Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you've ever wished you could test changes to your plant without risking a minute of downtime, this episode is for you. On this episode of Control Alt Manufacturing, we're exploring how digital twins, data driven virtual versions of your real systems are reshaping pharma, food and beverage, energy and more. E Tech Group's Matt Wise and Cole Switzer are going to be joining us to unpack what a digital twin actually is, how to scale it across sites, and why it might be the missing piece in your digital backbone.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Control Alt Manufacturing podcast, Resetting and Rethinking Manufacturing. Very happy to have you back with us today. This podcast is going to be exploring some of the people, technologies and strategies that are driving the digital transformation of manufacturing. Our goal here is to rethink what manufacturing looks like in the digital age.
I am one of your hosts, Gary Cohen. But let's be honest, I know my shortcomings. I'm not the reason you're here. The person you really came to see is my fabulous co host, Stephanie Neal. Hey, Stephanie.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Hey, Gary. That is not true. They're all here to see you.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Hopefully they're here to see Cole and.
[00:01:14] Speaker C: Matt, but oh yeah, that's true. They're not here to see either one of us.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: You know, we're a good placeholder until they get here, but this is where people fast forward 10 seconds ahead until we get to Cole and Matt.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: We do have a great one. Today we're going to be talking, as I said, with Matt Wise and Cole Switzer of E Group, and we'll be exploring one of the most, I think, exciting frontiers in modern manufacturing, which is the rise of digital twins and how they're reshaping the way we design, operate and honestly optimize industrial systems.
Just a two second they're going to talk about it. They know a lot more than I do. But if you're new to the concept, think of it as like a living, breathing, virtual replica of your physical system, whether that's a plant or a machine or a process. You know, it lets engineers test and predict and improve performance virtually before they have to make any real time changes. And it's a concept that companies like E Tech Group are really leading the way on.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Yeah, and you know, it's a growing concept. I mean, I just recently pulled some numbers in the digital twin market, which was valued at 10 billion in 2023, is projected to reach 140 billion by 2031.
So I mean, it's growing like 38 40% annually.
And the reason that really this is so important. Gone are the days. Remember Gary, like, you know, manufacturers would commission this whole system and switch on the live button and nothing worked and it goes down the drain.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: The days of costly mistakes, I remember those.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: That's not the way it is. And you know, ETEC Group is, you know, they were actually named a system integrator of the year winner in 2025 from Control Engineering. And one of the projects that I remember that they are most proud of is helping a manufacturer with their digital twin. And I think they were even really innovative and did like a 3D video game development platform and it really worked out for the company.
A lot of savings over the years. So they are experts at what they do and that's why I'm really so excited to have them here.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: And that sort of video gamification of these systems I think is really interesting. I think it's something that Cole does a lot with. Matt probably does as well. So I'm excited to talk to them about that. Also they have, if you don't think they're a leader in this field, they've also recently been given a CSIA company wide enterprise wide certification. It's the first of its kind. CSIA and I met these guys actually down in San Diego at a CSIA conference. They usually do an office by office certification and this a first of its kind that ETEC has been working on for a year with CSIA to get this enterprise wide certification. So an impressive thing that they've, that they've got going down there and they're definitely experts in the field.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Mm.
Should we invite them on or.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Yeah, and I mean let's, let's talk about, I mean I think today we're going to be talking about how ETEC grew into a national leader in this, how client expectations have evolved and what makes Digital twin such a game changer across industries. Like as I said in the intro, pharma, food and beverage, energy. We'll also dig into this concept of the digital backbone or a unified namespace and how technologies like AI and advanced analytics are finally making digital twins scalable, measurable and practical. Of course we're also going to look into the future asking what the vision of a truly lights out factory is that actually possible? Is it closer than we think? So let's dive in. Our guests today are Cole Switzer, who is a principal full stack developer and current head of the Advanced Software division at ETEC Group. He found his knack for programming as an indie game developer. While working in a restaurant. Before moving into programming and integrating ABB robots, Matt Wise has served as the CEO of five successful high tech firms that have returned nearly $1 billion in value to their shareholders. He's currently CEO of Etek Group, recipient of the System Integrator of the Year 2025 from our own Control Engineering, and one of the nation's leading system integrators serving North America's largest manufacturers. All right, Cole, Matt, you've listened to us ramble long enough. Come on in.
