Dr Lisa Lang spent 9 months and over $300,000 building AI scheduling software for manufacturers. Then she shut it down.
Midway through writing "The AI Manufacturing Manifesto: Why AI hasn't paid off, and how to capture the tribal knowledge walking out your door," Lang realized her own software violated the case she was making. Rather than finish it, she scrapped it.
The book, just released at VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/manifesto, lays out why AI in manufacturing keeps failing and what to do instead. Lang's argument is direct: the problem is not the technology. The problem is that manufacturers keep applying AI to processes built on rules that do not work.
"I saw US manufacturers headed in the wrong direction with AI and needed to speak up," Lang said. "That's why the book is free, no opt-in, and there's nothing for sale in it."
Lang has worked with manufacturers around the globe as a protegee of Eliyahu Goldratt, the creator of the Theory of Constraints. She has authored 8 books and spent her career in manufacturing operations, including owning a job shop. The AI Manufacturing Manifesto is her first book to take on AI in manufacturing directly.
The book addresses a problem most manufacturers already feel. Experienced workers are retiring, and decades of knowledge about how the shop actually runs walks out the door with them. Lang makes the case that fixing the shop's rules comes first, that capturing that tribal knowledge comes next, and that AI applied after those steps can pay off. AI applied before them cannot.
Mark Hoffman, CEO of Larson Packaging Company and one of the book's advance reviewers, put it this way: "AI is not a quick fix. Fix the process first, capture the knowledge, and then AI can help. But make sure you own the data."
The AI Manufacturing Manifesto is published by Science of Business, Inc. and is available free of charge at https://www.velocityschedulingsystem.com/manifesto