# data[].attributes.headline
National Welding Month: Welders play vital role in AEDC mission

# data[].attributes.subject
National Welding Month: Welders play vital role in AEDC mission

# data[].attributes.body
Wright Patterson Air Force Base

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --

Welding is the process of using high heat to fuse metal together. At Arnold Air Force Base, the headquarters for Arnold Engineering Development Complex, there are boilermakers, pipefitters, ironworkers, sheet metal workers and machinists in the Model and Machine Shop who specialize in the skill of welding.

In recognition of the folks who possess this ability, the American Welding Society, or AWS, celebrates National Welding Month each April to bring awareness to the industry and its available career paths. According to the AWS website, welding careers play an integral role in keeping people safe and advancing the quality of life across the globe.

Warner Holt, group manager of Manufacturing Services for AEDC, agrees that the welders at Arnold have an important job, ensuring that not only test is supported, but supporting operations by building new infrastructure or repairing existing infrastructure, among other tasks.

"Whenever our customers in the mission areas across the base need items fabricated to facilitate testing, whether the item is large or small, they will typically reach out to us at the Model Shop first about getting it done because they know we can get it done in a timely manner and at a competitive cost," Holt said.

The 40 welders in the Model Shop are spread across different craft sets, but all support testing and general operations at Arnold. This number does not include those in maintenance and operations crews scattered around the base who are also capable of welding, as required.

The welders on base are able to perform various types of welding, including Tungsten Inert Gas, or TIG, a method of welding in which the arc is maintained by a tungsten electrode and shielded from the access of air by an inert gas. They also conduct Metal Inert Gas welding, or MIG, a method in which the filler metal supplies the electric current to maintain the arc. Like TIG, in MIG welding, the arc is shielded from the access of air by an inert gas, usually argon.

"Stick welding" is another form of welding performed here. This method is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode covered with a flux to lay the weld.

The welders carry out these processes on different types of metals, including aluminum, stainless steel and carbon steel.

Like many skilled laborers, one doesn't become a welder overnight. Welders typically complete an apprenticeship program, classroom instruction and fieldwork before taking on a job welding fulltime.

Each welder in the Model Shop is required to first pass a welder certification test as a condition of employment. As part of the test, the welder is required to perform a weld joining a couple of test pieces together. Once the weld is complete the weld is examined by our non-destructive testing inspectors to determine if the weld meets all applicable requirements.

"Through the duration of their employment, welders have to maintain certification," said Brad Reid, Manufacturing Services deputy manager. "Certifications are based on the material to be welded and what welding technique will be used. Maintaining the certification consists of performing welding while you are here.

"A code on the timecard system tracks what and when each employee welds. This data is used to verify that the welder has performed a certain welding process. We call that information the Welder Continuity Report."

Some of the ways that Model Shop welders support testing at Arnold is through the fabrication of piping, meshes and other items used in test cells across base. The products needed depend on the type of test and the facility in which it is conducted. The pipe used for one test may not work for a subsequent test within the same facility, meaning the welders are regularly called upon to make the necessary alterations.

The welders fabricate as much as possible in the Machine Shop based off of the plans provided. But, if needed, Model Shop welders do go out into the test facilities to make final positional welds and modifications to the product.

Reid said base operations could not be accomplished without the welders' essential work.

"You can't maintain and build this place without our welders," he said. "So in addition to National Welding Month, we like to recognize our welders and all our skilled craftsmen year round for all the hard work they put in supporting the AEDC mission."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
National Welding Month: Welders play vital role in AEDC mission

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Welding is the process of using high heat to fuse metal together. At Arnold Air Force Base, the headquarters for Arnold Engineering Development Complex, there are boilermakers, pipefitters, ironworkers, sheet metal workers and machinists in the Model and Machine Shop who specialize in the skill of welding.

# data[].attributes.headline
What does the cloud mean for metal fabrication?

# data[].attributes.subject
What does the cloud mean for metal fabrication?

# data[].attributes.body
The Fabricator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Modern metal fabricators operate under an interesting paradox. The industry is simultaneously saturated with advanced digital control and also constrained by antiquated data management. Manufacturers face increasing pressure to deliver high-quality parts efficiently, on schedule, and with more customization. Many engineers and fab shop managers have identified the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 as solutions. But with constant deadlines and machine maintenance, they remain unsure about which is which, where to start, and what any of it means for them.

In many cases the cloud is central to implementation-and the correct place to start. This is because the cloud is the brains of the operation that provides on-demand availability of computer and system resources, especially data storage, without direct active management by the user. In one sense, IIoT forms the pathways of the sensory nervous system: the physical components that provide data and internet access to the cloud. And Industry 4.0 is the complete body known as the smart factory, enabling local mass production down to a lot size of one.

So the question "What does the cloud mean for metal fabrication?" can be rephrased much more powerfully as, "What does unconstrained availability to machine control systems and production data mean?" Relative to the metal fabrication industry, cloud technologies mean a readily available solution exists to improve on-time delivery, quality, and efficiency, and it can be configured and implemented much easier than one might think.

Cloud Migration

Many fabricators embraced cloud computing even before COVID-19, but the pandemic has become an accelerant. For most, the stresses, strains, and experiences of the past year have been enough to remove any remaining reservations about digital transformation and provide motivation to begin the migration. At the same time, new technologies such as additive manufacturing and machines as a service are taking hold, and businesses have started to embrace reshoring and onshoring. Migrating to the cloud, even in a rapidly changing environment, requires relatively little time and capital investment to obtain large benefits in product improvements and business agility.

Metal fabrication always has focused on continuous improvement, so getting started with cloud computing only requires documenting the data that is already known to influence business. The cloud can be used to analyze everything from the front end to the back end of the business. However, migration to the cloud usually begins with the data associated with the machines. Of course, the industry has machines ranging from manual to fully digitized, but all can take advantage of the cloud.

The fully integrated digital machines are rich with data, but many cost-effective, easy-to-integrate solutions exist for semiautomated and manual machines. For example, a manual machine can be outfitted with a power measurement device that will support data collection on the machine idle time, run time, downtime, and tool load.

For machines without connected controls, such as older CNC machines that communicate via only a serial interface, or without any communications at all, such as an older bar loader on a lathe, engineers can easily add a bus coupler or gateway device to transmit data from the I/O level to the cloud.

The Importance of Preprocessing Data

Whether the amount of data to collect is large or small, it is generally good practice to use local logic to preprocess data before transmitting it to the cloud. This strategy lowers data transmission and data storage requirements; that is, it eliminates unnecessary bandwidth use and costs. In addition, local preprocessing allows data unification, which makes it easier to manage and integrate into analytics solutions.

Again, business leaders usually know which metrics are key, but rather than port this information to the cloud, fabricators should take time to break it down, using local software to separate the information into the specific state changes that it represents.

This may seem challenging, but just as there are systems readily available to collect data, there also are systems that support local preprocessing of the data. Cost-effective industrial PCs are excellent universal platforms that also can serve as edge-computing devices. Easy to program and integrate, IPCs that can stand up to the tough production environments in metal fabrication provide an edge hardware platform that can run many software platforms, fitting wide-ranging edge computing implementation strategies.

The Importance of Time

Time-stamped data records and basic analytics (including such information as minimum, maximum, and average machine cycle times) will almost immediately improve the ability to make good decisions quickly and optimize the business ROI. But the future is going to reward those who work to create a complete temporal image of their process and production data.

