How to tackle extraordinary fragility of U.S. manufacturing August 20, 2020 COVID-19 revealed some deep-rooted shortcomings in our approach to manufacturing and to supply chain design in the U.S. Well beyond the immediate and urgent need for PPE, we saw dramatic swings in both supply and demand for almost everything bought and sold here.
How ‘smart processes’ fit into Industry 4.0 July 21, 2020 If Industry 3.0 is identified by the computerization of factory floor processes to make them “smart,” then Industry 4.0 can be understood as the expansion of the idea to include all of the non-factory floor inputs required to produce a quality product and a successful enterprise.
Generative Design and the Conventional Machine Shop October 29, 2019 The term generative design has been popping up in the manufacturing world of late. Its promise is to create many design permutations to let engineers choose an optimum one that meets sometimes conflicting requirements.
Virtual Reality Factory Model for Manufacturing Innovation October 30, 2019 The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), Prince George County, Va., brings together industry, academia, and government to solve advanced manufacturing challenges.
PTC Announced It Will Buy Onshape October 25, 2019 Acquisition to Position PTC as CAD and PLM Industry Transitions to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Crossing the digital divide key to improving labor productivity May 18, 2020 Inside an electronics factory in China as late as early 2019, workers and smart machines were building circuit boards with chips in a multi-step process using a variety of machines from different vendors.
Acquiring Production Data From Legacy Equipment April 22, 2020 Manufacturers make strategic and operational decisions with digital production data and analytics, including information ranging from part counts and output speeds to machine conditions and alarm status.
IoT + analytics = cool new stuff to sell October 16, 2019 Put the paper and pencil away. Hybrid data management and analysis systems-where users combine paper tracking with computer processing-are no longer meeting the needs of manufacturers for speed, accuracy, traceability and compliance with regulations.
America Makes reaches significant milestone March 18, 2020 America Makes, the public-private partnership that the Obama administration set up to foster research and innovation in additive manufacturing, achieved a significant milestone late last year: an online portal to track gaps in additive manufacturing (AM) standards.
The 20 most influential professors in smart manufacturing May 13, 2020 Innovation in smart manufacturing can come in a flash from a lightbulb moment, but those instances are few. More often than not, breakthroughs in technology, such as bioprinting, blockchain, cloud-based manufacturing and real-time production control, happen after years of careful study accompanied by painstaking, methodical work done sometimes in academic settings.
