Preliminary Program
more sessions coming soon...

In this presentation you will be introduced to an end-to-end overview of the digital transformation journey of Saudi Aramco. the world’s largest energy company and it's vision of becoming the world’s leading digitalized energy corporation.

Oil & gas is one of the world’s most critical industries and heading the global energy source with more than 50% share. Yet, the industry has not evolved much throughout the past 100 years and it is still dependent on many outdated techniques. However, with the emerging of Industry 4.0, we have seen some improvement in the processes, equipment and plant operations. However, these improvements have not been as revolutionary as we have seen in other industries.

Quality control remains a primarily manual process in the manufacturing sector. This talk draws upon real-world instances, showcasing how high-precision manufacturers grapple with costly recalls due to inspection errors and how traditional manufacturers risk losing vital operational knowledge due to the turnover in their aging workforce—an issue that is particularly challenging to address in the current labor market.

We will show how AI-assisted visual inspection systems can mitigate these challenges and reduce QA costs. These systems augment the quality and speed of human inspections, create a digital store of operational knowledge, and facilitate data-driven root cause analysis to eliminate defects. Using tailored AI software and off-the-shelf hardware, we will discuss how these systems can be installed and retrofitted onto existing equipment within days.

Panelists:

Stacey Weismiller, Advanced manufacturing & Value Chains, World Economic Forum
Rahul Shahani, Partner, McKinsey & Company
David Hart, I4.0 Transformation Leader, Ericsson

Join our expert panel featuring the World Economic Forum, McKinsey, and Ericsson to discuss the transformative potential of Industry 4.0 on productivity, sustainability, and resilience. Drawing on lessons from 132 factories in the Global Lighthouse Network and Ericsson's own inspiring journey, this session will showcase impactful digital use cases, actionable strategies, and enablers needed to succeed in this rapidly evolving digital landscape. Attendees will walk away with a clearer understanding of how to harness the best practices of global leaders and apply them to their own manufacturing organizations.

Moderator: Kevin Kumpf, OT/IT Cybersecurity Strategist, Cyolo

Panelists:

Roy Klann, Digital Transformation & Data Science Manager, Faurecia
Hussain Ajwah, Digital Transformation Engineer, Saudi Aramco
Susanne Lauda, Director, Global Advanced Manufacturing Technology, AGCO Corp.

The panel session on "Digital Transformation in Industrial Control Systems" brings together industry experts and thought leaders to explore the challenges, opportunities, and best practices associated with the integration of digital & AI technologies into industrial control systems. The session aimed to shed light on the evolving landscape of industrial control systems, the impact of digital transformation, AI, and strategies for organizations to successfully navigate this paradigm shift.

The joint speaker session will provide insight into AI’s impact to the current threat landscape and challenges, volumes of events, staffing shortages, expertise deficiencies, siloed security controls. Statistics will be shared from the recent Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach 2022 study in attack vectors, response/organizational impact and costs attributed to various controls, remote workforces, and impact in cost and response times attributed to AI/Machine Learning etc.

This presentation will consist of uncovering the challenges and solutions as to digitizing the factory. Hear case studies along with mistakes that Onka made through their digitalization journey. These projects will be valuable for the audience as well as elaborating how it ended with success stories.

Moderator: Danielle Jablanski, OT Cybersecurity Strategist, Nozomi Networks

Panelists:
Bemi Anjous, CISO, Noble Drilling
Chad Adams, Supervisory Cybersecurity Advisor, Region VI, CISA
Joel Austin, SVP, Chief Digital Officer, Oncor Energy

The session will focus on the importance of protecting critical infrastructure, such as power grids, transportation systems, communication networks and IT/OT systems, from cyber threats. The panelists will discuss strategies and best practices for securing these systems, including risk assessment, threat intelligence, incident response, and recovery planning. They will also explore the role of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT, in enhancing critical infrastructure security.