Processing errors are synonymous with missed ship dates and lost profits. Having a complete temporal image of the process and production data will support quick recoveries from faults and failures. It will also support comprehensive condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, pattern recognition, and machine optimization.

These benefits move the discussion past spontaneous troubleshooting to what can be accomplished with 24/7 monitoring of a single machine or a fleet of machines. The path to 24/7 monitoring is relatively simple in this context, because the tools that perform these analytics simply require configuration, not programming, to produce everything from alarms to automatic code generation, either remotely or locally, and to display and share the data on easily configured dashboards.

Cloud-based Analytics Boost Uptime and Efficiency

As cloud engagement advances, the tremendous advantages of increasing machine uptime and efficiency become even more obvious. Again, rather than cloud integration being complex, it offers service tools that are perfect for updating, commissioning, and troubleshooting machines.

Data sent from running machines can be compressed into binary streams to save network bandwidth, then transmitted for analytics processing. The analytics processing steps are built using preconfigured toolbox algorithms and can enable analysis of relevant lifetime, cycle times, tool efficiencies, parts counters, overall equipment effectiveness, and many other key metrics. The outputs from these algorithms can be used as inputs to other algorithms, shared as they are, or passed to higher level systems like enterprise resource planning, machine learning systems, or further cloud analytics tools.

In addition, signal paths can be visualized and analysis results charted to mark significant data points. The data points then can be linked logically to production events to support quick identification of products, processes, or machine inefficiencies from practically any location.

Cloud-based Dashboards Support Data Sharing

The last significant point about what the cloud means to metal fabrication is how to access and share the data and results. While most have become accustomed to looking at machine data natively displayed on a machine or with programming software, the cloud provides much more freedom concerning who is able to view the data and exactly what they are able to view.

Because the ability to access and share that cloud data has so many possibilities, fabricators first should consider the necessary metrics. The goal is to tell a story with each indicator, graph, and visual element on the dashboard. All of these are representations of metrics that have been deemed important. The more metrics shown, the more complete the story. Keeping the story concise and relevant requires only exercising the flexibility of the dashboard-creation software. A well-created dashboard should show useful, actionable information tailored to the audience with access permission.

As with so many other aspects of the cloud, creating the right dashboard may seem daunting, but many cost-effective and easy-to-use tools are available. For example, some platforms integrate web-based (HTML5) dashboards that can be customized for colors, logos, layouts, sort sequences, themes, and languages.

Begin Your Cloud Integration Journey

Machine builder OEMs, small job shops, and large manufacturers alike have already heard many times that they must embrace and integrate cloud technologies. However, many still operate in the traditional paradox of metal fabrication: advanced digital control alongside antiquated data management.

It's time to change this dynamic. Those who begin the journey will be the first to benefit from less downtime, higher-quality parts, and fewer missed ship dates. Those that do not may have a very difficult time catching up.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What does the cloud mean for metal fabrication?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Modern metal fabricators operate under an interesting paradox. The industry is simultaneously saturated with advanced digital control and also constrained by antiquated data management. Manufacturers face increasing pressure to deliver high-quality parts efficiently, on schedule, and with more customization. Many engineers and fab shop managers have identified the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 as solutions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Honoring the legacy of metal fabrication industry's ability to reach the stars

# data[].attributes.subject
Honoring the legacy of metal fabrication industry's ability to reach the stars

# data[].attributes.body
The Fabricator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On Feb. 18 the rover Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars in the Jezero Crater after traveling 293 million miles in just a little over 203 days. It was an unbelievable accomplishment for the NASA engineers, scientists, and technicians who worked together to both conceive and execute the mission. Surviving the "seven minutes of terror"-the point in the mission when entry, descent, and landing occur at a pace much quicker than the radio signals providing updates can reach Earth from Mars-had to be stress-filled for all of those involved, but the end result had to be worth the short-term nerves.

Perseverance is now the fifth rover to land successfully on Mars, joining Sojourner, Opportunity, Spirit, and Curiosity. Perseverance is the perfect name for this rover. Not only does it capture all of the hard work and long hours required to pull off such a mission, but the name also aptly summarizes what we've all been through over the past 12 months. Perseverance has been required as the metal fab industry's leaders and professionals have had to deal with changing work dynamics brought on by the pandemic, state-mandated shutdowns, and political discourse that has tested most everyone's patience and perseverance.

COVID-19 continues to occupy our nation's consciousness, and I find myself wondering if I were to ask 25 people to name the Mars rover, could they tell me? Have we as a nation become too distracted by the likes of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to appreciate this incredible scientific achievement? NASA's website describes Perseverance's mission as follows: "The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life, which will advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The rover has a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for detailed analysis. Perseverance will also test technologies to help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars."

The last sentence of the mission's description is incredibly bold and exciting. It's difficult for me to picture humans someday landing on Mars because I don't think that such an event will occur in my lifetime. Yet as sure as I'm sitting here in my living room writing this, I believe they will.

Considering this idea, I'm drawn back to Sept. 12, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous moon speech, largely written by his aide Ted Sorensen. On that day Kennedy laid down a bold vision for space exploration for his audience at Rice Stadium in Houston, declaring that by the end of the decade the U.S. would send a manned spacecraft to the moon.

As I read the speech, I found several passages that apply to current times as well. "We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds." These words bring to mind how Google, Twitter, and TikTok appropriately challenge both knowledge and ignorance.

Kennedy continued, "So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward-and so will space. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

On July 20, 1969, just short of seven years to the day Kennedy unveiled this bold pursuit to the world, Apollo 11 came to rest on the surface of the moon after traveling 240,000 miles in space. I was 6 years old when that happened, and I will never forget being in our family room in Watervliet, Mich., gathered around the black and white Zenith console television set with my parents, grandparents, sister, aunt, and uncle, watching Neil Armstrong step on the surface of the moon. The brilliance of President Kennedy's challenge is that it was an endeavor that bound our entire nation together for a common goal and purpose. As a nation, it would seem now is as good a time as any for our president to do something similar.

So, I ask you, the metal fabrication industry's job shop owners, leaders, and professionals, what is your company's moonshot? What is the goal that will serve to organize and measure the best of its energies and skills? Are you going to stay where you are a little longer to rest, to wait? Or are you ready to move forward? What challenge are you willing to accept, unwilling to postpone, and intending to win?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Honoring the legacy of metal fabrication industry's ability to reach the stars

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The landing of the NASA rover Perseverance on Mars in February reminded us what humans are capable of when they are challenged. The Fabricators & Manufacturers Association President Ed Youdell asks metal fabricators if they are ready to take on a "moonshot" of their own.

# data[].attributes.headline
Manufacturing Employment Surges in March

# data[].attributes.subject
Manufacturing Employment Surges in March

# data[].attributes.body
SME

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
U.S. manufacturing added 53,000 jobs in March, with contributions from both durable and non-durable goods, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Durable goods added 30,000 jobs, with non-durable goods contributing a 23,000-job gain, according to a breakdown by industry issued by the bureau on April 2.

Among durable goods, fabricated metals employment surged by 13,700 jobs; miscellaneous manufacturing added 4,500 jobs; and machinery had a 3,500-job gain.

One category that lost jobs was transportation equipment, down 3,000 jobs. That included a 1,000-job loss for motor vehicles and parts.

