Jan Griffiths:

This is the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast.

Jan Griffiths:

We're on a mission to bring you the latest insights and thought leaders leading the

Jan Griffiths:

charge on supply chain transformation in our beloved automotive industry.

Jan Griffiths:

This podcast is powered by QAD RedZone.

Jan Griffiths:

I'm Jan Griffiths, your host and producer.

Jan Griffiths:

Let's dive in.

Jan Griffiths:

Hello and welcome to the 100th episode of the Auto Supply Chain Prophets Podcast,

Jan Griffiths:

and we are marking this episode — this milestone episode with a conversation

Jan Griffiths:

that matters right here, right now.

Jan Griffiths:

We are gonna be talking about why AI Is not just the

Jan Griffiths:

future — we know it's the future.

Jan Griffiths:

It is the difference between the winners and the laggards.

Jan Griffiths:

The people that understand agentic AI, that understand how to implement AI

Jan Griffiths:

and bring it into their lives, into their institutions will be the winners.

Jan Griffiths:

The big question is how?

Jan Griffiths:

How do we do this?

Jan Griffiths:

Well, joining us for the conversation today, I couldn't think of two

Jan Griffiths:

better guests to have on the show.

Jan Griffiths:

First and foremost, we have Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of QAD.

Jan Griffiths:

He is the foremost thinker of technology in the manufacturing space today.

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay, welcome to the show.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Thank you, Jan. Thank you so much for having me.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I appreciate it.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And also would say congratulations on the hundredth episode of

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Auto Supply Chain Prophets.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I guess this is a major milestone and you know, also a good sign

Sanjay Brahmawar:

that these kind of conversations really matter in the real economy.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

They're not just theory.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So look, I'm excited about being here.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Excited about talking to Bryan.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And, particularly Bryan, especially your work through AVT has

Sanjay Brahmawar:

consistently shown the progress.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I completely agree with this doesn't come from perfect

Sanjay Brahmawar:

technology and perfect conditions.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It comes from systems that operate in kind of like a messy and real world

Sanjay Brahmawar:

environments and with humans in the loop.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So, very excited about this conversation, Jan.

Jan Griffiths:

Yes.

Jan Griffiths:

And I know Sanjay, you're a big data person.

Jan Griffiths:

Do you know a piece of data that only 7% of podcasts

Jan Griffiths:

actually meet the 100th episode?

Jan Griffiths:

Actually reach that?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Awesome.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Congratulations again.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah.

Jan Griffiths:

And joining us on the mic is Dr. Bryan Reimer, research scientist at

Jan Griffiths:

MIT and author of the newly released book, How to Make AI Useful: Moving

Jan Griffiths:

Beyond the Hype to Real Progress in Business, Society, and Life.

Jan Griffiths:

And that it is.

Jan Griffiths:

Bryan, welcome to the show.

Bryan Reimer:

Jan, Thanks for having me.

Bryan Reimer:

Hundredth episode is a heck of an accomplishment.

Bryan Reimer:

And Sanjay really excited to be here with you and learn a little bit about

Bryan Reimer:

your rich history in manufacturing.

Bryan Reimer:

As you mentioned, I come from a manufacturing engineering background.

Bryan Reimer:

So I spent a lot of time studying that and really do see, as you mentioned,

Bryan Reimer:

this messy space of where man meets machine being the future to optimize

Bryan Reimer:

AI and really technology's evolution in supporting manufacturing automation

Bryan Reimer:

in lots of different aspects of life.

Jan Griffiths:

Let's dive right into it.

Jan Griffiths:

We've said that manufacturers don't lack data, they lack action.

Jan Griffiths:

This ability to take action.

Jan Griffiths:

Why is that?

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay, you first, tell us.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Great question, Jan. Look, action, I think breaks

Sanjay Brahmawar:

down the moment insight requires a certain amount of ownership.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

When I talk to many manufacturers and C-level execs, I think manufacturers

Sanjay Brahmawar:

are very good at dashboards.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

But dashboards they explain yesterday.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

They don't decide what happens next.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And when no one owns the next move, any kind of insight just sits

Sanjay Brahmawar:

there and it will just — just wait.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So that is actually, I think the core difference between a system of record,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

where you store and you record and you have data to a system of action.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

While the system of record observes; a system of action actually

Sanjay Brahmawar:

decides, executes and learns.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So, I think if you bring it down to the industry in automotive.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I've seen that, your research shows this clearly.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Knowing something is wrong and not acting on it is not neutral, but at

Sanjay Brahmawar:

some point, insight without action is kind of worse than ignorance.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So that's where I think AI gets frustrating.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I would say frankly, irresponsible if it isn't empowered to move the system in.

Bryan Reimer:

Sanjay, that's some great words.