This presentation identifies several key considerations manufacturers must evaluate before implementing edge compute solutions, including system architecture, network connectivity, data privacy and security, scalability, and energy consumption. To implement edge computing effectively, manufacturers must also assess the hardware and software requirements, partnerships with third-party vendors, and training for their workforce. By taking these considerations into account, manufacturers can ensure that their edge compute solutions are cost-effective, secure, and scalable in the long term, leading to increased efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

How might operational technology be impacted in a cyber incident? Opportunistic attacks cast at OT operations, Credential Access and exploitation in ICS networks, Destructive Wipers, and targeting of ICS-specific protocols. To address these types of incidents, security leaders need to know what OT they operate and how it all communicates, what product vulnerabilities to hunt for, threat intelligence for the OT/ICS arena, and how to maximize information, tools and partnerships to take action.

The City of Round Rock, Texas owns and operates a 52 MGD water treatment facility, located just North of Austin, Texas. The operation centers control over 45 remote sites, including raw water storage, pumping pressure zones, and elevated storage tanks, as well as the treatment facility. The Plant has been expanded over the years with several phases of pretreatment, filtration, chemical feed, and high and low zone pumping systems, and the control system has been added on during each phase, but largely consisted of older Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) processors with multiple remote Input/Output (I/O) racks. Parts for these PLC systems were beginning to become a challenge, and the proprietary architecture meant a single processor failure could affect many processes. The Human Machine Interface (HMI) also was beginning to show its age, and the annual software license costs were becoming prohibitive, and operations staff were longing for a more user-friendly and efficient graphics system that was easier to navigate.

Moderator: Ryan Legg, Digital Solutions Manager, ICONICS

Panelists:

Neil Reichel, Sr. IT Business Partner, Digital Transformation, AstraZeneca
James Ceart, IT Project Leader, American Woodmark
Debbie Lay, Senior Solutions Architect , TXOne Networks

The session will focus on the benefits and challenges of integrating Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) into modern manufacturing processes. The panelists will discuss the role of OT & IT in improving production efficiency, reducing downtime, and enhancing overall business performance.

They will also explore the latest trends and best practices in OT & IT system design, including the use of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Additionally, the panelists will discuss the importance of cybersecurity in OT & iT systems and how to ensure the protection of critical assets and infrastructure.

For a long time, it's been difficult for manufacturers to create targets that factor in unique product/line combinations and historical averages. This is especially true when there are many SKUs.

Because of this, performance targets have been set by other means such as financial goals, the most recent run, or even by the "best guess" of experienced plant teams. A data-driven approach that sets accurate and achievable throughput creates several powerful benefits.

Moderator: Mike Skurla, Chief Product Office & Co-Founder, Radix IoT

Panelists:
Reed Wells, Manager of SCADA & System Operation, Flint Energies
Haakon Sullivan, Electrical Engineering Specialist, City of Prince George
Jake Hawkes, Sr. Product Manager, Enterprise SCADA, Aveva


This panel session will focus on modernizing legacy SCADA systems, particularly those designed and implemented in the 19th & 20th century, to meet the demands of the 21st century. The panelists will discuss approaches and challenges for upgrading SCADA systems, including the latest trends and technologies, best practices, and strategies for overcoming obstacles.

As we move into a more connected and digitalized era there are many reasons why companies need to modernize the way they interface with and use their SCADA systems. Examples include, customer satisfaction, regulation, efficiency and safety.

Artificial Intelligence as a technology has been in our industry for a while, however most enterprises have been sluggish at understanding the value and leveraging the technology. At Yokogawa we strongly believe in ensuring no matter what work humans are meant to perform, it’s safe, secure and most importantly consistent by removing unnecessary variables that impede outcomes.

SCADA systems have been designed to integrate real-time information from widely dispersed devices since their inception. SCADA systems have progressed along the same evolutionary path as any computer-based system. Every generation has been defined by the new challenges it needed to address.

Smart manufacturing is a primary goal for most factory-based businesses, and implementing state-of-the-art digital technologies, such as Artificial intelligence, is a defining characteristic of this trend. Current Automation technologies in shop floor equipment alone cannot achieve this lofty goal. The challenge now is to predict scenarios and machine conditions at each step of the production line to increase efficiency, reduce the loss of energy and resources, and optimize current conditions without uprooting existing infrastructure or equipment.

