Austin Weber

When lean tools are used effectively every day, manufacturers eventually arrive at a destination: lean culture. All the continuous improvement efforts along the way will drive a cyclical culture that's sustainable.

Engineers at NASA recently earmarked a couple of emerging technologies that may alter the way aircraft are designed and built in the coming decades. If successful, each could lead to planes that are quieter, more energy efficient and produce fewer emissions.

Ordinarily, parts are presented to a robot for pick up at fixed locations, the escapement of a feeder bowl, for example, or the pockets of a thermoformed tray. To save space and eliminate the cost of trays and feeders, manufacturers would like a robot to pick randomly oriented parts out of a bin, box or tote.

One of the top transmission assembly plants in the world is Ford Motor Co.'s Van Dyke facility in Sterling Heights, MI. It's part of a network of Ford factories that mass-produce axles, engines and other power train components used in the company's cars and trucks.

In the early days of commercial aviation, thousands of inventors and tinkerers developed multiple schemes for flying machines. A few ideas worked, but many others never got off the ground.

Collaborative robots are an important element of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing initiatives. Many engineers are intrigued by these next-generation machines that can control force and work safely next to people on assembly lines without traditional safety guarding.

In the Chicagoland area, the home of ASSEMBLY Magazine for the past 60 years, freight trains are a daily fact of life. It's hard to drive anywhere without encountering at least one long train with numerous cars pulled by powerful locomotives.