When General Motors opened the Detroit Transmission plant in Livonia, MI, in 1949, the 1.5-million-square-foot facility sym-bolized the resounding success of the most popular component in American automobiles—the Hydra-Matic Drive transmis-sion.

At the Components and Logistics facility in Gastonia, NC, Daimler Trucks fulfills orders and sub-assembly of thousands of parts. The plant provides parts for North American truck and school bus manufacturers, as well as auto parts stores.

With wearable devices increasingly being used on the assembly line, it's definitely time to update the old expression that 'What you wear says a lot about you.' A more appropriate thing for manufacturers to now say about their assembly line workers is, 'What you wear tells us a lot about your productivity.'

When I first started my engineering career, I did not know much about configuration management. In fact, my introduction to configuration management was more about what happens when it is missing.

Traditionally, it's not unusual to see people wear goggles and other types of safety glasses in factories. But, a new class of wearable devices is becoming increasingly popular on assembly lines.

Some assembly technologies evolve too fast or too slow, while others change at a pace that's just right. Hydraulic presses belong in the latter category, according to some suppliers, and that's a good thing.

As the miniaturization trend in electronics continues, rigid-flex PCBs grow in popularity. This is because they require up to 60 percent less space than standard PCBs.

Manufacturing high-quality products is always serious business, even when the products are used for fun. KTM AG, for example, builds each of its off-road motorcycles with top-notch and thoroughly tested parts so that each model is "ready to race."

Myriad automotive components are checked for leaks, including turbochargers, oil filters and radiators. However, leak testing doesn’t end with the suppliers of those components.

During the next decade, more automakers will be adopting 48-volt electrical systems to keep up with evolving driver-assist options, onboard entertainment features and other power-sapping applications. Growing demand for mild-hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs) is also behind the trend.