The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute was established by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2017 as an independent, non-profit consortium. The ARM Institute is one of nine DoD Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs) and one of sixteen Manufacturing USA® Institutes. The mission of the ARM Institute is to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and robotics technologies that are the foundation of every advanced manufacturing activity today and in the future.

This talk will explore how the deployment of software, such as RIPA, atop existing SCADA systems, is key to facilitating an increase in energy efficiency and security, enabling the future control room. As part of the talk, we will also discuss the benefits of using RIPA, including enhanced safety through alarm reduction and 65% reductions in alarm occurrences, 60% reductions in alarm durations, and 30% reductions in alarm magnitudes. This talk will provide insights into how RIPA can transform control room operations and optimize the energy infrastructure.

This presentation offers a practical approach to digital transformation. Jeff will provide real-world examples of how the various technology sectors comprising Industry 4.0 can be applied in practice.

The presentation will include exercises illustrating how data-driven decisions can be made using techniques and concepts from the presenter's experience working in the industry. By the end of the presentation, attendees will have a comprehensive understanding of the digital transformation process and how to apply it to their industrial operations.

This session provides a valuable contribution to the AI Manufacturing conference, addressing some of the most urgent topics of our time, including AI, productivity, and operating costs.

Maintenance professionals, manufacturers, engineers, and anyone else interested in the implementation of AI in manufacturing, will learn how data analysis and forecasting work within an AI-assisted predictive maintenance solution to prevent unplanned downtime and reduce maintenance costs. This draws from real-world examples of the solution in use on rotating equipment in multiple industries.

Moderator: Elbert van der Bijl, Director of Solutions Consulting, Yokogawa Corporation of America

Panelists:
Karim, Founder, ProcessMiner
Alexander Naidu, Global Head SCADA & Visualization, Suzlon Energy


This panel session will focus on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies in SCADA & HMI systems. The panel will focus on AI & IIoT technologies within the Energy, Water and Oil & Gas industries. The session will aim to explore the opportunities and challenges of using AI and IIoT technologies in ICS systems and their potential impact on the industrial sector.

The panelists will discuss how IIoT technologies have enabled the collection and transmission of vast amounts of data in real-time, allowing for better monitoring and control of industrial processes. They will highlight that AI can be used to analyze this data and provide valuable insights that can be used to optimize industrial processes, predict equipment failures, and improve efficiency.

Moderator: Kevin Kumpf, OT/IT Cybersecurity Strategist, Cyolo

Panelists: Jan de Nijs, LM Fellow for Enterprise Digital Production, Lockheed Martin
Shameka Lewis, EHS Director, Kellogg's
Jenny Stenström, Site Digital & IT Lead, Frederick (MD) Manufacturing Center, AstraZeneca

The pane will explore the latest trends and best practices in using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to optimize manufacturing supply chains. Our panel of experts will discuss the potential benefits of these technologies, including improved efficiency, increased productivity, and reduced costs.

During the session, our panelists will share their experiences and insights into implementing AI and ML in manufacturing supply chains, including challenges, success stories, and lessons learned. They will discuss the key considerations for implementing these technologies, including data quality and security, skills and expertise, and collaboration between IT and operations teams.

This presentation will explore the benefits of using machine learning as an enterprise performance management system. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, organizations can receive valuable recommendations to execute their business strategies more efficiently and effectively. Attendees will learn about the key components of a successful machine learning system, including data preparation, model training, and deployment. We will also discuss practical use cases and real-world examples of how machine learning can help companies make better decisions and improve their bottom line. By the end of the session, attendees will have a better understanding of how to implement a machine learning-based enterprise performance management system and begin realizing its benefits.

An International Oil & Gas Enterprise grappled with numerous in-house business OT applications, necessitating complex firewall paths across company networks from the SCADA/Controls layer edge to the corporate data layer for multiple sites. The goal was to enhance security, simplify this architecture, enable custom flexible front-ends, gain greater data access, and instate business-rule validation on a unified, robust, multi-site capable solution framework.

Goal: Improve security and reduce complexity, while allowing for custom front-ends, and business-rule validation for requested changes – all on a single, proven, multi-site capable solution framework. Edge to enterprise secure data architecture to enable application development while preserving and accessing existing systems.

