Thank you to Paperless Parts and Lindsey Athanasiou, MBA, RYT for inviting me as a guest on their Women of American Manufacturing podcast.
We cover the building of a trade media brand to legitimize a critical niche of manufacturing and to provide a place for that community to network as well as the current state of moldmaking (and what an industry colleague calls “Tooling 4.0”), my take on being a woman covering manufacturing and the misconceptions of careers in the trades. And, how can I forget the rapid-fire questions at the end:-)
Here is one segment of the conversation:
How are you innovating, leading change, pushing the industry into 4.0?
MMT is all about community and content. Our team produces content to help our community innovate, advance and change, as needed. And just like our audience we’ve had to change what and how we develop and deliver content during COVID—more digital and social content. As well as change the topics we cover to directly address their new pain points such as supply chain, market conditions, training, dealing with remote workers. Our job is to meet our readers where they are.
Now, in terms of our readers innovating, changing & implementing technology, a current example is our next-generation of moldmaking professionals, who will be reliant on technology to advance manufacturing because that tribal knowledge that has built this industry is retiring. Now it’s all about data to make processes efficient and to make a better product, a better mold… and in my world that includes everything from mold design to mold maintenance. We say design to first shot.
Today’s mold is actually a manufacturing system that is unique to itself; it is an engineered product … it’s not about just cutting steel. A mold in essence is an integrated machine in a process built upon science and data. Enter innovation, change and technology.
Some call it Tooling 4.0 (but whatever you call it, it’s about engineering a better, cost-effective mold and that takes innovation, change, technology. This evolution includes AM, data handling across the mm enterprise and supply chain, lights-out machining, collaboration tools, virtual manufacturing, remote tryout and service, machine monitoring, etc.
Our role at MMT is to develop and share stories—content across print, digital, social—that educate our audience on the tools, technology and trends to help them continue to advance. And I truly consider it a blessing that I’ve been able to be a part of this community in such a small way.
I have to give a shout out to our current mm pros who took part in MMT’s 30 Under 30 Honors program by nominating way over 30 under-30 years old. We are highlighting this incredible crew of next-gen workers in moldmaking throughout the summer and beyond as we continue to get nominations. It’s exciting.
To listen to the full podcast, click here.
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