In a traditional business mindset, manufacturers stringently limit the extent to which they expose their plans and processes beyond their internal audience. They consult with developers and technicians to select new resources that augment their capabilities, but they make most of their developmental moves as secret as possible to avoid losing a competitive…
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With so many different production processes in the manufacturing industry, potential problems can pop up everywhere. Take metal cutting, for example; there is seemingly no end to the tools available. This raises some questions: Are all those tools really needed? Are they used at the peak of their possible performance? In metal cutting…
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What do manufacturing facilities share in common with supermarkets, post offices and wireless networks? They all involve waiting in queues, whether it’s a computer waiting to connect to public Wi-Fi, customers in a queue to check out at the grocery store or work in progress (WIP) sitting until a machine is open at…
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For manufacturers around the world, high-mix/low-volume (HMLV) production isn’t a trendy new way of processing parts – it’s a requirement to meet rapid changes in consumer demand and keep pace with just in time (JIT) manufacturing. To maximize throughput in this new production ecosystem, which involves smaller batches of increasingly customized parts, there…
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