When you walk into a room filled with manufacturers, one thing stands out: they really love what they do. You can feel the passion in the air. This was true while walking through the Plex Experience Lab & Solutions Expo, as you listen to conversations between sessions, and at networking events during PowerPlex 2019.

In speaking with the people who are innovating every day from the shop floor to the top floor, I noticed a real sense of pride and purpose. It didn’t matter if the person’s job was in accounting, quality, or IT. A feeling of being connected to a larger mission was pervasive—that mission being excellence.

During the general session keynotes when Plex executives brought customers on stage to share their experiences and perspectives, the tone of excellence was evident. Brian Davis from Seven Marine on stage spoke about his sense of achievement when he talked about his company’s world-class outboard engines, and what his team has been able to accomplish in an already saturated market, and how they leveraged technology to scale the business up to its eventual sale.

Then Mark Redmond of Toyotetsu lauded his company’s level of commitment to its customers and to building a connected supply chain that delivers what customers want.

Dan Mullins from API Heat Transfer touted his company’s heat transfer solutions and the work his team has done to enable operational excellence using a single source of truth.

Of course, there were also discussions about the challenges manufacturers face every day—and acknowledging and responding to those global challenges is as essential as identifying new innovations. Finding and keeping the right people, squeezing out every last bit of efficiency during production, cutting costs to remain competitive, and more were all at the forefront of many conversations throughout the conference. But as I scanned the board in the expo are where participants wrote down what they love most about their industry and posted them for all to see, I saw that theme of excellence repeat itself once again. Comments like: “Building the foundations of the world.” “Solving real problems.” And also, “Bringing things together.” “Continuously improving on innovation.”

It is this commitment to excellence that will enable these leaders to face and overcome these challenges and build a better tomorrow.

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