Hello, gentlemen.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Hello to you both.
[00:05:40] Speaker D: Hello, Stephanie. Hey.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: Hey. Before we start, you know, I'm just remembering, I think I read a fun fact Cole did. Are you self taught, like self trained in your practice?
[00:05:51] Speaker B: I am. I originally went to college for medical and then later switched to English and yeah, it was a whole journey.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Amazing. Amazing.
Well, let's dive in. So, you know, we talked about in the intro, Gary and I talked about ETEC Group being the 2025 System Integrator of the Year winner in the over 50 million revenue category. Now, as a judge in these System Integrator of the Year awards, I know that there's a whole process that goes on behind the scenes and these are not taken lightly. Like, we really dig into a lot of stuff and the organizations provide a lot of information and that's how we come to, you know, get to these winners. But Matt, I wanted to ask you, can you share ETEK Group's story of how it became one of the largest system integrator companies in the United States?
[00:06:44] Speaker D: Happy to do so, Stephanie. And we really appreciate the award we got from you guys. It was truly a great honor. The history of the firm, interesting. It's about 25 years to the start of it. And the namesake, E Technologies, comes from a firm that was based in cincinnat.
One of their big or their big clients were in CPG and Food and Bev, and then they were invested in by a private equity firm who then went on a strategy of acquiring a series of other companies.
So we acquired Glenmont Global out of Texas. We acquired Superior Controls on the east coast, another one on the west coast banks, and then two more, Evolve and Automation Group. All of them system integrators specializing in the digital layer for our clients.
And we are deep in a couple of different specific verticals. Data Centers is one of our large ones. Life Sciences is another big one. Food and Bev, CPG and then Last Steel. So we get very deep in those industries at this point with our most recent acquisition, which was JSAD we're now a global company. We have some 800 team members spread throughout North America as well as Asia and Europe. So it's been an exciting growth path from small company 10 years ago in Cincinnati area to now one of the largest system integrators.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: That's amazing. So with your growth though, I imagine like your clients, expectations might change over the years. Have you seen that evolve when it comes to working with system integrators?
[00:08:13] Speaker D: We have, and it's one of the reasons we scaled up in size, because some companies get big just to be big. We got big to help service our clients and address exactly what you were talking about, Stephanie. And that is this changing expectation from clients and what they see in system integrators. So if you take a look back five, 10 years ago, the vast majority of our projects were a client would make a decision to upgrade something. They want a new mixer, they have a new recipe for a batch, they have a new drug they're producing.
They would call us up and say, we need you to integrate either a new piece of hardware, a new piece of software into our production process.
However, as larger companies started looking at this, what they saw was they had multiple lines in one facility, and they were often dealing with different system integrators on those different lines. And then if you go to a different geography or a different country, a different state or a different country, a completely different set of system integrators, they had no leverage, no partner to really think about, how do I do automation better? And the world of automation is getting vastly more complicated. So what we saw our big partners say is, hey, we need a thought partner to sit down with us. We need someone who can think from end to end. How do you do automation? How do you do this digital transformation? And we're talking today about digital twins. That's one of the first steps in that digital transformation. Can you map the whole facility?
So we've seen our clients engage with us on a whole different level. We actually have coined a term called main automation partner, where a client can turn to us and say, these are all the different things I might want to do in automation. Can you help me go through those? And as Cole will talk about one of the foundational parts of building that backbone for digitization, and the next generation of how we're doing manufacturing and is starts with the digital twin is really under understanding. What do I have in the facility? What can I add to that Gary mentioned in the opening? I don't want to have to experiment on the floor I want to be able to simulate and emulate that digitally. That's what we're helping enable our clients to do. And we'll talk more about it later. But it's really a sea change in the industry.