The manufacturing economy has been strengthening in recent months as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Institute for Supply Management said last week its manufacturing index for March reached its highest level in almost 40 years. That index is considered a leading indicator and is a barometer of where manufacturing is headed economically.

Manufacturing totaled 12.284 million last month on a seasonally adjusted basis. That was up from an adjusted 12.231 million in February. However, manufacturing is still down by 515,000 from February 2020, the month before COVID-19 began to slam the economy.

Total non-farm employment rose by 916,000 jobs in March, the bureau said in a statement. The U.S. unemployment dipped to 6 percent, down from 6.2 percent in February. The non-farm job gain was the biggest surge since 1.58 million in August 2020, according to CNBC.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Manufacturing Employment Surges in March

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
U.S. manufacturing added 53,000 jobs in March, with contributions from both durable and non-durable goods, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. Durable goods added 30,000 jobs, with non-durable goods contributing a 23,000-job gain, according to a breakdown by industry issued by the bureau on April 2.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Pandemic Made Manufacturing Stronger

# data[].attributes.subject
The Pandemic Made Manufacturing Stronger

# data[].attributes.body
Industry Week

# data[].attributes.headline
Two Great Examples Of How We Can Create The Manufacturing Workforce We Need

# data[].attributes.subject
Two Great Examples Of How We Can Create The Manufacturing Workforce We Need

# data[].attributes.body
Forbes (ads & paywall possible)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
American manufacturers will need greater numbers of workers in the future, in both the skilled ... [+]
getty

One heartening aspect of our slow emergence from the many months of pandemic difficulties is this: the ongoing discussion of the need to bring the manufacture of critical products back to the U.S. isn't abating. If anything, the push for reshoring, at least in print, is steadily growing. And while there's much concurrent discussion of how automation and Industry 4.0 technologies will facilitate that reshored production, the reality is that no amount of technology will eliminate the need in the U.S. for a growing number of well-trained people in manufacturing in the coming years.

But where will they come from? High schools have largely done away with the shop and technical classes that used to serve as feeders for industry, and while trade schools are still out there, they aren't keeping up with current demand, much less with what will be needed for a manufacturing renaissance. That's why the two examples covered here are so important: they help show the way for companies to help create their own workforces for the future.

The first is focused on helping transitioning military service members enter the skilled trades. Workshops for Warriors is an accredited nonprofit educational institution based in San Diego, California, that focuses on accelerated programs to help its students acquire certified third-party credentials in advanced manufacturing fields. It was founded in 2008 by U.S. Naval officer Hernán Luis y Prado, now retired from the Navy and serving as the institution's CEO. "I was on active duty when I started Workshops," he said. "I saw intelligent, motivated people desperate for a purpose. I sold everything I had to start it."

The program offers a variety of certifications, including welding (the American Welding Society), CNC programming (Mastercam), CAD (SOLIDWORKS) and metalworking (the National Institute for Metalworking Skills). In all, they offer about 300 nationally-recognized third-party credentials. Training takes only sixteen weeks, and costs about $25,000 per student.

Workshops for Warriors is privately funded through individual donations, foundations, and corporate support. "We have to get Americans to change their mindset about what the government should do, and what someone else should do," said Luis y Prado. "We have to get back to our pioneer roots, where we help build everyone else's house-back to American ingenuity and perseverance."

Luis y Prado's focus is on greatly expanding the program. "We became eligible to get GI Bill funding in 2018, so that helped," he explained. "But we need a lot more to expand. We currently turn away ten times more people than we can accept. America is creating a golden river of talent, then flushing it down the drain. We need help to turn that around."

A female veteran receives hands-on welding training.
Image courtesy Workshops for Warriors

To him, the numbers speak for themselves. "Right now, we can certify about 200 machinists and welders a year," he said. "America needs about 200,000 to 300,000 a year. And we spend $25,000 to train each veteran in our program to qualify for jobs with an average salary of $60,000 a year. Those are deserving people who will then put food on their own table, help rebuild their communities, and contribute to the tax base. 87% of our funding goes directly to our program, and we have a 94% placement record."

The second example is one of a manufacturer building its own trained managerial pool to serve the needs of its business. I first learned about the program when I saw a blurb in my son's high school announcements newsletter calling for applicants to the UFP Business School, and decided to investigate.

UFP, I discovered, is UFP Industries, Inc., which has its corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1955 as Universal Forest Products, it's an international supplier of wood and wood alternative products for retail, construction, and industrial markets, including DIY products, packaging and building components. The company has more than 180 facilities around the world, and is publicly traded, with a market capitalization of just over $4 billion. UFP's stock has been on a strong upward trend for the past two years, more than doubling over that time.

Seeing a burgeoning need for more managers trained in good business basics, and looking for a way to counter the skyrocketing costs of college education, in 2016 the company started its own internal business school. Their program runs for two years and results in the equivalent of a Bachelor of Business Administration degree that would be earned at a traditional college or university, covering subjects such as sales, leadership development and operations management. Students must have a high school diploma or GED to be accepted, and include those fresh out of high school as well as experienced workers.

It's a small but growing program. "This year, 14 people will be graduating," said Ann Baker, Dean of UFP Business School. "The program is gaining momentum internally as our graduate success stories are being discovered and shared."

For internal students, the program offers a path to promotion. For those coming from outside the company, it's a way into a higher-level position that includes work experience. Students in the Grand Rapids area attend classes for 10 hours per week, then have paid internships for 20 hours per week. For one term in each year, they work in one of the company's operations in North America.

A graduate from UFP Business School received his certificate.
Image courtesy UFP Business School

There is no debt incurred by the students; all of them attend on a full scholarship paid by the company and donors. Those who graduate have an opportunity to apply for available jobs and are eligible for all positions in the company requiring a college degree.

"UFP is investing in the future of both our internal employees and those outside the company that have the drive to take on a challenging yet rewarding program to advance their career," Baker said. "Additionally, we recognize that investing in our own people is also an investment in our company's future." Typical positions for graduates include various manufacturing management roles and sales positions.

"Our long-term vision is to establish an education blueprint that other companies can adopt and integrate into their internal career advancement tool set," Baker explained. "This could include sending their employees to us for the degree portion of our program or taking the curriculum and making it their own."

In the end, both of these programs lay out concrete directions all manufacturers should be contemplating to help themselves with their own staffing challenges. For Baker and Luis y Prado, there's a sense of satisfaction in that.

"Things that are useful like this take hard work," Luis y Prado said. "Creating our advanced manufacturing workforce will be difficult but doable."

"At UFP Business School, our purpose is to provide a unique, full scholarship program that balances quality education and paid hands-on experience," Baker added. "When you join our organization, you become a part of the UFP family, and we want nothing more than to see our hard-working family members succeed."

... Read More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Two Great Examples Of How We Can Create The Manufacturing Workforce We Need

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One heartening aspect of our slow emergence from the many months of pandemic difficulties is this: the ongoing discussion of the need to bring the manufacture of critical products back to the U.S. isn't abating. If anything, the push for reshoring, at least in print, is steadily growing.

# data[].attributes.headline
U.S. Bet Big on Covid Vaccine Manufacturer Even as Problems Mounted

# data[].attributes.subject
U.S. Bet Big on Covid Vaccine Manufacturer Even as Problems Mounted

# data[].attributes.body
NY Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Baltimore plant that recently had to scrap up to 15 million ruined doses had flouted rules and downplayed errors, according to internal audits, ex-employees and clients. Other doses had to be scrapped last year.

