MOUNTAIN IRON, MN—Heliene Inc. is restarting production in a once shuttered northern Minnesota solar panel manufacturing plant here. The plant was previously occupied by the solar company Silicon Energy and will be retooled with the help of a $3.5 million state loan package.
WINDSOR, ONTARIO—A misconfigured data transfer server left sensitive data from big name car makers and their employees wide open to the Internet earlier this month, a security vendor has revealed. The data includes assembly line and factory schematics.
PALMDALE, CA—Northrop Grumman entered full-rate production on the F-35 Lightning II’s centre fuselage in May to meet increasing order quantities from the Pentagon and international customers. According to FlightGlobal, Northrop hired 1,000 additional employees here between the beginning of 2017 and the end of the first quarter 2018 to accommodate the increased production.
TEMPE, AZ—American factories expanded at an unexpectedly fast pace in June, another sign of strength for U.S. industry. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchase managers, says its manufacturing index rose last month to 60.2, the highest level since February and up from 58.7 in May.
MUNICH—The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA has developed a mobile, smart factory called CassaMobile, reports Phys.org. This mobile unit can be used, for example, to 3D-print bone drilling guides and rework them in a milling machine before verifying their quality and sealing them in sterile packaging.
LOS ANGELES—Home furnishings maker Abbyson has expanded its AbbySky manufacturing facility in a move aimed to meet the company’s growing motion upholstery category. Furniture Today reports that the new manufacturing space is 5 million square feet, including 50 total assembly lines, a showroom and an R&D building.
BOSTON—General Electric Co. has agreed to sell its industrial gas-engine business to Advent International for $3.25 billion, according to Bloomberg.com. CEO John Flannery said Monday that the private-equity firm will acquire GE’s Jenbacher and Waukesha engine brands and manufacturing sites in Austria, the U.S. and Canada.
PARIS—The global manufacturing industry could see between $519 billion and $685 billion in value-added revenue by 2020 through smart, connected devices, per a new report by Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute. The report, Digital Engineering: The New Growth Engine for Discrete Manufacturers, says that while the potential returns are significant, manufacturers need to invest in digital continuity and digital capabilities to benefit.
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