Sean McDonnell, cleveland.com
The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, also known as MAGNET, started a new program that will bring local manufacturers on tours of businesses like Alloy Precision. The nonprofit has identified companies like Alloy to become manufacturing “lighthouses” that can guide others into using advanced tech.
Companies face three main barriers when adopting new tech, O’Donnell said. They don’t know or don’t believe the upfront investment is worth the long-term savings. They don’t have engineers or people with knowledge on hand to install it. And not all workers like it, fearing that high-tech machines could replace them.
The same way two-shifts get more work done on one machine, IIoT gets more use out of each machine, but without more hours being worked. Canty explained that getting just 60% utilization, instead of 50%, can get the company making 20% more parts. The machines use lasers to quickly measure the part and send that information to a computer, which shows workers a model and tells them if the parts are OK. The machines can’t completely replace calipers, like when measuring the insides of some parts that lasers can’t touch, but they can do a great deal of the work in seconds.Also extremely important, especially when the company makes products for the Department of Defense, is cyber security.