Emergent BioSolutions, a contract manufacturer, has produced about 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine at its Baltimore factory. None have been usable. Credit... Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON - More than eight years ago, the federal government invested in an insurance policy against vaccine shortages during a pandemic. It paid Emergent BioSolutions, a Maryland biotech firm known for producing anthrax vaccines, to have a factory in Baltimore always at the ready.

When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, the factory became the main U.S. location for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, churning out about 150 million doses as of last week.

But so far not a single dose has been usable because regulators have not yet certified the factory to allow the vaccines to be distributed to the public. Last week, Emergent said it would destroy up to 15 million doses' worth of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after contamination with the AstraZeneca vaccine was discovered.

Emergent and government health officials have long touted their partnership as a success, but an examination by The New York Times of manufacturing practices at the Baltimore facility found serious problems, including a corporate culture that often ignored or deflected missteps and a government sponsor, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, that acted more as a partner than a policeman.

Previously undisclosed internal documents and interviews with current and former federal officials and former company employees depict a factory operation that was ill-equipped to take on such a mammoth manufacturing task, despite Emergent's having received a $163 million federal contract to improve the facility and prepare it for high-volume production.

The loss of the Johnson & Johnson doses was not the first time the company threw out coronavirus vaccine for fear of contamination. Between early October and January, Emergent discarded five lots of AstraZeneca vaccine - each the equivalent of two million to three million doses - because of contamination or suspected contamination, according to internal logs, a government official and a former company supervisor.

Audits and investigations - including ones conducted in 2020 by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, two federal agencies and Emergent's own quality evaluators - found that Emergent had not followed some basic industry standards at the Baltimore plant, and identified repeated shortcomings in efforts to disinfect and prevent contamination.

While audits always find problems, federal officials and outside experts said that the pattern of lapses suggested deeper quality issues.

"These are the fundamental steps," said Dr. Ajaz Hussain, a pharmaceutical quality expert who oversaw efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure quality in drug development and manufacturing from 2000 to 2005. "If you are making mistakes or errors in the fundamentals, what else is wrong with your system? That would be my question."

An audit conducted for AstraZeneca specifically highlighted the risks of viral cross-contamination, which experts believe was responsible for tainting the millions of Johnson & Johnson doses, according to a review of the confidential document by The Times. The audits and investigations also flagged a persistent problem with mold in areas required to be kept clean, poor disinfection of some plant equipment leading to growth of bacteria, the repeated approval of raw materials that had not been fully tested, and inadequate training of some employees.

Image

A lab at the Baltimore facility, where both internal and external audits have identified problems. Credit... Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun Media

In their own audit last July, Emergent's auditors said errors "are not investigated to determine root cause, or are not investigated adequately," a report stated. "Investigations are terminated without sufficient cause."

In one example, the Emergent auditors said mold had been repeatedly discovered in the room where cell cultures were grown. Mold can be serious if airborne spores contaminate the vaccine substance. Emergent workers conducted "essentially no investigation" beyond checking the wheels of one cart for mold, and wrongly classified the incident as minor, the audit said.

While the Baltimore plant remains under scrutiny, another 62 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine made there are in jeopardy until it can be determined whether they were also contaminated. Over the weekend, Johnson & Johnson assumed responsibility for the manufacturing at the direction of the Biden administration, which also limited future production to only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Because other manufacturers are now churning out so many Covid-19 vaccine doses, it does not appear that the disruptions in Baltimore will upend the Biden administration's expedited timetable for vaccine supplies and availability. But health experts worry the revelations could heighten safety concerns and make some people more wary about getting shots.

Emergent is a longtime government contractor that has spent much of the last two decades cornering a lucrative market in federal spending on biodefense. The Times reported last month that sales of its anthrax vaccines to the Strategic National Stockpile accounted for nearly half of the stockpile's half-billion-dollar annual budget throughout most of the last decade, leaving the federal government with less money to buy supplies needed in a pandemic.

In response to questions about the Baltimore plant, an Emergent spokesman, Matt Hartwig, said in a statement that the company had been cooperating with the federal government "to address issues" and "resolve them in support of the federal Covid response." He said the company had "a proven track record as a world-class provider of both bulk drug substances and sterile injectable drug products" and that it had "rigorous safety, quality and compliance programs, which include programs, policies, and processes that allow early identification of issues and means to address them."

He added, "Any allegation that our safety, quality and compliance systems are not working or that we do not take these responsibilities seriously is false."

But four former company officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements or feared retaliation, described an environment where top Emergent leadership tolerated and even encouraged the flouting of federal standards for manufacturing and marketing products.

One of the former officials said that as the company scrambled to meet the heavy demands of vaccine production, a senior manufacturing supervisor often responded to reports of quality errors by asking: "Do you want me to make drugs or fix issues? I don't have time to do both."

Even before the Covid-19 vaccine production began, there were concerns about Emergent's ability to deliver on its contract with the government, The Times found. As a test of Emergent's readiness, the original contract required the company to demonstrate that it could rapidly produce 50 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, but Emergent hadn't done so by the original deadline last June.

"This was the way that you demonstrate you're surge-ready," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, who until 2017 oversaw the office that awarded Emergent the 2012 contract. Not meeting that requirement after eight years, she said, "would have been of huge concern to me."

In the end, as the coronavirus swept across the country, federal officials said they had little choice but to turn to Emergent because few companies based in the United States were able to make the type of vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

"There weren't a lot of alternatives," said Dr. Robert Kadlec, who oversaw the agency that awarded the manufacturing contract under the Trump administration. "We even looked at veterinary vaccine facilities around the country. We couldn't find the capacity."

Most large pharmaceutical companies have spurned this work because of the relatively small payouts and the hassle of government contracting. Emergent, by contrast, has deployed a well-funded lobbying apparatus and a web of Washington connections to build its business around preparations for potential bioweapon attacks and infectious disease outbreaks.

Emergent's stock has suffered in the last week, closing Monday just under $79, down from $94 before news broke that the doses had been ruined. Still, the Covid-19 work has been lucrative for the company.

In all, Emergent's Covid-19 manufacturing deals are worth up to $1.5 billion, according to company presentations and calls with investors. Profitability for 2020 was "off-the-chart successful," the company's chief executive, Robert Kramer, boasted to investors in March.

The government's investment in Emergent's Baltimore facility was rooted in a lesson from the last pandemic, the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak that claimed an estimated 12,000 lives in the United States.

A government report the next year noted that the nation had developed vaccines for the novel pathogen "in record time," but that "the vaccines were not broadly available before the virus had spread widely among the U.S. population."

To ensure that didn't happen again, the report determined, the federal government should partner with companies and universities to expand and sustain domestic manufacturing sites.

Credit... Barda/Department of Health and Human Services

In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded three contracts, including one to Emergent to retrofit and expand its Baltimore site. And between 2015 and 2019, the government placed a handful of relatively small orders for doses of treatments and vaccines being developed for use against viruses including Ebola and Zika.

The contract also required Emergent to stand ready to produce up to 50 million doses of vaccine within four months in the event of an influenza pandemic. To show that it was up to the task, Emergent was supposed to work with a company developing a flu vaccine candidate and seek F.D.A. approval to manufacture it by June 2020.

