My father is Dr. Evelio M. Santiago. He is a retired emergency room physician who immigrated to the US from the Philippines in 1959. For most of his career, he worked two jobs: one at the hospital, the second at a state health facility. His work ethic and willingness to sacrifice countless hours of family time in order to provide for a family of six are standards which I try to live up to in my own life.
My son is Evelio Santiago. He goes by Leo. He’s in his second year of college and works part-time busing tables at a local restaurant. He studies hard during the week, gets good grades, and gives up most of his weekends in order to work his part-time job. He’s also a sculptor and an avid video gamer. Leo is able to skillfully use and understand the latest technologies available for school, work, and play and the joy he gets out of learning something new and applying it are values I try to live up to in my own life.
These men are my role models. Within them I find old-school dedication and new-school enthusiasm.
While a sturdy work ethic and sacrifice require constant vigilance, embracing the new technology seems to be a bit more challenging.
The same can be said about our industry. We continually maintain our commitments to quality and reliability, but we need to find the joy and necessity of employing innovative trends.
At the start of 2019, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) identified five trends and technologies that continue to evolve into the future. We kept our eye on them the past year and now I think they deserve more attention and focus.
AEM identified them (and I’m paraphrasing their list) as:
- Intelligent Manufacturing - Large-scale integration of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing technology and processes
- Data Utilization - Being able to simply manage the mounds of data generated
- The Internet of Things (IoT) - The marriage of networked sensors and intelligent devices with connected equipment
- Workforce Training - Manufacturing employs roughly 9% of the US workforce, yet it is increasingly unable to fill necessary positions with qualified people.
- Artificial Intelligence - Connected networks of people and machines all integrated into a highly intelligent engine that monitors everything and provides actionable data and insights
As the holiday season washes over you, take a moment to consider the generations that came before to form the backbone of our country. And then start to unwrap the new gifts being bestowed that will become the fresh muscle and sinew of our collective efforts. Much like I will with my father and son.
