Yujie Chen, PhD
Research Engineer Caterpillar Inc. 2016 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer SME Member Since 2015
SME SPEAKS GUEST EDITORIAL Manufacturing is Changing—Are We Ready? W
hat comes to mind when you think of manufacturing? Dirty, dark, dangerous working environments with repeated procedures has
been many people’s stereotype for years now. I was under the same impression until I started my journey with manufacturing. A previous survey result shows that 50% of interviewees do not see the excitement from manufacturing. Having benefi ted from the rapid development of the technologies, manufacturing-related work today has been defi ned with more roles and functionalities. Working in manufacturing, you can develop prototypes in a laboratory environment with subtractive and additive technologies, you can work on design and analysis or hands-on with machine tools to make real products, etc. There is so much diversity in manufacturing, which provides tremendous options for people interested in pursuing a career in manufacturing. Manufacturing is changing. Are you ready for the changes?
Sharing is the Trend
If we take a step back and evaluated our society as a whole, it is widely recognized that a sharing economy became the trend that economically benefi ted many businesses already. In a sharing economy, you are able to enjoy the benefi ts of lower-cost transportation with quicker response time, such as the Uber phenomenon, as well as Airbnb, another successful sharing platform that makes use of idle real estate and a lower price, benefi ting both ends of the spectrum, the driver and the rider, the renter and the boarder. So, why then would manufacturing not benefi t from such a trend? Whereas traditional manufacturers focused on mass production for their dedicated customers with dedicated machine assets, manufacturing is changing toward service-oriented manufacturing that is able to quickly adapt to trends such as unscheduled, customized
orders and maximally take advantage of idle manufacturing resources from our society. Manufacturing, especially, advanced manufacturing, is preparing to be able to tackle the challenges of sharing with various technologies.
Connected Internally and Externally To enable a sharing model in manufacturing, many technologies/concepts have been proposed, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), etc., that aim to fully utilize idle resources and provided dynamic, lower-cost and technology-driven services and products to provide measurable solutions faster than ever before. Common protocols (MTConnect, OPC UA, etc.) have been developed to enable the connections regardless of the various manufacturing asset platforms. A connected factory, both internally and externally facing, enables accurate capacity measures to fully evaluate the most effective platforms to increase a manufacturer’s versatility. Internal connections enable manufacturers to be aware of their own statuses, progresses and capabilities. External connections enable manufacturers to integrate with other smart systems (such as a smart grid with fl oating prices) from our society, making manufacturing operations fl exible, low cost and quickly adaptable to constantly changing demands. A connected factory requires technologies to be able to communicate and allow multidirectional informational fl ow with our whole society. Manufacturing then becomes an interdisciplinary operation requiring expertise from a well-versed workforce.
Preparing for the Changing Manufacturing One of the most important reasons I chose a manufacturing career is because it allows me to learn and be exposed to a diverse range of experiences and
March 2017 |
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