What is smart manufacturing? Essentially, smart manufacturing is the practice of making information about manufacturing processes available when and where it is needed, in the form it is needed, so that smart decisions can be made about the course of critical business operations.
Automotive manufacturers and their Tier One suppliers spend endless engineering hours developing the PAB (passenger airbag) system, from the airbag and its propellant to the construction of the materials used in the composite instrument panel.
Ask almost any CAD/CAM vendor what they’re focused on and they’ll tell you it’s the same today as it was five years ago, and it’ll be the same in five years: Get the part onto the machine as fast as possible and get it off the machine as fast as possible. Here’s the current state of play in those two main areas.
3DXpert for Solidworks is a complementary software solution for Solidworks, providing professional users, designers and engineers with a complete toolset to prepare and optimize their designs for additive manufacturing [AM]. This allows companies to be more competitive, expand the types of projects they can design, and enjoy the advantages that AM brings.
Smart Manufacturing sat down with KIMBERLEY HAGERTY, Industry 4.0 digital manufacturing transformation manager at Pratt & Whitney, at the Westec conference in Los Angeles in September to hear about the progress her firm is making adopting smart manufacturing processes, solutions and strategies.
It’s said you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. For Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing, digital libraries provide that map.
Speed, safety and efficiency are important to running a successful manufacturing floor. The more efficient workers are on the floor, the quicker products can be finished and sent to their destination. The major opponent to efficiency on the floor is, of course, waste.
The devices quickly become less costly, sophisticated and independent, gaining wider influence.
Q&A with Jon Sobel, co-founder and CEO of Sight Machine located in both San Francisco, CA and Ann Arbor, MI.
Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IQMS, a leading manufacturing ERP software company, for $425 million. With the acquisition of the California-based IQMS, Dassault Systèmes extends the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to small and midsized manufacturing companies seeking to digitally transform their business operations.
