Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.

Optimism Prevails at IMTS and PACK EXPO Trade Shows, Even as Industry Continues to Address the Manufacturing Skills Gap   

Two of the largest manufacturing trade shows rolled through Chicago over the past two months – the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in September and PACK EXPO International 2026, which wraps up today. I had the chance to attend both, listening in on hallway conversations and talking to various vendors and attendees, where two common threads emerged.  

The first is that there is a renewed sense of optimism in the air. The stress and business uncertainty of the past few years has not vanished completely. But almost everyone I spoke with had a version of this story, that they are feeling better and more confident about making necessary business moves and investments. It’s as if the optimism in pharmaceuticals and aerospace & defense is filtering across other verticals.  

However, the other thread is that people at both trade shows generally agreed that the skills gap remains the single greatest hurdle to scaling up manufacturing in the United States. Automation and AI technologies are putting businesses in the position to scale operations quickly, but they can only scale as fast as the limited skilled labor pool will allow.  

One company recently announced their own initiative to address workforce challenges. ABM announced in September the grand opening of a new technical training center in Boise, Idaho, one of the nation's fastest-growing semiconductor manufacturing hubs. The training center will have the capacity to train up to 500 participants annually, with that number to grow over time, and will extend the existing ABM semiconductor training footprint in Austin, Texas.  

The curriculum was developed by ABM semiconductor subject matter experts and endorsed by SEMI, the global industry association serving the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. Trainees will be armed with the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to succeed in entry-level technical roles across semiconductor manufacturing environments.  

"Across the industry, demand for qualified and credentialed technicians continues to outpace the available workforce, creating one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today. Through ABM's new Technical Training Center, we are helping create faster pathways into technical careers because the industry's ability to grow depends on the people who keep these operations running." said Ed Marcil, president of manufacturing and distribution at ABM.  

According to the IndustryWeek’s own list of the top 500 U.S. manufacturing companies by revenue, semiconductor companies increased their revenue by 13% year over year. The reinvestment of some of that revenue into the future semiconductor workforce is sure to drive revenue higher in future years.   

—Thomas Wilk 

MillerKnoll Appoints Familiar Face to CEO

Furniture manufacturer MillerKnoll Inc. has seated a new chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The new CEO is Jeff Stultz, who had been serving in that role in an interim capacity since the end of June, following the departure of former CEO Andi Owen. 

“Following a rigorous search process, the Board believes Jeff is the right leader for MillerKnoll as we continue to focus on accelerating sales, improving profitability and creating value for our shareholders," board chair John R. Hoke said in a statement. 

Zeeland, Michigan-based MillerKnoll is the company behind such brands as HermanMiller and Knoll. It recently reported its fiscal 2027 Q1 results, with net sales of $923.4 million, down 3.4% from the same period one year ago. The company also noted that it saw an approximately $10 million increase in operating income related to refunds from the U.S. government of previously paid IEEPA tariffs.  

—Jill Jusko

Who Watches the Agents?

It’s all well and good to allow AI agents to access your systems, but are you absolutely sure you know everything the agents are up to?

That’s the question tackled by a new report from cloud software provider ServiceNow, “Deployed but Ungoverned, The State of Agentic Security” released Tuesday. 

According to the report, 46% of organizations have security and governance in place for agentic AI deployments, responsibility rarely sits with one person, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities result from both.

The report is heavy on the IT, if you want to get into the weeds on cybersecurity frameworks and such you can download the full report on the ServiceNow website, but there are core issues any manufacturer really should consider before allowing experimental agent development on plant networks.

For example, according to the study, over the past year 29% of cybersecurity teams found AI agents no one in security knew about previously running on the network. 

Consider that while 56% of organizations believe their agentic AI security is purpose-built for the task, only 47% can produce on-demand evidence that all security decisions made on their network are valid, i.e., people, not AI, pushed the command buttons. 

In other words, half of organizations can’t report quickly on whether unknown AI agents are pushing buttons and pulling levers they really ought not to be pushing and pulling.

Manufacturers then need to consider that 82% of organizations run agents that interact with OT or physical environments and 76% of orgs had an OT or physical incident involving an AI agent. These rogue AI might already be on your shop floor. Without proper governance you risk finding them only when they’ve done something wrong and affected your business.

— Dennis Scimeca

MISUMI Helps Build the Builders of Tomorrow

MISUMI Americas on Oct. 21 announced the launch of the MISUMI Imprint Foundation, backed by a $2 million seed investment to support engineering scholarships, manufacturing education and industry-academia partnerships in the U.S. The philanthropic institution will make grants in three areas:

• Scholarships and Access: need-based support for underrepresented and first-gen students in manufacturing, engineering and supply chain.
• Future Builders Programs: equipment grants for labs and student engineering team sponsorships.
• Industry-Academia Partnerships: manufacturing-focused curricula, internships, apprenticeships, mentorship and other career support.

