Key points in this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast:

• There are significant stumbling blocks to reshoring, including our labor shortage, lack of manufacturing capacity and failure to invest in artificial intelligence, according to the annual Kearney Reshoring Index.

• China is eating our lunch when it comes to investing in automation and industrial robotics. Can plastics processors help?

• Smart technology is a smart investment. A new study from Deloitte shows improvements of up to 20 percent in production output, 20 percent in employee productivity and 15 percent in unlocked capacity.

Key points in this episode of the Machinery Minutes podcast:

• Andrew Wheeler, president of Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp., discusses how packaging markets have changed, the growing use of recycled plastics and whether the W&H Group might start building machines in the U.S.

• Manufacturers will continue to invest in artificial intelligence, but are moving toward generative AI, according to international business consulting firm Deloitte. Find out how generative AI might be used in the plastics industry.

• Engel has redesigned its spherical check valve to make it more precise and reliable.

Key points from this podcast episode:

• Collecting operational data has become easy. Using it effectively is the difficult part. For our recent cover story, three consultants talked about the competitive price processors pay when they don’t effectively use their data. Editor Ron Shinn discusses.
• The IT director at a Pennsylvania thermoformer has seen spectacular on-time-delivery results pulling data from the company’s ERP system and displaying it in real-time for plant-floor operators and decision makers.