Video Interview: How Emerging Techs are Changing ITW
08 Jul, 2015
Maryann McNally is Vice President of Innovation at Illinois Tool Works (ITW), which is a $15 billion manufacturer of industrial products and equipment for a wide variety of industries, from automotive to food, construction, and test instrumentation. She recently sat down for an interview with Mark Bunger, Research Director at LuxPopuli.
A large part of innovation today is being open, and looking beyond the company for people and ideas. Maryann and Mark talk about the Maker Movement and open source designs, and how issues like liability in regulated industries might play out if a critical component were to fail. At the same time, she says ITW is closely following initiatives like America Makes.
They also discuss the impact beyond ITW of emerging technologies (such as “digital production”) and business models (like “distributed manufacturing”). Will they fuel the revitalization of the manufacturing sector and return of well-paying jobs, or a “dark factory” scenario where the lights are out, because only robots work there? How do we bring women, millennials, and other diverse groups into science and engineering, building and manufacturing? What does this dynamic period in manufacturing’s history require of us as humans and as leaders?
Maryann’s role puts her squarely in the middle of technical, human, and economic issues that extend both deep inside and far beyond the 50,000-employee ITW organization.
Image: Lux Research
