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With user costs rising and automation still not at the optimum level in China, the best option for pulling small and medium enterprises along on the smart manufacturing journey is cloud technology, Huawei Technologies’ He Fred said here today at a conference titled Manufacturing in the Age of Experience.

The Management Briefing Seminars, organized by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, MI, is a summer tradition in the auto industry. Professionals gather outside of the northwest Michigan resort town of Traverse City to examine industry issues.

How do manufacturers love additive manufacturing (AM)? Bianca Lankford, a mechanical engineer at Northrop Grumman, can count the ways: antennas, brackets, clamps, coldplates, ducts, plenums and test fixtures.

Conrad Leiva, vice president for product strategy and alliance at iBASEt and chair of the smart manufacturing working group at MESA International, speaks with Smart Manufacturing magazine Editor in Chief Brett Brune.

Manufacturers of many stripes can save money just by making better use of data emanating from the factory floor. But for those in aerospace and defense—Airbus Helicopters is a prime example—the potential payoffs are legion.

A strong manufacturing ecosystem that includes manufacturing engineering education is critical to ensuring the future vitality and innovation of manufacturing initiatives in the US. So it was welcome news to learn that the DOD is developing a new manufacturing engineering education (MEE) grant program, authorized by Congress with initial funding of $10 million for fiscal 2017.

Starting with the primitive laminates of the Wright Brothers era, the use of composites in aircraft has evolved over the last century from small amounts on nonstructural components to up to half of some aircraft and use on critical structures, such as wings. A key benefit is reducing weight.

In an effort to make products better, faster and stronger, the manufacturing process has grown significantly more complex in recent years. Technology and automation play much larger roles. The supply chain is longer and more diverse. Measuring processes with an eye on improving performance, finding efficiencies and increasing the bottom line has become all consuming.

With additive manufacturing (AM) as an established part of many companies’ product development and manufacturing processes, there has been a greater understanding of the technology’s technical and business advantages. With that, more users are benefitting from lighter and more durable parts, increased design freedom and on-demand part production.

Unplanned downtime and production loss due to equipment failure is one of the leading losses for manufacturers. Most shops perform maintenance on a fixed schedule or on failure. This means a machine will be maintained regardless of how often it is used and unexpected breakdowns will stop production.