As Manufacturing Day approaches, the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its affiliate association, the Automation Federation, are celebrating the importance of manufacturing to the world’s economic health and future. Supported by leading manufacturers and other industry supporters, Manufacturing Day on October 2 is designed to amplify the voice of individual companies and coordinate a collective movement toward greater understanding and solutions to key manufacturing challenges. According to the ISA, perhaps the most pressing challenge facing manufacturers in the US is the growing skills gap. Experts project that over the next 10 years nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will be…
North American sales of machine vision systems and components grew 16% to $1.2 billion in the first half of 2015, the market’s highest first half total in history, according to new statistics issued by AIA, the industry’s trade group. Total machine vision sales include sales of machine vision systems and components. The machine vision systems category saw a year over year increase of 18% to $1.0 billion in the first half of 2015. Machine vision systems include smart cameras and application specific machine vision (ASMV) systems. Smart cameras expanded by 13% to $151.3 million, while ASMV systems increased 19% to…
Amid rapid advances and adoption of robotic technology in materials handling, it can be hard to keep up with all the tipping points. Grippers, vision systems, navigation solutions and software are combining to make once fantastical robotic applications all but inevitable. But, even as they offer solutions to age-old challenges, concepts like robotic piece picking are also bound to present sizable tests. When it comes to piece picking, humans have the advantage of highly dexterous manipulation, versatile product identification and intuitive decision-making. Robots offer consistency and predictability, but they will need greater speed and flexibility to keep up with the…
With recalls taking center stage in today’s media, manufacturers must closely evaluate the cost of poor quality (CoPQ) to their business. CoPQ is typically defined as the costs that would disappear if your manufacturing process was perfect. These costs include lost goodwill and expenses incurred from replacement, refund, rework, and scrapping. It has been estimated that CoPQ amounts to approximately 5% to 30% of a manufacturer’s gross sales. This means CoPQ is costing manufacturers millions per year and therefore every executive should recognize that quality must be addressed to remain competitive. In industries where the price of product is the…
