Microphone with IDEA! logo

IDEA! Conference 2021 Opens its Doors

Nov. 8, 2021
The Industrial Design, Engineering & Automation Conference focuses on emerging trends and innovations in design and engineering targeted at manufacturing.

The IDEA! Conference will begin two days of in-person sessions at the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland on Wed., Nov 10th. They are geared towards engineers and managers who want to leverage the latest trends and innovations to improve manufacturing operations.

On Wednesday the sessions start with a talk titled “Driving Excellence Through Diversity and Inclusion: from Billy Taylor, CEO, LinkedXL. It will give attendees some ideas on how to put together a diverse and inclusive company culture that encourages communication and cooperation up and down the company’s organizational chart.

Next up is a session given by Scott Dixon, director of Digital Manufacturing at EY. His talk, titled “Digital Transformation and the Factory of the Future,” will outline how the Factory of the Future concept will help manufacturers succeed and be prepared for the future changes, whether expected or not (like COVID).

A session titled “Smart Linear Actuators – Another Value Proposition for Factory Automation” will be delivered by Richard Vaughn, Automation Engineers manager for Bosch Rexroth Corp. It will focus on mechatronics for linear motion applications and automation.

Winding it up on Wednesday is a session, “Toward Zero downtime, Zero-Defect Manufacturing,” from Mo Abuali, a partner at IoTco LLC. It addresses IoT and Industry 4.0, why to adopt them and how to get started. It will also outline why artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics are important for manufacturers.

On Thursday, the first session will be “Digitize Your Manufacturing Process to Stay Ahead of the Competition,” from Aaron Lichtig, VP of marketing at Xometry. He will talk about cutting edge digital-manufacturing methods, such as “manufacturing as a service” (MaaS), and how they can help companies succeed.

The conference wraps up with Jeff Christensen, vice president of Product, Seegrid talking on “The Keys to Building a Successful Supply Chain with Mobile Automation.” It will fill attendees in on how to define success metrics, promote user adoption and use data for a strong ROI today and to prepare for tomorrow.

For those attending the event online (i.e., the virtual event), it will include sessions from the live event and exclusive virtual content.

For more information on the IDEA conference, click here.

The IDEA Conference will be held in conjunction with the Manufacturing and Technology Conference (M&T Conference) and the Safety Leadership Conference. The M&T Conference is intended to help manufacturing executives improve their firms’ operational efficiencies and product quality in the face of constant change. The Safety Leadership Conference is designed for safety leaders in manufacturing, construction, distribution, transportation, utilities, and other industrial sectors. For more information, click here.

About the Author

Stephen Mraz

Steve serves as Senior Editor of Machine Design. He has 23 years of service and has a B.S. Biomedical Engineering from Steve was a Flight officer in the U.S. Navy. He is currently responsible for areas such as aerospace and medical.

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