For two days in December, 150 peers from the aerospace and defense industry gathered at the American Aerospace and Defense Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here, they heard first-hand case studies and strategic insights from some of the most prominent manufacturers in the industry, including Airbus, Northrop Grumman, GE, United Technologies Corporation, Raytheon Missile Systems, Triumph Aerospace Structures, and Meggitt. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the key lessons delegates took away from the event were around lean deployment, how to embed a customer focus into every aspect of your business and, above all, organizational culture.
Read More →Additive Manufacturing in Medical Devices: Insights from J&J and the FDA
One of the promises of additive manufacturing is the ability to go after niche markets with low volume production of unique parts. What application could be more apt for this technology than the human body? Last month, the FDA issued a statement providing guidance to manufacturers on technical aspects of additive manufacturing, clarifying what the FDA recommends manufacturers include on submissions for 3D printed medical devices. The FDA has, so far, approved over 100 3D printed medical devices, including knee replacements, custom skull/facial reconstructions, and even a 3D printed drug, called Spritam, which is used to treat seizures. The FDA has categorized this technical guidance as a “leap-frog” guidance, explaining that it is just a mechanism to share initial thoughts in order to bridge where we are today with the innovations of tomorrow.
Read More →Highlights from the American Automotive Summit: Insights from Volvo, Ford, Toyota, and Kia
The 2017 American Automotive Summit was held on November 28-29 at The Henry, Autograph Collection in Dearborn, MI. It was an extremely successful event and we were proud to have top industry influencers share their thought leadership, including representatives from OEM’s Volvo, Toyota, Ford, and Kia. Here’s what we learned.
Read More →Additive Manufacturing in the Aerospace Industry
“With 3D printing, the old rules of how we design things are out the window,” said Terry Woychowski, VP, NA Test Operations at LINK in his talk on “The Brilliant Machine Age” at the American Automotive Summit. “You can now create a component exactly how you want it, without excess material.” The result is lighter, more cost-effective parts. The opportunities this presents are endless. We have previously covered additive manufacturing in the automotive industry, but the aerospace industry is another place we are seeing the effects of this new technology today. Despite the tremendous opportunities additive manufacturing presents, it is still a time-consuming process, and therefore best suited for high-end components used in low-volume products, such as aircraft. According to a recent study by ABI Research, due to the sheer size of the American aerospace industry and its defense budget, the U.S. aerospace and defense industries will drive much of the growth in additive manufacturing over the next ten years, producing additive manufactured parts and products with a value of US$17.8 billion in 2026.
Read More →Campbell Soup’s Acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance to Boost Snack Division
Exciting news from one of our thought leaders: This past December, Campbell Soup announced its intention to acquire snacks company Snyder’s-Lance. This will add Snyder’s brands including Kettle, Cape Cod, Late July, and Emerald nuts to the Campbells’ snack lineup, which already includes well-known household brands, most notably the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies and Goldfish crackers. Analysts say this represents a shift in the company’s “center of gravity” from its core soup business to snacks. The acquisition will bring the proportion of Campbell’s revenue from snacks up to 46% from 31% of sales in 2017.
Read More →Managing an Inter-generational Workforce
At the American Manufacturing Summit, Dirk Hilgenberg, VP, Assembly at BMW, shared this chart showing changes in the composition of the civilian labor force from 2004 to 2024. As you can see, the population of workers age 25-34 will remain relatively stable, there will be a decline in those aged 45-54, but as some people live and work longer, there will actually be an increase of those aged 65 and older in the workforce. The result, Hilgenberg says, is that by 2024, we will have three generations of workers on the shop floor with completely different value sets, interests, and abilities. This represents a huge challenge for leadership, team dynamics, and incentives.
Read More →Additive Manufacturing in the Automotive Industry: Insights from Ford & BMW
In 2014, Local Motors printed the first 3D printed car from an ABS carbon-fiber blend. They call it The Strati. John Fleming, Former EVP, Manufacturing and Labor Affairs at Ford Motor Co., showed this video of The Strati during his presentation at the American Automotive Summit. He explained, “I showed this video not because I think Ford or anybody else is soon going to be 3D printing whole cars, I don’t see that. But I do see additive manufacturing as one of the technologies that is going to be one of the most critical in the future because it has the opportunity to do things that we’ve never been able to do before – to design components and manufacture them like we’ve never been able to before – and I do think it will disrupt the business, and this is happening already.”
Read More →Industry 4.0 Realized: How BMW is approaching digital transformation
The promise of Industry 4.0 is being realized in the automotive industry, and BMW is at the forefront of the evolution of automated production. At last year’s American Manufacturing Summit, Dirk Hilgenberg, VP, Assembly at BMW shared with us how BMW is incorporating Industry 4.0 concepts to innovate at each stage of the production process, from design to post-market.
Read More →Empowering Smart Manufacturers with IIoT Centric Results – A Memex Ebook
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0 as some call it is all about real-time data that can be shared by Operators and Engineering, Production and Management teams to improve productivity and ultimately profit. To do that, every machine, whether old or new, must be embraced as a node on the corporate network. Once that connectivity occurs data starts flowing. Everyone on the shop floor right up to the top floor can take advantage of dashboard reports on any Web-enabled device to check the status of single or multi-plant operations to any level of detail they require. We asked Memex, what is your advice to manufacturers who are trying to stay ahead of their competitors in such a fast-paced industry, especially in the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) era?
Read More →Sustaining a Culture of Continuous Improvement
Implementing lean initiatives can be a challenge, but sustaining them is even harder. As Mark Reich, COO of the Lean Enterprise Institute, told the crowd at the American Manufacturing Summit, “to be sustainable, it has to be more than a program. As long as it’s a program, it’s not going to be sustainable. Because as soon as whoever’s program it is leaves, it’s not going to sustain. So it has to be built into the company’s fundamental way of doing business.” In other words, it needs to become part of the culture. Once you have made the case for change and built the concept of continuous improvement into the culture of your organization, it is leadership’s responsibility to continue to nurture this culture. In his presentation, “Culture: The Definitive Piece in your CI Journey,” at the American Manufacturing Summit, Mark Gooch, GVP, Operations & Lean Enterprise at Pentair, gave the following tips to the audience on sustaining a culture of continuous improvement.
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