Sometimes, improving the quality of machined parts does not involve machining. That’s what A.R. Machining, a family-owned supplier to the aerospace, gas and semi-conductor industries, discovered.
If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of Industry 4.0, and perhaps a bit sheepish about your lack of progress, you’ve got good company.
As additive manufacturing (AM) moves from prototypes to mass production, manufacturers are setting their sights on the holy grails—the products and processes that will be game-changers. Many game-changers are already in play.
As with any digital transformation process, the devil is in the details, and there are many potential pitfalls that can derail projects.
Road to maturity involves safeguarding supply chains, treating security with the same urgency as safety, for starters.
There is no shortage of competition in a global market. As a manufacturer trying to get ahead of the pack, automation can help with problems like a limited skilled labor force, quality control issues and suboptimal throughput. But the high initial cost and extended implementation time can be deterrents.
Manufacturers are facing shrinking product lifecycles with frequently changing customer demands. As a result, they need agile production and flexible factory layouts that can easily be modified whenever needed.
When drilling a well, clearing a forest or excavating a building site, experienced operators count on their toughest equipment to help them get the job done.
Most companies do not have a clear strategy for how they are applying IoT, Mark Weatherford, former Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, said at an exclusive roundtable Smart Manufacturing convened recently in Chicago.
On-time delivery (OTD), a measurement of the level of finish goods or services delivered when promised and in full, is a signal of efficiency that reveals how well operations is doing.