Digital twins have been out there, emulation has been out there, simulation has been out there, but we're really seeing the turning point. And Stephanie, you mentioned at the beginning the growth in the space around digital twins is enormous. The overall market for automation might be growing at 10 to 15% depending on the category. Digital twins is growing at twice that as projected to do that for the next decade because we are at this transition point where it's making so much sense.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: And just quickly, I know Gary's got a question for you, but just quickly with this exponential growth and the expectations changing. You mentioned, did you say main automation partner? Is that the term you coined? So really the system integrator should be coming in as in the beginning of these projects as a, as a real partner and not just sort of an ancillary team that is like bolted on.
[00:11:14] Speaker D: Great point. Because too often in the past people would make decisions and then by the time they call the system integrator and we'd have an alternative perspective, a different idea, but it would be too late in the decision making process. So we're much moving much earlier in that, in that process.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: So I love it when our guests give us a good segue. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
So before we really get into the details of what a digital twin project looks like, let's start simple. I gave kind of the, I was going to say Cliff Notes. I think that ages me, saying cliff notes. SparkNotes, Wikipedia version of what a digital twin is at the beginning.
So let's start with what exactly is a digital twin and why is it becoming such a big deal in manufacturing right now?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: So this is a really interesting question because if you had asked me this maybe even a year ago, I would have had a different answer. And with the prominence of digital twins in the industry right now, I've started in talking to a bunch of different verticals. I've developed a more comprehensive view on what digital twin is. So in years past and most of our experience, a digital twin was this physical to digital replication. So think about like parcel or consumer product goods. You know, you're visualizing machines that move and manipulate physical objects, whereas if you start getting into life sciences, they don't have a lot of moving parts. And it's much more about the biological emulation of what's going on in their bats.
So, but they still want digital twins. So how, how do those things match up to each other?
And really what the core of a digital twin is is the replication of the underlying data and processes that make up a company. Whether you're moving boxes around on conveyors or you're doing cell growth at vats, you need a way to visualize, anticipate, calculate, analyze all of those different pieces. So a digital twin is the digitization of your company's process from end to end.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: And it sounds from what you were saying, like there isn't really a cookie cutter process here. So are there different types of digital twins and how much do they differ based on industry or vertical, Whether it's pharma or C G energy, whatever it could be.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, great question. So I classify three different kinds of digital twins.
Broad strokes. The first is simulation. So this is. I want to test an idea going back to earlier conversation, like, how do we. How do we stop making really expensive mistakes up front?
So we simulate them. There are tools out there that exist, like emulate 3D is a really good simulation tool, but you don't need. You don't need any physical equipment installed. You don't necessarily even need, like a PLC controller to do these things, but you can test the idea. The second is going to be something that's more prominent for your life sciences, which is going to be what I call a data twin. And that is again, that computational replications. I got data coming in. I have a known calculation that I can do that I put through this process, I get an output that is true to life, that's going to be more of your data twin. And then the visual twin, which is going to be more important for things like parcel and cpg, where you actually can see what that data is doing to the physical machine or on your line, so that you can monitor your line from anywhere, not just right in front of you.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Interesting.
So when you talk about all these different types of digital twins, you know, one of the things, I think Gary mentioned it in the intro, but we all always hear about this digital backbone or the unified namespace.
Can you explain why that's important to a successful digital twin?
[00:14:56] Speaker B: It lives and dies on its data, data integrity and also availability.
So in ages past, we had these data silos, and there's still quite a few of them today, where this process is isolated to even its own part of the line. It's not available on the broader network.
But if you want to have visualization across Your entire enterprise, you need the data that exists at the lowest level device all the way up into your IT layer to get those actual details out.
[00:15:25] Speaker D: And I'll just piggyback on that as we talk about the importance of the digital twin and the unified namespace. This is all in that digital backbone. This is all prepping you for AI readiness. If you're going to use AI, you have to have data, you have to have learning and information to train that engine, that intelligence. And this is the first step for that AI readiness.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: And that kind of leads into another question I had around.
You know, the, the technologies that are available today that maybe weren't around five, 10 years ago and you know, just having AI in the mix, how is that, you know, changing it? Are there other technologies that we're seeing popping up that are making this reality?
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah, unless is probably the biggest one.
It is graduated from a methodology.
