Sustainable Engineering: Materials, AI, Circularity and the Carbon Challenge Across OEMs
(TRACK 1: STRATEGIC PROGRAM) As OEMs face increasing pressure to reduce carbon impact while maintaining performance, reliability, and profitability, sustainable engineering has moved from aspiration to operational imperative. This session explores how leading manufacturers are advancing sustainable materials, embedding circularity into product design, utilizing AI, and responding to global decarbonization mandates without compromising quality, innovation, or business performance. Attendees will gain insight into how sustainability is being engineered directly into products, manufacturing processes, and supply chains, shaping the next generation of high-performance, low-impact systems.
This session will be led by Raman Venkatesh, Founder and CEO of Pinnacle Executive Advisors and former Chief Sustainability Officer at Medtronic, where he led sustainability transformation efforts across the company's $33 billion global business spanning more than 100 countries. At Medtronic, Raman integrated sustainability into core business strategy, product innovation, operations, and supply chain decision-making while driving measurable reductions in carbon footprint and advancing long-term value creation. He previously served as EVP and COO of SAE International, where he led global operations, strategic growth initiatives, and innovation programs supporting the mobility and manufacturing sectors.
Drawing on more than three decades of leadership experience across sustainability, engineering, operations, and business transformation, Raman will provide practical perspectives on designing products for circularity, leveraging sustainable materials, reducing emissions across complex supply chains, and aligning environmental goals with commercial and engineering objectives. Attendees will leave with actionable insights into how leading organizations are navigating evolving regulatory expectations, customer demands, and decarbonization targets while building more resilient, competitive, and sustainable businesses.
Speakers
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This session will focus on how AI is reshaping complex assembly operations and creating measurable business impact. Participants will gain insight into how intelligence embedded across the industrial blueprint can deliver competitive advantage, enhance throughput across OT and IT platforms, and improve working capital efficiency, all contributing to stronger margins and operational resilience. Manufacturers that integrate intelligence, automation, and human capability into core operations rather than treating them as add‑ons achieve significant performance gains and sustainable competitive advantage.
Why it matters
- Global supply chains remain structurally more volatile, driven by geopolitical shifts and fluctuating demand patterns
- Skilled labor is constrained and harder to upskill at scale as demographic shifts reduce available talent pools
- Sustainability expectations now require measurable performance improvements, not just reporting
- The technology stack across AI, automation, and industrial connectivity has matured to enable speed, precision, and resilience simultaneously
- Digital twins are expanding from isolated line simulations to enterprise‑wide decision platforms
- OT cybersecurity is evolving from basic IT hygiene to continuous, real‑time protection for connected production systems
Learning Objectives
- Diagnose revenue leakage across complex assembly lines and quantify where AI can create value to improve throughput, reduce scrap and rework, and increase asset utilization
- Translate AI‑enabled automation into measurable gains in OEE with direct impact on margin expansion
- Build a scalable AI roadmap tied directly to profitability, working capital efficiency, sustainability integration, and operational resilience
Workshop 1: Fundamentals of Bolted Joint Design
(TRACK 2: TECHNICAL PROGRAM) Based on FTI's highly acclaimed Underst
(TRACK 2: TECHNICAL PROGRAM) Based on FTI's highly acclaimed Understanding the Bolted Joint and Fastening Technology & Joint Design courses, this session explores the science behind reliable bolted joints.
Topics include:
- Understanding p
(TRACK 2: TECHNICAL PROGRAM) Based on FTI's highly acclaimed Understanding the Bolted Joint and Fastening Technology & Joint Design courses, this session explores the science behind reliable bolted joints.
Topics include:
- Understanding preload and clamp load
- Torque vs. tension relationships
- Joint stiffness and load sharing
- Fastener selection considerations
- Causes of joint failure
- Improving assembly relia
(TRACK 2: TECHNICAL PROGRAM) Based on FTI's highly acclaimed Understanding the Bolted Joint and Fastening Technology & Joint Design courses, this session explores the science behind reliable bolted joints.
Topics include:
- Understanding preload and clamp load
- Torque vs. tension relationships
- Joint stiffness and load sharing
- Fastener selection considerations
- Causes of joint failure
- Improving assembly reliability
Ideal for engineers, manufacturers, quality professionals, technical sales, and anyone specifying or troubleshooting bolted joints.
