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The Monthly Newsletter of the Council of Industry
September 26, 2024
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Council of Industry Updates
What's Happening in Your Association
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2024 Annual Luncheon and Expo November 22nd in Poughkeepsie - Sponsors Wanted
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The Annual Luncheon & Member Expo will be held on Friday, November 22nd at the Grandview in Poughkeepsie. Our keynote speaker is Ken Girardin, Director of Research for the Empire Center for Public Policy, Inc., on election results and the current fiscal climate in New York State. The Empire Center for Public Policy, Inc. is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany, New York.
At the Luncheon we will recognize the Fall 2023 and 2024 Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership recipients. The Member Expo will precede the luncheon from 11:15 to approximately - 12:15.
The event is made possible by the generous support of sponsors. Sponsorships range in price from $2,025 – $8,750
Learn about Sponsorships
Thank you Sponsors to date!
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Manufacturing Day Kickoff - Live Broadcast of Hudson Valley Focus Live with Tom Sipos From Schatz Bearing in Poughkeepsie
October 3rd, 6:00 - 9:00 AM
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October is Manufacturing Month and we will be kicking off the festivities with a live braodcast of Hudson Valley Focus Live From Schatz Bearing in Poughkeepsie.
Schatz is a longtime member of the Council of Industry. The manufactur high-quality ball bearings that are known for performance and dependability. The many industries that rely on their bearings include:
- Aerospace & Defense
- Automation & Robotics
- Medical Equipment
- Semiconductor Equipment
- Construction & Agricultural Machinery
The broadcast will feature interviews with Schoatz leadership, apprentices and other emoployees as well as community economic and workforce development leaders.
Learn more about Schatz
Tune into the broadcast
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Remote Certificate In Manfuacturing Leadership (CML) Begins October 30th
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Have supervisors and future leaders you want to train? Consider the next session which will be held remotely beginning October 30th.
All courses are interactive half-day sessions (8:30 am to 12:30 pm) with scheduled breaks, networking, and group discussions. These courses are offered online and require participants to have a working webcam and audio.
Though participants are encouraged to complete the course series for the most comprehensive supervisory education, the Council welcomes individual course registration as well.
Early Registration: Email Johnnieanne jhansen@councilofindustry.org
Schedule:
· Fundamentals of Leadership - Oct. 30, Nov. 5 & 6 (3 half days)
· Best Practices and Continuous Improvement - Nov 19 & 20
· Effective Business Communication - Dec 4 & 5
· Managng Risk for Supervisors - Dec 17 & 18Making a Profit in Manufacturing - Jan 7 & 8
· Problem Solving and Decision Making - Jan 14 & 15
· Human Resource Management Issues - Jan 28 & 29
· Positive Motivation and Discipline - Feb 4 & 5
What to expect from an interactive online virtual classroom:
· Discussions
· Work Groups
· Breakout Group ProjectHandouts and Worksheets
· Peer to Peer Sharing
· Networking and Virtual Group Projects
Time: 8:30 am - 12:30 pm
Location: Virtual Classroom - Council of Industry Zoom
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Council of Industry Partners with Pattern For Progress to From Power Quality Task Force
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As industrial equipment has become increasingly sophisticated it has also become more sensitive to changes in voltage and frequency. While utilities strive for consistency and nearly always operate within regulatory required ranges, too often inconsistent power is causing equipment to fail - sometimes at significant costs to product quality, production costs and equipment lifespan. While this problem is of great concern to manufacturers it certainly is also an issue for other sectors, particularly the medical sector.
To address the issue the Council of Industry has formed a Task Force with Hudson Valley Pattern for Prgress. The task force , which consists of several Council members from accross the region as well as other firms, will eplore solutions and support investments in infrastructure to improve delivery and consistency.
If you are interested in learning more contact Harold King
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Programs in Ulster Orange, Dutchess To Provide Entry Level Manufacturing Skills Training
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Westchester Economic Development Teams with MTEC on Manufacturing Accelerator Academy
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Westchester County Economic Development has partnered with MTEC - the Manufacturing Technology Enterprise Center - to help early stage manufacturing firms gain thier footing and develop the skills and expertise to be successful and grow.
If you are a start-up, getting ready to launch a product, or trying to increase your sales - or know someone who is - you are encouraged to apply for the MTEC Manufacturing Accelerator Academy.
The Academy will have a participant driven curriculum to assist participants with these challenges taught through the expertise, relationships, and resources from the Manufacturing & Technology Enterprise Center (MTEC) and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of New York (MEP).
