Articles by John Sprovieri

Does this sound familiar? Management envisions "a sea of robots" on the shop floor. They haven't deployed robots before, and they don't have a specific goal in mind. They just want "automation." The next thing you know, there's a collaborative robot on the loading dock. Your job: Find something to do with it.

Poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou wrote, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”

Step Feeder Supplies Magnets for Automotive Assembly; Two Feeders Are Synced for Assembly Automation; Hopper Keeps Feeder Bowls Topped Up...

In January, Intel announced that it will invest $20 billion in a new microchip manufacturing facility near Columbus, OH. The fab is expected to create 3,000 company jobs, 7,000 construction jobs, and tens of thousands of additional jobs for suppliers and partners.

Product life cycles are getting shorter. For example, 20 percent of consumers replace their televisions every four to five years; another 5 percent replace their sets every one to three years. Smartphones are even worse. On average, consumers replace their phones about every 2.5 years.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry faced a large-scale shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), which put frontline workers at risk of infection.

Whenever a new technology is introduced, it's often viewed with suspicion and distrust, if not outright hostility.

An automatic screw feeder can greatly increase the efficiency of a manual screwdriving operation. However, to reach the next level of productivity, assemblers should consider a robot. Screwdriving is a great application for Cartesian, SCARA, six-axis robots and collaborative robots. Now, several suppliers have introduced robots for installing large screws and bolts. Here’s a look at some of the latest developments.

Electronics in today's vehicles are increasingly complex. With more sensors, controls and interfaces all using higher bandwidth, faster data throughput and more reliable networks are required. The weight of the cables and harnesses in the vehicle is also a concern.

My wife works for one of the largest printers in the country. From August through October last year, nine of her co-workers died of COVID-19. All were shop-floor personnel who did not have the luxury of working from home. One was just 28 years old. None were vaccinated, despite ample monetary incentives to do so. Alarmed, the CEO held a companywide meeting via Zoom, begging employees to get vaccinated.