Tag: Technology

March 23, 2017

In early 2016, the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) published ISO Technical Specification (TS) 15066, which outlines safety requirements for collaborative robots. The American National Standards Institute, ANSI, adopted ISO/TS 15066 later that year as ANSI/RIA Technical Report R15.606 (RIA […]

March 20, 2017

If you run a family-owned manufacturing business and you’ve got a long, successful history of making products that your customers want, things are good. But your newest competitors have the benefit of new technologies and capabilities out of the gate. […]

March 17, 2017

Your manufacturing processes are producing more than just marketable items that generate revenue. They’re also producing vast amounts of data. Until recently, manufacturers could only perform the most basic data analysis. Today, however, analytics capabilities combined with more opportunities to […]

March 16, 2017

Elon Musk’s SpaceX won its second-ever launch contract from the U.S. military by underbidding an alliance of defense industry giants. Cost was a determining factor in awarding the $96.5 million contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Claire Leon, the Air […]

March 16, 2017

The manufacturing sector is in the midst of a period of great change, as growing and emerging physical and digital connectivity disrupts the global landscape, creating far-reaching implications for business and locations. Last year was a year of disruption in […]

March 15, 2017

Israel’s emergence as a center for automotive technology got a vote of confidence on March 13 when Intel Corp. said it would pay $15 billion for Mobileye NV, a Jerusalem-based maker of chips and software for driverless cars. It will […]

March 13, 2017

Like its manufacturing partners, the energy industry is going through a period of transformation as it copes with market, technology, regulatory and societal challenges. Discussing them this week were more than 2,500 leaders from the oil, gas, manufacturing and utilities […]

March 7, 2017

ExxonMobil will invest $20 billion at 11 new and existing sites in the next 10 years to expand its manufacturing and export capacity along the Gulf of Mexico, the company announced March 6. The expansion program, which ExxonMobil is calling […]

March 3, 2017

To Hans Thalbauer, a senior vice president at SAP, the modern world is extraordinary. And merely reading the news can be a source of inspiration. “You hear about companies like Amazon and Alibaba talking about reducing delivery time from two […]

February 28, 2017

Chinese smartphone firm Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL] announced its first in-house designed chipset on Tuesday, as it works to streamline production, lower prices, and gain greater control over handset design to counter the impact of slowing sales. The Surge S1, deployed […]

February 27, 2017

Electronic data interchange (EDI) has been around for a while. It’s still a reliable, cost-effective solution for exchanging documents within your supply chain—and it’s a requirement for doing business. It’s imperative that you efficiently communicate with your suppliers and customers […]

February 27, 2017

Nestled at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains here, the IM Flash plant is a paragon of American high-tech manufacturing. Robots glide along the ceiling, moving silicon wafers the size of dinner plates between hulking machines that deposit and etch […]

February 23, 2017

The consumer megatrends shaping the future of the food industry range from local sourcing to on-the-go eating to a rise in organic foods and clean labels (understanding the ingredients on the food labels). While these things may seem extraneous to […]

February 16, 2017

In McGregor, Texas, the rumble of rocket engine testing rattles windows miles away. It is there, amid pastures in central Texas, that SpaceX tests the engines that drive cargo ships to the International Space Station as well as the dream […]

February 16, 2017

All around us, technical innovation is reshaping traditional industries – take BIM’s impact on construction planning and smart devices in the energy sector. Manufacturing has experienced its own transformation, but the factory itself hasn’t fundamentally changed since Ford’s Model T […]

February 15, 2017

The viability and vitality of U.S. manufacturing has been restored, according to the current economic and political indicators, but in fact that restoration process has been in progress for several years, marked by trends like “reshoring” and demonstrated by capital […]

February 9, 2017

Over the past three years, the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has led to an outpouring of technological cooperation, as more than 350 firms have joined various consortia to hammer out standards around open digital platforms. Yet […]

February 6, 2017

It may be one of the oldest trades, but the textiles industry has come a long way from the early days of handcrafting. Once considered a labor-intensive craft, textiles has now become a heavily technology-driven process. Thanks to advancements in […]

February 3, 2017

The speed at which manufacturers have to evolve their approach to manufacturing and reduce time to market has only been increasing as front office business systems and associated corporate goals are increasingly tied to plant floor activities. Of course, all […]

February 2, 2017

In Silicon Valley’s eagerness to invest in all things automotive, venture capitalists put $100 million into a Boston startup that makes an alternative to shock absorbers. It’s not a particularly sexy part of the industry, but investors were sold on […]