Bryan Reimer:

I think that a lot of the processes in which we want to automate, which

Bryan Reimer:

we wanna leverage are just too unknown to make good, strong decisions.

Bryan Reimer:

So I think that we are looking right now to the lure of AI to conduct that data

Bryan Reimer:

action step, that is still a step that human expertise needs to sign off on.

Bryan Reimer:

So if we are not willing to make that step and sign off on the data alone that's

Bryan Reimer:

largely distilled by teams and engineers at this point, and we believe that just

Bryan Reimer:

because an AI algorithm programmed by a different team and a different set

Bryan Reimer:

of engineers is gonna produce an action or suggested action, you know, follow

Bryan Reimer:

through is not necessarily gonna be there.

Bryan Reimer:

I think the big piece really comes down to trust.

Bryan Reimer:

We don't have trust in others enough.

Bryan Reimer:

We often don't trust our teams as well as we should.

Bryan Reimer:

Way too much micromanagement out there and poor leadership.

Bryan Reimer:

We don't go down to our teams and say, they're recommending

Bryan Reimer:

something, with a high success rate.

Bryan Reimer:

If they're recommending it to me, it's probably something I

Bryan Reimer:

should be taking under advisement.

Bryan Reimer:

Okay, I'm gonna automate a bunch of the actions of my team with

Bryan Reimer:

AI and lots of other agents.

Bryan Reimer:

And all of a sudden I'm gonna believe it more.

Bryan Reimer:

And I think the decision logic will collapse because the trust isn't gonna

Bryan Reimer:

be there in the AI to be any better.

Bryan Reimer:

So our belief that this investment will work, probably erode and

Bryan Reimer:

manufacturing is so special because the margins are so small.

Bryan Reimer:

Automotive manufacturing in particular is such an interesting case study because

Bryan Reimer:

we often look at giants like Ford, GM for the vehicles they produce and the

Bryan Reimer:

beautiful designs we see on the road.

Bryan Reimer:

But the art of these manufacturers is less than the design.

Bryan Reimer:

It's in the ability to mass produce these complex systems at low margin.

Bryan Reimer:

And that's truly where companies like GM, Toyota, Honda, and

Bryan Reimer:

the likes really do excel.

Jan Griffiths:

Is it Sanjay?

Jan Griffiths:

Is it in the leadership?

Jan Griffiths:

Is it trust?

Jan Griffiths:

Is that a huge part of it?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think Bryan's got a really good point here.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think leaders in manufacturing are still asking AI to prove

Sanjay Brahmawar:

itself before they trust.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And they continue to just, trust human only decisions that are, I guess, in some

Sanjay Brahmawar:

ways demonstrably flawed, under pressured.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So they weren't certainly upfront in the environments where there is

Sanjay Brahmawar:

some sort of inherent uncertainty.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I don't think the real bottleneck is algorithms.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's basically the institutional mindset.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's that fear of being wrong, the approval layers somewhat

Sanjay Brahmawar:

of belief that learning must be complete before action starts.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So you know, in manufacturing that will show up as delays, manual

Sanjay Brahmawar:

overrides, missed learning cycles.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think, leaders who win to accept a hard truth: confidence

Sanjay Brahmawar:

doesn't come before action.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It comes from action.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think that's really important.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So I think that's what it is.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And, yeah, absolutely, leadership is so crucial in this transition to be

Sanjay Brahmawar:

able to leverage this technology in it.

Bryan Reimer:

Sanjay, that's a really great point because I think that as we

Bryan Reimer:

look at the transformative change in new technology, AI, in the ability for new

Bryan Reimer:

data systems to support manufacturing.

Bryan Reimer:

We really look to an environment where we need to unlearn

Bryan Reimer:

as much as we really learn.

Bryan Reimer:

We gotta get rid of some of the handcuffs of history to move forward,

Bryan Reimer:

stay flexible, use the data in new and innovative ways, and really

Bryan Reimer:

cultivate that man machine interaction.

Bryan Reimer:

Look, the machine can interpret and manage data in ways that

Bryan Reimer:

man could never have dreamed of.

Bryan Reimer:

But at the end of the day, the foundation of garbage in

Bryan Reimer:

to garbage out still applies.

Bryan Reimer:

And human-based decision making is really critical to building trust

Bryan Reimer:

in what comes out of the machine.

Bryan Reimer:

Well that's simple statistics and regression, or that's complex neural

Bryan Reimer:

networks, the same really applies.

Bryan Reimer:

So, I think we need to really begin to reward those who begin to

Bryan Reimer:

actionize decisions in many senses, starting small, piloting narrow

Bryan Reimer:

and then accelerating from there.

Bryan Reimer:

Does this seem to be working?

Bryan Reimer:

Great.

