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Manufacturers who have deployed the digital or smart factory have put down their pencils, found new uses for their clipboards and closed their spreadsheet programs in favor of using real-time data gleaned from condition monitoring of their machinery.

SHANGHAI—The $150 million “factory of the future” that the Swiss innovator ABB announced nearly a year ago is becoming reality in this enormous city’s Pudong New Area.

Earlier this decade, the auto industry moved to lighten cars and trucks. It was supposed to be a competition between steel, long the dominant vehicle material, and aluminum. The latter got a boost when Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., bet big on aluminum, making aluminum bodies for its F-150 and Super Duty pickups.

Some things are a given today. One is computing is cheap and powerful, and it is getting cheaper and more powerful. Another is the dropping price of industrial sensors. Combine this with easier ways of moving around data from those sensors and you get lots of data: Terabytes of data.

Most manufacturers have relied on third-party vendors to make parts that are then incorporated into the final product. From automakers sourcing stereos and aircraft makers contracting for jet engines to a small bakery ordering plastic bags or a woodshop buying nails, producers of all types have supplemented their internal capabilities through a painstakingly developed supply chain of external vendors.

The combination of metrology hardware, adaptive CAM software and connectivity to plant-wide systems is making additive hybrid machine tool applications ever more practical on the shop floor.

The low temperature intrinsic to solid-state printing processes allows manufacturers to weld layers of dissimilar metals without fear of metallurgical incompatibility issues.

The U.S. needs to build a national infrastructure in engineering and manufacturing R&D that parallels its scientific infrastructure. While it makes all the sense in the world, it is not happening.

A portentous encounter six years ago propelled Expert Teleportation founder to a place where he’s (almost) ready to pursue the remote expert market in the U.S.

Industry 4.0 is often referred to as smart manufacturing, where technology enables interconnectivity for machines and manufacturing software and systems. It also provides “Big Data,” increased visibility and remote access to manufacturing assets.