Whereas this nebulous concept of a way to get data from all across my enterprise, bring it into one central point to do my manipulations, transformations, and then send it out to all the other parts of my enterprise instead, it's grown from that practice to actual products. There are vendors that we work with that have off the shelf offerings with hundreds of connections built in out of the box which expedite the whole process of the digital transformation. And you know, make it a much easier lift to create the digital twin because you don't have to worry about all the low level connections. And as most of the listeners I'm sure know, there's a lot of different protocols that go into play to talking to all the different types of machines. So having those built into one package is a huge benefit.
[00:17:03] Speaker D: And as Cole mentioned, the all the different elements coming into the data model, that's one of the things that's changed over the past few years. A lot of facilities didn't have all their devices connected. So you had an in part A, not a full view of your facility. And that's what we've seen. A lot of companies come back and say, hey, 60%, 70%, 80% of my facility is connected. Can you get the last 20% in so I can have a more fulsome view. So it's a combination of we're seeing advances in technology, but, but we're also seeing advances in the investment some of our clients are making to be able to be digitized across the entire facility.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: And you're talking about digitizing across a facility, but I'm sure some of the companies that you are working with have multiple Facilities and multiple sites. So what are the challenges you face when you're trying to implement or scale a digital twin across a company that does have multiple sites like that?
[00:18:00] Speaker D: Maybe I'll start, I'll let go of the technical parts quite practically. One of the biggest challenges is most multinational manufacturers distribute the decision making between the different facilities. So the first thing you have to do is you have to get C suite buy in that, hey, we're going to do this together.
The second is you've got to find a partner who has a global footprint who can help out. And that's one of the challenges we've seen in the industry is a very fragmented space with a lot of small players. It's one of the reasons we had to scale up. A couple of our competitors have done the same thing to service that very end goal. Gary, to say, hey, we want all 30 facilities around the world to be connected and to be have a digital twin so that I can see what's going on in all of them. That's from the business practical problem. I'll turn it over to Cole to talk about some of the practical technical.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Issues we run into kind of along the same lines as having that unified C suite buy in, because a lot of the different sites work different and they adopt different technologies.
So, you know, in one part of the world, say, if you have your facility, you're more likely to have a Siemens controller, whereas in North America you're more likely to have Rockwell controller. They work different. Right? You communicate to them differently, you design them differently. And so how do you make a unifying product that works across all these different tech stacks? And even then you'll have different integrators that come into play and they'll have different design practices to how they structure data, how they structure communications, you know, so it's, it's very difficult to do that unification. But newer practices and newer products make that way easier.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Matt, you talked about C suite buy in. You both talked about C suite buy in, which is such an important thing for any tech adoption. You need to have the top people, you know, from the top floor to the shop floor, basically buying into this whole thing. But obviously what they're looking for in that case is roi. They want to know what they're getting, what bang for their buck they're getting. So how are digital twins driving a measurable ROI? And are there specific metrics or KPIs that they are looking for that you are looking for?
[00:20:08] Speaker D: Yeah. So that's one of the things that's changed Especially over the last five or 10 years is used to be a very expensive to use to make a digital twin. And then B, there wasn't always a sound rationale for it. It was cool, it looked great, it was great to show off. But the question was, where's the roi? For me, I think now we are seeing a lot more use cases and a lot more timing around when does this pay off? So just an example, we might put together end of line packaging solution. We'll build the digital twin first and then we will walk through different orientations and different methodologies in which you could enable that end of line packaging. As opposed to before where we might design one element, we install it, and then if they want to make an enhancement, then we design a second enhancement and then we go install that. Now we can look at two or three different options, talk about what would happen under these different scenarios.
The payoff windows that we're seeing are shockingly quick. People are talking about one year, two year, three year, you know, sub three year payoffs for the investments they're making, which is great when we can build those use cases. What we're trying to do is move one step even beyond that. So we will build digital twins for an execution, just like I said, around end of line packaging. But what we're trying to get our clients into is build a sustainable digital twin model. So it's not, we're building it for this one purpose, it's always there. And that way we can emulate and simulate whatever we want in a facility. And we've done this with some of our clients where we build digital twins and then we have video cameras in, monitoring what's occurring in real time. So A, we can validate what's occurring and B, we can simulate alternatives to what's going on in that space.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: And you know, I think the point Stephanie made in the intro is a good one too, which is it wasn't that long ago that when a company wanted to roll out a big tech initiative, they'd have all their IT people and maybe OT people working on it in the background. And On Tuesday the 22nd, it was going to go online and then it'd go online and then you find out all of the problems and all of the mistakes, which is a pretty costly process to go through.
