GrayMatter Acquires FTE Factory Advisors
SEWICKLEY, Pa., March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — GrayMatter, a leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, today announced the acquisition of FTE Factory Advisors, a respected Lean transformation consultancy. Supported by its investment partner Tailwind Capital, GrayMatter is expanding its ability to deliver end‑to‑end factory transformation unifying strategy, Lean methodology, and AI-driven industrial intelligence.
A New Standard – Factory Transformation
The acquisition strengthens GrayMatter’s ability to help manufacturers modernize operations through a seamless combination of operational excellence practices and advanced digital capabilities. By integrating Factory Advisors’ Lean expertise with GrayMatter’s digital consulting practice, customers gain a single partner capable of supporting transformation from the boardroom to the plant floor.
“Manufacturers are under more pressure than ever to improve performance, adapt quickly, and modernize how work gets done,” said Paul Galeski, CEO of GrayMatter. “By bringing Factory Advisors into the GrayMatter family, we’re giving our clients a unified partner that can help them think and do at the same time—connecting strategy with execution, in real time.”
AI‑Enhanced Lean Transformation
Factory Advisors founder John Lucci emphasized that Lean principles are evolving with the industry:
“Lean has always been our foundation—eliminating waste, empowering people, and building better processes,” Lucci said. “But today’s operations are more connected, data‑rich, and complex. Sustaining Lean at scale requires digital enablement and increasingly, AI. This partnership lets us fuse Lean transformation with digital execution and AI‑driven insights. This is where the industry is heading.”
Partner of the Future
Factory Transformation will help manufacturers accelerate operations by offering:
-Automation solutions that remain the core of industrial reliability
-AI‑enhanced consulting that ties strategic improvement initiatives to real‑time plant performance
-Lean transformation accelerators strengthened by modern analytics and machine learning
-Scalable, enterprise‑wide frameworks for improving throughput, quality, and productivity
GrayMatter Factory Advisors will provide a differentiated, industry‑leading capability designed to help manufacturers modernize faster, sustain improvements longer, and drive operational excellence across the entire organization.
About GrayMatter
At GrayMatter, smart thinking meets decisive doing. We’re the Thinkers and Doers who transform industrial operations into clarity, uncovering intelligence hidden in clipboards, legacy systems, and human memory.
We partner with driven clients to deliver outcomes that matter—fueled by curiosity, grounded in community, and committed to shared success. From the plant floor to the boardroom, we help organizations think smarter and do better—by listening to the machines they already trust.
About FTE Factory Advisors
Factory Advisors is a hands‑on Lean transformation consultancy focused on improving operational efficiency, empowering frontline teams, and building continuous improvement cultures across manufacturing environments.
SOURCE GrayMatter