That kind of integration from supplier to plant to customer has been going on for a few years now in automation and control. It drives the IT folks nuts, since the network now goes beyond the plant, bringing up security issues. When you bring in your suppliers, you have strangers on your network.
Good point, Rob. We tend to stay so focused on the engineering aspects and CAD interoperability has been a huge challenge for such a long time. But going a step beyond and integrating production and manufacturing is a big step in terms of tying the overall organization together around product development as well as a means of creating efficiencies, not to mention, closer ties to suppliers.
Kudos to Renault Sports for making this happen. With so many tier-one, tier-two and tier-three suppliers involved in the automotive world today, this is a mind-boggling task.
Using Elysium's technology, Renault Sport F1 has created a supplier portal that integrates with its ERP system and product data management system and allows suppliers using different CAD programs to exchange data and models quickly and accurately without manual translation or cleanup on Renault's end.
That's impressive on a number of levels. That's a bunch of integration and collaboration. I can see that CAD interoperability is a step forward here, but it looks like Renault has already taken big steps to integrate its suppliers.
UK-based Plastic Logic and French company ISORG have created what the pair tout as a first in flexible printed electronics: a large area, conformable, organic image sensor printed on plastic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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