An Interview of Jim Davis, by CMTC, on the History of Smart Manufacturing
This episode features Dr. Jim Davis, Vice Provost of IT at the Office of Advanced Research Computing at UCLA. Jim defines smart manufacturing, explains how it’s evolved over the past two decades, and provides some unique examples of how smart manufacturing is being used today.
Jim Davis is Vice Provost of IT at the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) with broad responsibilities for data and technology solutions in support of UCLA’s research mission and its broadly defined communities engaged in campus, local, state, national, and global impacts of digital research and scholarship. Jim co-founded the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) and spearheaded UCLA’s leadership role in forming Department of Energy’s (DOE) Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), a Manufacturing USA Institute. CESMII’s program and administrative home is with UCLA and through Jim’s Office of Advanced Research Computing. Jim led the Institute’s first business and technology roadmap and is currently involved with CESMII’s Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform infrastructure and its use for data and modeling applications in manufacturing operations and supply chains.
Highlights
00:00:00 – Introductions
00:01:25 – Definition of Smart Manufacturing
00:06:36 – The technology’s breadth of applicability
00:07:12 – Examples of improvements from adopting technology
00:15:11 – Discussion about ROI
00:22:29 – Smart manufacturing tools that bridge the gap between IT and OT
00:23:42 – Adoption and barriers
00:29:20 – How Smart Manufacturing has developed over the past 10 years
00:31:29 – Security considerations
00:33:41 – Projections for wider use and ease of implementation
00:37:37 – Key cultural elements and technical capabilities needed for ROI
00:40:20 – Next evolution of technology and trends
00:43:36 – Company preparation
00:46:50 – Summary