With CAD/CAM software, machine operators and manufacturing engineers are always looking for the latest twists along the route to optimizing their metalcutting performance.
The CEO of an artificial intelligence company discusses how AI affects workers and how AI can be deployed well.
Altair announced a major update to its Altair PBS Professional, a workload manager for high-performance computing applications.
Since 1996, the Plant 15 machining operations at Mercury Marine have included a reliance on automated machining cells. Over the years, the Fond du Lac, Wis.-based manufacturer and distributor of marine engines, parts, accessories and integrated systems has phased out some traditional manufacturing methods in favor of modern cells.
While the manufacturing sector generates large amounts of data, relatively few companies have fully harnessed that data to improve operational efficiencies.
Manufacturers have begun using sensors and actuators to monitor their cutting processes and adjust parameters to optimize tool life and workpiece quality. However, traditional monitoring systems have some drawbacks.
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.
Shyft Group, Inc. said it F3 MFG Inc. (“F3”), an aluminum truck body and accessory manufacturer.
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.”
To grow in today’s manufacturing world, shops need to consolidate operations, automate, increase efficiency, capture and analyze data and more, in order to fully leverage opportunities in thriving industries, such as aerospace.
