Measuring Impact in Metals and Materials

How do you measure a year? This question was made famous by Rent’s “Seasons of Love” and is fitting for the conversations that took place at Conneqt 2025. During the Metals and Materials Track, Mariana Sandin, Industry Principal for Mining, Metals and Materials at Seeq, echoed a thought-provoking statement Seeq CEO Dr. Lisa Graham said in her keynote presentation: “Learning from the aha moments.” Could impact be measured not just in dashboards or dollars but in the spark behind every engineer’s eyes when something finally clicks? 

At its core, engineering is a creative pursuit driven by discovery, curiosity, and connection. At Conneqt, those moments of connection happened over meals, in hallways between sessions, and during powerful presentations. It was a conference filled with “aha moments” both technical and human. 

A Chorus of Aha Moments from Manufacturing Experts

Today’s engineers are buried in data, fighting fires, and managing constant change. And yet, something shifts when the right insight emerges at the right time, thanks to collaboration and the right tools. The engineers aren’t just solving problems; they’re becoming change agents. 

Across multiple presentations during the Metals and Materials Track, manufacturing experts brought those moments to life, showing how data, collaboration, and Seeq as a platform are transforming their organizations. 

From Overwhelm to Clarity

Before the “aha!” comes the fog, the late nights spent wrangling spreadsheets or fighting fires on the plant floor. Many of Seeq’s customers began there. 

At Owens Corning, Joy Hensold, Remote Process Diagnostic Engineer, shared the story of process engineers inundated with data and distractions. Their Remote Monitoring group helped shift from reactive to proactive, giving engineers the time to prioritize what matters. “We moved from firefighting to fire prevention,” she said—and that change began with a single dashboard and putting on the remote monitoring engineer’s glasses. 

At 3M, Mike Filkowski, Data Analytics Specialist, captured the challenge of engaging those outside the analytics bubble. Not everyone is ready to use Seeq, he admitted, but “they still want to hear the music.” By enabling personalized, visual access to insights, his team made data more approachable and more valuable. 

From Insight to Impact

Once clarity sets in, it unlocks action—and that’s when aha moments ripple outward. 

At International Paper, cost dashboards transformed a yearly audit-driven process into a daily operational advantage. Additionally, instead of relying on periodic reviews, engineers could track washing costs in real time, reducing the cost by an average of 64%. This leads to faster, more informed decisions. 

Kimberly-Clark’s  Jeff Skarda, Digital Solutions Sr. Consultant, discussed waste, not just material, but potential. Each diaper line startup created costly scrap until his team used AI to spot patterns and predict failures. “Think of it like setting cruise control,” he said. Once the system stabilizes, quality follows. 

Another paper company echoed this theme of taking underutilized tools like Seeq Data Lab and turning them into user-friendly apps that rescued “lost data” and gave engineers the power to act. The result? Less friction, more flow. 

From Individual to Enterprise

The most powerful “aha” moments are the ones that scale across teams, plants, and regions. 

Mikayla McAweeney, Manufacturing Excellence Process Engineer from CMC shared how standardized, simplified reporting transformed recycling processes at scale, across facilities. “It’s not just about saving time,” she said, “it’s about building better habits.” 

At Rio Tinto, signal analysis helped solve a high-stakes quality issue in their aluminum coiling process, one that directly impacted customer satisfaction. What began as a technical deep dive became a case study in operational excellence.

Albemarle reminded Conneqt attendees that “aha moments” don’t happen by accident; they require intent and infrastructure. Jonathan Alexander, Manufacturing AI & Advanced Analytics Manager, spoke candidly about escaping “pilot purgatory” by aligning analytics with business value and scaling thoughtfully. “Think exponential, not incremental,” he urged. 

Great technology is just one piece of the puzzle, but culture is key to success, especially for people who believe early in possibilities. The Championing Success Panel was a prime example of scaling best practices. Start with curiosity, with just enough process knowledge, and analytics skills. For Brooke Hill, Data Science Engineer at BRR+, a few things are important for scaling value: asking questions, connecting the dots across multiple roles, and getting subject matter experts from the plants to work with data science engineers on solving the real pains of each plant. Solving problems on time has created the “snowball effect” of success.  

An “aha moment” isn’t always about algorithms. Sometimes, it’s about empathy, trust, an organization with a culture of innovation, and the courage to keep asking, “What if?” 

So, How Do You Measure a Happy Engineer?

Using the tune of the musical: 

– In capsules. In Workbench. In Dashboards. In cups of coffee. 

– In Data Lab. In “Wow, that’s it!” 

Maybe not in 525,600 moments, but in the ones that matter. The ones where they finally say, “Now I see it.” 

To learn more about the impact Seeq is making on the manufacturing industry, visit our Video Hub to view all Conneqt 2025 presentations.