From Zero to AI: Why most manufacturers are skipping the step that matters most

70% of manufacturers still collect production data manually, according to a National Association of Manufacturers survey. Only 33% of plants give their floor teams a role in decisions made from that data. Meanwhile, Gartner estimates that 60% of AI projects without AI-ready data will be abandoned in 2026.

In this 45-minute conversation, James Wells, Senior Analyst and Research Director at LNS Research, and Matthew Craven, Sales Director North America at Factbird, talk about the starting line: getting data off the shop floor, putting it in the hands of the people running the line, and building the habit of acting on it. As they put it, the methodology doesn’t change when AI arrives. Only the source of the suggestion changes.

In the recording, you’ll learn:

• why new dashboards often go stale after the first few weeks, and why operator ownership is what keeps shop floor data alive
• why having the data is not enough, and how leading plants have shortened the time from signal to action
• what LNS Research found separates leaders from followers, including why leaders are over five times more likely to trust technology enough to delegate decisions
• a simple routine for the floor: the morning meeting, the shift handover and short huddles during the shift
• why the operator is still the best sensor you have, and how to keep operators logging stop causes
• how trust and governance decide whether your teams will act on suggestions, whether they come from an operator or an AI
• which industries are likely to adopt AI first over the next three to five years, and which are likely to lag