Digital Iron and Why Embracing Technology Can Transform Machinery with Ciaran Gillen

In this episode of Machinery Masters, Ciaran Gillen sits on the other side of the microphone and is fielding the questions rather than asking them. He explains his route into the industry from hospitality and how he gradually came to see the glaring holes therein, where support and servicing abilities for dealerships should have been. Those patterns of inadequate support led to the creation of Digital Iron and the birth of Ciaran’s mission to help customers, prevent machinery downtime, and keep businesses running smoothly.

In this episode of Machinery Masters, Ciaran Gillen hands over hosting duties and turns interviewee to talk about Digital Iron and his route into the machinery industry.

Ciaran explains how he left hospitality after seeing a more durable future in recycling and waste management – through his exposure to the machinery and dealership side of this space, he was led to start his own company Digital Iron, with the goal of smoothing the process of support and servicing for dealerships, and helping their customers to avoid potentially ruinous machine downtime.

Ciaran goes on to talk AI and its potential to transform the industry, but he is quick to recognize the pushback and mistrust of this technology in this space. This doesn’t deter Ciaran, who has long been an advocate of digitization amid an environment that is seen as being based primarily on “paper and handshakes”.

Bringing people with him on his innovating journey is Ciaran’s greatest pleasure and success in his work, and he talks passionately about the satisfaction he gains from sharing a vision and delivering for his clients and their customers.

If you’re interested in learning more about the dealing of machinery, this episode is definitely for you, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Episode Chapters

00:00 - Intro
00:28 - Moving From Hospitality into Recycling
02:20 - Innovating with Technology and Starting a Company
05:32 - Digital Iron and Leveraging Data
07:22 - Looking After Customers and Avoiding Machinery Downtime
08:42 - Unlocking Unused Data Warehouses
10:27 - Advocating for Digitalization
12:08 - AI’s Potential to Transform the Industry
13:17 - The Importance of Embracing AI
14:26 - Experimenting In Small Ways with AI
15:49 - Bringing People With Him and Inspiring Peers
16:55 - The Next Five Years in Heavy Machinery
19.20 - Sharing Information Within the Industry
20:58 - Digital Iron’s Future
22:24 - A Call to Action
23:16 - Outro

Ciaran Gillen on LinkedIn