At the 2025 edition of the North American Manufacturing Excellence Summit series we sat down with Andrew Siprelle and Tom Lange to talk about something every manufacturing leader with shopfloor experience knows intuitively but has spent a career trying to prove: Sometimes fixing the little things even when everything else is working right pays bigger dividends than the ‘big wins’ that everyone understands but require time and resources to deliver an often temporary solution. Figuring out where to get the most ROI has too often been a thankless task done after the fact whose lessons learned may well be forgotten by the time the next time a proactive maintenance decision or process optimization strategy session comes around.
Recent advances in digital simulations unlocking plant data and demonstrating where the actual dollars and cents are waiting to be saved and earned are taking the pain out of how to prioritize how people spend their time and energy. For a fascinating conversation about making a difficult thing easy while looking for the best results the easiest way, give this episode a listen!

Andrew Siprelle
Founder
ChiAha

Andrew is driven by a passion to unlock the value of simulation and modeling in helping to solve real-world problems. Since founding Simulation Dynamics, Inc. in the early 90’s, he has been an educator, a consultant, a simulation tool developer, and a smart applications technology leader. Andrew coined the term “Discrete Rate Simulation”, and developed one of the earliest libraries for quickly building models of multi-stage plants that produce powder or bulk solids; for example a breakfast cereal plant. ChiAha is the culmination of a lifelong dream for Andrew, who has always wanted to reinvent and more widely distribute the benefits of the DRS worldview.

Tom Lange
Doctor of Reliability
ChiAha

Tom joins the ChiAha team after a long and successful career with Procter & Gamble.

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