[00:22:15] Speaker D: It is, and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid. You're trying to work out as many of those as you can before you hit the ground. And you know, it's a, it's a learning curve for A lot of our clients, because the first digital twin they build or we build for them, we try to include everything that's in there. But until you operate with your digital twin in real life and you see it operating, then you find out about unforeseen elements. Like maybe you build a digital twin that has a robotic arm on a palletizer, and you don't think about the fact that there's a forklift driving by and that forklift might clip the robotic arm and change its orientation. That's not going to be in the simulation. But now, once it's occurred once, now you know that's a possibility that exists. And you can start to play in all these different factors into simulation and emulation within your 3D model.
[00:23:05] Speaker C: And you know, when you talked about the ROI.
So ultimately it's about, what, avoiding downtime, maybe avoiding travel costs to fix something. I mean, that's where the payback is coming, when we can fix all. All this stuff before the physical machines go online.
[00:23:23] Speaker D: Yes. So I'll talk about what we see right now and then what we see going forward. Right now we see the latter of what you just said, which is someone wants to build something, we can go in and emulate how that's going to occur. Look for challenges that are going to occur and make sure we address those before we go install them. So you have less downtime, you have higher likelihood of success in the execution of your project.
Where we see this going forward is as you have this digital twin and your facility is operating.
Let's say there's a challenge today. If there's a challenge, someone calls a system integrator or the equipment manufacturer and says, I'm running into this problem, then we go through a whole troubleshooting environment. Well, maybe it's this, maybe it's that.
That's, you know, yesteryear. Where we see the future going is I have a digital twin up right then, and I'm looking at information that is coming across live. Cole talked about those three different types. The last type he talked about was live information being fed back into that digital twin. So I'm looking at a live representation of what's going inside of your facility. And I can see the downtime. Also, I can see what the problem is, and I can talk to you in real time about how to fix that. I don't have to fly out there. I don't have to guess. I'm seeing what's occurring.
And then as we look at both the band aid fix of how do we get you back up and operational. That should be quicker. But then also as we speculate, how do we avoid this in the future? Well, now I can put that device in or new process in, in a simulated way, see if it solves the problem and then go physically put that in. So that's our long term vision of where we're going. But most people are making decisions. Back on your question, Stephanie, around the short term today, how do you put this in and give me a savings on my next upgrade?
[00:25:15] Speaker C: And then, you know, you mentioned the sustainable digital twin model, Matt. How do you get there? What's the first step for an organization to create that?
[00:25:27] Speaker D: It's this data backbone that Cole talked about. You've got to make that one, you've got to get buy in that this is where we are going. Then you got to build the backbone of all the information and connect all of your devices.
That's your first step. And it may sound like a very simple step, but most facilities don't have all their devices connected, don't have all their information going into one spot and haven't built that digital twin yet. So that's that first step that we would make. The second step is then enabling live data on the edge to be transported out to a partner so that this can be monitored in real time and then we can start giving advice on managing that process.
That's a big change for the industry.
Most facilities haven't let data outside, haven't let partners have information outside. So we've got to make that step. And Stephanie, you opened up or Gary opened up with a comment around, you know, getting to that point where we have very few humans in a facility. How do you enable that? How do you do a lights out facility?
This is a, these are all steps on that path. Remote monitoring, remote management and understanding of digitally what is occurring in real time. These are the steps that you have to put in place if you're ever going to get to that lights out facility.
[00:26:44] Speaker C: And that was my next question.
But is that a realistic goal really? I mean, are we going to get there? We've been talking about lights out for a long time.
[00:26:55] Speaker D: We have been talking about lights out for a long time. And Cole could articulate at length the challenges that are there as a CEO. I'll just paint the nice broad picture. I will tell you this.
