“I cannot imagine any condition which could cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” — EJ Smith, Captain, RMS Titanic While most of us will never experience an accident of Titanic proportions, workplace safety should be the top priority in…
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Reverse engineering, sometimes referred to as back engineering, is the process of extracting design information from anything man-made. Most often the process is to disassemble and analyze the components that make up the unit in great detail. Is it legal to reverse engineer something? As long as no intellectual property rights are violated, as in…
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Here we take a little break to explore some fun, random and interesting facts about electronics that you may not know. Why are circuit boards green? Printed circuit boards first began being developed in the early 1900s. The earliest versions were constructed by just simple wires that connected components together by a series of pegs or “posts”….
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Every manufacturing facility is focused on finding spots where time, money or energy is being wasted. Oftentimes, this audit style focuses on individual components of a facility instead of how the components interact with each other. After you’ve optimized all of the various aspects of how your company produces and processes materials, look at the…
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From airplanes to replacement machine parts, additive manufacturing, aka 3-D printing, is making an impact — and may have some longevity. It’s become so popular, in fact, that individuals are buying 3-D printers for their homes. The 3-D printers manufacturers use, however, are much larger and made for more than printing plastic models, but how…
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What is a business process? To put it simply, a process is a series of required steps that are clearly defined to complete a business task. A successful process clearly defines who is responsible for the completion of each step, when it must be done and how it should be done. Having a clear defined…
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A skills gap is likely to leave 2 million manufacturing jobs unfilled over the next eight years, leaving many manufacturers concerned about the future of their industry. Although robotics and other technological advancements are making an impact, educated and well-trained manufacturers are still necessary to operate these and perform additional tasks on the plant floor….
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Machines and systems at every production plant need regular service to achieve optimal performance. Some organization leaders consider spare parts, extra lubricants and filters, and even safety equipment as added expenses. Those who keep a ready parts and consumables supply available, however, can prevent unnecessary and costly production stoppages. Machines and parts will eventually fail; a maintenance,…
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When working on a manufacturing floor, safety is paramount. Accidents can happen at any time due to human carelessness or machine malfunction. You can always send out for equipment repairs if a machine breaks down, but repair services cannot help you if your workers are injured. It’s very important that there is a clear safety protocol…
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How many times have we performed an action, without thinking about what we’re doing? Driven home and realized we don’t remember the past five minutes of the drive, switched to autopilot and performed actions by muscle memory without thinking about what we’re doing? Did you put the cap back on the toothpaste? When we perform…
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