As the deadline neared, however, Emergent still had not met the requirement. The vaccine candidate of its chosen partner company had failed in clinical trials, and Emergent had not found a replacement. "Emergent does not have a candidate, strategy or plan for fulfilling the flu requirement," according to a government document in June 2019. "Emergent needs to make this a priority so they are not in default."

By then, the government had scaled back its partnership with Emergent, shortening its maximum possible duration to 15 years from 25 years.

Dr. Kadlec, who ran the office overseeing the contract, said he commissioned a review of the government partnerships, including the one with Emergent, that concluded in 2019 that their ability to deliver in a pandemic remained largely unproven.

"What I perceived is that we did not pressure-test those systems on a regular basis to see what they could do," said Dr. Kadlec, who had previously worked as a consultant for Emergent. "The military term is 'live fire.'"

When the June 2020 deadline arrived, Emergent hadn't met the flu requirement, but the government nevertheless awarded it a $628 million contract to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines.

By then, only two of the three government-funded centers remained, and Emergent's was the only one with the ability to make the type of vaccines being developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. Justifying an exception to normal contracting requirements, the government said it needed to act fast.

"Discussions with Emergent have revealed that they are in discussions with multiple vaccine developers interested in reserving the capacity" at the Baltimore plant, according to a government contracting document. Should that happen, it added, the government "would not be in a position to manufacture vaccines in a relevant time frame" to meet the Trump administration's goal of 300 million vaccine doses.

Dr. Kadlec said he knew it was a risky decision.

"It's like trying to take the finest champagne in France and recreate it in parts of the United States," he said. "You could bring the grapes over, but it's a science and an art."

A majority of the contract - more than a half-billion dollars - was allocated for monthly fees to reserve manufacturing space at Emergent's facilities. Emergent's chief financial officer acknowledged during a July call with Wall Street analysts that for the company, there were "minimal costs associated with the reservation piece itself," and executives have since cited the reservation fees during investor calls as one reason for an increase in Emergent's gross profit margins.

Mr. Hartwig, the Emergent spokesman, said the government funding "reserved manufacturing capacity and allowed Emergent to acquire the equipment and hire the work force necessary to support vaccine production on a scale of one billion doses annually."

The government later extended the flu vaccine deadline under the original contract. A spokeswoman for the agency administering the deal, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, said Emergent's Covid-19 work "is meeting" the original contract's "intent."

Meanwhile, the company struck separate deals with Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca worth roughly another $875 million. In a July conference call with investors, Emergent announced that it was tripling its projected contract manufacturing revenue for the year.

"Emergent is uniquely prepared to answer the call for Covid-19 pandemic," Mr. Kramer told investors.

In the days that followed, investors flocked to Emergent's stock, pushing it to a record high. But out of public view, internal monitors and auditors from the company's new partners, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, were finding the Baltimore factory's procedures deficient, especially in disinfecting the plant and preventing contamination.

Internal logs show that Emergent had to toss out one batch of AstraZeneca's vaccine in early October because of suspected contamination, and four more in December. Those four were spoiled by bacterial contamination of equipment, a former company official said.

In November, production of a batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccine was discarded after workers "hooked up" the wrong gas line and accidentally "suffocated" the cells where the virus for the vaccine is grown, the logs show. The next month, the records indicate, workers making AstraZeneca's vaccine deviated from manufacturing standards on average more than three times a day. About one-fifth of the deviations were classified as major.

Because of the pandemic, most of the auditors drew their conclusions from documents and video tours, during which Emergent workers controlled the camera angles, one former company official said.

Johnson & Johnson's auditors said monitoring reports for bacteria or other contaminants were filed four to six months late. AstraZeneca's said that Emergent repeatedly loosened monitoring criteria so it appeared to meet them, resorting to measures like "historical averages." But even then it failed the tests, the report said.

In another audit, BARDA officials documented similar concerns, classifying some of them, including the risks of microbiological contamination, as "critical." That designation is reserved for the most serious problems that pose an immediate and significant risk.

Emergent's own internal audit in July also said the flow of workers and materials through the plant was not adequately controlled "to prevent mix-ups or contamination."

The reports echoed quality-control shortcomings documented in an April inspection by the F.D.A., reported earlier by The Associated Press, that concluded the facility was "not ready for commercial operations."

Multiple audits underscore how poorly the company was prepared for the huge workload it accepted.

The Covid-19 projects required significantly more testing to ensure materials remained stable, but Emergent had just one employee coordinating it all, the BARDA audit found. Emergent acknowledged at the time that its testing system was "not ideal" and pledged to train at least one more Emergent worker and hire a third. BARDA did not respond to requests for comment on its audit or any of the others, beyond saying that it had "worked with Emergent to resolve the issues" raised during the F.D.A. inspection.

Another internal investigation in August found that Emergent approved four raw materials used to produce AstraZeneca's vaccine without first fully testing them. That type of shortcut, called a conditional release of material, occurred on average twice a week in October, internal logs show. The measure was deemed necessary because the company was working with shortened production times, testing backlogs and the needs of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's crash vaccine development program. And while a manager "knowingly deviated" from standards, the report said, the batches of vaccine would be not released without quality and safety tests.

Plant supervisors often cited pressures from Operation Warp Speed as a justification for glossing over violations of manufacturing guidelines, according to one former company official. But even before Emergent launched into Covid-19 vaccine production, a major client charged that the firm was too complacent about mistakes.

A New Jersey-based company called Soligenix had hired Emergent to produce its experimental vaccine against ricin, a toxin, for use in clinical trials. But shortly after the trial began in December 2019, Emergent informed Soligenix that it had failed to properly test the vaccine before releasing it, according to Soligenix's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

By then, two volunteers had already received doses, the filing stated.

Forced to suspend the trial, Soligenix is now seeking $19 million in damages from Emergent, which has denied negligence or deliberate wrongdoing.

In a follow-up audit in February 2020, Soligenix auditors said "the primary driver" of the mistake was that Emergent had fostered "a culture where written instructions are regularly not followed with no consequences."

Shortly before 6:20 p.m. on March 25, an urgent email landed in the inboxes of top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services. "Developing Situation _ Emergent Bayview," the subject line read.

What followed was even more alarming: "Viral cross-contamination confirmed in the control cells for JANSSEN GMP Lot #8."

The message, referring to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine production at Emergent's Baltimore factory, set off a series of hurried nighttime telephone calls, according to officials familiar with the situation.

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines use the same technology: A harmless version of a virus - known as a viral vector - is transmitted into cells to make a protein that stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies.

Sometime in February, Emergent workers had unknowingly contaminated Johnson & Johnson's viral vector with AstraZeneca's. The error was not discovered for weeks, until, in one of the final checks before release, Johnson & Johnson sampled a batch of 13 million to 15 million doses' worth of vaccine for purity.

In short order, top Biden administration health officials directed a hold on shipments from the Baltimore facility and instructed Johnson & Johnson executives to take charge of its operations. Days later, they quietly told AstraZeneca officials their vaccine would no longer be made at the Baltimore plant, to avoid a repeat of that error.

At a Monday morning staff meeting at the plant, Emergent officials claimed the mistake was an isolated incident and the media had exaggerated its significance, according to a person briefed on the meeting. They urged workers to be proud of what the plant had accomplished in such a short time.

