Category: Technology

The manufacturing sector is in the midst of a period of great change, as growing and emerging physical and digital connectivity disrupts the global landscape, creating far-reaching implications for business and locations. Last year was a year of disruption in many respects – as events such as Brexit and the US Presidential election affected both economic performance and how businesses operated on the global stage. For the manufacturing sector, macro events such as these also carried risk, particularly in terms of regulation and market access. However, there is also something bigger on the horizon that will impact how and...

New England’s once-formidable textile industry is largely gone, but in Connecticut, its legacy continues in manufacturing of wire and cable products used for electric utilities, power plants, trains and industry. In East Granby, Marmon Engineered Wire & Cable LLC operates a research and development center looking at ways to develop engineered cables for harsh industrial applications. The intent is to come up with products that use fewer materials, provide sensing elements to spot and fix troubles and otherwise build next-generation cables and wires. And it runs a nearly century-old factory nearby making a vast range of cables, wires and...

It has become absolutely vital for manufacturers to take steps toward a modern future. Businesses that rely on outdated equipment, antiquated monitoring and testing processes are hurting themselves. This leaves businesses vulnerable as modern manufactures quickly become more competitive while offering more to their customers.  Competitiveness is key and the current business landscape is a testament to this fact.  Manufacturers are utilizing digital tools like the Industrial Internet of Things, Cloud based ERP and CRM systems while at the same time updating their equipment to further connect their facilities.   Click Here to Read the Full...

A manager at a large automotive parts manufacturer wrote to advancedmanufacturing.org and said he was preparing a recommendation for his senior leadership team to create a new job position: a coordinator of manufacturing technologies across the company’s nearly dozen factories in North America. For now, he told them, he was calling it “Shop Floor Technology Manager,” and this new position would oversee the coordination and integration of hardware and software manufacturing technologies. “Right now,” he said, all of the factories “are doing a little bit of something on their own with no oversight.”   Click Here to Read the Full...