This is an original article, written by Buckley Brinkman, the Executive Director/CEO of the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity (WCMP).

Reluctance to Employ Cobots Driven by 4 Common Misconceptions

It has been nearly six decades since the first industrial robots rolled on to a General Motors assembly line in Trenton, New Jersey. Today, a new generation of collaborative robots is changing how the manufacturing sector operates. These semi-intelligent machines are driving growth and improving efficiency not only for the GMs of the world, but also for small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) as well.

The following is a description of MAPI Foundation's research on how AI is transforming the workforce, written by MAPI Foundation.

Manufacturing leaders are seeking strategies and solutions to address a burning question:
How will AI transform the workforce – the people, roles, skillsets – in the next 5 years?

THE CHALLENGE

Predictive maintenance, human-robot collaboration, and generative design are a few of the applications of artificial intelligence remaking manufacturing. Expectations continue to rise for AI to unlock elusive productivity gains. Industry leaders are adapting to the technological change — AI and related Industry 4.0 and IIoT technologies — that will continue to reshape their workforce, either through the automation and replacement of some workers or upskilling and new roles of others.

This is an original article written by Isaac Wright, a Cybersecurity Analyst and Trainer at Alpine Security.

It’s no question that in cybersecurity, defense is the best defense. In the constantly changing threat landscape, the tie often goes to the attacker, and businesses are forced to act like turtles putting up shells of security to ward off threats.  That is not always a bad thing; using a well-constructed defense- in- depth plan can greatly limit the likelihood of a successful attack.  I would like to believe we can get to a 99.99% level of security.  Even if that were true, that extra .01% keeps me up at night. What do we do if the controls fail? How do we respond then? What do we do the other 1% of the time? Once we find out that our emails have been hacked, or our money has been stolen is not the time to ask, “what now?” Even worse, what do you do when you suspect that an insider has embezzled funds and the evidence is located on their computer? Though we invest in and rely on our security controls, it is unfortunately not always enough.  We must have a plan for the .01%.

We are all aware that technology is reshaping the economy – and now the workforce. It provides opportunities for companies to see their way through the ever-present workforce challenge - too many businesses cannot find the skilled workers they need, when they need them and where they need them.

This is an original article, written by Ed Sowoski of Light Guide Systems.

As a lean practitioner of many years, I have had the privilege of applying lean concepts in many different businesses including project engineering, repetitive manufacturing, process manufacturing and even in a sales capacity. I’ve had to apply lean principles in areas where the cycle times ranged from seconds to days, which allowed me to apply lean manufacturing tools in very different ways.

Cybersecurity continues to be a hot topic for manufacturers – and rightfully so! According to the State of Industrial Cybersecurity 2018 by Kaspersky, “Over three quarters of the companies surveyed state that it is very likely or at least quite likely to become a target of a cybersecurity attack in the operational technology and industrial cybersecurity space. Despite this, only 23% are compliant with minimal mandatory industry or government guidance and regulations around cybersecurity of industrial control systems.”

Are you an engineer or manager who understands the challenges associated with sharing part and product data from concept to end-of-life, and who wants to explore emerging technologies to alleviate these challenges?  If so, you are encouraged to Join DMDII for a technology showcase focused on informing product design with data-driven insights from across a product lifecycle.

Written by Cytellix - an IMEC cybersecurity partner

There has been a lot of recent news and discussion about several malware variants that have been defined as ransomware attacks. There are and have been other damaging malware attacks, but ransomware popularity is currently very well publicized.

Ransomware attacks are not simple but are commonplace in the market today. These attacks typically find their way into an organization through social engineering. To be more specific, the malware is embedded in an attachment as an executable. There are several outcomes from ransomware that we have seen thus far: an individual machine is encrypted and the decryption key is held for ransom by the attacker and a currency request of a “Bitcoin” is requested to decrypt the machine in question. The nastier variants can traverse from machine to machine through the network, creating a systemwide infection. This attack causes severe networkwide shutdowns, causing an organization to recover through more significant ransom payments, or if the company was prepared, backup remediation steps are taken.

Written by John Remsey, IMEC Senior Technical Specialist

Cybersecurity has become a hot topic within manufacturing over the past months, especially for the Defense supply chain with the federal government increasing their emphasis on addressing threats to the security of information.  In December 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) released a rule to the Defense Acquisition Federal Regulation Supplement (DAFRS) that requires government contractors to implement the requirements of National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 by December 31, 2017.  With this deadline fast approaching, conversation, and urgency, to become compliant is increasing.

Every week, articles are published proclaiming 3D Printing is going to radically change the way that the world works, with some going so far as to predict that we’re on the brink of a global manufacturing revolution.

While those of us who work in manufacturing might say that’s going a bit far, I think many of us are rightfully excited about the potential to harness this thirty-year-old technology in new and exciting ways to continue to drive efficiencies, accelerate prototyping timelines and bring customized end products to the market.

The challenge, of course, is the same as exists with the adoption of any new technology -- figuring out when it’s right for your business, how it can best be implemented and what barriers to adoption exist (ideally before you hit them). 3D Printing continues to be an expensive technology when it comes to industrial-grade equipment, making it a sizeable investment for companies who are interested in exploring it.

Like any new initiative, having a clear plan and asking the right questions at the outset can help pave a smoother path forward. Based on my experience in helping companies of all sizes, there are three key things to keep in mind as you evaluate whether 3D Printing is right for your business.