Welcome and Introductions

Opening Address: The Inevitability of Autonomous Operations

Autonomous operations are no longer a future possibility — they are becoming a reality. With AI, robotics, IoT, digital twins, 5G, and edge computing converging, manufacturers have the opportunity to achieve 24/7 efficiency, heightened safety, and unprecedented productivity. At the same time, these advances demand careful consideration of operational, technical, and workforce challenges. The question is no longer whether autonomy will transform manufacturing, but how leaders will navigate its risks and capture its full potential.

Fireside Chat – Designing the Future Factory: AI, Robotics and Data that Put People at the Center of Operations

For more than 60 years, GM has been integrating robotics, automation, data collection, AI and machine learning into complex manufacturing environments. GM’s primary focus for deploying technology is to enhance safety (risk reduction) and quality—while empowering employees to concentrate on high-value work that truly shapes the outcome of every vehicle. As technology advances in the years ahead, these principles will be center stage as vehicles become increasingly defined by their software content. This fireside chat will explore how GM is thinking about its future factories and will provide practical lessons any industry can use to apply these principles on their own shop floors.

In conversation with: David R. Brousell, Founder, Vice President and Executive Director, Manufacturing Leadership Council

Case Study: From the Ground Up – Leveraging Advanced Compute to Accelerate Manufacturing at McCain Foods

McCain Foods is a multinational frozen food company established in 1957. It is the world’s largest manufacturers of frozen potato products, producing 1 in 4 French fries globally. The French fry manufacturing process is highly streamlined, utilizing continuous production lines that peel, flash fry and freeze at rates up to tens of tons per hour. At these high speeds, poor machine control can result in significant waste. Learn how next-generation compute, enabled by GPU processing, has enabled advanced machine control and deeper insight into fluid flow, heat transfer and product quality.

2026 Manufacturing Leadership Awards Lightning Rounds

Grupo Bimbo – Grupo Bimbo Kneads Cloud Technologies and AI into Its Growth Strategy, Enterprise Integration and Technology Project Category Pure & Gentle – Turning Manufacturing Intelligence into Strategic Growth and New Revenue, Business Model Transformation Project Category

Power Panel: Building a Data Strategy for the Future

To enable manufacturers to truly embrace and reap the benefits of Manufacturing 4.0, a data management strategy that encompasses a corpus of needs must be devised and implemented by operational leaders. These needs include standards, architecture, data models, AI-ready data and operational AI at scale. This panel will examine how converging pressures—scaling digital solutions beyond pilot environments, integrating heterogeneous legacy and modern systems, and operationalizing data as a strategic asset — are reshaping the requirements for industrial architectures and the processes for applying data.

Moderator: David R. Brousell, Founder, Vice President and Executive Director, Manufacturing Leadership Council

Executive Interview: Winning Results in the Factory of the Present

Often, what’s possible in the factory of the future captures the spotlight, while the real opportunity for most manufacturers lies in evolving the factory of the present. This executive panel explores how industrial leaders are translating digital progress into measurable results—today. You’ll hear an executive perspective on disciplined digital investments that strengthen industrial data foundations and improve operational visibility, and emerging technologies that deliver real value for manufacturers dealing with legacy assets and cybersecurity risk.

In conversation with: David R. Brousell, Founder, Vice President and Executive Director, Manufacturing Leadership Council

Case Study: Digitally Transforming into an AI-ready Enterprise at Rheem

Faced with rising customer expectations, regulatory changes, and aggressive competition, in 2022, Rheem launched a bold digital transformation to reinvent its business model. Shifting from a product-centric approach to an experience-first, platform-enabled operating model, Rheem extended value beyond the point of sale through IoT-connected products, remote monitoring, diagnostics, and grid-interactive energy programs, creating recurring service growth alongside product excellence, with a strong digital foundation. This is now enabling Rheem to build an AI-enabled operating system on top of its digital platform – effectively moving from “digital-first” to “AI-first.”

Fireside Chat: Building a Trusted AI Assistant for the Shop Floor

Frontline teams need answers that are fast, accurate and safe, and in today’s factories, more of those answers are coming from AI assistants. But moving from a promising prototype to a trusted, production-grade tool is where most initiatives stall. In this fireside chat we will walk through the real path from POC to scaled deployment: what it takes to get governance and validation right, how to build confidence and escalation paths into the experience, and why designing for technician trust is just as critical as the underlying technology. Hear how leading manufacturers are approaching the full lifecycle — from early pilot design through operational rollout — and what separates the AI-guided work initiatives that stick from the ones that don’t.

In conversation with: Penelope Brown, Senior Content Director, Manufacturing Leadership Council