Mike Weller - Verizon Business

On this episode of Manufacturing Unscripted, host PeterParsons sits down with Michael Weller, who leads the global manufacturing practice at Verizon Business, to unpack how private cellular networks are reshaping the factory floor.

Michael makes the case that private 5G occupies a"middle lane" between rigid, expensive wired connections and best-effort Wi-Fi giving manufacturers a deterministic, flexible network purpose-built for the explosion of IoT sensors, AGVs, scanners, and AI usecases headed their way.

The conversation goes well beyond connectivity. Michael andPeter dig into "innovation in a drawer" (the good ideas manufacturers shelve over infrastructure fears), why dead zones leave expensive tablets gathering dust, where AI actually lives on the plant floor today, the hiddencompute and edge questions most AI projects ignore, and how a more connected, visual environment can help manufacturers retain Gen Z workers who learn verydifferently than the generations before them. There's even a sustainability angle: every million linear feet of copper cabling contains roughly 13 tons of copper that private wireless can take out of the equation.

A practical, jargon-light look at what it actually takes tomodernize a plant—and why the next five to seven years may make private cellular feel less like a novelty and more like a necessity.

Sponsored by Promess Inc., the leading provider of fullyelectric servo presses for manufacturing.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/laOpUbps-Y0

@Michael Weller

@Verizon Business

@peter parsons

@promess