February 13, 2013

In his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, President Obama announced that he plans to use his executive powers to launch three manufacturing hubs and is calling on Congress to create 15 more. The goal is to foster partnerships between the federal government and the private sector that will result in high-tech jobs.
Obama noted the recent return of roughly 500,000 jobs back to the U.S. thanks to efforts of companies such as Caterpillar, Ford, Intel and Apple, believing this to be indicative of an American manufacturing revival.
But the spotlight of his manufacturing segment landed on additive manufacturing, which Obama cited as the technology that will open the door for innovation and a stronger manufacturing economy in the coming years.
To illustrate the technology's potential, Obama discussed Youngstown, Ohio's new Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, which was created via a public-private partnership headed by the U.S. military. The hope is that it will serve as a model for the additional hubs that the federal government will help to create.
“A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There's no reason this can't happen in other towns.”
The institute will receive $45 million from the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Commerce, as well as the National Science Foundation, and an additional $40 million from various manufacturing firms, universities, community colleges and nonprofit organizations within Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. This $85 million sum will supplement the initial $30 investment that was awarded to the institute at its launch this past August.
The newly announced manufacturing hubs will include similar partnerships between businesses, universities and community colleges, as well as the Departments of Energy and Defense for the investment in these training centers.
To bring it back to the manufacturing market on the whole, Obama proposed to lower taxes for manufacturers to 25 percent from 35 percent, while putting a minimum offshoring tax in place, hoping this will give manufacturers across industries an additional boost.
He also called for continued spending in science and innovation as well, to ensure that “the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.”
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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The National Engineering Forum (NEF) has developed a three-pronged approached in keeping the US engineering workforce competitive, for which it hopes to help spread awareness through a series of regional dialogue events held 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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