But quality-control managers are now required to test anew every lot of Johnson & Johnson vaccine made at the plant - 62 million doses in all - to make sure they weren't also contaminated. Another roughly 70 million doses of AstraZeneca's may also need to be tested.

F.D.A. inspectors are expected to intensely scrutinize the plant before certifying it to release doses to the public. It remains uncertain whether that would occur in time for Johnson & Johnson to deliver the 24 million doses it has promised to ship to the federal government this month.

In the meantime, the Emergent factory faces a complex and costly makeover to devote itself solely to producing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Experts said it could take weeks to phase out production of AstraZeneca's vaccine at the 112,000-square-foot plant and restart it somewhere else. Emergent announced on Monday that the government had awarded it another $23 million to help expand Johnson & Johnson's production lines.

The plant remains a risky bet for the government. While Johnson & Johnson is expected to roughly double the number of supervisors on-site, to about 12, the work force of hundreds is still Emergent's. Some federal officials are privately concerned that the government is stuck in an unhappy marriage with Emergent and that Johnson & Johnson, whose manufacturing expertise is largely overseas, may not be able to salvage it.

For President Biden, who has vowed to "always level with the American people," the factory's error - which was not known publicly until The Times reported it last week - is as much a public-relations problem as a supply problem.

Even without any doses made by Emergent, administration officials say they will have enough vaccine by the end of May to cover as many as 240 million of the roughly 260 million American adults. That puts them on track to meet Mr. Biden's goal of having enough for everyone who wants to be vaccinated.

But the story of the ruined doses is also unfolding against the backdrop of a highly politicized public health crisis, just as the administration is trying to convince skeptics that Covid-19 vaccines are safe.

"I want to emphasize the issue at the Baltimore plant did not impact any J&J doses that had been distributed, as all J&J finished doses to date were produced in a different, F.D.A.-approved facility," Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told reporters last week.

The Biden administration must also figure out how to rein in a company accustomed to getting its way with the government.

After the administration announced Saturday that Johnson & Johnson would take control of the Covid-19 manufacturing from Emergent, the company issued its own statement Sunday night noting that it "continues to own and operate" the plant while also suggesting it welcomed "the additional oversight and support."

The Biden team was apparently displeased. Hours later, sometime past midnight, the statement was amended to acknowledge that Johnson & Johnson now has "final signoff of manufacturing" its vaccine at the Baltimore plant.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
U.S. Bet Big on Covid Vaccine Manufacturer Even as Problems Mounted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Baltimore plant that recently had to scrap up to 15 million ruined doses had flouted rules and downplayed errors, according to internal audits, ex-employees and clients. Other doses had to be scrapped last year. WASHINGTON - More than eight years ago, the federal government invested in an insurance policy against vaccine shortages during a pandemic.

# data[].attributes.headline
Aluminum Etc.: Why I love aluminum welding

# data[].attributes.subject
Aluminum Etc.: Why I love aluminum welding

# data[].attributes.body
The Fabricator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I get excited about aluminum. Some folks might find that weird, but in my opinion, more people should be interested in and excited about it. After all, it's an element that is used by just about every person on this planet every day. I suppose it is so commonly used in industries now that most people don't even give a thought to how it came to be.

Although aluminum makes up 8% of the Earth's crust, it does not occur as a metal in its natural state. Aluminum ore, also known as bauxite, is mined and then chemically refined to produce the intermediate product known as aluminum oxide. Once it is in this state, that is where the fun begins. In very nontechnical terms, vats of aluminum oxide are electrocuted, forcing the aluminum to bubble to the surface. From there we use it to make all sorts of things, from pop cans to the engines in the space shuttle.

At one point in time, aluminum was considered more precious than gold or silver. Owning aluminum plates to serve dinner to guests as Napoleon did was a sign of extreme wealth. That perception changed when the process of refining aluminum was discovered in the mid-1800s, making it more readily available. As a result, all modern advances in the last 200 years have ties to aluminum. For example, without aluminum the Wright brothers wouldn't have been able to build a biplane light enough to fly.

In today's world, aluminum continues to be the go-to material for much of what industries are trying to produce. The consumer applications of aluminum are endless, and because it is 100% recyclable, its possibilities to be reused are infinite. This is good for the ecosystem and economies!

Also, aluminum is pretty. When I am welding aluminum, I find the weld pool to be mesmerizing. I am never in a hurry to end an aluminum weld. A lot of times an aluminum weld is placed for penetration (sealant) and then milled off, so you might never know there's a weld there. Although I understand the reason for it, it does hurt my heart a bit.

What do you love about welding aluminum? What do you find challenging about preparing or welding it? I look forward to your feedback.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aluminum Etc.: Why I love aluminum welding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I get excited about aluminum. Some folks might find that weird, but in my opinion, more people should be interested in and excited about it. After all, it's an element that is used by just about every person on this planet every day.

# data[].attributes.headline
BMW to recall 901 cars in the US over improper welding

# data[].attributes.subject
BMW to recall 901 cars in the US over improper welding

# data[].attributes.body
BMW Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BMW will be carrying out a voluntary recall over the following months on 2019, 2020 and 2021 models due to an improper welding job that could lead to the loss of ABS assistance in certain cases. The cars that will be part of this campaign are 2019, 2020 and 2021 models, including the new generation M3 and M4 cars. The defect, according to the NHTSA, could lead to a less than optimal braking performance.

The official statement from the US authority says that the rotor and shaft within the braking system may not have been welded to specifications. Therefore, in the event of hard braking, they could lead to a reduction in braking assistance and even ABS failure. BMW says they uncovered the issue during a road test carried out at an assembly plant in October 2020. Following some additional tests, the company decided on February 3 to issue a voluntary recall to fix the issue.

According to the Germans, 901 cars could be affected, with an estimated defect rate of 12 percent. These cars include the 2021 M3, M3 Competition, M4 and M4 Competition as well as the M8, M850i xDrive, 840i xDrive and 840i, the 740 Li, 740 Li xDrive, 750 Li xDrive, M760 Li xDrive and 745 Le xDrive on the non-SUV side of things. SUVs haven't been left out though. The X5 M, as well as the X5 M50i, X5 xDrive50i, X5 xDrive 40i, X5 sDrive40i and X5 xDrive45e, X6 M, X6 M50i, X6 xDrive50i, X6 xDrive40i and X6 sDrive40i, X7 M50i, X7 xDrive50i and X7 Xdrive40i are also on the list.

Owners of the affected cars will be notified by mail, as usual, and the fix will be carried out for them free of charge. The integrated braking system will most likely be replaced, in an operation that should take a couple of hours at most. According to BMW, the recall is expected to kick off on April 5.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BMW to recall 901 cars in the US over improper welding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BMW will be carrying out a voluntary recall over the following months on 2019, 2020 and 2021 models due to an improper welding job that could lead to the loss of ABS assistance in certain cases. The cars that will be part of this campaign are 2019, 2020 and 2021 models, including the new generation M3 and M4 cars.

# data[].attributes.headline
Consumer Demand Snaps Back. Factories Can’t Keep Up.

# data[].attributes.subject
Consumer Demand Snaps Back. Factories Can’t Keep Up.

# data[].attributes.body
Wall Street Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
U.S. manufacturers aced the shutdown of their factories and warehouses last spring in response to Covid-19. They're botching the recovery.

