Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast

Howard Sachs joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to discuss how de-risking industrial technology, championing sovereign manufacturing, and first-principles leadership are shaping Australia's industrial future.
Key topics in this episode:
Why de-risking matters more than product specifications in industrial sales
How the Dulux Industry 4.0 project succeeded through collaboration and leadership
Australia's sovereign manufacturing challenges and the COVID-19 vaccine push
Pockets of innovation across traditionally conservative industries
Why mentorship from every direction accelerates learning
Connect with Howard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsachs/
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/
Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/
Learn more about Universal Automation Solutions: https://universalsystems.com.au

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Most industrial AI projects fail before they produce anything useful. The models are ready, the dashboards look great, and the executive presentation landed. But on the shop floor, nobody can get clean data out of the PLC without calling the vendor. The missing piece is a data foundation.
Alexander Kruger, co-founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub (UMH), joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes on this episode, powered by PLCnext Technology, to explain why factory AI stalls without the right infrastructure underneath it, why boring technology beats shiny platforms, and how open source tooling is putting data ownership back in the hands of the people who run factories.
Key topics in this episode:
Why most factory AI projects fail at the data layer before they reach the model layer
How UMH went from systems integration with McKinsey to building open source data infrastructure
The five-step process for connecting machines, modeling data, and serving it to applications
Why Kafka and Postgres beat purpose-built IoT platforms for long-term reliability
How containers and Kubernetes solve high availability problems OT has wrestled with for years
The open source bet on forerunner power users who change organizations from within
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This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology
PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.

Learn more at:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠⁠⁠

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Connect with Alexander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-krueger/
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/
Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/
Learn more about United Manufacturing Hub: https://umh.app

Most industrial data projects fail before they start. The data is clean, the tools are connected, and the dashboards look great. But nobody can explain why the production line dropped 12% last Tuesday. The missing piece is human context.
Bob van de Kuilen, CEO and co-founder of Thred, joins Phil Seboa to explain why knowledge graphs fill the gap that the Unified Namespace leaves open, and how pairing them with AI turns weeks of troubleshooting into minutes.
Key topics in this episode:
Why machine context alone cannot make industrial data meaningful
How knowledge graphs go beyond UNS to connect cross-functional perspectives
A hydraulic failure diagnosed in three minutes instead of two weeks
The knowing-doing gap that keeps factories stuck despite having the right tools
Why throwing an LLM over raw data without a knowledge graph causes hallucinations

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This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology
PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.

Learn more at:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠⁠

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Connect with Bob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-van-de-kuilen-a531403/

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/

Learn more about Thred: https://thredcloud.com

Containerization is quietly reshaping how factories deploy and manage software, but most OT teams never asked for it. In this episode powered by PLCnext Technology, we explore why containers matter for manufacturing and how to adopt them without the complexity.
Neil Cresswell, Founder and CEO of Portainer, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to discuss how his platform went from an IT tool to a factory floor essential, and why the technology behind it should be invisible to the people using it.
Key topics in this episode:
How Portainer evolved from an IT tool to an industrial platform
Why containers and Kubernetes are reshaping factory software deployment
The global manufacturing competition driving modernization
Real-world use cases from John Deere, precision agriculture, and quality control
A bottom-up strategy for adopting new technology in your plant

This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology
PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.

Learn more at:
⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/⁠

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FlowFuse at Hannover Messe 2026
Discover how FlowFuse empowers you to build, deploy, and scale industrial automation -- your way. Visit FlowFuse at Hall 014, Stand K26 during Hannover Messe (April 20-24, 2026) and experience live demonstrations of FlowFuse connecting the entire industrial stack -- from PLCs on the shop floor to MES, ERP, and cloud services -- enabling real-time industrial connectivity, data integration, and AI-powered operations.
Let's transform industrial data together -- live, integrated, and in real time.

Claim your free pass and learn more: https://flowfuse.com/events/hannover-messe-2026/

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Connect with Neil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncresswell/
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/
Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/
Learn more about Portainer: https://www.portainer.io
Episode Recap Article: https://unpluggediiot.com/episodes/ep-48-containers-without-complexity-it-tools-factory-floor

Carl Gould, CTO and co-founder of Inductive Automation, joins hosts Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes for an in-person conversation recorded in Australia ahead of the Ignition Everywhere event in Brisbane.
Carl traces Ignition's journey from FactorySQL in 2003 to the 8.3 release, which introduces file-based configuration, Git and GitOps compatibility, Perspective offline mode, and a new architecture for managing distributed OT systems at scale. He breaks down the three design principles that have guided the platform from day one (cost, convenience, and capability), shares his evolving take on AI in industrial automation, and explains why he calls the IT/OT divide "a fictional line."
In this episode, we discuss:
The 8.3 release: file-based config, GitOps, deployment modes, and Perspective offline
Scaling from thousands of tags to millions with distributed, decoupled architectures
Why AI in industrial automation is a means to an end, not a product in itself
The community and culture behind Ignition's worldwide growth

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This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology

PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.

Learn more at:
⁠⁠⁠https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/
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FlowFuse at Hannover Messe 2026
Discover how FlowFuse empowers you to build, deploy, and scale industrial automation -- your way. Visit FlowFuse at Hall 014, Stand K26 during Hannover Messe (April 20-24, 2026) and experience live demonstrations of FlowFuse connecting the entire industrial stack -- from PLCs on the shop floor to MES, ERP, and cloud services -- enabling real-time industrial connectivity, data integration, and AI-powered operations.

Let's transform industrial data together -- live, integrated, and in real time.

Claim your free pass and learn more: https://flowfuse.com/events/hannover-messe-2026/

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Carl Gould is the CTO and co-founder of Inductive Automation. He has been building and guiding the Ignition platform since 2003. Under his leadership, Ignition has grown from a SQL connectivity tool into a comprehensive platform used across industries worldwide for SCADA, HMI, MES, and IIoT applications.

Connect with Carl Gould on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-gould

Learn more about Inductive Automation: https://inductiveautomation.com

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/philseboa/⁠

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/edfuentes/