Podcast: The future of system integration in data centers, defense, and manufacturing

TW: That's fascinating, and a couple of things you mentioned about CSIA, I think will register with our readers and listeners. You're talking to a whole lot of problem solvers. Every day they're faced with some sort of new asset management challenge, some kind of machine breakdown or some kind of reliability problem, which they're in charge of figuring out the solution for. 

I'm curious about some of the goals that you have for CSIA this past year and also looking forward, so maybe we can look back to this past year. Was there a goal or two that you had coming in, which now you've been on the role for about, say, ten months, that's well underway,? Something that you're that you're proud of?

AM: So as I'm coming in, it was really important to me to listen to the membership and take the time to determine the needs of the members. My mantra, and I've said this for years, is that membership associations exist to serve members, and so, we're not in business to do anything outside of that. So until we understand what it is our members need and figure out how to best deliver that, you know, we're not doing the job. So that was job one to me. 

What I was fortunate in coming into this role is that CSIA is an incredibly strong association with a lot to give its members. And it's got really passionate people who are invested in the association in leadership roles, but also just in being members. What was important was to listen to them. I've been traveling the country, meeting with integrators, to understand what was important to them. 

The goals related to that was, we're a place where you, as a system integration professional, you can turn to for model business practices, where you can meet other integrators who can partner with you on projects, where you can receive education, where you can certify your business to show that you're best in class. And so my goals as I was coming in, seeing things, but also for the next year, is to strengthen the foundation, expand our reach and offer, and ensure that our members have the same personalized connection with the association that they do with each other. 

And so I have a range of projects that I've worked on with the board that are related to these. Our next major thing that we're doing is the CSIA 2026 conference in Baltimore the first week of May. And that focus on education, you'll be able to see there because we've got over 30 system integrators that are going to present on topics from the use of AI within system integration businesses, the impact of cybersecurity regulations on projects, how to price for value, and more. And I'm not sure when this is going to be published, but I'm geeked about our agenda for the conference, so if you're a system integrator or you support them as a supplier, I recommend you check it out because we have a whole range of things here for the audience.

TW: That's terrific, and this episode of the podcast should launch in mid-April. By then, I'm sure the agenda will be ready. So we'll have the link in the speaker notes to the conference for sure.

AM: You want to jump in there? We will be glad to take you as an attendee.

TW: Man, I attended one in San Francisco, and it was a really fascinating conference. And for the asset management professionals listening, there was more of a focus on asset management than even I thought I'd hear. I mean, these are the problems that integrators are solving, which is how to get machines and data sets to talk to each other. So if you're heading down that path on a project, I'd say reach out to CSIA or check out the conference agenda. 

I just returned from the Marcon conference about a week and a half ago in Knoxville, TN, and that's it sort of kicks off the reliability event season and it's run by the Reliability and Maintainability Center, run by Klaus Blache and Kim Kallstrom. I was curious to observe that the skills gap was still front and center on a lot of people's minds at this conference. But when it does come to automation, everyone did observe that there wasn't any way for maintenance and operations departments to succeed without increased levels of industrial automation. 

So, let me ask your thoughts on that. How do you see automation helping organizations to address how tough it is to find good skilled people?

AM: You're touching on a very real and structural shift in manufacturing. I agree that the skills gap is not just encouraging automation. In many cases, it's actively forcing it. But that said, I see the trend as more nuanced than what you hear in the media of people versus machines. And your listening audience understands that, but it is important to see this on a nuanced level.

Historically, automation was driven primarily by cost reduction and consistency, but today it's increasingly about capacity preservation. Many manufacturers simply can't staff those critical roles, as you mentioned, the rise of experienced workers outpacing the inflow of trained replacements. Even when wages rise, the talent pool doesn't magically refill. So in that context, automation becomes less of a strategic advantage and more of a business continuity requirement. It's no longer about doing more with fewer people, but being able to operate at all. 

But I think that, you know, especially as you were mentioning AI, what's most understood about automation is that it doesn't remove the skills gap, it reshapes it. So with automation, the reductions are in repetitive manual tasks, high variability, low judgment operations, or physically demanding or ergonomically risky work. The skills being amplified, in contrast, are system thinking, controls knowledge, data interpretation, etc., which strangely creates a paradox that automation lowers dependency on some scarce skills, but might increase dependency on different ones that are even scarcer. So this is a problem to be solved by manufacturers as they're considering it. 

