Why do so many MES and industrial software projects fail and how can manufacturers finally fix the problem?

In this episode, Gary Cohen and Stephanie Neil talk with Ryan Crownover, director of digital plant at Vertech, about why industrial software shouldn’t be treated as special and how adopting agile, iterative development can dramatically improve ROI and user adoption.

We dig into:

• What manufacturers really need from MES and digital plant systems
• Why cloud outages expose gaps in resilience
• How to avoid “boiling the ocean” with over-scoped projects
• The value of operator feedback and user-centered design
• Vertech’s Momentum Method for faster, lower-risk deployments

If you’re building or modernizing industrial software, this conversation offers practical, real-world guidance to help your projects succeed.

• (00:00:00) - Why the Cloud Is Threatening Manufacturing Software
• (00:06:21) - What's the Need for Software in Digital Transformation?
• (00:07:35) - Interview: The Director of Digital Plant at Vertec
• (00:08:38) - Software Productivity: Manufacturing Innovation
• (00:17:38) - Intelligence: Is Industrial Software Unique?
• (00:20:21) - What's The Lean Startup Code?
• (00:23:11) - How to Build a User Experience
• (00:25:45) - Vertech's 'Momentum' Process
• (00:28:18) - Challenges to Transition to an Agile Approach
• (00:30:27) - What kind of feedback are you getting from your clients?
• (00:32:27) - D3.8: Digital Plant Journey
• (00:33:42) - Small Incremental Changes in Manufacturing Software