This is an original article from Fast Radius.

Most are well-acquainted with additive manufacturing (AM) — as a rapid prototyping tool, at least. And while many companies believe and perpetuate the myth that AM is only a prototyping tool, innovators in a range of markets (e.g., aerospace, healthcare, consumer goods and more) are already using AM for production-grade manufacturing when design, performance and cost factors align.

Say what you want about 2020, but it forced each of us to push our personal and professional boundaries of accepting change and quickly adapting to our new reality. One of the greatest lessons we should take away from this year is that we are capable of accelerated change when forced to do so. We now know that we are capable of rapid change and it will be the norm in our professional lives moving forward. We now must embrace change more quickly than ever. With industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (iIOT) on our doorstep, we have the opportunity to make the greatest leap forward in manufacturing in 2021 that we have seen in 50 years.

Knowledge transfer for new employees is often the bottleneck to effective and efficient onboarding and can be a major source of downtime when the right knowledge is unavailable on-site. The RealWear HMT-1 provides solutions to these problems, and more, in an intuitive and safe way.

Written by Michael Taylor, Mechanical engineer and project manager at NIST MEP.

Written by Andrew Peterson, NIST.

Collaborative robots are increasingly attractive to manufacturers who require flexible solutions for their growing product mix but may not have the scale of work or capital resources needed to justify larger investments in automation systems.

The COVID-19 crisis is rapidly accelerating our need to prepare for a digital transformation and creating a digital strategy will be a roadmap for the transformation. The “new norm” of navigating the digital landscape in COVID times, highlights the reality of moving past the buzz words and catchy phrases, to aspiring to undertake a digital transformation agenda with both near and long-term strategic objectives in mind. This crisis presents its challenges to digital transformation planning: while certain sectors of the manufacturing industry are thriving, others are battling the fast-paced changes, challenges, and constraints.

Written by Celia Paulsen, NIST.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robots, 3D printing, the Internet of Things (IoT)...there’s a whole world of advanced manufacturing technology and innovation just waiting for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) who want to step up their digital game. Unfortunately, manufacturing digitization can present some fundamental challenges, like added cybersecurity risk.

This is an original article by Steve Cavolick of LRS IT Solutions.

The economic downturn from the Coronavirus has rewritten the rules of business and caused entire verticals to change direction overnight, and manufacturing is one of the industries that has morphed quickly in order to lead the country through the pandemic.

When demand exploded earlier this year for goods that sanitized and machines to help very sick people breathe, facilities that produced consumable alcohol switched to making anti-microbial gels and auto manufacturers stopped producing cars in order to build ventilators.

Governmental institutions and companies worldwide are tapping into giant data pools to combat the various public health and economic challenges manifesting from the COVID-19 crisis. During these troubling times, big data analytics is proving to be an ally for first responders and other front line workers in healthcare, food service, manufacturing, and other essential services to address the true scale of challenges.

IT / OT Infrastructure, Digital Information and IoT devices

With the spread of COVID-19, new challenges and opportunities will arise for keeping your business safe from cybersecurity threats. As the government and businesses work on mitigating the impact of the ongoing outbreak, social distancing measures are leading to an increase in remote working across all sectors. The immediate challenge is “how can I protect my digital assets from a cyber-attack?” Some key vulnerabilities to a cyberattack are Information Technology / Operational Technology (IT / OT) infrastructure, digital information and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.