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May 6, 2019 |
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In this Issue
• As Office Tenants Expect More Tech, Even the Windows Get Smart
• Additive Manufacturing Needs an Executive's Eye
• USC Prof Devises ‘Smart’ Building Materials that Move by Themselves (That’s Right, No Motor), Save Energy
• Why Smart Manufacturing?
• More Stories
Industry News
As Office Tenants Expect More Tech, Even the Windows Get Smart
Competitive pressures are prompting office space developers and property owners to deploy telecommunications infrastructure and sophisticated technology such as smart windows. "It's placing more pressure on buildings to be that talent magnet for tenants rather than just a people warehouse," notes Building Engines' Phil Mobley. In Midtown Manhattan, the Durst Organization has installed smart windows in an office pavilion. The windows automatically tint when the sun comes out, making shades unnecessary. The windows, manufactured by California-based View, feature "dynamic glass." When sunlight strikes the windows, a coating between the double panes of glass will darken, reducing glare and heat gain while maintaining natural light. View CEO Rao Mulpuri expects smart windows to eventually assume greater functionality, including computer-screen-like applications in which they display content and support videoconferencing.
New York Times (04/29/19) Margolies, Jane
Additive Manufacturing Needs an Executive's Eye
The decision to implement additive manufacturing (AM) is an important issue that should be informed by an executive's perspective. AM's promised benefits beyond simple manufacturing include reshaping part design, limiting material consumption, and reducing lead time, which can impact the supply chain by lessening assembly work and transportation requirements. The successful deployment of AM demands concurrent change across five different parts of the industry, from design through production, operations, accounting, and image. AM's value to design includes lowering cost as a result of reduced manufacturing limits, while production-wise AM's ability to replace operations like casting and assembly can bring parts manufacturing closer to customers. AM is advantageous to operations by helping to remove waste and complexity, and in the accounting space the technology makes tooling redundant, thus supporting production fabrication in small volumes. Finally, AM has an innate low-carbon footprint, so manufacturers can operate in a manner consistent with environmental values. Given these factors, the decision to implement AM should be left to someone with a broad view of the organization, ideally the CEO.
Modern Machine Shop (04/19) Hendrixson, Stephanie
USC Prof Devises ‘Smart’ Building Materials that Move by Themselves (That’s Right, No Motor), Save Energy
University of Southern California (USC) professor Doris Sung has developed several prototypes using "smart building materials" that could revolutionize architecture, change the way buildings are constructed, and reduce the building industry's massive carbon footprint. Rather than using concrete and plate glass prioritizing unobstructed views over energy efficiency, Sung set out to make buildings with a "skin" like that of humans that automatically lets in just the right amount of light and energy a building needs and keeps out what it does not need. After almost nine years of research, Sung developed the InVert window shading system. She also launched a company, TMB Design, to create windows containing suspended thermo-bimetals that react to sunlight by turning at different angles and even flipping upside-down to either block out the sunlight or let more in. This process naturally heats or cools the inside of the building. The new system reduces energy use, especially air conditioning, by between 28 percent and 42 percent. The windows respond to the elements without using energy, as the sun's natural radiation prompts the motion. The windows are made of colorful bimetals—made of nickel, manganese, and copper—that sit on pivots within the glass panes but are not attached, freely able to move in response to the sun. If these were installed in a 12-story building, air conditioning would be reduced by 15 percent, saving 360 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Orange County Register (CA) (04/19/19) Scauzillo, Steve
Why Smart Manufacturing?
The electronics industry is increasingly reliant on "smart manufacturing" to tackle the challenges of complexity, customization, compliance, globalization, and customer expectations for near-perfect product quality. The basis for smart manufacturing is an integrated platform combining all the domains needed to engineer, fabricate, and deliver smart products, encompassing the entire cycle. This strategy can halve time-to-market, and reduce development costs by up to 25 percent. A digitalization approach focuses on creating precise digital twins of products, production, and performance, connected through a digital thread of data. The availability of actual manufacturing and in-service information can facilitate continual refinement of the accuracy and fidelity of digital twins. The benefits of digitalization include improved planning and faster validation of production alternatives, as well as more effective performance of manufacturing operations. Most electronics manufacturers have followed a fragmented digitalization strategy, resulting in disconnected systems and information silos that inhibit the full realization of digitalization's potential. Integrated smart manufacturing solutions are needed to correct this fragmentation, using product lifecycle management technologies to unite design verification, manufacturing planning, and process engineering, in partnership with electronics-specific manufacturing execution systems that combine production scheduling, production execution, and manufacturing analytics.
IEEE Spectrum (04/05/19)
How to Take Smart Manufacturing to the Next Level: Add Agility to Operational Excellence
The manufacturing sector has traditionally focused on operational excellence by controlling variability, following schedules, reducing costs, and balancing supply and demand. Today, however, smart manufacturing seeks to fill any gaps in operational excellence by using agility. Agility refers to being able to change products quickly and easily, including specs, labels, and packaging. Agility is also about overhauling manufacturing processes, equipment, and business processes. Smart manufacturing requires making such changes a part of daily operations. While technology plays a key role in smart manufacturing, it is the people who are responsible for operational excellence and agility. They are the primary resource when it comes to making both operational excellence and agility a reality in manufacturing. Companies seeking to achieve smart manufacturing should start with their data, and determine if it is moving fast enough. The right data needs to be going to the right people at the right time to make the right decisions. Data should also be in the appropriate context. This means that data should help inform the company what is happening and why. The final step is examining data predictability. This involves analyzing trends and starting as far upstream as possible. Everything that happens should be able to be seen from a long way away. Companies need to find the data that will be a reliable indicator of the future, focus on it, and make sure there are no surprises.
Forbes (04/02/19) Clemons, Don
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