Ed and Alvaro are back with their year-end crystal ball episode…and boy, they nailed some predictions while completely whiffing on others!

In this episode, they score their 2025 predictions (spoiler: sustainability was a BIG RED failure ❌), breaking down the 20 episodes that shaped Season 2, and going out on a limb with their 2026 forecasts.

Here's what they covered:

• Prediction scorecard - the good, the bad, and the ugly

• Why everyone's talking about AI, but still fighting fires in their plants

• The "silver tsunami" that's changing everything

• Why trades are suddenly sexier than tech jobs

• Geopolitical chaos and what it means for your supply chain

• Bold (and possibly foolish) 2026 predictions

Got predictions of your own? Drop them in the comments!

Mentioned in this episode:
AI and ROI: Translating Time Saved to Business Gains
Chain Reaction 2025: Chief Supply Chain Officer Insights

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What if your maintenance tech could pick up shifts like an Uber driver, but with the right skills and certifications guaranteed? In this game-changing episode, Ed and Alvaro speak with Rahil Siddiqui (Founder of Wilya) and Arianna Flores (former Maintenance Manager, now at Augury) to tackle manufacturing's most pressing challenge: creating flexibility for frontline workers while maintaining safety and quality standards.

Key takeaways:

• Why the "quantity equals quality" mindset is killing retention – and what actually works

• The 3-part flexibility framework: When, How Much, and What workers want control over

• How digitizing your skills matrix can eliminate 2 am panic calls and grievances

• Real success story: How one manufacturer went from zero to 100 part-time workers across six plants

• Why your best PLC tech needs more than training – they need ownership, metrics, and recognition

Mentioned in this episode:
Wilya

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You know that maintenance hero who gets the 2 AM call when the line goes down? The one who always saves the day? Ed and Alvaro have a hot take—that hero culture might be killing your plant's performance.

In this episode, they break down why firefighting becomes an addiction that's hard to kick:

• The People Problem: When "Jerry" becomes your crutch, nobody else learns to walk

• The Process Trap: Chasing symptoms with water hoses instead of fixing root causes

• The Tech Solution: How predictive maintenance breaks the reactive cycle

Bottom line? You can still reward the heroes who fix problems after the fact, but you'd better start celebrating the people who prevent them from happening in the first place.

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