Baking Better Data: How OT Insights Drive Manufacturing ROI, with Aaron Pfeifer

What happens when you combine shift-level insights, OT data, and predictive analytics? You stop burning buns, and start scaling profits.

In this episode of the Zeroed In Podcast, Marvin Tansley (Thing-Zero) sits down with Aaron Pfeifer (Atlas OT) to unpack how manufacturers can:

• Pull signal from noisy operations data

• Spot patterns in downtime, waste, and inefficiency

• Use successful shifts as live playbooks for struggling ones

• Bridge the gap between OT realities and IT-driven AI models

Whether you’re leading a plant, an OT security program, or a digital transformation initiative, this conversation gives you a frontline look at how to turn data into behaviors that improve reliability, safety, and profitability.

⏱ Chapters:

• 00:00 — Start / Framing ROI: Maintenance math, partial valve testing (SIL mindset)

• 02:45 — Real-time + historical data: Compare assets, vendors, and cycles for gains

• 05:30 — Prep the data estate for AI: “You already own the apartment” (cloud)

• 08:50 — Secure democratization: Read-only, one-way flows; exec dashboards that matter

• 12:10 — Crawl → Walk → Run: Models, thresholds, and cost-of-action decisions

• 16:20 — Edge models safely: Optimize offline; push anomalies up, not commands down

• 19:30 — Brownfield realities: Knowledge loss, out-of-date prints, safety interlocks

• 24:30 — The cost of NOT modernizing: Unplanned downtime vs. proactive budgets

• 28:50 — Heterogeneous control stacks: Standardizing without standardizing

• 33:10 — Agile POCs on your cloud: Measure waste first; fast wins prove value

• 37:10 — Close: Better business → better world (and better jobs)

🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero — Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate.

📌 Follow Marvin Tansley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/

📌 Follow Aaron Pfiefer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adpfeifer/

Follow Thing-Zero on:

- YouTube: YouTube.com/@Thing-Zero

- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero

- 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954

- Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com

#IoT #OT #AI #PredictiveAnalytics #manufacturing