254: From Steel City to Robotics Powerhouse: Pittsburgh’s Industrial Legacy featuring Jay Douglass, COO of ARM Institute

Before Silicon Valley, there was Pittsburgh in the early 1900s. Young entrepreneurs with serious capital flocked to the city, creating industries from the ground up. Plate glass. Oil drilling. Vulcanized rubber. Steel processes that would literally build America's skyline.

But today, something incredible is happening in the Steel City again. The same superstructures tower overhead, but below, you’ll find robots solving automation challenges that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

We sit down with Jay Douglass, COO of the ARM Institute, inside the historic Mill 19 facility. The epic building sits beneath a 1,400-foot steel framework that once stored World War II ammunition. Only now, it houses one of our country’s most advanced robotics labs, and it’s all powered by the largest slope solar array in North America.

This story is personal to Jay, too. We learn that his great uncle was the first head of workforce at the steel company that operated on this exact site back in 1883. Four generations later, Jay's tackling a problem as old as time: how do you help American manufacturers scale and stay competitive?

In this episode, find out:

• How 450+ Pittsburgh companies are working together instead of against each other
• The truth behind America's manufacturing dependence (and why we'd be lost buying only US-made products)
• Why robotics seems like building the "Starship Enterprise" to small manufacturers, and the practical solutions that overcome this
• A compelling family story spanning 140 years at the same industrial site, from steel workforce supervisor to robotics leader
• How proper robotics risk assessments save expensive automation mistakes later down the line
• His formula for the future of domestic manufacturing: Robots + people = Scalability + skillset
• The history of the Mill 19 building from 1940, when it was constructed, to now

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Tweetable Quotes:

• “We created the industrial world 130 years ago, and now we're really pushing the robotics industry.” - Jay Douglass
• “We're not going to buy you a robot. We're gonna help you make a better decision.” - Jay Douglass
• “Another thing about small businesses; if they're not focused on cost, quality, and time to market, by definition they're going out of business.” - Jay Douglass

Links & mentions:

• Connect with Jay Douglass, Chief Operating Officer, ARM Institute on LinkedIn.
• ARM Institute operates as America's manufacturing robotics consortium, where 450+ companies from start-ups to Fortune 500 giants collaborate on automation projects.

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.