Rob Carter has served as FedEx's Chief Information Officer for nearly 20 years, developing the company's information infrastructure and implementing new cutting-edge technologies. In this fireside chat with Jeff Immelt recorded at the Digital Factory Conference in 2019, Carter discusses the role of technology at FedEx, how FedEx learns about and ev…

Corporate sustainability has its roots in risk management and health and safety management—sort of a conservative, back-office function. Now it’s a competitive differentiator. In this episode of the Digital Factory Podcast, Jon Bruner talks with Zoé Bezpalko, sustainability strategy manager at Autodesk, about how manufacturers can use new technolog…

How sustainable is 3D printing? Ask most experts and you’ll get some hand-waving: it creates less waste than machining and reduces transportation energy, but many materials aren’t recyclable. All of those factors turn out to be overstated when they’re subjected to careful study. In this episode of the Digital Factory Podcast, Jon Bruner talks with …

Terry Wohlers, President of Wohlers Associates and author of the authoritative Wohlers Report on 3D printing, is my guest on this episode of the podcast. We talk about 3D printing at scale, the importance of design for additive, the emergence of metal 3D printing, and the inflection points he’s watching for. Videos of every presentation at the Digi…

3D Hubs reoriented its business last fall, away from hobbyists and toward the professional market. Now it’s planning to invest heavily in AI-driven automation. In this episode Jon Bruner speaks with Bram de Zwart, co-founder and CEO of 3D Hubs. Brian Garret, 3D Hubs' other co-founder and Chief Product Officer, is speaking at the Digital Factory Con…

The 3D printers at Align Technology turn out half a million parts every day—an exceptional scale that makes the company the largest user of 3D printing in the world. But, as lots of companies have learned, installing a 3D printing capability is only the first step toward digital production. Align’s massive, custom-built additive production line is …

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, offers a striking catalog of reference materials that includes peanut butter, New Jersey soil, domestic sludge, Lake Michigan fish tissue, and Spam. These materials turn out to illuminate the fascinating process by which measurement standards are defined in terms of fundamental physical c…

It’s difficult to sell new technologies to big manufacturers. If you’ve got a novel way to build things and a fresh startup to market it, you’ll run into all sorts of obstacles: established industrial companies tend to be risk-averse, top-down organizations with long replacement cycles and highly specific requirements. Many industrial startups gene…

The Digital Factory Conference, our advanced-manufacturing leadership summit, is coming back to Boston on May 7. This year it’s got a new co-host: Jeff Immelt, who spent 16 years as CEO of GE and is now, among other roles, a partner at NEA. Visit https://thedigitalfactory.com/ to learn more about the conference. This episode of the Digital Factory …

Jon Bruner and Andrew Edman talk about the value of proprietary manufacturing technology, the aesthetics of generative design, the influence of social media on product design, and the acceleration of the product lifecycle. For links related to this episode, visit http://bit.ly/2CqLqw7.

Last week a large part of the 3D printing industry gathered in Frankfurt to visit Formnext, an immense additive manufacturing trade show. In this episode, recorded in the hallway outside the Formnext show floor, we bring you interviews with three authorities on 3D printing: Joris Peels, editor-in-chief of 3DPrint.com; Nora Toure, founder of Women i…

Computer aided design software is becoming more sophisticated: it’s moving to the cloud, it’s beginning to offer generative capabilities, and, broadly speaking, it’s bringing manufacturing closer to design. In this episode of the Digital Factory Podcast, Jon Bruner talks with Stephen Hooper, Vice President and General Manager of Autodesk’s Fusion 3…

This week we present three conversations from IMTS, the giant manufacturing technology trade show that comes to Chicago every other year. In this episode Jon Bruner speaks with Elizabeth Koprucki, Assistant Director of Fab Lab and Design at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, about the importance of giving…

This week we present three conversations from IMTS, the giant manufacturing technology trade show that comes to Chicago every other year. In this episode we speak with Zach Kaplan, founder and CEO of Inventables, about why pure performance is played out, and the importance of accessibility in next-generation manufacturing tools. Be sure to listen t…

