Manufacturing Engineering’s 2018 Class of 30 Under 30 honorees are in a class all their own. This is the sixth year Manufacturing Engineering is recognizing 30 individuals under the age of 30 that are leading the manufacturing industry into the future.

There are plenty of manufacturing catchphrases: the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industry 4.0 and the Digital Factory. “Sometimes it’s a lot of buzzwords. Sometimes there’s a lot of reality behind it,” said Roger Hart, research and development manager of Siemens (Berlin and Munich, Germany).

Flexibility has come to automation, perhaps as never before. And for industries that require precision machining, assembly, and measurement, automation technologies have never been more available.

It’s the machine tool acronym you never bother to put into words: CNC. And much of the time it’s probably OK to view your “computer numerical control” as a black box doing magic. But if you’re struggling with high-speed machining, need better surface finishes or higher accuracy, have training and retention problems, or want a better handle on your production efficiency, the answer just might be the latest iterations of those three little letters.

Originally developed for tracking and control of shop floor operations in larger manufacturing environments, Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software has evolved into an extensive variety of network configurations.

Since its founding in 1968, G&W Products (Fairfield, OH) has grown into a diversified global provider of metal stamping and fabrication capabilities. According to Jeff Karan, director of enterprise technologies, “Our three facilities and 160 employees handle orders ranging from 100 to 100,000 pieces and provide customers with assemblies from 1 to 20,000 lb.”