EP 8 — NI's László Bajai on Why Technology Is Digital Tranformation's Smallest Challenge

The most honest assessment of factory modernization you'll hear comes from someone who's lived through decades of digital transformation failures and successes — and our guest in this episode of Manufacturing Intelligence. László Bajai, Factory Modernization Global Leader at National Instruments, doesn't sugarcoat the reality: companies claiming to be "super digital" often still use paper to assemble AI-driven products. 

László's early realization that he wanted to improve engineering processes rather than just implement solutions set the foundation for a career focused on domain understanding first, automation second. This perspective shapes his approach to every modernization project, where he consistently prioritizes people, then process, then technology. The conversation also explores his three non-negotiable pillars for factory modernization: brutal honesty about current maturity levels, comprehensive human engagement across all organizational levels, and flexible openness to external solutions. 

Topics discussed:

• The importance of multidisciplinary expertise in manufacturing modernization, combining domain knowledge with technical skills rather than pure implementation focus to drive meaningful process improvements.
• Why Plan B and Plan C thinking becomes essential for project success, illustrated through real examples of last-minute personnel changes and how preparation for multiple scenarios ensures delivery even when primary strategies fail.
• Human-centered change management strategies that address resistance from engineering teams, including techniques for buying in stakeholders, involving them in testing phases, and managing expectations across cultural and geographical boundaries.
• Model-based enterprise frameworks that eliminate traditional 2D drawing workflows, replacing annotation-heavy processes with data-driven approaches that enable end-to-end traceability from customer requirements through manufacturing and quality.
• Smart scale integration methodologies for inventory precision improvement, demonstrating how MES systems connect real-time material consumption data to ERP systems while revealing underlying process problems that digitization exposes rather than solves.
• Three pillars of successful factory modernization: maturity assessment honesty, comprehensive human engagement, and flexible openness to external solutions, emphasizing why technology selection becomes the smallest challenge when foundational elements are properly addressed.
• Global stakeholder management tactics requiring embedded local champions, ensuring project knowledge and decision-making authority exists at every geographic location rather than centralizing expertise at headquarters.
• Enterprise-level AI vision for competitive advantage creation, connecting machine-level OT data through ERP and SharePoint systems to enable organization-wide intelligent query capabilities that transform data accessibility and decision-making speed.
• Why technology must prove itself innocent rather than being assumed guilty, addressing the natural human tendency to blame new systems first and strategies for building trust through transparent data quality and systematic problem-solving approaches.

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