While the manufacturing industry learns to deal with COVID-19, it is also undergoing seismic change from other critical issues. Four industry leaders take on these issues in a panel discussion titled, “How Smart Manufacturing is Disrupting the Supply Chain - Are You Prepared?”
Whether driven by the reduction of in-shop personnel due to layoffs or to maintain social distancing guidelines into the future, many machine shops will likely be re-evaluating ways to eliminate labor-intensive manual operations if they can be automated instead.
The CEO of an artificial intelligence company discusses how AI affects workers and how AI can be deployed well.
While the manufacturing sector generates large amounts of data, relatively few companies have fully harnessed that data to improve operational efficiencies.
Improvements in manufacturing management software, robotics, additive manufacturing and thermal controls are making small batch sizes more cost effective—even for smaller shops. Manufacturing plants are able to reduce inventory, improve throughput and reduce demands on human operators.
Peter Drucker, known as the father of modern management, was quoted in a 2006 article in Forbes as saying, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.”
Technical debt is not on your balance sheet, not addressed on your roadmap and often an afterthought, but ultimately can be the difference between executing swiftly and being paralyzed as you scale, grow and support your product(s).
Setting up a new machine shop is challenging. Successful owners conduct rigorous research, meticulously inspect every detail, and carefully evaluate every option. So when Kevin Curtis began the search to equip his new venture in 2009, he did his homework.
Xometry announced the addition of Emily Rollins, a former Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP, to the Company's Board of Directors. Rollins will serve as the Chair of Xometry's Audit Committee.
Manufacturing technology is constantly changing, both in terms of the types of products produced and the ways those products are made. As we ease into 2021, here are some interesting trends I’ve heard about.