In this thought-provoking episode of Factory Forward, we sit down with Luis Solano, Manufacturing Industry Development Lead at Google Cloud, to explore how AI, cloud technology, and data-driven strategies are transforming the manufacturing landscape. With over 30 years of experience spanning manufacturing leadership and digital innovation at companies like Microsoft, Conway, and Abbott, Luis brings a wealth of expertise to this insightful conversation.
From addressing workforce challenges to enabling smarter operations, Luis shares practical approaches for integrating advanced technologies into traditional manufacturing environments. This episode offers a compelling look at how forward-thinking companies can harness the power of AI—not as a futuristic concept, but as a practical tool for solving long-standing industry challenges today.
Whether you’re a plant manager, innovation lead, or someone navigating digital transformation in manufacturing, this episode offers a roadmap for staying competitive in a rapidly evolving industry.
Key Takeaways:
Tune in to discover how leading manufacturers can stay factory-forward—by embracing AI, thinking strategically about data, and driving innovation from the plant floor to the cloud.
Brandin and his team help our customers with setting up the Pathfinder platform and getting up-to-speed on all the features and functionalities, in addition to assisting them with standardizing their processes where needed.
Brandin is a seasoned manufacturing leader, who has spent more than a decade designing and setting up assembly lines in both the US and China, optimizing them, and working with human operators to maximize productivity and quality.
Jesse works closely with our marquis customers to understand their needs, and figures out the best solution that immediately adds dollars to their bottom line.
Jesse has two decades of enterprise sales experience. He has held sales leadership roles at pioneering technology startups.
Andrey takes inventions and converts them into innovations. He leads our product engineering team to turn our scientific prototypes into robust customer-facing products.
Andrey co-founded and successfully exited a startup to immigrate to the US. He spent his next eight years building the core data science infrastructure for Amazon’s supply chain planning team, and the CV/ML infrastructure for Microsoft’s HoloLens organization.
Zeeshan focuses on delighting our customers by understanding their needs and defining product and strategy to meet and exceed these needs. He works closely with our sales leadership to grow our customer base.
Zeeshan was a scientific leader at Microsoft’s HoloLens division, where he invented AI technologies to assist frontline workers across industries. Earlier, he shipped IoT platforms and visual defect detection software for manufacturers at Siemens and MVTec GmbH.
Huy takes our product roadmap and figures out what’s achievable with today’s AI advances, and what we need to invent to solve our customers’ pain points.
Huy led teams of scientists and engineers at NEC and invented technologies for driver assistance systems that are part of 500,000+ Honda cars. He is an inventor on more than 20 US patents, and his research papers are cited by every lab from MIT, Stanford, and CMU to Apple, Google, and Baidu.
