Because of governments’ undying devotion to research and development investments that bolster military capabilities, aerospace & defense represents the leading-edge market segment in smart manufacturing.

The institutes that make up Manufacturing USA need to move at the speed of business, considering that the endeavor represents the U.S. government’s biggest investment in the digitization of manufacturing to date.

As manufacturers aim to become increasingly nimble in the marketplace,distributed manufacturing—making parts or finished products at or near the location where they will be used instead of at a central factory—is emerging as a way to advance a faster, more flexible and cheaper supply chain.

Foundry 45 is helping Delta Air Lines strategize on ways to keep maintenance workers safe in the “ingestion zone”—the dangerous environment underneath the airplane where people and equipment are moving around in close proximity to engines.

The concepts Industry 4.0 in Europe, Made in China 2025 and smart manufacturing in the U.S. “all share a common goal—to create cyber-physical systems to innovate in manufacturing,” IDC's Bob Parker said at Dassault Systèmes’ recent Manufacturing in the Age of Experience event. “And it’s really dependent on a set of new technologies like IoT (the Internet of Things) and artificial intelligence (AI).”

Using augmented reality, a Scope AR customer building titanium panels for the Orion space capsule in 2018 saved $1 million the first day.

A couple of years back, Scott Blake was at a trade show in Baltimore when two researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center stopped at his company’s booth.