by Gary Mintchell | Aug 31, 2022 | News, Organizations
In this era of ditching bean-counters’ spreadsheets and returning manufacturing to the US, FANUC America provides some welcome news. It has announced a West Campus expansion that will push its operational space in Oakland County, Michigan to nearly two million square feet. The construction will include a 655,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility to house manufacturing, engineering and R&D projects.
This investment in Michigan’s growing manufacturing area includes the purchase of 67 acres of land as well as the site of the former Thomas M. Cooley Law School Campus, which will provide future growth in the education of the next generation of robotics and automation workers. Including the existing building, FANUC will add a total of 788,000 square feet of additional operational floor space.
In October 2019, FANUC America opened North Campus, a 461,000 square-foot facility built by General Development Company, who is also constructing the new West Campus.
North Campus, located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, is walking distance from FANUC America’s headquarters in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The addition continues to be crucial in growing the company’s engineering, R&D, manufacturing and warehousing capabilities and has supported record-breaking orders and deliveries in a short period of time.
After the City of Auburn Hills approves plans, FANUC America plans to break ground in the fall of 2022 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2024.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 29, 2022 | Manufacturing IT, News, Organizations
We are excited to announce that 2022 marks MESA’s 30th anniversary! On August 21,1992, a group of manufacturing technology luminaries gathered to form a membership society, and MESA members have been delivering excellence around what is now known as smart manufacturing ever since! Thank you for helping us achieve this milestone, we look forward to celebrating with you over the coming months!
I began a journey into software in the late 70s with RPG (for the IBM mini-computer of the time), BASIC, Pascal, and assembly. My boss at the time had a vision for using software and sent me to IBM training to install a 1978-version MRP II application–an early MES.
I’ve donated many hours to the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (Manufacturing Execution Systems Association) over the past 17 years or so. They have added a lot of thought leadership to Smart Manufacturing. Congratulations for surviving 30 years.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 24, 2022 | Education, News, Organizations
Potential NSF investment of $52 million over 10 years funds convergent research, workforce development.
News about funding for an advanced manufacturing research center.
The Ohio State University will lead a multi-institutional engineering research center to develop and deploy revolutionary, intelligent autonomous manufacturing systems and educate a future manufacturing workforce. The center will create approaches central to next-generation manufacturing to create jobs, train a diverse workforce and ease supply chain issues by growing a new American industry.
The National Science Foundation announced funding for the Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing, Moving from Evolution to Revolution (HAMMER) Engineering Research Center, for five years at $26 million with the ability to renew for another $26 million for an additional five years. If fully realized, it will be one of the largest research investments in the last decade for Ohio State.
Ohio State will partner with Case Western Reserve University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Northwestern University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville along with more than 70 industry, educational and technical organization collaborators to develop and implement new manufacturing technologies for agile, high-performance and high-quality components.
Glenn Daehn, the Mars G. Fontana Professor of Metallurgical Engineering, will serve as the director of the center.
Through basic, applied and translational research, HAMMER will accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent autonomous manufacturing systems that will use multiple processes to control material properties and component dimensions to allow rapid customization. These systems will learn from each operation, improving themselves over time.
In addition to the collaboration with the four partner universities, HAMMER will include convergent research across colleges at Ohio State. The College of Arts and Sciences, College of Medicine and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs join the College of Engineering in supporting the new engineering research center.
The NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) program supports convergent research, education and technology translation at U.S. universities to lead to strong societal impacts.
Each ERC has interacting foundational components that go beyond the research project, including engineering workforce development at all stages, a culture of diversity and inclusion where all participants gain mutual benefit and value creation within an innovation ecosystem that will outlast the lifetime of the ERC.