Bryan Reimer:

Let's dive in with two feet

Jan Griffiths:

now.

Bryan Reimer:

We got to trust a little bit.

Bryan Reimer:

We gotta try a little bit before we're actually gonna succeed

Bryan Reimer:

in actually finding the system optimizations that we're looking for.

Jan Griffiths:

It reminds me a lot of the days of business process outsourcing.

Jan Griffiths:

Remember that?

Jan Griffiths:

Back in the nineties where it was a race to get your business process,

Jan Griffiths:

define it, and then throw it over the wall to a low cost country?

Jan Griffiths:

And what happened?

Jan Griffiths:

Many companies failed because they failed to do the work.

Jan Griffiths:

The basic foundational work of mapping the process and understanding

Jan Griffiths:

the decision making loops and how all that needed to work, and then

Jan Griffiths:

streamlining it and then putting it out to another low-cost country.

Jan Griffiths:

I think the same is true for AI.

Jan Griffiths:

You better understand your processes and how decisions

Jan Griffiths:

are made before you apply AI.

Jan Griffiths:

Is that a good analogy?

Bryan Reimer:

It is really a good analogy, Jan. And I think that's why

Bryan Reimer:

in many senses a lot of the Chinese manufacturers are succeeding is because

Bryan Reimer:

they are making authoritarian decisions based upon good data, not perfect data.

Bryan Reimer:

And they're actualizing them, and they're moving forward here in the

Bryan Reimer:

United States, and to some degree in Europe, maybe not quite as bad as

Bryan Reimer:

Europe as it is here in the States.

Bryan Reimer:

Decision paralysis is the name of the game.

Bryan Reimer:

We can't make a decision, and that is costing us critical in

Bryan Reimer:

markets of accelerated change.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I fully agree.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think, you have to change the ways of working.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You're right, Jan. It's not about just throwing the process across.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's actually, fundamentally the way you do things becomes different.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And that requires a different mindset.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It requires an ability to think.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

How things will be different, and then go and act upon that.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Manufacturing needs to think a little bit around what we

Sanjay Brahmawar:

call in software industry, MVP.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's like a Minimum Viable Product.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Now, you would never manufacture a product and like send it

Sanjay Brahmawar:

out 90% working or something.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

But, as you're starting to use new things and new ways of

Sanjay Brahmawar:

working, one has to iterate.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You cannot wait for perfection and it'll be too late.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

People would've gone, you would've lost the competitive

Sanjay Brahmawar:

edge and the moment is gone.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So it's important to start.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Start small, start experimenting, allow the teams build that different

Sanjay Brahmawar:

mindset and then, go and act up on it.

Jan Griffiths:

When you talk about mindset, it's something

Jan Griffiths:

that struck me about you, Sanjay.

Jan Griffiths:

Many months ago we did an interview at an event, at a user group event.

Jan Griffiths:

And you had, I think, just come out with launching an ERP in 90 days.

Jan Griffiths:

Is that correct?

Jan Griffiths:

90 days.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Yes, indeed.

Jan Griffiths:

And at the time, you know, I've been in this a long time.

Jan Griffiths:

I've been in manufacturing automotive a long time.

Jan Griffiths:

And I looked at you and I'm thinking, "Is this guy nuts?" But that's exactly

Jan Griffiths:

the kind of thinking that we need.

Jan Griffiths:

We need people — leaders to challenge the norm to say, you know what?

Jan Griffiths:

This is happening.

Jan Griffiths:

We're doing it.

Jan Griffiths:

We're doing it.

Jan Griffiths:

And then you rally a whole team around a mission like that, and guess what?

Jan Griffiths:

It happens.

Jan Griffiths:

And I believe it's happening.

Jan Griffiths:

Is that right?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Yes.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You know, Jan, that's the whole point.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

We said, look, we can either bury our heads in the sand and just say, "Oh,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

you know, nothing's gonna happen." Or we can leverage AI and actually

Sanjay Brahmawar:

take it to the advantage of our mid manufacturers and our clients.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And so what we've done is we've build Champion Pace, which is effectively

Sanjay Brahmawar:

working backwards and saying, "Hey, gone are the days where it used to

Sanjay Brahmawar:

take two years or 18 months to deploy an ERP. No, mid-market manufacturers

Sanjay Brahmawar:

got 18 months to 24 months to wait." So what if we change that to 90 days?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

90 days is the benchmark.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And so let's work backwards and say, "How can AI help us to do things

Sanjay Brahmawar:

like data migration, configuration, custom extensions, all of that much

Sanjay Brahmawar:

faster?" And the reality is that the technology exists to be able to do that.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I can tell you we've done exactly that and you can see that we just announced

Sanjay Brahmawar:

together with our client tentacle.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

They went live last week.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And, we can show that these things can be done in 90 days soon.

