In my first job after I received my engineering degree, I was designing hardware and writing software for embedded products for industrial applications. I had a simulator for the microcontroller.

Your company has just decided to add a new product to the lineup, and now it's up to you to purchase a new assembly line. No worries. It's just like buying something on Amazon, right? You search for a product with at least a four-star rating. You browse a couple reviews. A few clicks later, you're all set.

Automotive manufacturers face several ongoing challenges, such as being able to introduce new products onto an assembly line without long retooling times.

Whether due to a bustling economy, reshoring, better technology or a skilled-labor shortage, manufacturers are automating more than ever.

President Roosevelt stunned millions of listeners when he announced during a May 26, 1940, fireside chat that government must "harness the efficient machinery of America's manufacturers" to produce 50,000 combat aircraft over the next 12 months to confront the "approaching storm" of global war.

For nearly 30 years, Flocon Inc. has been manufacturing fluid applicators and dispensing systems in Illinois for applications in a wide variety of industries.

The statistics relating to musculoskeletal conditions are frightening. In 2012, one of every two adults in the U.S. were diagnosed with some form of musculoskeletal disorder leading to 290.8 million work days lost due to back or neck pain.

ASSEMBLY was born in October 1958 with the name Assembly & Fastener Engineering. Although its name was later shortened to Assembly Engineering, and subsequently to ASSEMBLY, it was then, and is today, a magazine of ideas and methods.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies thanks, in part, to the automotive industry, including suppliers like Johnson Controls. This global conglomerate produces a wide range of components for cars.

The first thing a visitor notices on arriving at the headquarters of Genesis Automation in St. Charles, IL, is the company's business hours. Rather than 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., there's this: "However long it takes."