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Manufacturing Happy HourMaking Manufacturing Current, Cool, and Approachable Author: Chris Luecke
Welcome to Manufacturing Happy Hour, the podcast where we get real about the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers. Hosted by industry veteran Chris Luecke, each week, we interview makers, founders, and other manufacturing leaders that are at the top of their game and give you the tools, tactics, and strategies you need to take your career and your business to the next level. We go beyond the buzzwords and dissect real-life applications and success stories so that you can tackle your biggest manufacturing challenges and turn them into profitable opportunities. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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281: How AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance Enhances Operational Reliability with Colin Morris of MaintainX
Episode 281
Tuesday, 31 March, 2026
AI-powered predictive maintenance has been on the radar for years, but for most facilities, it still hasn’t fully landed.Chris sits down remotely with Colin Morris, Senior Director of Solution Consulting at MaintainX, the AI-powered maintenance and asset management platform built for the industrial frontline. Colin has spent eight years working in this space, long enough to have watched maintenance shift from an afterthought to a strategic asset across North American manufacturing.They cover the real barriers to AI adoption in maintenance: unstructured data sitting across disconnected systems, outdated assumptions about what predictive tools should deliver, and the foundational steps most facilities skip before they’re ready.Colin walks through what parts data to collect and why, how maintenance has evolved from cost center to cost saver, and where agentic AI is taking the industry next, including what scheduling looks like when an agent does the first pass and a human approves the plan.In this episode, find out:Whether today’s manufacturers have the data infrastructure AI actually needs, and why having data and having usable data are two very different thingsThe gap between what AI-driven predictive maintenance promises and what tends to happen when facilities try to put it into practiceWhy a predictive system that shows no faults can mean things are working exactly as they should, and how confirmation bias leads teams to misread that signalThe foundations most facilities skip when digitizing, and why jumping ahead without them creates problems that are hard to undoWhat parts information every facility should have on record, why it matters more than most teams realize, and what happens when a critical component is not cataloguedHow maintenance’s status has changed over eight years, from a cost center most facilities avoided spending on, to a core part of a facility’s digital strategyWhat AI looks like across maintenance operations today and where it genuinely adds value versus where human judgment still needs to leadEnjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes:“A lot of customers do have the data. The biggest challenge is it’s super unstructured and in different systems, so getting it into a format AI can actually use is still a huge challenge.”“People expect predictive maintenance to surface issues, but if an asset is running well, nothing’s going to happen. No insights are sometimes good insights. That means things are operating the way they should.”“Historically, about 60% of a technician’s time is admin work. If you can give even 10–20% of that time back, that’s a huge gain in actual wrench time.”Links & mentions:MaintainX, helping industrial teams manage work orders, asset performance, parts, and labor with AI-driven insights that reduce downtime and boost operational excellenceNick Haase on Manufacturing Happy Hour, episode 206 featuring MaintainX’s Co-Founder and the company’s first appearance on the podcastLeft Field Brewery, established in Toronto in 2013 and brews a series of baseball-inspired, distinct and full-flavoured beersMake sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.Mentioned in this episode:Party with Manufacturing Happy Hour!Join Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour, or at one of our famous EXTRA INNINGS conference afterparties (co-hosted with Jake Hall, The Manufacturing Millennial).Join The Party