Bryan Reimer:

Sanjay, what I love about that is you're starting with the problem

Bryan Reimer:

and saying, "Here is the problem we need to solve." Okay, what tools are out there?

Bryan Reimer:

And AI is a tool that can help with lots of problems.

Bryan Reimer:

But too often we are looking with this enormous technology that we dream

Bryan Reimer:

of in Jetsons, like science fiction, is a solution looking for a problem.

Bryan Reimer:

And leadership today, needs to make some strategic decisions on where do we invest,

Bryan Reimer:

which means that we have to downplay some priorities to make those investments work.

Bryan Reimer:

And, things that draw out and take 18 months or two years to occur.

Bryan Reimer:

Create more complexities along the way than saying, "Okay, we are going

Bryan Reimer:

to figure out how to get back to Mars or the moon in the next two years.

Bryan Reimer:

We don't have three, we don't have four. We are doing it in two years."

Bryan Reimer:

And look, that's how the modern space race started.

Bryan Reimer:

But too often in manufacturing and in many other areas fell to have

Bryan Reimer:

that leadership and that vision.

Bryan Reimer:

Today leadership really means observing, seeing the reality clearly,

Bryan Reimer:

and then making a decision to act.

Bryan Reimer:

And we just see that too infrequent in today's, day and age.

Jan Griffiths:

What is the biggest blockage in manufacturing leadership

Jan Griffiths:

thinking in automotive, right now, to prevent them from thinking

Jan Griffiths:

like a tech CEO, like Sanjay.

Jan Griffiths:

What's blocking the thinking?

Jan Griffiths:

Is this a myth?

Jan Griffiths:

Is there a lie they're telling themselves?

Jan Griffiths:

What is it from your experience?

Bryan Reimer:

In my experience, we're looking for solutions without action.

Bryan Reimer:

We hate to be held accountable for bad decisions, so we end up

Bryan Reimer:

delaying, delaying and delaying.

Bryan Reimer:

Usually we know what we should do.

Bryan Reimer:

And we think about it for too long, and that's not days and hours.

Bryan Reimer:

That's Months and years.

Bryan Reimer:

So if we wanna make change, we need to really think about our microcosms and

Bryan Reimer:

dividing that up and enabling teams to prove, "Okay, we can walk in a new

Bryan Reimer:

way." And then worry about running.

Bryan Reimer:

But too often we are so stuck on, we have to solve everything

Bryan Reimer:

and find a new way to run.

Bryan Reimer:

No, build a sandbox.

Bryan Reimer:

Enable a subset of your team to figure out how to optimize that sandbox and

Bryan Reimer:

when you feel like you can begin to move your progress from that sandbox

Bryan Reimer:

outside, make the decisions to do it.

Bryan Reimer:

But it doesn't mean recharting and rebuilding the entire

Bryan Reimer:

assembly line overnight.

Bryan Reimer:

Yeah, there's going to be lots of hurdles.

Bryan Reimer:

Supply chain challenges over the last few years, who would've predicted?

Bryan Reimer:

Those are gonna continue to come.

Bryan Reimer:

And flexible, resilient organizations, strong leadership is gonna overcome that.

Bryan Reimer:

Great, I can't get the supply or the microchips I need today, we're

Bryan Reimer:

gonna figure out how we have to overcome that, and we are gonna

Bryan Reimer:

solve this problem tomorrow.

Bryan Reimer:

And that's not right now.

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay, what do you think blocks the thinking?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think the biggest, I would say, and As you were saying, what

Sanjay Brahmawar:

is true and what's not true, I think what's not true is that the frontline is

Sanjay Brahmawar:

resisting AI because they're afraid of it.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I don't think so.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You know, I'm going to meet my clients almost every week,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

and I go onto the shop floor.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I really wanna walk the shop floor.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I want to talk to the people on the front line.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I want to discuss with them, how they use capabilities.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And the reality is they don't resist AI.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

What they do resist, Jan, is actually, they resist tools that slow them down,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

second guess them or create more work.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So I think the whole point is, when AI removes friction, you get rid of

Sanjay Brahmawar:

manual data entry, firefighting, rework.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Then, adoption is not a change management problem.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's actually quite automatic.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And so this is why, when in QAD RedZone when we start,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

we start from the front line.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Champion AI doesn't supervise the operators, amplifies them.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Gives them early signals, better context.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Allows them to execute faster.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So you are kind of almost, people trust automation when

Sanjay Brahmawar:

it respects their expertise.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think in plants and in vehicles, I think adoption always

Sanjay Brahmawar:

follows usefulness, not mandates.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You tell somebody you have to use AI, that's not the way it's gonna work.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You've gotta create and show them the usefulness.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think then it's not a change management problem.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah.