We will explore the factors involved in moving Operational Technology into the cloud focussing on the benefits of moving to the cloud. These include security, elasticity and visibility in addition to automation to allow effective control and response at scale.

All providing opportunities to enhance an organizations operations and economics. We will talk about learnings and strategies that large Electric Utility customers have used to control significant numbers of distributed resources and how Artificial Intelligence is becoming a crucial part of the equation. We will also explore strategies to move to the cloud along with crucial focus areas in order to maximize your ROI.

Moderator: Angela Thurman, Thurman Co

Panelists:
Kristen Pope, General Manager, Gates Machine Tool Repair Inc
Mary Henderson, Senior Financial Executive, Arcosa, Inc
Srikant Menon, Senior Manage Cyber & Strategic Risk, Deloitte

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly significant role in modern manufacturing because it can improve reliability, safety, efficiency, and productivity at reasonable cost.

An essential step in transforming every facet of effective manufacturing is developing and deploying innovative intelligent sensors is as sensors are critical in collecting analytical data during manufacturing. This presentation highlights the fundamental role the latest intelligent sensors can play in state-of-the-art AI manufacturing and provide checklists for selecting the right sensors for various industrial applications.

With IoT’s vast global economic and societal significance, this timely presentation will explain and answer security concerns for manufacturers, software platforms, and end-users interested in investing with clarity, adapting to the new norm, while consolidating previously disjointed data for insight, automation, AI, and ML.

IoT is a rapidly growing mix of hardware, firmware, and cloud services with vast global economic and societal significance. IoT theoretically brings together what was disjointed to allow for such outcomes as long-term analytical insight via AI and ML based automation. Though these outcomes are in debatable states of maturity; they are on an irreversible course in an intercommunity of hardware and data that are driving a new world.

IT/OT convergence means combining the physical world data of automation with the digital world of information technology. Breaking up information silos by combining IT and OT helps companies significantly boost their performance, productivity, safety, and sustainability. In addition to the technical connection of the two networks, human interaction plays an essential role in IT/OT convergence. Instead of working side by side, IT and OT departments must work together to break down existing silos and develop a changed mindset of employees in IT and OT that enables a company to continuously improve processes, products, and production.

At Hilcorp, one way we are expediting the mindset shift is by developing new hybrid roles that are filled with professionals that have traditional OT skillsets and stronger IT networking skills to more naturally bridge the divide.

Panelists:
TroyJohnson, Alaska SCADA Manager, Hilcorp

In today's rapidly evolving landscape, the integration of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) is reshaping the energy, water, oil, and gas industries. This panel will delve into the transformative potential, challenges, and opportunities arising from the convergence of IT and OT systems in these sectors. Experts and thought leaders will explore how this convergence can unlock efficiency gains, enhance safety measures, and drive sustainability initiatives. Through insightful discussions, the panel aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the benefits, best practices, and future trends surrounding the convergence of IT and OT in energy, water, oil, and gas.

The conference panel on Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing will bring together industry experts, researchers, and technology pioneers to discuss the transformative potential of predictive maintenance in optimizing manufacturing processes. The panel will discuss the benefits, challenges, and future prospects of implementing predictive maintenance strategies in the manufacturing sector.

The rise of generative AI is a huge inflection point in our industry with implications for every business in every industry worldwide. However, for companies across the globe, generative AI becomes more meaningful and actionable when coupled with business and customer context and a powerful automation engine behind it.

ServiceNow is the intelligent platform for end-to-end digital transformation and the world’s most powerful low-code enterprise automation engine that enables companies to leverage generative AI in responsible ways to augment and accelerate processes for employees, customers, developers, admins and platform owners to drive productivity, reduce cost, supercharge self-service and more across their enterprise.

One of the most prominent issues we see facing the digital oilfield is that the industry’s reliance on legacy SCADA systems is holding us back from taking advantage of modern solutions to common operational problems.

Lease operators often receive over 50 alarm notifications in a single day. A large reason for that is due to shortcomings with traditional SCADA alarming. Why are we alarming the same way we did 20 years ago? No one wants to replace their SCADA system.