December 2020
The December 2020 edition of Smart Manufacturing is now available as a digital magazine. Links to individual articles are below.

SMX panelists witness focus on innovation caused by pandemic
December 2, 2020
Manufacturers are increasingly analyzing their supply chains to mitigate cybersecurity and environmental risks with the goal of building more secure, resilient, agile organizations, keynote panelists at the Best of SMX virtual event said in October.

‘Rebalancing’ expands LIFT’s focus to include materials, processes and systems
December 3, 2020
LIFT recently expanded the focus of its desire to “create innovations faster, better and cheaper” to the materials, processes and systems involved in moving innovations from concept to commercialization.

Program a part once, machine it many times over
December 4, 2020
Until 2018, a West Coast manufacturer of gaming headsets and peripherals used approximated mesh CAD/CAM to size parts, tightening tolerance parameters up to 10 times smaller than the standard setting.

Automation champions battling show-stopping integration issue in U.S.
December 7, 2020
Like the United Nations’ international delegates who use interpreters to understand each other, robots, machines and other industrial components from various vendors speak different computer languages and need translators to help them communicate.

AMRs strut their stuff during pandemic, beyond
December 8, 2020
In August, Rob Sullivan had an installation scheduled for two of his autonomous mobile robots at the Deutsche Post DHL Group’s Innovation Center in Troisdorf, Germany.

As process optimization grows up, it leads some big rescue missions
October 22, 2020
Until 2017, Schneider Electric faced a factory bottleneck at its breaker box plant in Lexington, Kentucky. When the automation cell that welded the boxes went down, all production could be forced to stop.
Upfront
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Expert Opinion
Investigators work to crush barriers to automation route
December 9, 2020To get to smart manufacturing, the industry needs integration, simulation and analysis.
AM Update
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Additive Manufacturing & 3D Printing
Stratasys moving beyond tooling
October 27, 2020Rich, General Motors recently invested in 17 production-grade FDM printers, intending to use them for 3D-printed tooling. The term “tooling” is quite broad, however. Can you share details about what types of tooling GM and others are 3D printing, and why?
Field Intelligence
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Smart Manufacturing
Roche Pharma goes digital to master shift handovers
December 10, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major upheavals in manufacturing processes to avoid contamination while keeping supply chains intact. -
Automation
Pairing AI and robotics with multiple inspection systems
December 11, 2020Long gone are the days where the only solution to human error was human correction. As engineers today, we have access to smart technology that no other generation could have ever imagined. -
Smart Manufacturing
Cultivating and investing in your greatest assets: people
December 14, 2020The current COVID-19 experiences have energized many conversations about our futures in the post-COVID world, and that includes the future of manufacturing. -
Smart Manufacturing
Lanxess prospers as it lets analytics do the driving
December 15, 2020Many process manufacturing companies are on the path to digitization and have piloted analytics to improve operational performance and improve their competitive edge. -
Smart Manufacturing
Flexible Metal takes steps to defang EKANS ransomware
December 16, 2020FortiGaurd Labs recently reported that malware designed to attack industrial control systems is still a very lucrative attack method for cybercriminals. The EKANS ransomware family does just that, and manufacturers must be prepared for it. -
Automation
To program robots is human, to problem-solve is divine
December 17, 2020The COVID-19 black swan event disrupted the global economy and forced companies to rapidly rethink their processes, operations and supply networks.