Jan Griffiths:

And what I love about the way that you've approached that, Sanjay, with connected

Jan Griffiths:

workforce is, you're all about putting the data in the hands of the individual,

Jan Griffiths:

but you used essentially like an iPhone, iPad technology that's user friendly.

Jan Griffiths:

And I can't tell you how many years I've spent on shop floors where, people just,

Jan Griffiths:

either the data is on some manual board, and then somebody wipes up against the

Jan Griffiths:

whiteboard and you've lost the data and then, "Oh yeah, but that was yesterday's.

Jan Griffiths:

We just haven't updated the board yet."

Jan Griffiths:

And it's so on and so on and so on.

Jan Griffiths:

But when you actually put technology in the hands of the people and

Jan Griffiths:

you use a system that they're already familiar with, genius.

Jan Griffiths:

Adoption will follow.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Absolutely.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I mean, I think you can see them feeling proud about, not

Sanjay Brahmawar:

having to use paper again.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

They just talk about they can use their iPad in front of them and show you,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

"Hey, look, I'm working on this line.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I can show you what are the things that I have to do before the

Sanjay Brahmawar:

changeover, after the changeover.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

What are the issues that I'm gonna have during the production run?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

How do I prevent those issues?"

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And there's a certain sense of pride of being empowered that the frontline

Sanjay Brahmawar:

worker says they don't need the supervisor to tell them what to do.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think this is where, in our words, the magic happens, that's when you

Sanjay Brahmawar:

get 26% more productivity is when the individual feels that they kind of almost

Sanjay Brahmawar:

are so enabled to do their job better.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think that is where AI plays such an important role.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I personally believe this whole thing is around making the frontline

Sanjay Brahmawar:

three to four x more powerful.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

To me, Champion AI has gotta be their, in some ways, their Iron Man suit.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It should allow them to be really able to perform at three to four x.

Bryan Reimer:

You know, Jan, just listening to this, it is so synergistic

Bryan Reimer:

with the framework around "How to Make AI Useful," in my new book and

Bryan Reimer:

really looking at AI as the amplifier.

Bryan Reimer:

Building trust that you are upskilling your workforce, empowering them with

Bryan Reimer:

data to make decisions, to carry out their roles more efficiently.

Bryan Reimer:

People like being part of the process and, the hard part of AI is so much of

Bryan Reimer:

the show and below trying to oversell its capabilities, the fear of job loss,

Bryan Reimer:

the feel of an organization trying to automate away my employment opportunities.

Bryan Reimer:

That is not the path that I see is one of value to AI on automation today.

Bryan Reimer:

I think what Sanjay's really talking about is the real true value point, the

Bryan Reimer:

utility of AI in making us as humans.

Bryan Reimer:

Better employees, socially, better personal lives, all the

Bryan Reimer:

things that we want to improve.

Bryan Reimer:

Using a little automation to move away the boring activities just a little

Bryan Reimer:

bit and using a lot of amplification to make us better structured and better

Bryan Reimer:

positions to make stronger decisions.

Bryan Reimer:

And that's, to me, the true value of AI.

Bryan Reimer:

And it's really fun to see it being implied that way,

Bryan Reimer:

in the manufacturing world.

Bryan Reimer:

And we will see if, which way it seems to go in the driving world

Bryan Reimer:

where we seem to be back to trying to prioritize AI as being able to drive a

Bryan Reimer:

little bit too much for us right now.

Bryan Reimer:

So, it just see different sectors balancing this so differently right

Bryan Reimer:

now, but I think the true value proposition is around making us, as

Bryan Reimer:

humans, better parts of the system.

Jan Griffiths:

I have a question for both of you.

Jan Griffiths:

I gotta ask you this question 'cause there's burning a hole in me.

Jan Griffiths:

I'm gonna go to Sanjay, first.

Jan Griffiths:

Why are you so passionate about manufacturing?

Jan Griffiths:

You are a tech guy.

Jan Griffiths:

Why are you so passionate about manufacturing?

Jan Griffiths:

There's far more sexier areas in the business to be in, and it doesn't

Jan Griffiths:

get a lot of love or attention.

Jan Griffiths:

So why Sanjay?