Since the program’s start in 1985, NSF has funded 75 ERCs throughout the United States. NSF supports each center for up to 10 years. This investment has led to many successes, including:
- More than 240 spinoff companies
- More than 900 patents
- More than 14,400 total bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees to ERC students
- Numerous research outcomes enabling new technologies
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 23, 2022 | News, Organizations
Company Adds Chief Technology Evangelist, Chief Technology Architect, and Chief Information Security Officer
Continuing to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders who actually have been instrumental in the company’s success so far, Inductive Automation announced another round of C-level appointments.
An earlier round of leadership changes came in July when CEO and Founder Steve Hechtman and COO Wendi-Lynn Hechtman announced they were delegating their C-level roles to focus on their roles as the Executive Chairmen of the Board of Directors, and promoted Colby Clegg to CEO, Kat Robinett to COO, and Carl Gould to CTO.
In this new round of appointments, Travis Cox has been promoted to the new role of Chief Technology Evangelist, Kevin McClusky to the new role of Chief Technology Architect, and Jason Waits to the new role of Chief Information Security Officer.
Inductive Automation’s key product, Ignition by Inductive Automation, is an industrial application platform with tools for building solutions in human-machine interface (HMI), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
As Chief Technology Evangelist, Travis Cox will undertake a variety of responsibilities with the overarching goal of raising awareness of industry trends, modern technologies, open standards, and the many possibilities of the Ignition platform. Cox will communicate through a variety of formats, including presenting at conferences and events, meetings with industry leaders, and providing media interviews.
As Chief Technology Architect, Kevin McClusky will work to help drive widespread adoption of Ignition, work closely with some of the world’s most innovative companies, provide long-term architectural guidance, and provide vital feedback to the CEO and CTO about customer needs, customer and industry trends, new technology adoption, and any identified threats or risks to the company.
As CTE and CTA, Travis Cox and Kevin McClusky will work closely with Inductive Automation’s Chief Strategy Officer, Don Pearson, to expand the market and partnership growth of the ever-expanding Ignition ecosystem of solutions.
As Chief Information Security Officer, Jason Waits will maintain a central and high-level view into the needs of Inductive Automation’s entire ecosystem, from the company to its products and everything in between. This new role is a natural progression for Waits, who was part of the first-place team in 2017 US Cyber Challenge, and has functioned as IA’s resident security expert for several years.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 19, 2022 | News, Organizations
Hexagon has been busily acquiring companies over the past year or two. It has also launched an interesting incubator-type program called Sixth Sense encouraging start up entrepreneurs with enticements of monetary support.
- Second Sixth Sense challenge invites applications from disruptive start-ups in digital reality, visualisation, artificial intelligence, and automation.
- Launched in January 2022, the open innovation platform supports scaling start-ups in advanced manufacturing with Hexagon resources and market insights.
- Up to three winners will be selected after an intensive 10-week programme and offered the opportunity to scale their business alongside Hexagon.
Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division announced the launch of its second Sixth Sense start-up challenge: digital reality and visualisation for a sustainable future.
Hexagon launched the Sixth Sense open innovation platform in January 2022 to nurture start-ups in the advanced manufacturing space with Hexagon resources. Its first winners were selected in June and are rapidly scaling with Hexagon’s portfolio and impressive customer base. Its Manufacturing Intelligence division provides engineering, production and quality technology and services to the world’s biggest and most innovative technology leaders around the world, from customers such as Audi and Boeing, to partners like Microsoft.
Sixth Sense has now opened applications for its second cohort, inviting entries from start-ups with innovative technologies in advanced visualisation, digital realities, artificial intelligence, and automation. A cohort will be selected based on a pitching competition in September, after which the platform will fast-track the companies through an intensive 10-week programme to inform and refine their offering with Hexagon’s market insights. Up to three start-ups will be selected from that shortlist at the final in December and offered the opportunity to scale their business alongside Hexagon. The winners will also have the unique opportunity to be part of Hexagon’s open platform for smart manufacturing collaboration; the “Connect, Innovate, Empower” Nexus ecosystem.