Can we get there? The answer is absolutely yes.
Do we already have clients on the path? Yes. I was just talking to an Italian company last week who is trying to build a facility that is truly lights out. What I think is going to occur is we are going to see some of the first facilities occur in this decade that are lights out, but they will be brand new and they will be very focused on their execution. We are seeing lighter and lighter loads, especially in areas like data center where so many things are automated. This is very little need for hands on attenuation. I think in areas that are like food and bev and CPG with brownfield sites, it'll be a long time to convert those to lights out. So we're not going there anytime soon. But brand new facilities that are dedicated, we are seeing people start to lay out and map out how do I do this with very few humans in the facility. We're seeing that in life sciences also, where you can put bioreactors together, you can put all the feed in and you can do most of it without humans.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Interesting. I do want to ask one just. I'm curious about this. Matt, you can weigh on this as well. But Cole, for you, you kind of came at this with, like you said at the beginning, you were self taught. You kind of came at it with a video game or a gamer background. How did that help you in creating digital twins and getting to this place in your career?
[00:28:35] Speaker B: It was that video game experience along with experience in robotics because it helped me understand essentially the 3D math that goes behind all of these pieces of motion.
So understanding how to represent a 3D world programmatically was part of it. And then understanding how different robots move in 3D space and the algorithms that go into it, all that feeds back in. So that when I have the raw data, which to human eyes looks like absolute nonsense, I know how that maps in. And that was really helpful because I could quickly spin up things that looked real in a 3D space digitally that matched the actual physical world.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: And sort of for both of you guys, do you guys still have clients that when you walk in, maybe people who aren't as far down the path to digital transformation, that when you walk in and talk digital twins that are like, no, no, no, no, that's too much for us.
[00:29:31] Speaker D: We have, we absolutely do. And Cole gets to talk to some of them firsthand. But a digital twin is, is possible for everybody.
Maybe Cole, you can describe, you know, some of the digital twins we've done and connected, maybe even with video. It's amazing stuff. Once you see it live.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it's always a really interesting conversation. You have a lot of legacy, what we'll call legacy facilities out there that when we come in and we have all These cutting edge ideas, you put it in front of them and it's just mind blown. Right. And they don't even think about what is possible.
So when we introduce these ideas, it really starts getting the wheels turning and there's almost like an immediate buy in from the people, especially the people who work on the floor next to these machines day in, day out, they immediately see value to it.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: You know, one of the things or one of the reasons why E Tech Group was chosen as system integrator of the year was because of the company culture.
Right. And I know that there's a very diverse talent group and there's a feeling of having continuing education education within the organization. And I think that's probably really important. Just as you're working with your clients and just understanding as the technologies are evolving, everything moves so quickly these days. So Matt, just, can you just talk a little bit just about the organization as a whole in terms of culture and what you're trying to do internally that you can then help your, your clients with?
[00:31:08] Speaker D: Yes. So you're right. The world is becoming more complicated and it does. Every generation says that within manufacturing, we are seeing, and I mentioned it earlier, a little bit of a sea change in the way automation works. So automation has been around for decades and decades, so that's not new. What is new is the affordability of doing it across all different segments. So we saw automation start in aerospace and automotive manufacturing where there were big dollars, but now we're seeing it everywhere. Same with digital twins. We saw digital twins start out in very high end, expensive executions. But now we're seeing everybody being able to afford digital twins. But as those digital twins come available, we're seeing new advancements in vision systems, new advancements in robotics. Cole was just talking about some of those things that is becoming more and more difficult for these players, especially the legacy manufacturers, to manage because they wake up in the morning and say, I make mayonnaise. And I don't know about the latest 3D or 4D vision system.
That's where Cole can come in and say, but I do you be an expert at making mayonnaise. I will help you be an expert at all of the automation elements.