After carrying out an orderly retreat from assembly lines as the pandemic arrived in the U.S., many manufacturers pulled out the playbook they followed in past recessions, cutting costs and preserving cash. That left them unprepared for the sharp rebound in consumer demand that began just weeks later and never let up.

Without restaurants to visit and trips to take, Americans bought out stocks of cars, appliances, furniture and power tools. Manufacturers have been trying to catch up ever since. Nearly a year since initial coronavirus lockdowns in the U.S., barbells, kitchen mixers, mattresses and webcams are still hard to find. A global shortage of semiconductors has forced many car makers to cut production in recent weeks.

"Everyone was caught flat-footed," said Jack Springer, chief executive officer of Malibu Boats Inc.

The boating industry was preparing for a downturn but instead sales jumped, he said. Malibu's orders were up by more than half last June from a year earlier and sales of recreational boats in the U.S. in 2020 were the highest in 13 years, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, a trade group.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Consumer Demand Snaps Back. Factories Can't Keep Up.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
U.S. manufacturers aced the shutdown of their factories and warehouses last spring in response to Covid-19. They're botching the recovery. After carrying out an orderly retreat from assembly lines as the pandemic arrived in the U.S., many manufacturers pulled out the playbook they followed in past recessions, cutting costs and preserving cash.

# data[].attributes.headline
Global Chip Shortage Challenges Biden’s Hope for Manufacturing Revival

# data[].attributes.subject
Global Chip Shortage Challenges Biden’s Hope for Manufacturing Revival

# data[].attributes.body
NY Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A global shortage of a key component for cars and electronics has shuttered American factories and set off fierce competition to secure supplies.

The shortage of a vital component for automobiles, phones, refrigerators and other electronic devices is posing an early challenge to the Biden administration's promise to revive a manufacturing sector depressed by the coronavirus pandemic. Credit... Thomas Samson/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

WASHINGTON - President Biden came into office with plans to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic and spur a domestic manufacturing revival for goods such as automobiles and semiconductors.

But one month into his presidency, a global chip shortage has shuttered auto factories in the United States, slowed shipments of consumer electronics and called into question the security of American supply chains.

The shortage of a vital component for automobiles, phones, refrigerators and other electronic devices is posing an early challenge to the administration's promise to revive a manufacturing sector depressed by the pandemic. And it has spurred an effort by the administration to reach out to U.S. embassies and foreign governments to try to alleviate the shortage, even as the White House acknowledges that there are most likely few solutions to the supply crunch in the short term.

The White House plans to issue an executive order soon that will take steps to address these kinds of vulnerabilities in critical supply chains over the longer term, an administration spokesperson said on Thursday. The order will begin a review of domestic manufacturing and supply chains for critical materials - including rare earths, medical supplies and semiconductors - with a particular focus on reducing dependencies on unreliable or unfriendly foreign actors.

In the meantime, administration officials have begun looking for ways to ease the immediate shortage. Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, have been involved in efforts to increase chip availability; Sameera Fazili, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, and Peter Harrell, a senior director at the National Security Council, are leading the focus on supply chains, the White House spokesperson said.

The United States has also tried to leverage its ties with Taiwan, one of the world's largest chip manufacturers, to make sure American customers are not disadvantaged. In a letter sent on Wednesday, Mr. Deese thanked Wang Mei-Hua, the Taiwanese minister of economic affairs, for her "personal attention and support in resolving the current shortages faced by American automobile manufacturers."

Over the past year, the Trump administration tried to strengthen ties with the Taiwanese government and manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to counter China's growing influence over the chip market.

The Biden administration is also meeting with auto companies and suppliers to identify bottlenecks and to urge them to work together to address the shortage. But the White House has acknowledged that its options to alleviate any shortfall are likely to be limited, given the fierce global competition for semiconductors. Many chip makers are already running near maximum capacity, and it will take at least several months to further ramp up production, analysts say.

The shortage has been particularly disruptive for auto manufacturers because the production of vehicles relies on dozens of computer chips for electronic components that control engines, transmissions, entertainment systems, brakes and other systems. Both General Motors and Ford have estimated that the shortage will lower their operating profit by at least $1 billion this year.

G.M. has halted production at one plant in the United States, one in Canada and another in Mexico until at least mid-March. At a fourth plant, the company has decided to produce vehicles without the electronics that are in short supply. When components become available, G.M. will install them and then ship the vehicles to dealers.

Ford canceled shifts last week at two important pickup truck plants. One of them, near Kansas City, Mo., is closed this week because of inclement weather and a shortage of natural gas in the Midwest.

Economists say the effect is likely to be small but noticeable. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said he expected the chip shortage to reduce new vehicle sales by 450,000 units in 2021. That would lower overall economic output in the United States by approximately $15 billion, or not quite 0.1 percent of gross domestic product, which is expected to increase by 5.6 percent this year, he said.

Industry analysts say the shortages are partly because of a pre-pandemic trend toward consolidation and inventory depletion in the chip sector, which was exacerbated by the kind of coronavirus-related disruptions that have led to shortages of other products, such as exercise bikes, tablets and toys.

Factory shutdowns, first in China and then elsewhere around the world, disrupted production of the chips and the cars and electronics that require them. Automakers and consumer electronics companies then underestimated the surge in demand from at-home buyers, leaving companies scrambling with chip makers to secure their supply, according to analysts.

President Donald J. Trump's trade policy might have also played a role, as chip makers anticipated that new U.S. restrictions on the type of technology that Chinese companies such as Huawei could buy would lower demand. Chip makers responded by trimming output.

Winter storms this week have also shut down or slowed production at chip factories owned by Samsung and NXP Semiconductors near Austin, Texas, potentially exacerbating the shortages.

John Neuffer, the president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said that the pandemic had thrown off the short-term balance between supply and demand.

"Chip companies are working hard to meet demand from the auto and other sectors," he said, "but these are highly complex products that can take months to produce, so it's unfortunately not like flipping a switch."

Mr. Neuffer said the shortages highlighted the need for the U.S. government to "invest now in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research so the new chips we need are produced right here on U.S. shores."

The United States is home to companies like Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Micron and Qualcomm, and still responsible for designing many of the world's most advanced chips. But the American share of global chip manufacturing capacity has fallen to 12 percent from 37 percent in 1990, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association. The shift occurred as American companies outsourced manufacturing and governments in South Korea, Singapore, China and elsewhere have aggressively subsidized production.

The Semiconductor Industry Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups sent a letter on Thursday to the Biden administration urging it to work with Congress to provide funding for semiconductor manufacturing and research and to establish an investment tax credit for new manufacturing facilities.

Congress recently passed new legislation to set up manufacturing incentives and research initiatives in the chip industry as part of a defense authorization bill, but the provisions have yet to be fully funded.

Jim Tankersley contributed reporting from Washington, and Neal E. Boudette from Ann Arbor, Mich.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Global Chip Shortage Challenges Biden's Hope for Manufacturing Revival

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A global shortage of a key component for cars and electronics has shuttered American factories and set off fierce competition to secure supplies. WASHINGTON - President Biden came into office with plans to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic and spur a domestic manufacturing revival for goods such as automobiles and semiconductors.

# data[].attributes.body
Article Search: Metal Fabrication

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Thomasnet® - Product Sourcing and Supplier Discovery Platform - Find North American Manufacturers, Suppliers and Industrial Companies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just about all companies in the business of machining and making components know that their shops' capabilities are what make them valuable and stand out against competitors. But relatively few...

