Plant Talk

This episode features Mike Kapalko, Industrial Segment Marketing Manager, North America, at Tork Essity. Mike shares practical insights on improving industrial hygiene and worker health in today’s manufacturing environments.The conversation explores the key risks facing plant operations, the role of hygiene in overall productivity and safety, and where manufacturers can start when building or refining their approach.In addition, Mike outlines simple, actionable steps for plant operators, from identifying high-risk touchpoints to implementing effective hygiene solutions that support both workforce well-being and operational efficiency.This episode is sponsored by Tork Essity.

Plant spoke to Ioan Buzdugan about how he has been spearheading the effort to get the HCM Alliston plant ready for the 2023 CR-V Hybrid, as well as Honda’s new robotic technology, and how plant automation augments the manufacturing process.

EPISODE GUEST: Daniel Breton, President and CEO, Electric Mobility CanadaSUMMARY: More and more automotive OEMs are bringing battery production to Canada and committing to producing electric vehicles within Canada. In this episode of Plant Talk, Breton looks at how this is affecting the clean technology space in Canada, and the different types of electric vehicles; battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and the impacts that they have on the environment in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

EPISODE GUEST: Scott Everett, CEO and Co-Founder, Eigen InnovationsSUMMARY: In this episode, Everett speaks about Eigen Innovations’ mission in helping manufacturers realize “zero defects” by giving them real-time, actionable insights to better control their processes and the quality of their outputs.He speaks about Eigen’s machine vision platform, which unites image and quality data on every part. With correlated data, it generates a virtual part profile, a traceable blueprint, which is used to generate machine learning models to monitor parts and processes, and automate actions.He explains how with insights delivered via the platform, operators and engineers can adjust process controls to prevent quality issues in-line. Using the robust part profiles, they can access data to conduct root cause analysis and investigations.

In part two of our conversation with Richard Kunst, President and CEO, and Mariela Castaño, Senior Vice-President and COO, Kunst Solutions, the discussion focuses on data, customizations, robots, and how to address challenges.

Richard Kunst, President and CEO, and Mariela Castaño, Senior Vice-President and COO, Kunst Solutions, speak about the factory of the future, including trends, technologies, and automation; in part one of a two part series.

Guest Matt Skynner, COO, of ventureLAB, speaks about how various industries (namely automotive) have been hit hard by the recent chip shortage; why Canada’s auto sector was vulnerable; and when things will go back to normal. He also discusses why Canada needs to build chips and batteries at home, and how the rise of electric vehicles makes it even more important.

Guest Greta Cutulenco, from Acerta Analytics Solutions, speaks about the differences between the automotive and tech industries. She covers the topics of how to bridge the gap between existing technology in automotive and new data science tools, and how to manage diverse, cross functional teams with domain knowledge in both tech and automotive.Cutulenco also speaks about her role and mission at Acerta Analytics Solutions, and provides insights into how women can advance careers in automotive and technology industries.Greta Cutulenco is the CEO and Co-founder of Acerta Analytics Solutions. Acerta provides a machine learning platform that detects malfunction and predicts failures for vehicles coming off the assembly line and being driven.She has years of experience working with automotive OEMs and Tier-1 manufacturers, having worked at Bombardier and at Magna in the area of system testing, monitoring, and analysis. She worked at AECL (nuclear) on testing processes. Her Master of Science research at the University of Waterloo focused on automatic analysis of data for testing and anomaly detection.In 2018, Cutulenco won the Female Founders Competition, sponsored by M12, EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group. She has also been included on the Forbes 30-Under-30 list for manufacturing and was named one of 2019’s Canadians to Watch by Automotive News.