Jan Griffiths:

Why are you so focused on manufacturing?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Oh, great question, Jan. I mean, look, I started my career on the

Sanjay Brahmawar:

shop floor, in Honda assembling engine.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So, I just had that love for manufacturing where people are

Sanjay Brahmawar:

actually building, engineers come together to really design and build

Sanjay Brahmawar:

real products and real technology.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So, that love has been there for some time.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

But most importantly, I like the interface of technology and manufacturing.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I like to see how technology can play a role in helping and supporting

Sanjay Brahmawar:

manufacturing with delivering these amazing products to the end users.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Now, one thing I would say, which connects with Bryan's work is

Sanjay Brahmawar:

actually I think we, and when I say 'we', I say, I think you know.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

All parts — the academia, the manufacturing sector and all.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And us as software, we need to do a better job at actually helping manufacturers

Sanjay Brahmawar:

and the people who work in manufacturing, understand the impact of AI.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think today, this whole fear mongering and, this constant conversation

Sanjay Brahmawar:

around job losses, and all, this is the only news that is gets covered.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

This is the only conversation that happens.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Where the truth is what we have just been discussing.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

The power to create a three x and a four x. The power to be able to enable people

Sanjay Brahmawar:

and make them a lot more empowered.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think the most importantly, as I said today in manufacturing,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

US manufacturing, there's a deficit of half a million jobs.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

By 2033, this deficit's gonna be 2 million.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Where are we going to get these amazing people to work in manufacturing today?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Well, we've gotta excite young generation to come into manufacturing, and I

Sanjay Brahmawar:

think AI plays an amazing role there.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

When you create, systems like for example, RedZone that we have

Sanjay Brahmawar:

created, which are based on iPads and the new ways of working.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

That's how you excite the young generation to come in and work in manufacturing.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

You can't offer them blue screens, green screens, and the old ERPs and excite

Sanjay Brahmawar:

them to come and do those mundane tasks.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So I think that's also a very important part and I guess that's where my

Sanjay Brahmawar:

passion comes out also because I feel that we can do a great job here.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Tech sector and software sector can do a great job.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah.

Jan Griffiths:

Bryan, same to you.

Jan Griffiths:

You are very passionate about manufacturing.

Jan Griffiths:

Why?

Bryan Reimer:

It's process improvement.

Bryan Reimer:

It's just taking a process that could be optimized and using the

Bryan Reimer:

tools that we have to implement that.

Bryan Reimer:

It's learning about the experience, learning from the teams that are actually

Bryan Reimer:

doing the work and saying, "Okay, here's a better approach that we can try to

Bryan Reimer:

adopt. Now, we need to listen to the boots in the ground, especially with AI."

Bryan Reimer:

Often I think the best strategy is much like Sanjay's described, is packaging

Bryan Reimer:

it into existing workflows, not trying to reinvent workflows at the same

Bryan Reimer:

time, introducing it as small add-ons.

Bryan Reimer:

That can, you know, this is gonna get me a one x know, 1.1

Bryan Reimer:

%. Okay.

Bryan Reimer:

Then we'll add to that.

Bryan Reimer:

Rewarding accuracy in performance of these systems, and ensuring that our workforces,

Bryan Reimer:

are listening to the positive aspects of what we can accomplish as opposed to being

Bryan Reimer:

shaded by the fear that unfortunately the media seems to drive it in the market.

Bryan Reimer:

Again, negative news sells.

Bryan Reimer:

I think that is a problem that we need to move beyond.

Bryan Reimer:

I think we need to be talking about the positive attributes

Bryan Reimer:

of what AI is to bring.

Bryan Reimer:

We need to ensure that our workforces understand what we're investing in

Bryan Reimer:

those, so that they are along and bought into the process improvements

Bryan Reimer:

and contributing as part of that engine.

Bryan Reimer:

I think one of my fears moving forward is we look at economic

Bryan Reimer:

slowing in certain sectors.

Bryan Reimer:

We are gonna blame a lot of layoffs on AI and that is gonna

Bryan Reimer:

drive more fear into the market.

Bryan Reimer:

And I think that's something that we need to move away from.

Bryan Reimer:

We need to look at the power of AI to amplify and we need to be

Bryan Reimer:

honest with ourselves when we need to do workforce reductions.

Bryan Reimer:

It's not because of AI most of the time.

Bryan Reimer:

It's really because of other processes or other business outcomes that we

Bryan Reimer:

need to be more transparent with.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah, as our audience is listening to this, they're probably

Jan Griffiths:

thinking, "Well, this is great", and I'm sure it's resonating, and they're

Jan Griffiths:

saying, "Yep, agree, agree, agree." But in the back of their mind, they're

Jan Griffiths:

going, "Oh, but where do I start?

Jan Griffiths:

What do I do first?"

Jan Griffiths:

So if you're leader.

Jan Griffiths:

In the automotive supply chain, and we use supply chain in the broadest

Jan Griffiths:

sense, encompassing operations, purchasing, logistics, all of it.

Jan Griffiths:

But if you are a leader, listen to this right now and you wanna get,

Jan Griffiths:

I dunno, a 60-day, 90-day win.

Jan Griffiths:

Where do you start?

Jan Griffiths:

A few little stepping stones just to start.

Jan Griffiths:

'Cause we all know, that's the tough part is just starting, right?

