Principal Investigators Ben Armstrong , Julie Shah , Katherine Kellogg
Principal Investigators Julie Shah , Ben Armstrong
Risk, Innovation and the New Manufacturing Pioneers
Ben Armstrong Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center
How have some companies experienced dramatic growth and productivity improvement in manufacturing even as their peers struggle to compete? What explains how some manufacturing firms have been faster to adopt new technologies or workforce practices than other firms? This presentation will focus on understanding the operational and technological patterns of high-performing manufacturing firms in the United States. It will emphasize particularly the way that these firms have built on – and in some cases departed from – the Toyota Production System, which has for decades been the paradigm for manufacturing excellence in the United States and abroad.
Positive-Sum Automation & Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Ben Armstrong
Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center
MIT’s working group on Generative AI and the Work of the Future is studying how dozens of large companies are adopting generative AI to improve productivity, decision-making, and innovation. This presentation, from one of the working group’s co-leads, will summarize early research findings, including how generative AI has been augmenting jobs in human resources, marketing, customer support, and engineering. Although there has been justified enthusiasm about the potential for generative AI to deliver productivity and improved job quality, there are large gaps in our knowledge. One open question is how generative AI tools may negatively affect skill development and collaboration among teams. The research presented will propose ways that generative AI can be deployed to minimize skill atrophy and organizational silos.
Panelists: Elisabeth B. Reynolds Former Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing and Economic Development Former Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future and IPC Professor of the Practice, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Aurora Kennedy TECH Recruiting, Training, and Development Manager, SLB
Cyrus Shaoul CEO, Leela AI
Ben Armstrong, Executive Director, Industrial Performance Center (IPC)
Panel Discussion: Skills, Jobs, and LLMs - How Companies are Redesigning Work as they Deploy AI
J.J. Laukaitis Program Director, MIT Corporate Relations Ben Armstrong Interim Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center Thomas Kochan George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management Professor, Work and Organization Studies
Duane Graupman Vice President of Global Operations and Supply Chain, Xylem, Inc.
Ben Armstrong Research Scientist, Industrial Performance Center and Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing