Process systems engineering has been a vibrant field for over 60 years, encompassing process design, process optimization, process control, and related topics. During the past decade, the notions of the "factory of the future", "Industry 4.0", "Smart Manufacturing", and the "Industrial Internet of Things" have become common terms, often appearing in the mainstream media. Making use of more data from increasingly cheaper and more readily available sensors, combined with modeling and optimization, provides the potential to improve manufacturing across the entire enterprise, including the supply chain and product distribution. Despite the advanced technology becoming available or perhaps because of it, the human role becomes even more important and thus receives much of the focus of this commentary article.