Dec 17 2022
Several sites on the Van of Nerds tour in France in 9/22 maintain skills matrices on the shop floor. It means that the value of the skills matrix is widely known. Several questions must be answered to make it effective:
Dec 11 2022
In a personal exchange, François Pellerin described our Introduction to Manufacturing as a “reference book,” which makes it sound like one of those thick tomes you put on a shelf and never open: a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or a handbook.
This is 180º from our intention. We wrote it as a textbook for students of industrial engineering and operations management that working professionals can also use.
We hope to see it on desks, dog-eared, highlighted, annotated, and coffee-stained. If not in print, then in the same condition in the reader’s e-book library.
Dec 7 2022
During the Van-of-Nerds Tour de France, in 9/22, one of our hosts said, “It’s one thing to collect data, but it’s another to make simple and usable summaries for people.” Some of the visualizations we saw at several sites, however, showed that our hosts underestimate what it takes to generate “simple and usable summaries.”
Dec 4 2022
The software and hardware systems used in manufacturing fall under Information Technology (IT) if they only interact with humans, and Operational Technology (OT) if they also interact with machines and facilities. Industry 4.0 is mostly OT, but manufacturing has traditionally focused more on IT.
IT produces reports on delivery performance; OT issues alarms when a gas pipe springs a leak. The distinction is sharp between extreme cases but blurry where the two meet. In principle, all the systems should form a functional stack, with each layer activating and exchanging data with the layer below. The top layer supports management decisions, and the bottom layer interacts with operators and machines. In reality, it does not often work as it should. The key to making it work is continuous improvement/Kaizen, with technology retrofits, rather than a radical “digital transformation.”
Dec 1 2022
Some hosts showed digital twins during the Van of Nerds tour de France last September, but none mentioned the cyber-physical systems touted as a key component in Industry 4.0. Furthermore, we also found that the meaning of digital twin had drifted away from detailed simulations of physics and chemistry as part of a cyber-physical system for process control.
Instead, a digital twin is now an animation of part movements and machine status in a line for production control. This has effectively disabled discussions of digital twins in the context of cyber-physical systems, which matters in stabilizing and establishing capability for high-technology processes like additive manufacturing.
Dec 22 2022
Introduction to Manufacturing — First Print Copies
As co-author of Introduction to Manufacturing, I received the first print copies with trepidation::
For the paperback edition, so far, it’s yes on all counts. Here is a sample of a page spread:
The only elements I found missing are three endorsements of Introduction to Manufacturing that we greatly appreciate:
We hope to see them in the next print run.
#introductiontomanufacturing, #manufacturing
Share this:
Like this:
By Michel Baudin • Announcements 8 • Tags: industrial engineering, Introduction to Manufacturing