“MISUMI has spent decades supplying the components engineers design into machines, so we know exactly who builds the physical world,” says Dave Evans, president and CEO of MISUMI Americas. “We also know the talent pipeline is too narrow for the moment we're in. AI is moving into factories, vehicles and operating rooms, and that work takes engineers, machinists and technicians — not just software. This foundation is our investment in the talent pipeline the industry depends on.”

The foundation’s partner network invites MISUMI’s suppliers to make voluntary annual contributions and join the foundation advisory board. The first grant cycle is slated to open early next year.

“The Imprint Foundation is the first time we have built an organization dedicated to the next generation of builders,” says MISUMI Group Inc. CEO Arata Shimizu. “It launches in the United States but is a global initiative. We intend to extend it across the regions MISUMI serves and into communities where manufacturing is beginning to take root.”

—Anna Smith

It’s Spooky Season, and Manufacturing Boards Are ‘Scared to Death About Cyber’  

Corporate manufacturing boards and CEOs have deep experience leading manufacturing companies but are struggling to keep up with AI strategy, geopolitics and cybersecurity, according to a new survey by leadership advisory firm EgonZehnder and the Manufacturers Alliance. 

“Had you walked into our board meeting five years ago, you would not have heard nearly the same focus on cybersecurity, nor would you have heard anything about tariffs,” said one board respondent in the survey. “These are some of the new topics that our board has to stay apprised of consistently.” 

“I’m scared to death about cyber,” said one CEO. “And the board shares my terror.” 

Ninety-one percent of survey respondents said their need for expertise in digital, AI and technology transformation is accelerating. Seventy-four percent say they have brought in external experts to help them understand technology, with more than half (57%) saying their greatest lack of expertise is in “technology, digital and data.”  

Boards are also giving functional experts a seat at the table, looking beyond their usual C-Suite manufacturing networks to add specialists in technology and geopolitics to their membership. 

But technology isn’t their only concern. Nearly 40% said that since the pandemic, fast-moving geopolitical events were having an outsized impact on their business, leading to more emphasis on scenario planning, increased CEO and board interactions and “heightened attention to balancing immediate decisions with long-term strategy.” 

“If this was 10 years ago and August, I could probably tell you what next April’s agenda was going to look like,” said one respondent. “We can’t do that now. Right now, I could not tell you what November’s agenda looks like with any certainty.” 

—Laura Putre 

3M Builds a Data Center Daisy Chain 

The leaders of 3M Co. this week trotted out two news items focused on data centers to go with the company’s third-quarter earnings report. Both illustrate how broadly the investment boom around artificial intelligence is spreading across the manufacturing sector and creating camps of companies aligning with each other to make sure they properly participate. 

3M’s first bit of news detailed the formalization of an alliance with Amazon.com Inc. that gives the tech and retail giant the right to buy up to 3.2 million 3M shares (about 0.6% of the company’s stock as of today) once it has bought $6 billion worth of 3M’s optical connectivity equipment and other data center products. The companies’ agreement covers the next seven years and is noteworthy for its scale: 3M’s sales of data center gear – which includes expanded beam optical connection systems as well as cables and insulation deployed outside data centers – are on track to be “only” about $700 million total this year. 

That implies that 3M Chairman and CEO Bill Brown and his team expect to sell an average of more than $850 million of data center products annually just to Amazon through 2033. The actual number will be higher: Brown on Oct. 20 told analysts that sales to Amazon “will start to ramp towards the back end of next year” and only truly become meaningful in 2028. 

Given that 3M also has data center supply deals to Microsoft and has been talking to at least four other hyperscalers, Brown and his team have their work cut out in terms of building capacity. Brown has been vocal about the need to develop a network of suppliers and manufacturers to feed the hungry hyperscaler market and his team’s second bit of related news this week involved putting to work some of 3M’s own capital. 

On Oct. 19, 3M said it will partner with Taiwan-based Genius Electronic Optical Co. to take advantage of the latter’s expertise in precision optics manufacturing and technical development. The deal calls for 3M to buy about 4.7% of GSEO, which has a market capitalization of about $4 billion, through a private placement by the end of this year. 

Now it’s time for the pedal to hit the metal. 

“What’s important right now is we execute well,” Brown said on 3M’s earnings conference call. “We scale well here with Amazon. We build out the ecosystem, which they and other hyperscalers believe is very important. A very important step is combining that with the GSEO announcement, where we have solidified the supply side […] We think it’s a very important milestone.” 

— Geert De Lombaerde