Jan Griffiths:

Is whether it's going to the gym, whatever you're doing, it's that first step.

Jan Griffiths:

What's that first step look like?

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay, I go to you first.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think that's the right mindset, Jan. First,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

thinking these 90-day sort of sprints or 90-day spans is really good.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Now, this is the way we've designed, example, Champion AI.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

We've thought about offering agentic capabilities in three buckets.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Bucket number one is what we call role-based personas.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And in fact, what we've done is we've actually mapped out all the personas

Sanjay Brahmawar:

in manufacturing, whether you are a logistics scheduler, a planner, shift

Sanjay Brahmawar:

supervisor, or a plant operator.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Whatever your role is.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Each of these person, they have a certain set of tasks, or let's say

Sanjay Brahmawar:

a certain set of, I would call them mundane activities that they do

Sanjay Brahmawar:

in the ERP or any kind of system.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And what we've done is we've created agents that help these particular

Sanjay Brahmawar:

personas do the job much more efficiently or much more effectively.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And so, they can, for example, tell the agent to overnight create five views that

Sanjay Brahmawar:

they need to start the job in the morning.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Normally they would come in the morning, they would spend a lot of time

Sanjay Brahmawar:

in the system creating these views.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Well, overnight the agents done the job, it's ready.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

They can come in, they can start working and making decisions.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Working on things that have real value and impact.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think that's a very good place to start, because it's also really

Sanjay Brahmawar:

helps the employee, the shop floor worker, truly get the value of AI or

Sanjay Brahmawar:

start seeing what's the value of AI.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So that's number one.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Number two, bucket is where we attack some complex problems.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

For example, you've gotta think about what has true impact to

Sanjay Brahmawar:

the working of a mid-market manufacturer, or let's say their P&L.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And so we chose inventory carrying costs.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's sort of the top three cost categories in in for a mid-market manufacturer.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And as Bryan said, these manufacturers are working on very low margins.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Automotive tier one, tier two are working on literally, 5 to 6% margins.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So if you can cut down inventory carrying costs by like, say, 15 to 20%, that's

Sanjay Brahmawar:

a big impact to their profitability.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And what the agent does, it looks across the entire supply chain.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It thinks about your inbounds, your inventory at hand, your different

Sanjay Brahmawar:

schedules, production schedules.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And it starts recommending adjustments to the replenishment levels.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Things where a human being would be more cautious because they're

Sanjay Brahmawar:

so concerned about stockouts and so they overcompensate.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And the system measures all of that and comes up with the recommendations.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And we've run these with our clients for over three, four months now to see,

Sanjay Brahmawar:

"hey, on an average the agent could save 30% inventory carrying costs." Major

Sanjay Brahmawar:

impact to the P&L of the manufacturer.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So that's bucket two.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And then the last one I would say is the implementation agents, where you

Sanjay Brahmawar:

can implement things much faster.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Data migration, this is the 90-day champion pace, where you can do things.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

So I think, organizations start with the persona based agents.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Use one or two very important agents that can actually help you with specific

Sanjay Brahmawar:

problems that you wanna solve, and then, you go into the implementation sphere.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think that's a good way to start.

Jan Griffiths:

I love that.

Jan Griffiths:

It's a very comprehensive answer.

Jan Griffiths:

Thank you.

Jan Griffiths:

And when you talk about persona based agents, if I can just bring

Jan Griffiths:

it down a level, simply think about what your people are doing.

Jan Griffiths:

What processes are they following and what decisions are they making?

Jan Griffiths:

And when you actually map that out as a very, very basic starting point,

Jan Griffiths:

the results might surprise you.

Jan Griffiths:

Right?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Absolutely.

Jan Griffiths:

Bryan, where would you recommend people start?

Bryan Reimer:

I think it's about empowering your organization, to

Bryan Reimer:

find the points of optimization.

Bryan Reimer:

Allowing them to leverage the modern AI tools.

Bryan Reimer:

Obviously within corporate governance, but creating the low risk

Bryan Reimer:

environments for teams to experiment.

Bryan Reimer:

I mean, the best experts, the folks doing the work.

Bryan Reimer:

So the more we allow them to experiment in low risk environments with modern

Bryan Reimer:

tooling and, Sanjay's talking about some phenomenally interesting tooling,

Bryan Reimer:

without fallout or repercussions.

Bryan Reimer:

The more we can find where this works for my organization, your

Bryan Reimer:

organization, and so forth.

Bryan Reimer:

When we find things that do make sense and we need, as we talked about earlier,

Bryan Reimer:

make those decisions to spin this off into larger product directions.

Bryan Reimer:

Using AI where possible as the equalizer.

