Armstrong World Industries set a goal, nearly a decade ago, to be an outlier, the kind of company that maintains 5% profit growth for five or more years. Those efforts have paid off with the ceiling-tile and architectural components making landing No. 2 in IndustryWeek’s annual IW U.S. 50 Best Manufacturers list.

Vic Grizzle, CEO of Armstrong, sat down with IndustryWeek’s Robert Schoenberger to discuss the management philosophy behind that performance. Some key elements:

• Investing in the business: Armstrong dedicates more of its cashflow to operational improvements than many of its peers, part of an annual push to increase productivity by about 3% every year
• Championing stability: Customers and employees know what to expect from a company that has stable management and rarely changes big-picture strategies
• Adaptability: While it champions stability, Armstrong also looks for adjacent opportunities, experiments with new technologies and constantly updates its processes

In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Thomas Wilk, chief editor of Plant Services, is joined by Blair Fraser, the VP of technology at UE Systems to discuss how ultrasound tools are evolving. Many maintenance technicians use machine condition monitoring technologies for two related goals: detect a problem, and diagnose the root cause. However, Fraser argues that these technologies are evolving quickly to help teams achieve the next-step goal of deciding on the best corrective course of action that fits overall plant goals.

David Brown, vice president and CTO of Transportation Solutions at TE Connectivity, shares how AI is driving faster product design, smarter factories, and a better-trained workforce. From generative design to predictive maintenance, learn how TE's AI strategy keeps them ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. Visit te.com for more information. Read TE’s 2025 Industrial Technology Index here.