Learn more here or
Contact Bridget Gibbons at Westchester Economic Development
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Certificate in Manufactuirng Leadership
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Manufacturing Industry News
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Productivity Is the Ultimate Test for Automation
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As manufacturers face the harsh realities of global competition and a dwindling labor pool, many are feeling intense pressure to automate. Their concerns are hard to dismiss – with automation advancing rapidly in China and other regions that already have a labor cost advantage, nobody wants to be a technology laggard with high labor costs. The rush to automate, however, can cause people to jump to conclusions. For example, decision-makers often act on the expectation that if they follow a set of industry best practices, automation will reliably pay off in reduced labor costs. That assumption, however, has proven to be on shaky ground at best.
“What we find in study after study is that when companies automate, they’re having a really hard time cutting those direct costs,” says Ben Armstrong, executive director at the Industrial Performance Center at MIT. “When companies adopt robots, for example, they become more productive, but they don’t ever really cut costs. They end up hiring more people. What they could do is improve productivity and essentially transform how they grow.” What’s lacking is a clear understanding of how the implementation of automation can increase the value of a given process. “The only gains in productivity that we had between 1990 and 2010 were from decreasing worker hours, not from increasing value added,” says Armstrong. “But since 2010, we’ve seen productivity go down because we haven’t been able to increase value-add. So, that’s a shocking chapter in our history.”
Read more at Industry Week
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Stellantis Highlights New Technologies Boosting Manufacturing
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Stellantis staged an event at its Mirafiori assembly complex in Turin, Italy, to highlight 93 manufacturing and production technologies implemented by the automaker at various locations. The automaker’s ninth annual Factory Booster Day demonstrated the new capabilities via physical and virtual demonstrations as part of the ongoing effort to promote product quality and improve efficiencies, with minimal environmental impact. The effort includes an “open challenge” process in which plant leaders solicit ideas from suppliers and developers.
Among the innovations Stellantis has adopted to bring speed and error-proofing to its manufacturing operations are cloud-based digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D vision-enabled capabilities. Among these are:
- Autodesk Construction Cloud, which supports workflows for all phases of construction – from design, to planning, to building, to operations. It lets Stellantis and suppliers share and simulate construction layouts simultaneously and interact in a “digital twin” of a manufacturing facility.
- AI-enabled robot guidance, installed in several Stellantis powertrain plants, and incorporating three-dimensional (3D) vision system. This GuideNow innovation uses AI and vision systems to allow robots to adjust their trajectory and operations in real-time to avoid potential conflicts or impacts.
- Autonomous wheels from wheel.me, a Norwegian robotics startup, converts existing carts and dollies into autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). The wheels replace standard casters, automating the movement of parts or commodities within factories.
- According to Stellantis, manufacturing innovations that help deliver better products, generate less waste, or reduce energy usage are critical to the automaker’s strategy to be a carbon net-zero organization by 2038, and reducing production costs by 40% by 2030.
Read more at American Machinist
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Unveiling The Vulnerabilities In IoT And Industrial IoT Security
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Not long ago, futurists speculated about how the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) would impact our lives. Now, we rely on these technologies for everything from home automation to critical infrastructure. However, when a complex technology rises quickly, there often isn’t time to fully consider its vulnerabilities. So, it is with the cybersecurity challenges of IoT and IIoT. As these networks proliferate, so do their risks.
The vulnerabilities of IoT networks require a reevaluation of current security protocols. An approach leveraging techniques such as lightweight cryptography and dynamic key management, however, balances needs for security and efficiency, so the burden of security doesn’t stress the bandwidth of IoT devices beyond their ability to perform their core functions. In the next article, we’ll explore these advanced cryptographic techniques in more detail, discussing how they can ensure more reliable networks.
Read more at Forbes
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Companies Still View Supply Chain as a Cost Center
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Supply chain executives may be losing the strategic gains they made with their C-suite counterparts, according to new research from Ernst & Young LLP.
While 88% of supply chain executives report that their organization's supply chain plays a vital role in enhancing the customer experience by promptly addressing and meeting customer needs, their colleagues across the C-suite overwhelmingly (88%) view the supply chain function as a cost center, highlighting one of multiple gaps in perception uncovered by the study.
The EY 2024 Supply Chain Survey: Bridging the C-Suite Disconnect found that despite a heightened awareness of the importance of supply chains, 78% of supply chain leaders say their organization is back to focusing on supply chain cost management post-pandemic, with 28% citing cost reduction as one of the top three priorities currently, a shift from pandemic-era strategies.
