people doing the work.
Writer/analyst Gary Mintchell shares thoughts on manufacturing and production technology, leadership, and marketing.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Gary Mintchell connects industrial software's new claims to the older systems, market pressures and operating decisions beneath them.
Gary Mintchell treats manufacturing technology as a working system with history, switching costs and people attached. Most episodes take the form of solo commentary, with occasional interviews, moving between industrial automation software, data management and the market cycles…
Gary tests factory-tech hype against decades of change, so you get signal without worshipping the press release.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
AI in manufacturing, minus the breathless certainty and with enough industrial detail to stay grounded.
Gary frames the episode around AI's fast-moving sales pitch in manufacturing, where announcements can outrun results and CEOs can treat the technology like a cure-all or a cover story.
A conversational look at Ignition's community, its next release, and the people shaping both.
The segment centers on the Ignition Community Conference and keeps its attention on what makes it work: the energy in the room, the value of unscripted lunchtime conversations with customers, and the arrival of Ignition 8.3 beta.
A plainspoken manufacturing case for simplicity, grounded in a career spent close to operational details.
Gary Mitchell centers the episode on a simple claim: complexity reduces effectiveness. He supports it with his own manufacturing background, moving from Airstream's handwritten bills of materials to later work tying together data, purchasing, costs, and inventory, so the…
A clear read on an automation market that has moved from growth to maintenance.
The piece uses a simple bookstore test, the magazines on the racks, to sketch the automation market. It moves from breakfast, dinner, and coffee conversations to a familiar way of reading industry health, bringing back the days when photography, cars, motorbikes, hunting and…
A firsthand look at IoT, PCs, and industrial automation as technology markets evolve.
This single-episode review tracks a reflective journey through technology market cycles, starting in IoT and IT influencer circles around HPE, Keith the CTO Advisor, and Stacey Higginbotham's Stacey on IoT before widening into PCs, Byte Magazine, 1990s upgrades, and industrial…
Practical safety talk for oil and energy work.
Practical talk for pump and water systems.
Reliability practice for working industrial teams.
Manufacturing conversations from Pittsburgh robots to Kansas City sausage.
Gary recaps his experience at the Ignition Community Conference 2025, discussing the evolution of the Ignition platform and the release of Ignition 8.3.
Gary discusses the hype and confusion around AI in manufacturing, questioning its true value beyond announcements.
Gary Mintchell uses a Wall Street Journal report citing more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs lost since 2023 to question whether investment announcements are restoring U.S.
At his 29th Automation Fair, Gary Mintchell weighs Rockwell Automation's software strategy against its history of experiments and acquisitions.
Gary discusses the persistent challenge of asset data interoperability across engineering, construction, and operations, reflecting on his early career as a data manager.
The speaker reflects on the transition from craft-based work to industrial labor, drawing on Karl Marx's early writings to argue for a more humane workplace.
Gary discusses the purpose of AI development, advocating for a balanced, human-centric view over hype, and promotes Inductive Automation's Ignition 8.3.
Gary recaps his experience at the Ignition Community Conference 2025, discussing the evolution of the Ignition platform and the release of Ignition 8.3.
Gary interviews Travis Cox about the upcoming Ignition Community Conference and its community-focused approach.
Gary Mitchell ties "complexity" to ODVA networks, OPC companion specs, and Hexagon's software-heavy ecosystem, arguing that each adds friction for plant teams.
Gary Mintchell uses the decline of Control Engineering and Automation World page counts to argue that the automation market has entered a "mature market." He links that slowdown to fewer new manufacturing plants, fewer greenfields, and less customer switching between Rockwell Automation, Siemens, and Emerson.
Gary Mintchell traces three technology-market cycles through his work in IT, personal computers, and industrial automation from 1977 onward.
Gary Mintchell's episode 251 recaps his June visit to the Honeywell User Group, HUG 2023.
Gary Mitchell discusses future directions in manufacturing technology and promotes Inductive Automation's Ignition platform.