Random Thoughts on Manufacturing, Innovation, What We Appreciate, and More
Here are several mini-columns merged into one. Take these thoughts all at once or in small doses.
Peter Zelinski
Editorial Director, Modern Machine Shop
5 Big Themes in Additive Manufacturing at Formnext Forum: Austin
Formnext Forum: Austin, a two-day event at the end of August focused on additive manufacturing for production, includes a conference exploring important ideas in AM related to supply chains, bridge production, enterprise transformation and more.
You Are Not Spending Enough on Gaging
Is there an intuitive ratio shaping shops’ perceptions of how much gaging capacity is appropriate for their machining capacity? Much has changed; that ratio might need to be reconsidered.
For This Machine Shop, Licensing Is the Answer to the Inventor’s Dilemma
Machine shops are natural inventors, but not necessarily suited to supporting and marketing a product. This Minnesota shop with an invention related to micromolding will share it through licensing.
Random Thoughts About Reshoring and Buying American
What will be the effect of the supply chain disruptions of recent years? Here are several observations related to where companies produce and how we think about a manufactured product’s origins.
Why Towns Want Manufacturing Plants
A manufacturing facility can harness and focus the native ability of people growing up in a town, and channel this into livelihoods and homes for the town’s next generation. Is this something we lost sight of and are now seeing again?
4 Steps to a Cobot Culture: How Thyssenkrupp Bilstein Has Answered Staffing Shortages With Economical Automation
Safe, economical automation using collaborative robots can transform a manufacturing facility and overcome staffing shortfalls, but it takes additional investment and a systemized approach to automation in order to realize this change.