When Patti Nowak lost her job, she didn’t panic. Instead, she saw an opportunity. With a decade of experience in Plex, a smart manufacturing platform, under her belt, Nowak hung out her shingle as a software consultant. Within minutes, she had her first client. Within a month, she’d signed a $150,000 contract.
That rapid success, Nowak shared on a recent episode of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast, was the culmination of a career spent bridging the gap between technology and business. “I started my career as a cost accountant,” she explained. “I discovered that when I was in accounting, I could easily translate technology to business people’s language.”
I’ve always had a natural pension for business. I’ve loved accounting, and I discovered that when I was in accounting, I could easily translate technology to business people, language, right? I could say to them, ‘Okay, the IT people are saying this, and this is what you need to do from a business perspective.’
That knack for translation propelled Nowak from accounting into IT, networking, and eventually software. But it was her deep expertise in Plex, which she’d spent years implementing for manufacturers, that laid the groundwork for her entrepreneurial leap. “People say to me, ‘How do I start my business?'” Nowak recalled. “I said, ‘You started 10 years before you want to open it.'”
Today, Nowak’s consultancy, Control+M Solutions, helps manufacturers harness the power of Plex to streamline their operations. But as a woman in a field long dominated by men, Nowak has also made it her mission to guide the next generation of female leaders in the industry.
She attributes much of her success to the mentors and sponsors who recognized her potential and encouraged her to take on challenging assignments. Now, she’s paying it forward. “I’m a big believer in empowering your employees and teaching them to do things,” Nowak emphasized. “Hopefully, I’m teaching some other women in manufacturing that you can do this, and you should do this. Women make great project managers.”
I’ve worked with a lot of men in my career who are willing to take a bet on a project that they had no idea how to do. Women tend to be very risk averse in that way. We want to know everything before we take on something new. I always tell women, take it in bite-sized pieces.
For Nowak, the willingness to step outside her comfort zone has been key to her impact — and her joy — in her manufacturing career. But she’s also learned the importance of focus. Early on, Control+M Solutions relied heavily on a single customer, putting the business at risk. Diversifying her client base unleashed explosive growth, as Nowak expanded her team from 5 to 12 employees in just two and a half years.
Through it all, Nowak has remained passionate about helping manufacturers work smarter. She lights up when describing “operational plexcellence” — her term for using Plex to drive continuous improvement. Often, it’s the small, invisible inefficiencies, like a misplaced computer that has an operator walking unnecessary miles each day, that add up to major costs. Nowak and her team excel at spotting these opportunities and empowering manufacturers to seize them.
Looking ahead, Nowak is excited to continue evangelizing for the power of smart manufacturing — and the potential of women to lead the industry forward. “The opportunity that I get to spend my life going to people’s factories, seeing things made, helping companies make more money and keeping manufacturing in the United States going is probably the greatest blessing that a woman could ever have in her career,” she reflected. For Nowak, it’s a blessing that’s been decades in the making.
