Where can you meet senior manufacturing leaders who are taking strides toward digital transformation and learning from one another? One venue is the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s (MLC) annual Rethink conference. In addition to a packed two-and-a-half-day conference, the program included an MLC member meeting and an awards banquet.
The MLC’s mission is “to help senior executives define and shape a better future for themselves, their organizations, and the industry at large by focusing on the intersection of critical business and technology issues that will drive growth today and in the future.” This conference, held at the JW Marriott beach resort on Marco Island, FL, on June 16-18, 2025, did that well.
Power Panel
Tech-Clarity’s Julie Fraser was on the Power Panel: Handicapping the Global Digital Transformation Race. David R. Brousell MLC’s founder, moderated the discussion. Other analysts were Bob Parker of IDC, Craig Resnick of ARC, and Matthew Littlefield of LNS. It was a lively discussion. Each firm’s research and perspectives led to some areas of agreement and also some divergent views. In aggregate, the research from these companies shows progress in digital transformation in the US and worldwide.
Manufacturing Case Highlights
This conference was rich in examples of manufacturers undertaking aggressive digital transformation.
- The top award-winner was Celanese, which has developed and implemented JO.AI as the user interface and copilot across the company. SVP Global Manufacturing Jon Mortimer presented this as Accelerating Celanese’s Digital and AI Transformation for 10X Manufacturing Value. They started building this system on GenAI, collaborating with Radix and Cognite, in 2022, and have some 70 citizen developers. It was eye-popping to see it parse an entire plant’s scanned P&ID, work orders from ERP, and work with vision systems to spot and troubleshoot issues.
- Enersys’ Raphael Germe, Senior Director of Global EOS and OPS Engineering, captured the company’s continuous improvement core and explained how AI and digital approaches support this core EOS way of working.
- Jabil’s Michal Wierzchowski discussed how integrating AI can help optimize old and new systems. Jabil held a supplier summit to trigger partnerships based on each company’s strengths. It worked with Arch Systems to deploy agentic factory experts to read dashboards, interpret context, and prescribe action.
- A panel with P&G and Cytiva focused on autonomous operations. P&G’s Alberto Gomez talked about interconnecting people and work systems, extreme automation, and digital to operate by exception. He pointed to a better employee experience as a result. Kevin Seaver of Cytiva talked about the balance of where people and automation come together for worker safety.
- Eaton’s VP of Industry 4.0, Craig Sutton, shared how they are Scaling Digital on Eaton’s Path for Growth. He shared their focus on governance, process, people and skills, technology stack, and scale out. Working with Deloitte, they boiled down to eight primary use cases and started in five lighthouse plants. They see KPI and balanced scorecard improvements for every plant.
- Many more manufacturers, large (Coca-Cola, IPG, etc.) and small, presented or spoke on panels and showed significant progress in digital transformation, automation, and AI programs.
Expert Views
In addition to the highlights from manufacturers, experts took the stage as well. Gregory Daco, the Chief Economist of EY, kicked off the conference with a mixed bag of encouraging and discouraging news; uncertainty reigns. A managing director in software from Goldman Sachs, Jack Anstey, discussed How Wall Street Views Digital Transformation in Manufacturing. They love the high-margin recurring revenue of SaaS offerings but look for margin expansion.
Solution Provider Support
The exhibit hall was rich with support. The solution providers supporting this event included
- Broad-based software leaders in PLM, CAD, and manufacturing software, Dassault Systèmes and PTC
- Broad-based ERP, SCM, and beyond providers Infor and Oracle
- MES- and frontline worker-focused providers, Dozuki and Forcam Enisco GmbH
- To specialized software such as Arch Systems (AI and actionable insight in production), Canvas GFX (3D work instructions), Celonis (process mining), Ease.io (shop floor quality and audit), Laserfiche (document management), MaintainX (EAM), Tacton (CPQ), and Zebra Technologies (data collection and management hardware, software, and services)
- To a variety of services: ArcBest(a 3PL with fascinating ways to speed logistics like loading from all four sides of a trailer at once), AT&T Business and Verizon Business (network infrastructure including private 5G), EY , NTT DATA , Rockwell Automation / Kalypso: A Rockwell Automation Business , and Forvis Mazars Group and RSM for tax and consulting.
We also heard from some solution providers directly:
- The President and CEO of Siemens USA, Barbara Humpton, encouraged the audience to repurpose and update our current US facilities. She pointed out how various Siemens business units address issues like AI’s power consumption, robots stepping in where workers can’t be hired, and software-defined everything.
- Some of the executives of these sponsors were on panels or presented with their customers. Many also hosted demos of their software.
Thank You, and Looking Forward
The awards gala was dazzling – hundreds of manufacturing professionals in evening gowns and tuxedos. Thank you to Julie’s long-time business friend, David R. Brousell, emcee Lauren Bisset, and the MLC team for the invitation and well-executed event. We hope to join you in Scottsdale, Arizona, June 21-24, 2026, for the next Rethink!