If there is a key to success in manufacturing today, it's agility-the ability to accurately anticipate and swiftly respond to changing market demands. More and more companies are accomplishing this by pursuing mixed-mode manufacturing, employing different production strategies for different product lines.
The appliance industry is engaged in a classic love-hate relationship with plastic. Some engineers lust after the material's light weight, design aesthetics and recycling attributes. At the same time, others lament the volatile cost of plastic, and question its durability and structural integrity.
In addition to dexterity, moisture is a key ingredient of any successful magic trick. In fact, many magicians moisturize their fingertips to improve their ability to perform sleight-of-hand tricks involving cards, coins and other objects.
At its Baltimore plant, Allison Transmission, a division of General Motors Corp. (Detroit), employs a rigorous battery of tests to assure critical product tolerances are met for the plant's transmission bodies.
Digital Monitoring Products (DMP, Springfield, MO) specializes in the design and manufacture of network security systems, like those used in bank ATMs and retail stores. A privately held company, it is one of the last electronic control panel firms that manufactures all of its products in the United States.
It started in Europe as a means of eliminating mistakes in the final assembly of appliances. It ended up bringing together connector manufacturers, machine builders and wire harness makers in a new set of standards and an assembly technique that is helping save jobs in Western Europe. Now it's coming to North America.
You can find a lot of cutting edge technology stuffed into cell phones, handheld computers, MP3 players and other pocket-sized electronic devices. Ironically, you can also find an assembly technology that dates back to the Stone Age-adhesives.
Clutch, brake, drive train and filter manufacturer Hilliard Corp. (Elmira, NY) is an independently owned company that has traditionally worked in low volumes with a small product mix.
Oddly enough, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and I have a few things in common. We're both over 40 years old, and we've both increased our intelligence to handle a greater number and variety of tasks.
RSS
