Summit Engineered Automation has developed what it calls the Summit Agile Process to create true partnerships with customers by focusing on risk analysis early and throughout a project. The process was put to the test recently when the systems integrator was approached by start-up Corvida Medical of Coralville, IA, to build equipment to produce its latest product.
Because automation can produce more with less, it can help domestic manufacturers compete with low-cost overseas labor. It’s certainly a valid premise. But, like golf, dancing, baking bread or cutting dovetails by hand, implementing automation is harder than it looks.
The automotive industry is currently witnessing two remarkable trends that are shaping its future: the rise of flexible production systems and the widespread adoption of electric power. The crux of these trends lies in the implementation of intelligent manufacturing and assembly systems throughout the production process.
Last summer, Renault hit the start button on a new, highly automated line to assemble motors for electric vehicles at its historic factory in Cléon, France.
Based in Northbrook, IL, Concep Machine Co. has been designing and building custom automated assembly systems for the medical device manufacturing industry since 1967.
