Processing's Weekly Mixer: The 10 non-negotiables for a plant's reliability culture, and more
Welcome to the latest installment of Processing's Weekly Mixer, which highlights recent content from EndeavorB2B brands relevant to process manufacturers.
This week's entry features content from Plant Services, Chemical Processing, Pharma Manufacturing, Automation World and Food Processing, as well as this week's content from Processing.
The 10 non-negotiables for a plant's reliability culture
I was talking recently with a plant manager who was three years into his reliability journey. Like most culture change efforts, his plant had experienced real wins, a few setbacks, some frustration, and enough progress to know they were headed in the right direction.
Then, he asked me a question I wish more leaders would ask. “If you walked into a plant, what are the top things you would want to see that would make you say, ‘They get it’?”
That is a powerful question.
During my career, I toured more than 50 plants. I have seen plants with great slogans and poor execution. I have seen beautiful dashboards hiding weak discipline. I have seen passionate maintenance teams trapped inside broken systems. And I have seen average equipment outperform expectations because the culture, behaviors, and daily habits were aimed at eliminating waste.
Reliability is not a maintenance program. It is not a software package. It is not a poster on the wall. Reliability is a culture built on repeated actions.
This list is not everything required to achieve world-class reliability. Many more elements are needed. But in my experience, these 10 items are non-negotiable. Use this as a checklist. Be careful dismissing any item too quickly. The temptation is to say, “We already do that,” or “That does not apply here.” In most cases, the item matters more than we want to admit.
Bulk solids and powders: Flow, storage and conveyor design in chemical plants
The unique behavior and flow of bulk materials when compared to liquids and gases presents handling, transportation and storage challenges.
Operators must understand the fundamentals of bulk-material behavior at the design stage to avoid problems, such as unscheduled downtime due to poorly operating material-handling equipment, such as hoppers, silos, bunkers and bins. Flowability of a bulk material depends on many factors, including particle density, size, shape, consistency, moisture content, surface texture and coefficient of friction.
Read the entire article HERE.
US pharma manufacturing set for steady job growth through 2034: report
Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing is projected to generate approximately 19,000 production jobs by 2034 in the United States, making it one of the fastest-growing industries for employment growth over 10 years, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The report forecasts pharma manufacturing employment will reach 369,500 by 2034, up from 350,500 jobs in 2024, representing roughly 5% growth. The industry is one of 10 manufacturing segments identified as having the “fastest growing wage and salary employment over the 2024-34 decade.”
BLS also identified occupations expected to add the largest number of jobs across manufacturing industries, with industrial machinery mechanics projected to see the greatest growth sector-wide, adding 41,200 positions from 2024 to 2034. Within the scope of pharmaceutical manufacturing, employment for industrial machinery mechanics is forecast to increase 26.1% during that period, making it one of the industry’s fastest-growing occupations.
Read the entire article HERE.
How to get predictive maintenance off the ground
Driven by increased adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, specifically AI, manufacturers still rank predictive maintenance use cases at the top of their priority lists. Yet despite strong interest and recognition of key advantages, manufacturers are struggling to parlay compelling proof of concepts into something that delivers value at scale.
According to Grandview Research, the global predictive-maintenance market is expected to grow from $14.29 billion in 2025 to $98.16 billion by 2033, expanding at a CAGR of 27.9%. A 2022 report from Deloitte shows early adopters already enjoying quantifiable benefits from predictive maintenance use cases. Among them: Up to a 15% reduction in downtime, a 20% increase in labor productivity, and a 30% reduction in inventory levels with less need to stock just-in-case parts, the Deloitte research found.
Automation World tapped two experts in this area to dig into what’s stalling predictive maintenance, as well as how to accelerate adoption. Michael Cooper, manager of post-sales solution engineering and reporting at Fiix by Rockwell Automation, and Matt Bernhard, senior solutions architect at TwinThread, shared their perceptives.
Read the Q&A HERE.
Tariffs’ toll on equipment, capital projects
Regardless of whether food and beverage companies have seen impacts from tariffs on their product lines, they certainly have had an impact where equipment and machinery are concerned. Processors have seen higher prices, delays and sourcing challenges when it comes to outfitting their facilities with new equipment, and they responded in 2025 by trying to wait out the tariffs, at least according to research from PMMI (www.pmmi.org).
“The first three quarters [of 2025] were relatively slow; then in the fourth quarter, a significant number of projects moved ahead before the end of the year,” explains Jorge Izquierdo, vice president of market development for PMMI. “Still, about half of our members say they have projects on hold because of tariffs.”
More projects were on hold at the beginning of 2025 Q4 (65%) than are on hold now, he says, but with half of the respondents still holding off on projects, it’s clear that processors remain wary of the additional costs. Bruce Wesner, managing principal and general manufacturing vertical leader at Life Cycle Engineering (www.lce.com), saw processors often scrambling to respond to all the variance in tariffs and news about them.
“Every tariff announcement triggers corporations to rush to lock in purchases before effective dates, then a hard stop when pricing becomes too unpredictable to justify the capital project,” he says. Izquierdo confirms similar sentiments among PMMI member companies, saying that the uncertainty and inconsistency are the biggest hurdles.
Read the entire article HERE
