My best advice if you want to break into manufacturing is to pair Machine Learning / Computer Vision skills with an Engineering degree (Chemical, Mechanical or similar).

I work in heavy industry (Steel Mill) most people that get hired around here have Engineering degrees. Mining, Oil and Gas is quite similar.

We do engage with data science people etc (Usually as consultants) but there can be a lot of friction as oftentimes the conversation gets lost in translation. If you can fluently speak 'engineer' and 'data scientist' you would make yourself a very attractive hire.