critical

Critical Manufacturing and Tata Consultancy Services partnership to develop ‘modern MES’

May 21, 2020 by Mai Tao Leave a Comment

Critical Manufacturing has agreed a global consulting and services partnership with Tata Consultancy Services, a global leader in IT services, consulting and business solutions.

Under the agreement, TCS will offer global consulting, project development and implementation support services around Critical Manufacturing’s Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) for customers in the complex discrete industry, including the semiconductor, PCB manufacturing, medical device, aerospace and defense, and automotive segments.

Regu Ayyaswamy, global head, internet of things and engineering services, TCS, says: “TCS works with leading manufacturers globally, helping them scale up product innovation and pursue their growth and transformation initiatives. [Read more…] about Critical Manufacturing and Tata Consultancy Services partnership to develop ‘modern MES’

Automation is a ‘critical technology’ to help people during coronavirus crisis, says A3

April 9, 2020 by Sam Francis Leave a Comment

Automation technology is playing a critical role helping safeguard people and processes during the global coronavirus crisis, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3).

A3 is a US industrial association representing members in robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors, artificial intelligence and related automation technologies who are now part of the large ecosystem taking part in the battle against Covid-19.

Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, says: “These critical automation technologies are keeping people safe, helping develop new medicines and treatments, producing key products people need today, and filling other essential roles. [Read more…] about Automation is a ‘critical technology’ to help people during coronavirus crisis, says A3

Automation Drives COGS Reduction for Small and Mid-sized Manufacturers

January 20, 2020 by David Edwards Leave a Comment

By Mike Franz, founder and creator of the WorkCenter from ManufacturingPower

Automated access to summary cost and margin information for each SKU delivers light SaaS “MRO/tail-spend” price transparency, returning a minimum 11-14 COGS (cost of goods sold) reduction to the bottom line.

Every manufacturer must pay attention to costs and competitors’ pricing. For better or worse, purchasing professionals are rewarded for capturing the lowest price; few have the time to scour the internet for ever RFQ to see if the bid offered is indeed competitive. Measuring value with price experiments is not realistic.

Full-time competitive pricing professionals could work 24/7 to generate statistically valid and accurate data. For the small and mid-sized manufacturer, the solution is to automate price comparison functionality. Until recently this was prohibitively expensive and often too complex. Automating costs and competitive prices can be achieved in a $5,000 per year SaaS solution. [Read more…] about Automation Drives COGS Reduction for Small and Mid-sized Manufacturers

Silicon Sensing to provide navigation technology for Mayflower autonomous ship

January 20, 2020 by Sam Francis Leave a Comment

Two Silicon Sensing Systems ultra-precise AMU30 inertial measurement units (IMUs) will provide critical navigation data to the autopilot capability for the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) throughout her milestone trans-Atlantic voyage this autumn.

Setting sail this September, the 15 meter-long, 5-ton MAS400 will repeat the Mayflower’s original epic voyage 400 years ago. Led by marine research organization ProMare and powered by IBM, she will sail from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Massachusetts, USA.

Instead of a captain and crew, she will use computer vision, machine learning, edge technologies and sensors to navigate and detect hazards. [Read more…] about Silicon Sensing to provide navigation technology for Mayflower autonomous ship

General Motors and University of Michigan develop automated safety features

October 24, 2019 by David Edwards

As General Motors moves toward its vision of a world with zero crashes, the company is partnering with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute to understand the real-world effectiveness of some of its available active safety, driver assistance, and advanced headlighting features that may prevent or mitigate different types of crashes.

The company says results show that several of these features are making a statistically significant impact in helping to reduce crashes.

The study leveraged 3.7 million GM vehicles across 20 different models from 2013-2017. Fifteen different systems were evaluated using police report crash databases available to UMTRI from 10 states. [Read more…] about General Motors and University of Michigan develop automated safety features

Nokia partners on wireless digitalisation infrastructure for ports and terminals

July 3, 2019 by Anna

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, a pioneer in terminal automation and energy-efficient cargo handling, and Ukkoverkot, leading private LTE network provider, have signed a two-year co-operation agreement with Nokia to design, build and operate a private LTE network.

Nokia brings the digital automation platform that is well suited for mobile machinery and industrial Internet of Things.

A test network reflecting an actual terminal environment will be built for research and development purposes.