This cohort’s theme builds on Hexagon’s commitment to accelerate innovation and drive the global shift to a new sustainable way of operating. Sixth Sense will see a focus on the following areas of emerging technology: digital twin innovations, metaverse factory design, predictive and prescriptive intelligence, and autonomous and sustainable manufacturing operations.
The selection criteria for Sixth Sense include:
- $3m or less in revenue
- 1-5 years in existence
- Post seed, Series A, Series A+
- Proven traction and product-market fit
- Propensity to scale
Preferred qualities:
- Validation of investment from third party
- IP & licenses
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 16, 2022 | Industrial Computers, News, Organizations
The announcement of a new program of the Object Management Group called Responsible Computing was reported here last May. This news fleshes out the skeleton of the announcement through work of the inaugural meeting on June 29, 2022 that established six working groups defining their focus. Responsible Computing is a new consortium comprising technology innovators working together to address sustainable development goals.
Stephen Mellor, Executive Vice-President of OMG and CTO of Responsible Computing, said, “We have all heard about sustainability, but how often have you seen a request for proposal that set energy usage requirements or placed limits on ‘dark data? Responsible Computing will address these issues and more. The inaugural meeting set the stage for sustained work in multiple areas.”
Details of Six Working Groups
Data Center Working Group concentrates first on the building to reduce environmental impact with more efficient strategy and design, migrate to renewable energy sources, monitor consumption, and carbon footprint and optimize the reuse of waste from cooling and production. This working group will produce webinars, white papers, and best practice papers to help the IT community be net-zero by 2030 in compliance with UN SDGs.
Infrastructure Working Group realizes greater efficiencies with infrastructure (computers, networks, data centers) designed to deliver high-performing sustainable operations, consolidate workloads that peak at different times to increase efficient use of resources, and obtain high utilization levels. This working group will produce webinars, success stories, and best practice papers to reuse technology, reduce electronic waste, and create a circular economy.
Code Working Group is to align teams on software architecture, technology, programming language, and platform with anticipating and monitoring the total costs of running, supporting, and maintaining applications. It will produce white papers to help developers balance the trade-offs between accuracy, speed, and expense, including energy consumption, addressing the hidden energy impact of code, reducing data duplication, and improving cybersecurity. The group will also implement sustainability maturity assessment tools and KPIs to accelerate decision-making and pinpoint areas requiring more scrutiny during software development. There will also be ongoing training and workshops to reinforce shared sustainability goals to heighten team awareness of these issues.
Data Usage Working Group certifies that data is high quality. The group also works to ensure that organizations can trust processes and people, thereby reducing errors and misinterpretation of data by advocating intelligent workflows that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning. The group will develop robust policies, guidelines, and practices for data governance (e.g., maintaining lineage and explainability), ongoing data usage risk assessment and risk mitigation, incident response, and data-breach remediation. It will also show organizations how to manage data lifecycle with accountable data-retention and destruction practices.
Systems Working Group will ensure that systems employ an integrated set of technologies to serve people by building ethical, privacy-preserving, secure, and resilient systems. Organizations must design systems with the environment, individuals, society, and future. Responsible systems are designed with a three-layered approach to include a cultural ethos across the entire supporting organization, forensic technology that can monitor and detect issues to enable trust, and governance requirements to which the entire organization adheres. This working group will help organizations maintain the integrity of internal systems, achieve compliance with internal and external standards, ongoing monitoring to ensure companies develop and use responsible systems and reinforce corporate social responsibility to close the digital divide.
Impact Working Group will work to offset the impact on the planet in the categories of ESG and level the playing field through sustainability, circularity, diversity, inclusion, climate, openness, and ethics. Six prime and measurable maturity characteristics represent the ability to achieve responsible impact: goal setting, scalability, replicability, socially responsible business model and strategy, and quantifiable and traceable to a UN SDG (United Nations Sustainability Development Goal).
Responsible Computing is a systemic approach aimed at addressing current and future challenges in computing, including sustainability, ethics, and professionalism, stemming from the belief that we need to start thinking about technology in terms of its impact on people and the planet.
