Making things smarter is all the rage in manufacturing these days, be it the machines on the assembly line, or the overall plant itself. Rolls-Royce Deutschland (RRD), however, is going one step further.

Every second counts on the assembly line, regardless of its length, level of automation, or the product being made. Knowing this, automotive manufactures are increasingly using advanced technology to help cut production cycle time, even if it’s just by fractions of a second.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, manufacturers of medical devices, monitoring systems and personal protection equipment continue their quest to make products that enhance the lives of all patients.

Simulated driving has its serious side and its fun side. On the serious side, the technology is regularly used in driver's education courses, as well as to monitor driver behavior, performance and attention, and evaluate advanced driver assistance systems.

Autonomous vehicle technology is being adapted for use in everything from container ships to tankers. Engineers are also equipping other types of commercial vessels, including ferries, tugboats and warships, with state-of-the-art navigation systems that can be safely used in harbors and on lakes, rivers and oceans.

Automotive engineers have been tackling unwanted vehicle noise for decades. Their focus consists of a combination of sounds and vibrations from a vehicle’s drivetrain, as well as ambient road noise from outside vehicles.

"Are we there yet?" is an age-old question that back-seat passengers have been asking for decades. Automotive engineers on the lightweighting journey are faced with a similar quandary.

The automotive industry was one of the first to embrace robotics. Indeed, automakers have been benefiting from the technology since General Motors purchased the first industrial robot from Unimation way back in 1961.

Manufacturing large, monolithic composite parts, such as a car body or an aircraft fuselage, requires a large and complex mold. As a result, the process can be quite costly. Alternatively, such complex parts can be manufactured less expensively by assembling a series of smaller parts using various joining techniques.