Lightweighting’s New Phase September 3, 2019 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.
How to Go About Harmonizing New Tech August 5, 2019 Before harmonizing new technology onto the manufacturing floor, critical steps include determining the business problems to be solved and securing buy-in from all stakeholders, industry leaders said recently during an AeroDef conference panel talk on manufacturing production harmonization.
Robot Company Creates Industry 4.0-Friendly Software August 2, 2019 FANUC has made real one of the promises of Industry 4.0, that of predictive maintenance for factory equipment, with its Zero Down Time IoT solution. ZDT can be applied to any of FANUC’s robotic arms and their peripherals.
Time to Push for Step and Other Open Standards August 9, 2019 In the age of Industry 4.0 and the digital thread, computer-aided design (CAD) data exchange should be open and seamless because it happens daily in a multi-tiered supplier ecosystem and so much interoperability depends on it. But we are not there yet.
Serious About Industry 4.0? Then Adopt Open Standards August 9, 2019 Listen up, major manufacturers and CAD vendors: You’ve got the whole world in your hands—the world in this case being the vision of the digitally connected enterprise and cyber-physical ambitions for Industry 4.0.
CESMII seeks to raise competitive standing of U.S. manufacturing January 6, 2020 The institutes that make up Manufacturing USA need to move at the speed of business, considering that the endeavor represents the U.S. government’s biggest investment in the digitization of manufacturing to date.
Siemens Emphasizes Integrated Toolsets at Conference September 11, 2019 There is still a lot of talk about breaking down the “silos” within a manufacturing enterprise. Siemens, like other software providers, is trying to address the problem by offering toolsets that are easier to integrate and work together.
ABB’s ‘factory of the future’ in China to demo safety, sustainability October 16, 2019 The $150 million “factory of the future” that the Swiss innovator ABB announced a year ago is becoming reality in this enormous city’s Pudong New Area.
Ways to get ready to take part in evolving ecosystems October 16, 2019 I experienced the end of the Third Industrial Revolution as I began my career in manufacturing. Closed government and private networks gave way to an open network called the Internet.
American, German, Swedish manufacturers gladly adopt factory-within-factory concept October 16, 2019 Manufacturers of all sizes see an uptick in productivity after adding a factory within a factory via an automated machining cell. The cells are small-scale, clearly defined production units, often for a family of similar parts or a product, and they typically include a robotic arm and one or more machine tools.