Jeffry Soliday On Why the Best Industrial Innovations Never Reach Decision Makers
Many manufacturers continue to allocate significant resources toward innovation, often pursuing new technologies and large-scale transformation initiatives. Yet, in Jeffry Soliday‘s view, many of the most valuable opportunities for improvement already exist within the factory floor itself. Drawing on more than two decades of experience working alongside manufacturing teams through ASL Technologies, LLC, which he co-leads with his wife, Sarah Soliday, he believes the industry faces a persistent internal disconnect.
“Organizations spend heavily searching for answers,” Soliday says. “At the same time, the people closest to the work have already identified many of them. Those insights simply do not reach the level where decisions are made.”
Soliday calls this pattern a structural challenge rather than an operational one. In his experience, maintenance teams and engineers consistently identify inefficiencies, anticipate equipment issues, and recognize opportunities for improvement early. However, he observes that these insights often remain confined to the operational layer of the organization.
“The individuals who understand the problems in detail are rarely the ones who control the budget,” he explains. “Without a clear path to decision makers, even well-supported ideas tend to lose momentum.”
He suggests that this disconnect has become more significant as manufacturers face increasing pressure from multiple directions. Rising operational costs, aging equipment, and ongoing labor constraints have elevated the importance of day-to-day decision making. Within this context, Soliday believes that the ability to act on internal knowledge has become a defining factor in performance.
“As pressures increase, the margin for inefficiency becomes smaller,” he says. “That is when overlooked improvements begin to carry real financial consequences.”
According to Soliday, one of the most visible outcomes of this dynamic is the normalization of preventable costs. He describes how recurring inefficiencies and minor equipment issues are often accepted as part of routine operations, particularly when their impact is not immediately visible at the leadership level. “Over time, avoidable losses start to look like fixed costs,” he notes. “Once that happens, organizations stop questioning them.”
Soliday observes that many facilities delay repairs or incremental upgrades due to budget considerations or competing priorities. While these decisions may appear financially prudent in the short term, he believes they often lead to significantly higher costs over time.
“When equipment fails, the expense is never limited to the replacement,” he says. “It includes unplanned downtime, production disruption, and the broader operational impact. Those factors are often underestimated when decisions are made.”
In sectors where margins are already tight, Soliday suggests that even small disruptions can have a disproportionate effect. He argues that this makes proactive maintenance and incremental improvement strategies more valuable than they are often perceived to be within traditional budgeting frameworks.
ASL provides filtration products that help extend the life of machinery. Their filtration systems provide preventative care that avoids unnecessary mechanical strain that leads to equipment failure over time. These simple and cost-effective solutions are often understood as valuable by maintenance teams, but their significance and impact can be overlooked by upper management, who may be less familiar with the solutions available to them within the world of plastics manufacturing, power generation, and paper pulp mills.
He also points to a broader mindset that, in his view, influences how organizations approach innovation. Many companies, he suggests, place greater emphasis on acquiring new systems than on optimizing existing ones. “There is a tendency to look outward for solutions,” Soliday explains. “In many cases, the more immediate value comes from improving what is already in place.”
This perspective leads him to challenge conventional definitions of innovation within manufacturing. Rather than associating progress solely with large capital investments, he emphasizes the role of practical, ground-level insights in driving meaningful change.
“Some of the most effective improvements are incremental,” he says. “They come from people who understand the operation in detail and see where small adjustments can deliver measurable results.”
For Soliday, the central issue is communication. He characterizes the gap between operational insight and executive decision-making as a barrier that limits the industry’s ability to fully leverage its own expertise. “This is not a question of capability,” he states. “It is a question of whether information is reaching the right audience in a way that leads to action.”
Oftentimes, the gap between operations and management can feel like two different worlds. Those on the ground, seeing the day-to-day, develop deep insights and understandings of the cogs of the industry, can struggle to catch the ear of a management team that may be concerned with dramatically different aspects of the business. Finding a common language to effectively work towards the communal success of the business can be a challenge.
Addressing this challenge, in his view, requires organizations to rethink how they capture and elevate internal knowledge. He believes decision makers benefit from greater visibility into day-to-day operations, while frontline teams need clearer pathways to present their observations in terms that align with strategic priorities.
“Expertise exists at every level of the organization,” Soliday says. “The opportunity lies in connecting that expertise to the decision-making process.”
Through his work at ASL, Soliday focuses on bridging this gap by engaging with both operational teams and leadership. He describes this approach as essential to ensuring that identified improvements are understood, evaluated, and implemented effectively.
“The goal is to make sure valuable insights are not lost between levels of the organization,” he explains. “When that connection is made, the impact can be immediate.”
Looking ahead, Soliday suggests that organizations willing to address this internal disconnect may be better positioned to navigate an increasingly complex industrial landscape. He sees the ability to act on existing knowledge as a critical advantage in an environment defined by efficiency and resilience.
He says, “The most significant opportunities are often already present within the operation. What determines success is whether organizations are prepared to recognize and act on them.”
