November 30, 2012
Amidst the flurry of budget negotiations, Silicon Valley is keeping an eye on lawmakers and the billions of dollars in funding that may be cut.
Despite being the technology capital of the world, touting icons such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Ebay, the valley is nervous. After outsourcing much of its manufacturing work to Asia, and beginning to do the same with design work, it is possible that the nucleus of American innovation will fall dormant.
But the looming Fiscal Cliff may provide a key opportunity to restore jobs from overseas and put the silicon back in Silicon Valley.
As T. J. Rodgers, chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor of San Jose, pointed out, the semiconductor fabrication plants for which the valley was named are currently in Taiwan. Without those jobs, thousands of blue-collar workers have added to poverty in Silicon Valley, but that's not the only problem that the outsourcing has caused. According to Harvard Business School Professors Gary Pisano and Willy Shih, innovation and competitive advantages are unforeseen casualties of manufacturing off-shoring.
Unfortunately, necessary supply chains are not in place to restore the valley to its manufacturing roots, but not all hope has been lost. AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of UC Berkeley's School of Information pointed to 3D printing and clean energy as future outlets for industry growth.
Regardless of which path Silicon Valley takes, January 1 will be pivotal in, as SFGate's Carolyn Lochhead put it, “righting the technology ship” as it teeters on the verge of keeling over. At that time, federal science funding could take a major hit, along with the tax code.
Despite lawmaker's difficulties in finding common ground across the aisle, both parties aim to end some tax breaks, which puts tax credit for research and development in danger.
But, according to Lochhead, “Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce a new [tax break] for companies that manufacture high-tech products at home from their own patents, an idea that Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, is pushing.”
Full story at SFGate
So far, the story surrounding the industrial Internet has been centered around GE, and their plans to infuse their factories with thousands of sensors that will bring big data to manufacturing. But after record-breaking floods from Hurricane Sandy took their toll on New York and New Jersey, environmental and civil engineers have found a new application for the Internet-connected sensor system.
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As the cloud becomes an increasingly attractive option for manufacturers with big needs in IT, scalable options such as outsourced data centers have become a must-have for many companies. But General Motors has taken a step in the opposite direction when its $130 million datacenter went online Monday in the suburb of Warren, Michigan.
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When we talk to manufacturers of any size, one concern across the board has been finding engineers with sufficient education and training to do their job. Taking one step toward alleviating this issue is Siemens, who have launched a U.S. job training initiative for veterans, hoping to round out the training of engineers throughout the country.
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May 17, 2013 |
This week, Airbus towed its newest airliner, the A350 XWB, out of its hangar and is poised to roll it into the spotlight of the upcoming Paris Air Show. The A350 XWB has been designed with the goal of surpassing the 787 in fuel efficiency and comfort, and has forgone metal for composite materials to make it happen.
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May 16, 2013 |
Sander Veenhof and Joris van Tubergen, of the Netherlands, joined their skills in media art and design to merge 3D printing with augmented reality. They call the result "UltimARker" and like the 3D printer it works with it's been designed for the open source community to give consumers more detailed information about their 3D printer.
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May 16, 2013 |
A recent survey by Cisco Systems found that 57 percent of consumers worldwide are in favor of using driverless cars, with 60 percent approval in the United States, suggesting that the world might be more ready for autonomous vehicles to hit the road than previously thought.
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May 10, 2013 |
We've known since Obama's State of the Union address this year that 3D printing is a key pillar in the president's plan for America's future in manufacturing, but on Thursday this was made even more clear with the announcement of a competition to create three manufacturing innovation institutes, to be modeled after a government-funded 3D printing center.
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May 09, 2013 |
Finally, we have someone to look to when we have to assemble our IKEA furniture--or at least something. This week, this solution was showcased at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, proving that robots might soon be surpassing humans at yet another task. At least we can gladly hand this one over.
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03/20/2013 | SAS | This white paper examines how an enterprise-wide quality platform can turn existing data into substantial and sustainable revenue growth and cost savings for global manufacturers. The paper is based on the findings of the IW/SAS Enterprise Quality Survey completed by more than 400 manufacturing executives. The objectives of the survey were to determine concerns about quality among manufacturers; investigate the tools used to measure quality; and examine how using enterprise-wide analysis on quality data improves performance.
07/19/2011 | Univa | TATA Steel Automotive Engineering’s concern grew when open source Grid Engine support and development was discontinued by Oracle. Grid Engine is a business critical application in their environment. They recognized the likelihood that product enhancements and innovations would cease. Read how TATA Steel Automotive Engineering moved from a self-support solution to Univa Grid Engine. You can get more out of your environment and your budget with Univa Grid Engine.
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