So within our organization, one of the things we're trying to do is constantly train our folks on how do we advance this. And this is where again, scale becomes a value because we get to see the executions of manufacturing not at one facility, not at 30 facility, but hundreds and thousands of facilities that are our clients. And we pick up knowledge from every one of those, and we deposit all of that in a repository inside of our organization and we use AI to mine that. So when Cole or one of our other subject matter experts has to go into a facility, it's not just their own knowledge that they're bringing to the table and they're bringing their knowledge, plus thousands of other engineers and their time working on different projects to get one step farther ahead for our clients. And we are a mission driven company and we're trying to disrupt and evolve the way people do manufacturing. That's what we wake up every day doing. How do we improve that? How do we forward manufacturing in the world?
And it's based on a combination of bringing that expertise together but then aggregating it. So Cole stands on the shoulders of hundreds and hundreds of other people who have done proposals around our executions. It's exciting stuff to see what we can do for our clients.
[00:33:36] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: Really cool stuff.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Go ahead, Cole.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: One of the things that Matt touched on I think is really important to highlight is, you know, we, we depend on our clients expertise and they depend on our expertise. We, it's not these, this, you know, we show up, we give you a thing and wash your hands, we're out. We're in it with the long term with you. And it's, you know, going that main automation partner, the collaborative partnerships, you know, the better the you trust us to do the things that we're excellent at and we trust you to know the things that you're excellent at.
The coming together of those two things is what has led us over the past seven years to innovate on digital twins.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: All right, guys, I think we've taken enough of your time today. Great stuff. Cole Switzer, Matt Weiss, thank you so much for being with us today and enlightening us and our audience a little bit about Digital Twin.
[00:34:25] Speaker D: Stephanie, thank you for having us.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Very much.
[00:34:27] Speaker D: Appreciate it.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: All right, guys, thanks.
All right, Stephanie, Good stuff on Digital Twin. One of the things I love about doing this podcast, you and I, we've been in this industry for a while, but we're content people.
And so every time I do one of these, I'm like, well, I learned a lot there. Which is kind of a cool way to spend your day.
[00:34:48] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that was great.
Just some great information.
You know how I always say I don't like AI scary.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: I do.
[00:34:57] Speaker C: I love digital Twins. They seem fun.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: I know. Well, I mean fun. But it's also like, this is going to show that I am not an engineer. This is the dream Right. This is what we always talked about getting to is like, well, you can model everything online and that way when you make mistakes and you can look for errors and save money and reduce, man, this is the stuff that we 20 years ago, 30 years ago were talking about as like the hover cars and people living on Mars future. And we're here, it's happening. And you know the thing that they were talking about, about, you know, we're a company that makes mayonnaise. What do we need all this for?
Maybe, maybe you don't. Maybe your company's not going to use it. But it honestly, these processes can help anybody, any size.
And you know, all of the benefits that they had talked about, huge benefits to companies from being able to model out their processes before they actually implement.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: Well, also when Matt said that the lights out facility is actually a reality, like that's mind blowing to me. And also I think he said that they're working with an Italian company. So I think that we should go do a field trip and just check it out.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Let me check my calendar. I'm open. I can do it. Yeah, I think that's a fantastic idea.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: Right? Okay.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Yeah, we should look at all of our guests international projects and you and I should visit it. I think it'd be good.
[00:36:25] Speaker C: You know what, we're going to take this podcast on the road. I think it's a good idea.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: That's right. It's going to be a tech digital transformation slash travel podcast.
[00:36:35] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: I love it too.
Thank you everybody out there for joining us again. Love having you with us on this digital transformation journey.
We'll be touching on all sorts of topics as we go through this. Digital Twin is one of the great ones. Anything from, you know, cybersecurity to any parts of digital transformation we'll be talking about in this podcast. So keep tuning in. We appreciate you guys being here. If you're looking for more information on all of this, check out our engineering sites. Control Engineering is probably where you found this podcast. Great site, has information on all, all of this stuff. You'll find great articles on Digital Twin, but you can also check out our sites. Plant Engineering Consulting, specifying Engineer. We've got all kinds of stuff out there for you.
[00:37:15] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: See, you did what I do. You did the. We'll see you next time. We don't see them. You corrected me on that one.
[00:37:23] Speaker C: You'll see us next time.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: We've got to get a better outro.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: We really do. We need a better pattern. All right. Anyway, you'll see us next time. Thanks a lot for joining us, guys.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: Bye.
