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Why Your Operators Are Still Your Best Manufacturing Investment

SOUTHEAST Session: Your next efficiency breakthrough isn't hiding in a machine learning algorithm. It's walking around your shop floor right now. While manufacturing obsesses over AI, 85% of operations still depend on human expertise. The CNC programmer who knows exactly when to adjust spindle speeds. The veteran welder who spots perfect joints in seconds. The setup technician whose alignment cuts cycle times. These operators don't just run your processes, they've mastered them. They hold the institutional knowledge that separates good production from great production. But your systems can't see what they know, creating a costly blind spot. Mid-market manufacturers nationwide face the same challenge: valuable knowledge trapped in individual heads instead of being scaled digitally. The result is lost efficiency because operator expertise can’t integrate with core systems. Companies overcoming this aren’t layering more machine learning. They’re building systems that amplify human intelligence. They digitize workflows, connect teams to real-time data, and create interfaces designed around how operators think and work, not the other way around. In this session, Docket will reveal how shop floor digitization platforms close the gap between operator expertise and digital execution. You’ll gain practical insights into smart manufacturing systems that support your frontline, enabling faster setups, higher accuracy, and smoother production. At a time when manufacturers chase the next big overhaul, don’t overlook the team that got you here. The goal isn’t replacing human insight, it’s designing systems that can multiply it.

From Blind Spots to Sweet Spots: Architecting Intelligent Visibility in Manufacturing Supply Chains

SOUTHEAST Session: Manufacturers today are under immense pressure to navigate supply chain complexity while improving agility, customer responsiveness and cost efficiency. The industry has invested years in enabling core digital foundations like ERP, MES, WMS and operational dashboards; however, persistent blind spots across sourcing, production, inventory, logistics, sales and aftermarket services continue to erode operational performance and limit strategic decision-making. According to a 2025 survey of 300 mid-market manufacturers, only 45% have recently improved end-to- end- supply chain visibility, indicating that there is significant room for investment and improvement. Supply Chain visibility will be the future of manufacturing. A recent survey by Deloitte showed that 76% of manufacturers report limited visibility across their supply chain, making traceability a key issue in today’s environment. Data visibility is essential to a resilient supply chain; however, in a survey of 506 supply chain leaders, only 19% of organizations have embedded scenario planning into their operations, limiting their ability to anticipate and respond to disruption. The answer to fixing these blind spots isn’t yet another dashboard or point solution, but a digitally engineered supply chain with intelligent, end-to-end visibility and traceability across the manufacturing value chain. In this presentation, we explore why blind spots emerge and how a unified theme of real-time traceability can act as a digital thread to convert blind spots into sweet spots for manufacturers.

From Hype to Hands-On: A Practical AI Playbook for Small & Medium Manufacturers

SOUTHEAST Session: Many small and medium-sized manufacturers feel overwhelmed by the hype around artificial intelligence yet struggle to see where to begin without significant disruption or cost. This talk will present a practical, proven framework that helps owners, operators, and engineering managers adopt AI in a step-by-step approach. Real case studies will be shared, including a sales order entry automation initiative that reduced manual effort by 60% through the use of a third-party AI solution, allowing employees to focus on higher-value customer service and informed decision-making. Attendees will gain a clear roadmap to identify high-impact opportunities, pilot small projects, and scale AI solutions that deliver measurable ROI and strengthen long-term competitiveness. This session provides actionable strategies and dispels common myths, demonstrating that digital transformation does not have to be complex or out of reach for smaller manufacturers ready to take the first step.

Bridging the Gap: How Secure Remote Access Powers Manufacturing IT/OT Convergence

SOUTHEAST Session: Manufacturing is undergoing rapid digital transformation—driven by predictive maintenance, AI-driven insights, and smart factories. Yet IT/OT convergence is not achieved in strategy documents; it is lived daily through remote access, where people, vendors, and data cross into critical environments. This presentation explores the unique challenges CISOs and OT teams face—legacy patching debt, vendor access sprawl, ransomware pressure, and compliance demands—and why secure OT remote access is the essential bridge to efficiency, resilience, and productivity. Through industry case studies, we’ll examine how leaders are standardizing connectivity, reducing downtime costs, and enabling AI-driven operations—while ensuring security never falls behind transformation.

Nand Shivkumar

Speaker at SOUTHEAST: Nand Shivkumar, Chief Innovation Officer, Mastercam

Jordan Walker

Speaker at SOUTHEAST: Jordan Walker, Sr Applications Engineer, Hawk Ridge Systems

Patrick Ives

Speaker at SOUTHEAST: Patrick Ives, Head of Operations, PRYM

Colin Gilchrist

Speaker at SOUTHEAST: Colin Gilchrist, Digital Systems Product Manager, Phillips Federal