This week we present three conversations from IMTS, the giant manufacturing technology trade show that comes to Chicago every other year. In this episode we speak with Spencer Wright, author of The Prepared and head of partnerships at nTopology. He's an authority on 3D printing, so he's able to make sense of the enormous range of 3D printing proces…

Jabil Circuit is a $20 billion contract manufacturer that produces everything from specialized medical devices to mobile phone accessories. Since Jabil doesn’t own any of the brands that roll off its lines, the company’s entire value is in its ability to spin up multitudes of new manufacturing processes that meet new requirements from its clients. …

Computer aided design, or CAD, has followed the arc of computing over the last 50 years: the first CAD programs were command-line applications that ran on mainframes, which gave way to graphical software that ran on desktop PCs. The next generation of CAD software can run almost anywhere, including in a Web browser or on a phone. As CAD becomes ava…

It’s hard to imagine an application for 3D printing that’s more complex or heavier-duty than keeping a railroad running, but Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s railroad operator and a global logistics player, is doing just that. In episode 9 of the Digital Factory Podcast, we speak with Stefanie Brickwede, who runs the additive manufacturing program at Deuts…

Most people who design 3D printed objects want them to keep their shape as closely as possible after printing, but an emerging field known as 4D printing aims to make objects that can reconfigure themselves after fabrication. In episode 8 of the Digital Factory Podcast, we speak with Kristina Shea, professor of Engineering Design and Computing at E…

Product assembly is a big factor in production time, labor cost, and complexity. 3D printing can be used to consolidate multiple parts into a single part that couldn’t be produced conventionally, but most products still need at least some assembly. Fasteners are fiddly and snap-fits are fragile. An emerging solution: advanced adhesives, applied wit…

We sit down with Eric Klein, partner at Lemnos, a leading early stage hardware venture fund. Klein and his partners provide direct investment and intensive coaching for hardware entrepreneurs in areas like robotics, aerospace, and connected devices. Play the full podcast to hear about: - The challenges of hiring for early stage hardware startups - …

We sit down with Krisztina “Z” Holly, host of the Art of Manufacturing podcast and founder of the MAKE IT IN LA initiative, a coalition of organizations that support the manufacturing ecosystem and inspire entrepreneurs to turn their passions into real products in Los Angeles. Play the full podcast to hear about: - The surprisingly broad and sophis…

In honor of our conference on digital manufacturing, The Digital Factory, Formlabs has created a podcast! In this series, hosted by Jon Bruner and guest host David Cranor, we’ll explore the future of the factory floor through conversations with experts who are changing the way things are made. In episode 4, Jon and David sit down with Ric Fulop, th…

In honor of our conference on digital manufacturing, The Digital Factory, Formlabs has created a podcast! In this series, hosted by Jon Bruner and guest host David Cranor, we’ll explore the future of the factory floor through conversations with experts who are changing the way things are made. In episode 3, Jon and David sit down with Spencer Wrigh…

In honor of our conference on digital manufacturing, The Digital Factory, Formlabs has started a podcast! In this series, hosted by Jon Bruner, we’ll explore the future of the factory floor through conversations with experts who are changing the way things are made. In episode 2, Jon sits down with Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO of SolidWorks, one of the le…

In honor of our conference on digital manufacturing, The Digital Factory, Formlabs is pleased to publish the first episode of our new podcast! In this series, hosted by Jon Bruner, we’ll explore the future of the factory floor through conversations with experts who are changing the way things are made. In episode 1, Jon sits down with Formlabs CEO …

NAPL, the trade association for excellence in graphic communications management, is pleased to present the NAPL Digital Smart Factory Forum Podcast. On January 16th, 17th and 18th, graphic communications companies will gather in Orlando at the R&E Council of NAPL’s Digital Smart Factory Forum. This is the industry’s premier event for companies who …