Read More at Material Handling & Logistics
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Funding Your Decarbonization Project
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Decarbonization requires considerable planning, with available funding playing a key role in determining the feasibility and prioritization of investments. While there’s no one size fits all approach, businesses and property owners will likely leverage a combination of upfront incentives, financing, and tax credits to achieve their decarbonization goals. While decarbonizing buildings with energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy, and all-electric equipment can deliver long-term savings for commercial and multifamily buildings, the upfront cost remains a barrier for implementation.
The good news is that there are multiple avenues for commercial, industrial, and multifamily decision-makers to fund their decarbonization projects. New York State and utility incentives – in combination with financing geared toward clean energy and energy efficiency – can help defray upfront costs and deliver capital to start working toward a decarbonized future. Meanwhile, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is providing the funding necessary for large-scale investment in decarbonization and clean energy. This federal investment includes IRA tax credits – available through 2032 – to reduce the cost of purchasing low-carbon technologies.
Read more at NYSERDA
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How AI Could Unlock A Ton Of This Promising Renewable Energy
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While AI requires an immense amount of electricity, one startup thinks it could also be part of the solution in unlocking a largely unused form of renewable energy: geothermal power, which uses naturally generated heat below the surface to provide both electricity and heating.
Utah-based startup Zanskar has developed machine learning models to solve one of geothermal’s biggest problems: finding ideal locations to drill. The exorbitant cost of drilling has largely kept geothermal from competing with other technologies like wind and solar, so much so that less than 1% of the U.S.’s electricity is produced with it. But Zanskar’s models analyze enormous amounts of data to find the best spots to dig for power, and the company hopes its models will significantly reduce the capital needed to build new plants.
“We've now discovered more of these hidden geothermal resources in just the past year and a half than the entire industry combined had done over the prior decade,” CEO Carl Hoiland told Forbes.
Read more at Forbes
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What Is Lean Project Management?
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Inspired by the Toyota Production System (TPS) in the mid-20th century, lean principles were initially applied to manufacturing but have since expanded to other industries, including project management.
You can think of lean project management as a “less is more” approach to running projects. This means fewer resources are used to generate more value by eliminating inefficiencies and continuously improving processes. Lean project management seeks to streamline workflows and ensure each task gets you closer to delivering exactly what your customer needs without extra baggage weighing you down.
Lean project management revolves around five core principles that guide teams in delivering value without the clutter:
1. Specify value,
2. Map the value stream,
3. Create Flow,
4. Establish Pull,
5. Pursue Perfection
Read more at Tech Republic
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Facilitating Lean Manufacturing Through Modularity
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Breaking a task down into individual parts can be more efficient than tackling it whole cloth. Danobat, a Basque OEM of custom machines, knows this well. Rather than design its custom machines from the ground up for each job, the company estimates that it uses 90% stock modules, with the final 10% making up the customizations that determine whether a machine is suited to a complicated aerospace project, an energy application or another high-demand area.
Danobat maintains several production buildings on its Elgoibar Spain campus. Though each is dedicated to a different type of machine, all have benefited from the company’s revamped production process. Here, the idea used to be that all components for a machine were made concurrently and assembled together. Each machinist had an individual tool bench. But communication delays could slow production.
Now, each area of the floor is organized in teams that work together to produce the subassemblies and modules of their particular area. This is a very lean process. The improved intragroup communication better enables teams to update managers about progress and request necessary components for the next assembly. Danobat aims to test its modules as it builds them, helping the final assembly come as close to a plug-and-play model as possible. This production model also assists in simultaneous machine construction, as an area on the floor that finishes its task ahead of others can then start on its module for the next machine.
Read more at Modern Machine Shop
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GE's Robot Worm Could Change Aircraft Maintenance
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Developed by GE Aerospace, the Sensiworm (Soft ElectroNics Skin-Innervated Robotic Worm) is a worm-like robot designed to be an extra set of eyes and ears for service operators of aircraft. Operators today use advanced inspection instruments like video borescopes that provide very valuable inspection data but are limited in their turbine coverage due to gravity issues that can cause the tip to settle when not braced against a structure within the engine. With the intention of one day being able to inspect and repair jet engines on its own, the soft robot would, in theory, minimize downtime and be able to perform less invasive inspections while giving operators full access to all parts of the aircraft.
Remote-controlled by operators, the Sensiworm moves along like an inchworm, crawling across engine parts, sensing and avoiding obstacles, reaching places where gravity would stop other tools (thanks to its suction-cup feet), and measuring the thickness of thermal barrier coatings. GE says it can even sniff out gas leaks.
Read more at New Equipment
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