During the past month, I interviewed several engineers for an article on automatic screwdriving. Along the way, I learned a bit of wisdom that is applicable no matter what process you might want to automate.
In the latter part of the 18th century, the advent of water and steam power enabled manufacturers to transition from manual production to mechanized production. Historians know it as the Industrial Revolution, but let’s think of it as “Industry 1.0.”
If a federal agency helped reduce the trade deficit, increase U.S. manufacturing jobs, and returned a profit to the Treasury, you might think that was a good thing. Unfortunately, it’s not the case in topsy-turvy Washington.
In August, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opted to delay implementation of a new “factoryless goods producer” classification in the latest revision of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
It’s a national tragedy that too many young men these days lack father figures, role models or any sort of guiding hand. Ac-cording to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15 million U.S. children, or one in three, live without a father. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.
Good news: America is now luring as many factory jobs back from overseas as it’s losing to continued offshoring. That’s the assessment of the Reshoring Initiative, a nonprofit group that encourages companies to move work back to the United States.
Remember 1992? Four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King, sparking riots citywide. Compact discs surpassed cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music...
The late novelist John Le Carré once said, “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” As it turns out, what was good advice for spies is equally good for manufacturing and design engineers.
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