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Happy September 15th, makers and movers of Industry 4.0!
The air is starting to cool (at least for some of us), but the news cycle is anything but. From software companies topping the charts to aerospace strikes shaking production lines, and energy giants trimming staff while food processors shuffle leadership—it’s been a week of big shifts and hard choices. Through it all, the thread is clear: resilience in technology and manufacturing depends on adaptability, whether that means leaning into AI, preserving cash, or rethinking operations.
This week’s Learning Lens gives us a tool to speed up builds, and Byte-Sized Brilliance reminds us just how far storage has come since “huge” meant one gigabyte. So grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s dig into the stories shaping the future of work and industry.
Snowflake Named #1 in Fortune’s Future 50, Keeps Pushing AI Leadership
Snowflake just grabbed the top spot on Fortune’s 2025 Future 50™ list, recognized for how it’s enabling companies to actually turn data into AI-driven products and insights. The announcement comes alongside a CFO transition, with Brian Robins stepping in this month to guide the company through its next growth phase. If you were at ProveIt! 2025, you saw Snowflake show off what their platform can do—and we’re pumped to have them back again at ProveIt! 2026. With AI leadership now central to their strategy, we’re watching closely to see what new ideas they bring to the floor next year.
Boeing Plans Furloughs Amid Strike as Cash Pressure Mounts
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of U.S.-based managers, executives, and other staff to conserve cash during the ongoing machinists’ strike. About 33,000 factory workers in the Pacific Northwest walked off the job after rejecting a contract proposal that included a 25% raise over four years, demanding higher wages, restored pensions, and other improvements. Production of key models, including the 737 Max, has halted, quickly straining Boeing’s cash flow since much of its revenue comes when planes are delivered. Furloughed employees will take one unpaid week every four weeks while retaining benefits, and senior executives will take pay cuts. Safety, quality, and certification work will continue, but Boeing is also cutting supplier spending, freezing hiring, and eliminating most travel as it negotiates with the union under federal mediation. Analysts warn that if the strike extends, Boeing faces the risk of a credit downgrade to junk status.
Tyson Foods Exec Departs Amid Code-of-Conduct Violation
Tyson Foods removed its Chief Supply Chain Officer, Brady Stewart, after internal investigation found “certain actions” in violation of the company’s code of conduct. Stewart also oversaw Tyson’s beef, pork, and prepared foods divisions. Devin Cole, formerly president of poultry and international segments, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, inheriting oversight of those business lines plus others. Key operational areas including supply chain, food safety, and transportation will now report directly to CEO Donnie King. The move comes ahead of Tyson’s 2026 fiscal year and adds to other recent executive departures over ethical concerns.
Sponsor Message
WinCC OA is way more than SCADA.
If that’s all you’re using it for, you’re leaving serious value on the table.
Manufacturers everywhere are trying to bolt AI onto legacy systems and failing—not because AI doesn't work, but because their platforms were never built for interoperability.
WinCC OA is different.
✅ It’s object-oriented
✅ It’s metadata-rich
✅ And with the new MCP server, it becomes a superpowered IIoT platform that can talk to anything and orchestrate everything.
In demos below, Siemens shows WinCC OA doing things most platforms can’t:
- Ask an LLM to mix a color → it checks ingredient availability → sets batch parameters → and starts the process — all through natural language.
- Discover an OPC UA server → identify relevant tags → auto-generate datapoints → link them into WinCC OA — with no manual setup.
That’s the power of MCP + structured data.
And WinCC OA has had the foundation for over 30 years.
Still thinking of WinCC OA as “just SCADA”?
Think again.
AI orchestration, dynamic agent workflows, and semantic interoperability aren’t buzzwords. They’re what WinCC OA does natively.
The WinCC OA MCP Server is now live and publicly accessible!
Explore the GitHub repo here: https://github.com/winccoa/winccoa-ae-js-mcpserver
Want to see it in action? Check out these demo videos:
• Video 1
• Video 2
Claude Code Framework Wars: Choosing the Right AI Coding Ally
ConocoPhillips is preparing to lay off 20–25% of its global workforce, affecting between 2,600 and 3,250 employees and contractors worldwide, as part of a sweeping cost-cutting initiative aimed at restoring competitiveness. The company says rising production costs—up to $13 per barrel now—and inefficiencies tied to recent acquisitions have eroded margins. Layoffs are expected to begin as early as November 10, 2025, with most reductions completed before year-end. CEO Ryan Lance admitted he must refocus beyond acquisition growth toward operational efficiency, citing more than $1 billion in cost reduction opportunities and a plan to sell off non-core assets.
Learning Lens
Workshop: Build MCP-Ready REST APIs
This month, we’re hosting a hands-on workshop that will teach you how to build REST APIs that are fully MCP-ready — so you can start integrating data sources and services into your Model Context Protocol environment with confidence.
In this live session, you’ll learn how to:
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Design and build REST endpoints specifically for MCP
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Structure payloads and responses for MCP compatibility
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Test and validate your APIs for seamless integration
📅 Date: September 29-30
💸 Early Bird Discount: 30% off when you register by September 10th
👉 Register now and save your seat before early bird pricing ends!
Why it matters: MCP is rapidly becoming the backbone for building connected, interoperable systems. Knowing how to create MCP-ready APIs will give you a powerful skill set to bring new data sources online faster and build future-proof architectures.
Byte-Sized Brilliance
The First 1TB Drive Was Only Released in 2007
It wasn’t that long ago that a terabyte of storage seemed almost unimaginable. In 2007, Hitachi launched the world’s first 1TB hard drive—costing about $400 and weighing over a pound. Today, you can buy a 1TB microSD card that’s smaller than your fingernail, costs a fraction of the price, and is easy to lose in your pocket change.
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