A while back, I think really the focus had been thinking through or conceptualizing lights out manufacturing, and certainly that still exists, the FANUC plants in Japan or semiconductor production. But I think now there's more of a focus towards human-centered automation that's collaborative and assisted, such as cobots that reduce training time and are easier to deploy, vision systems that augment operator judgment rather than replace it, and low-code / no-code interfaces for line changes and diagnostics. 

Really the best, the fastest ROI comes from making your workers highly effective, not from replacing them entirely. When it's not carefully considered or only considered as a substitute for workforce strategy, automation can increase operational risk when you don't think about internal capacity building and when you underestimate life cycle costs, which your listeners will be very familiar with. So I think the real question is not how much can we automate, but more what human capabilities do we want to preserve or amplify or no longer depend on.

TW: For our – again, we're talking to asset management professionals – this isn't the only market sector that is really needing the hand of a good integrator partner these days. You've got health care, you've got finance. What kind of market sectors do you see dominating system integration work these days? And where does manufacturing sort of fit into that over the next five years?

AM: It's no surprise that data centers are the hottest topic for integrators right now, certainly getting a lot of attention. In fact, we're running a session at the CSIA conference specifically on the business opportunities with data centers. CSIA partners with JP Morgan, on a semi annual basis for a survey of the system integration industry. They survey hundreds of integrators who are connected in with CSIA to understand where these trends are going, exactly as you asked. 

They just published one I think in February, and there were a couple questions in that, one related to if your firm operates in multiple end markets, which customer end markets are showing the most activity? And one regarding, okay, don't think about near term trends, don't think about things that are happening right now, what do you think is going to happen in the long term? So the interesting thing is data centers, defense, and semiconductor were the top three answers for both of those. They were in a different order, but if integrators are asked about what's their opportunity, short and long term, it really is those areas. 

In contrast, the markets that were showing the most weakness were related to automotive and tire, likely due to higher consumer cost, that input cost uncertainty due to tariffs, and maybe the slowdown in EV adoption. Although, interestingly, I met with an integrator over the past few weeks who is involved in the automotive industry, and from their perspective, a panel is a panel. So if it's an EV panel, great. So yeah, I think that that's where that's where they're seeing the markets right now.

TW: Interesting. We're seeing a lot of reliability professionals get pulled in that data center direction too. And it's a whole different world than manufacturing because you've had different redundancy requirements for the for the support infrastructure. But as you say, sometimes a chiller is a chiller and it's still going to be a critical unit to work on.

All right. Well, we'll get you out of here on this one, Adrienne. When it comes to the market itself or integration, how is the market changing over the next five years? Do you see data centers and defense, like you said, dominating going forward? What's in store for our readers and listeners?

AM: I think as you're looking at the work that system integrators will be doing, regardless of the industry in which they're doing the work, I think the market's going to continue to move for system integrators from project and project-based to more platform and lifecycle services. I think all of my membership and your listeners will understand that the best relationship with an integrator works when you consider them an ongoing partner rather than a one-off supplier. But with more software and data in a digital integration, there's going to be more ongoing partnerships to make sure that there's support for managed OT networks, cybersecurity, data platforms and the like. 

Speaking of OT networks, we've been talking about this OT-IT convergence, I feel for decades now. But as we are making this shift, as it becomes default for system integrators, the scope of what's being integrated grows. Integrators are going to adapt to blends – controls, networking, cybersecurity, data engineering, the like. And with regard to cybersecurity, that's going to become increasingly important with regulations like the ones that were launched in Europe a couple of years ago, a year ago. It feels time is passing quickly! But with those regulations and with the possibility of any particular incidents that draw people's attention back into how important it actually is, integration work is really going to be triggered by security requirements, segmentation, asset inventory, remote access, especially for critical infrastructure. 

So I think overall, as we're looking at this and looking at AI, bringing in the industrial edge, etc., what that'll mean for integrators is they'll need to think through building repeatable architectures, investing in security and data engineering talent so that they can serve your listeners, and thinking through lifecycle services.

TW: Adrienne, thank you for being with us this morning to talk. Plant Services and I appreciate the long partnership we've had with CSIA, and I'm looking forward to working with you for the next couple of years here as you go forward in this role.

AM: I am delighted to join you and it was great to chat this morning.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

Listen to another episode and subscribe on your favorite podcast app