Every manufacturing leader would love to know about a looming problem minutes, hours, and even days before it occurs to prevent or minimize the negative effects of the issue. Yet, too often operations leaders still simply adopt the scheduled maintenance intervals recommended by equipment... Continue Reading
When the new ISO 9001:2015 certification standard was announced in late 2015, it made waves in manufacturing due to its heavy emphasis on risk management. In our experience, in helping companies become ISO 9001:2015 certified, we’ve seen firsthand how the value of embracing a risk-averse... Continue Reading
Greater connectivity raises cyber security and other important issues. Industry 4.0 aims to facilitate the interaction between humans and technology by providing information at all industrial plant levels. Persons or tools can access process sensors or final element information (such as measured... Continue Reading
Customers are demanding higher quality and more innovative products at shorter delivery times. To stay relevant in the global marketplace, those wanting a competitive advantage today are switching to new and emerging technologies. Today’s plant floors are increasingly high-tech, from... Continue Reading
In a perfect world, functionality and ease of use would be the top criteria manufacturers use when deciding to purchase, replace, or upgrade their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Unfortunately, in the real world, cost considerations rear their ugly head. Business leaders are concerned... Continue Reading
In millions of homes, these phrases are heard every day: “Alexa, play ‘I Love Rock n’ Roll’, turn on the lights, what’s the weather outside?” The age of the connected home is here. Many of us are already using smart devices for at least one of our legacy home... Continue Reading
Pattern identification, behavior prediction, and beyond: Here’s how ML will teach you more about your plant’s assets. Machine learning has been researched for decades, but its use in applying artificial intelligence in industrial plants and asset operations and maintenance is now... Continue Reading
Here is your quick guide to the evolving supply chain software market With the growth of AI, IoT, and data analytics, supply chain management software capabilities are exploding. The large ERP vendors are continually designing and incorporating new capabilities into their suites, but... Continue Reading
The world’s much anticipated International Standard for occupational health and safety (OH&S) has just been published, and is set to transform workplace practices globally. ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems – requirements with guidance for use,... Continue Reading
We live in an increasingly on-demand world. If you can remember a time before the Internet, you might also remember renting videos and patronizing record stores. If you’re a gamer, you might vaguely recall purchasing compact discs (or even cartridges or floppy disks) in oversized... Continue Reading
To reap the benefits of smart manufacturing relies on the networks which carry data. Scot Wlodarczak argues that this requires a great deal of thought to be given to how to converge all the plant networks into a single, deterministic one. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) offers the... Continue Reading
Since the invention of the automobile, body materials ranging from steel, iron and other metals, to plastics, composites, and even wood have jockeyed for position as the main structural material of the motor vehicle. Recently, aluminum has been popping up in automotive industry news more and more,... Continue Reading
