On Friday, The Idea Sounded Impossible...On Saturday, We Were Living It

Michael Spellman
Mar 24
2 min read

Last Friday, we were with a customer discussing the idea of a ghost shift in glass fabrication — an entire shift running with no direct labor — technology that is increasingly possible through smart automation and partners like systron.

The reaction was immediate:

“I could never be comfortable with that.”

Fair enough. A lot of breakthrough technology sounds impossible right up until the moment you experience it.

Then Saturday happened.

We woke up in San Francisco surrounded by driverless Waymo cars. All of us had the same reaction:

"No chance. Not for me."

We watched them pull up, watched people get in and out, and talked about how crazy it all seemed.

By dinner, we had changed our minds.

We downloaded the app, got in, and let a driverless car take us to dinner. Then took another one home.

No disaster. No panic. No chaos.

Just technology doing what many people still think cannot be done.

My wife Carolyn — my “Little Helper” of 30 years, who usually helps me spot parking spaces that are better than the ones I spot and reminds me that red lights are not optional — was completely relaxed. At one point, she even remarked that Waymo spotted a pedestrian faster than she did.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a205e8_de24295481cc47d483337f79c35f80ac/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

That hit me.

Because that is exactly how real change happens in manufacturing.

First, it sounds too radical.

Then it becomes real.

Then it becomes normal.

Then it becomes a competitive advantage.

In glass fabrication, the companies that win will be the ones willing to trust what is new:

• smart automation

• connected machines

• better flow

• less labor dependency