Empowered Employees Key to Digital Transformation July 24, 2020 Despite the troubles of 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, more manufacturing firms are digitally transforming their businesses through pragmatic investments in new technologies.
QA Advances as Gage Management Improves July 23, 2020 Any manufacturer operating under quality management system mandates, such as ISO9001, ISO13485, or AS9100, must at the very least maintain a measurement tool library database.
ERP in the Age of Industry 4.0 July 23, 2020 As with so much else in manufacturing, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a byproduct of the Third Industrial Revolution. Where electronics began transforming manual lathes and mills into CNC machine tools some 60 years ago, so too have computers and information technology given us CAD/CAM, ERP, PLM, and so much more.
Print, Cut, or Use the Best of Both? July 22, 2020 Manufacturing Engineering last covered the pluses and minuses of combining additive and subtractive machining in detail in July 2017.
New smart training framework works for Industry 4.0 jobs July 22, 2020 The credential hanging on my wall that swells me with pride is my machinist certificate. That apprenticeship experience was the “ON!” switch for my career path. The brightness of that light helped maintain the vision and the hope even as I faced significant racial bias almost 30 years ago.
Scaling Digital Additive Manufacturing for Medical Applications – Opportunities and Challenges July 22, 2020 The response of the 3D printing community to the specific shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic has helped to quickly raise the level of awareness of 3D printing and created a lot of buzz, but the realistic, scalable response has been somewhat different than what has been in the headlines. Matt Koons/Director of Business Development for Forecast 3D discusses this in this podcast, hosted by Bruce Morey, Senior Technical Editor for Manufacturing Engineering Magazine.
3MF Consortium Joins Linux Foundation July 21, 2020 The 3MF Consortium, the organization dedicated to advancing a universal specification for 3D printing, today announced it is becoming a Linux Foundation member.
How ‘smart processes’ fit into Industry 4.0 July 21, 2020 If Industry 3.0 is identified by the computerization of factory floor processes to make them “smart,” then Industry 4.0 can be understood as the expansion of the idea to include all of the non-factory floor inputs required to produce a quality product and a successful enterprise.
Bringing the frontline to the forefront of Industry 4.0 July 21, 2020 I met a man recently. He had worked at a small manufacturing company for 20 plus years and was the sole technician responsible for the assembly of his company’s most complex product. After years of dedication to the company, he was set to retire.
What AM was planned for IMTS? July 20, 2020 Had IMTS 2020 taken place as scheduled, it would have been clear that making parts as quickly and cost-effectively as possible remains as the primary goal in manufacturing.