Bryan Reimer:

Amplifying the team's capabilities, the team is going to be much more invested in

Bryan Reimer:

amplifying itself than replacing itself, that's gonna help when the leadership

Bryan Reimer:

and frontline workers are fostering trust and transparency within the organization.

Bryan Reimer:

They're gonna learn from each other and they're gonna be more

Bryan Reimer:

forthcoming to improve the processes.

Bryan Reimer:

And, the AI and data telemetry side is only a tool set that is

Bryan Reimer:

helpful in improving the processes.

Bryan Reimer:

Everybody on a team is going to have to work through their part to improve

Bryan Reimer:

processes as efficiently as possible.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah.

Bryan Reimer:

You gotta have buy-in from the entire system.

Bryan Reimer:

Which means that in many senses, individuals in the organization

Bryan Reimer:

can't protect information.

Bryan Reimer:

They gotta democratize it, they gotta share it so other

Bryan Reimer:

people can iterate from that.

Bryan Reimer:

It is all about team based environments, where the team has gotta succeed.

Bryan Reimer:

And then leadership, and when you move up in the organization, ensuring that

Bryan Reimer:

they're there to support, encourage, and build transparency to make quick,

Bryan Reimer:

rapid decisions to improve processes.

Bryan Reimer:

I think that we will never make every decision perfect.

Bryan Reimer:

But building the environment where we are trying, we are trying to make good data

Bryan Reimer:

driven decisions, and when we make a bad decision, we correct paths and we move on.

Bryan Reimer:

Blending the strengths of the data and forensics we have

Bryan Reimer:

and our expertise as leaders.

Jan Griffiths:

And I would close with a question to our audience,

Jan Griffiths:

and it's this: Ask yourself this question about your own leadership.

Jan Griffiths:

Are you ready to put data and decision making into the hands

Jan Griffiths:

of your frontline employees?

Jan Griffiths:

If there's some hesitation in that answer, then there's some

Jan Griffiths:

work that needs to be done.

Jan Griffiths:

But it is also clear to me that we need to bring more conversations like this

Jan Griffiths:

across the airwaves where we are talking about real people, real pain points.

Jan Griffiths:

Bryan, you said it many times, we're solving problems.

Jan Griffiths:

Let's talk about problems that we're actually solving, using

Jan Griffiths:

that approach, using AI and let's amplify these conversations

Jan Griffiths:

so that people can hear them.

Jan Griffiths:

So let's drown out the noise, the bad news cycle about AI and the fear about AI.

Jan Griffiths:

And let's really amp up the positive stories about ai.

Jan Griffiths:

I say we do that.

Jan Griffiths:

Are you with me?

Bryan Reimer:

Absolutely.

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay?

Jan Griffiths:

You with me?

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Absolutely.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Fully aligned and I love this conversation, Jan. Because think

Sanjay Brahmawar:

about the work that Bryan's doing and how aligned it is with how

Sanjay Brahmawar:

we see everyday in manufacturing.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I firmly believe Agentic AI and AI is not about replacing people.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's actually about, augmenting, empowering.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

It's about elevating the human judgment when it matters the most.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

I think there's so much potential here.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

And I think, perhaps the best way is to actually share some success stories.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Bringing some good examples to the table, but there's so much

Sanjay Brahmawar:

positive to be able to share also.

Bryan Reimer:

Jan, I think we got to remember that manufacturing reemerges

Bryan Reimer:

as a success story and a competitive advantage across the automotive industry.

Bryan Reimer:

It goes up and down over time.

Bryan Reimer:

I think the modern revolution in AI has the potential to shape the next

Bryan Reimer:

wave and the competitive advantage of the automotive industry using AI as a

Bryan Reimer:

part of that manufacturing optimization to build the next wave in success.

Jan Griffiths:

Yeah.

Jan Griffiths:

And we are actually rebranding the podcast to Auto Supply Chain

Jan Griffiths:

Champions podcast, to do exactly that.

Jan Griffiths:

To focus on champions, people who are solving problems.

Jan Griffiths:

And that's exactly what we're gonna continue to do.

Jan Griffiths:

So thank you both for joining me at the mic today.

Jan Griffiths:

Bryan, always a pleasure.

Bryan Reimer:

Thanks for having me.

Jan Griffiths:

Sanjay, great to have you on the show.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Thank you so much, Jan, and congratulations

Sanjay Brahmawar:

once again — a hundred episodes.

Sanjay Brahmawar:

Awesome.

Jan Griffiths:

Thank you.

Jan Griffiths:

We want to hear from you, our listener.

Jan Griffiths:

Tell us, what are your challenges right now?

Jan Griffiths:

What conversations do you want to hear across the airwaves on this podcast?

Jan Griffiths:

Drop us a comment on our podcast website.

Jan Griffiths:

The link is in the show notes.