# data[].attributes.body
Article search: Welding

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Thomasnet® - Product Sourcing and Supplier Discovery Platform - Find North American Manufacturers, Suppliers and Industrial Companies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hidden inefficiencies within your welding operation can quickly spark cost overruns. Follow these simple tips for avoiding them. Companies wishing to reduce their welding costs can benefit from the...

# data[].attributes.body
Article Search: Advanced Manufacturing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Thomasnet® - Product Sourcing and Supplier Discovery Platform - Find North American Manufacturers, Suppliers and Industrial Companies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since its introduction in 2006, the Advanced Manufacturing Competency Model has served as a framework for developing and enhancing manufacturing education and training programs across the U.S. An...

# data[].attributes.headline
Manufacturing Industry Yearbooks 2020 (from SME Publishing)

# data[].attributes.subject
Manufacturing Industry Yearbooks 2020 (from SME Publishing)

# data[].attributes.body
Each annual industry yearbook presents the authoritative insights from manufacturing leaders who outline the major market trends, processes, and technologies driving manufacturing success.

# data[].attributes.body
Scroll down to view each individual magazine

# data[].attributes.headline
Advanced Manufacturing & the Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

# data[].attributes.subject
Advanced Manufacturing & the Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On this page: What's new | What is advanced manufacturing? | FDA's role | Science and research | Guidance and information for industry | More information from FDA | Additional resources | Contact FDA

What's new

December 15, 2020: FDA Insight podcast: Advanced Manufacturing - Dr. Jeffrey C. Baker, Deputy Director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology Products in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, joins Dr. Shah for a discussion on how FDA's efforts help innovation and implementation of Advanced Manufacturing technologies regarding food and drug safety.

November 13, 2020: Determining the impact of 3D printing response activities (update) - FDA has initiated a study to summarize the impact of non-traditional and community responders using 3D-printing in addressing supply shortages and gaps in medical supplies. The U.S. public health, safety and security will benefit from identifying the best practices and lessons learned from the COVID-19 response. If you are affiliated with a health care provider or are a community responder and would like to contribute to the study, please go to the America Makes website.

October 30, 2020: FDA Publishes List of Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures, Critical Inputs Required by Executive Order - An August 2020 executive order directed FDA, in consultation with federal partners, to identify a list of essential medicines, medical countermeasures and critical inputs that are medically necessary to have available at all times in an amount adequate to serve patient needs and in the appropriate dosage forms. The executive order also directs the FDA to coordinate with our federal partners on a number of additional issues, including strategies for acquiring the products on the list, accelerating domestic manufacturing, and identifying and addressing supply chain vulnerabilities.

August 3, 2020: Investing in Advanced Manufacturing to Support Public Health Preparedness - The potential public health value of advanced manufacturing is even greater in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the strain on supply chains and the need for adaptive manufacturing systems to accelerate the production of medical countermeasures. The FDA has established a strong regulatory foundation to support the uptake of advanced manufacturing, and COVID-19 provides the unique impetus to spur further advancement of medical manufacturing.

What is advanced manufacturing?

Advanced manufacturing is a collective term for new medical product manufacturing technologies that can improve drug quality, address shortages of medicines, and speed time-to-market. Every field has a different set of production techniques that are considered advanced. They often:

Integrate novel technological approaches

Use established techniques in a new or innovative way, or

Apply production methods in a new domain where there are no defined best practices or experience.

Examples of some cross-cutting advanced manufacturing technologies include continuous manufacturing and 3D printing.

Innovations in manufacturing technology will help:

Rapidly scale manufacturing capabilities for vaccines and other medical countermeasures (MCMs) to respond faster to emerging threats and other public health emergencies, such as pandemic influenza

Shorten supply chains and increase manufacturing resilience to disruption by emerging threats or public health emergencies, such as natural disasters, by creating a distributed network of small manufacturing sites that can provide reserve capacity for centralized manufacturing facilities

Accelerate therapy development for orphan diseases by improving the cost-efficiency of small-scale manufacturing processes

Speed availability of emerging therapies by enabling manufacturing process and standards development, including for cell and gene-therapies, supporting goals of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act)

Provide new tools to address drug shortages and other challenges, including pharmaceutical quality

Collaborating to help facilitate next-generation influenza vaccines
Current influenza vaccine manufacturing requires about six months, which requires public health authorities to identify in advance the influenza strains likely to cause the most illness in the upcoming U.S. flu season to ensure availability of vaccine. FDA is collaborating with federal partners and with industry to improve the manufacturing of the current generation of influenza vaccines and facilitate the next generation of influenza vaccines.

Continuous manufacturing provides a quicker, more reliable way to make pharmaceuticals. FDA is helping bring this method into widespread use.

Continuous manufacturing integrates traditional step-wise manufacturing processes into a single system based on modern process monitoring and controls. In a CM process, product is made over time so a drug manufacturer can easily control the amount of products being made to match demand. These efficient, integrated continuous systems also require smaller footprints to operate.

Additive manufacturing methods, such as 3D printing, are capable of making digital 3D models into solid parts by repeatedly layering materials. These methods can be used across all medical products.

3D printing can create patient-specific medical devices such as implants, surgical guides, or anatomic models. Similarly, 3D-printed solid drug products can be made in various shapes, strengths, and distributions of active and inactive ingredients. Tissue-engineered 3D-printed constructs are also being researched to advance regenerative medicine. This approach provides a unique opportunity to produce medical products that are tailored for individual needs of patients. The capabilities and portability of 3D printing processes also enables distributed manufacturing of complex and advanced medical products in remote or austere conditions.

Unlike other medicines, biopharmaceuticals are manufactured in, extracted from, or otherwise derived from biological sources and require complex manufacturing processes. For example, there's often more than one type of influenza virus circulating each season, so influenza vaccines are designed to target three or four influenza viruses that are most likely to circulate during the season. Since it generally takes several months for influenza vaccines to be produced, flu strains for the next season need to be selected months in advance to ensure we're prepared with enough supply when flu season hits.

Advanced manufacturing technologies could potentially allow us to:

Produce influenza vaccines closer to flu season, when we might have more certainty about the circulating strain

Switch the strain more easily in the event of an unforeseen change

Produce a new vaccine more quickly in the event of a pandemic

More easily scale manufacturing if vaccine supplies should run short

FDA is encouraging steps to invest in advanced domestic manufacturing to ensure new and existing technologies are scalable so that manufacturers can meet domestic and global demand. For example, we're working to facilitate development of more effective cell lines that can be better scaled through advanced manufacturing technologies, and we are looking for ways to design a more robust recombinant vaccine manufacturing process could be developed to increase yield, while reducing cost.

FDA's role

FDA is taking many steps to help realize the potential of advanced manufacturing, including:

Issuing guidance on emerging technologies and working with medical product sponsors to clarify regulatory and data requirements necessary to support product applications using advanced manufacturing technologies - Also see Guidance for industry below

Reviewing and approving medical products that are made with continuous manufacturing technologies (e.g., New Drug Applications and Biologics License Applications)

Advancing regulatory science to proactively address regulatory challenges presented by advanced and continuous manufacturing technologies - Also see Science and research below

3-D printing-the process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model-is spurring innovation in manufacturing. In December 2017, FDA became the first regulator worldwide to provide a comprehensive technical framework to advise manufacturers creating medical products on 3D printers.

Also see: The 3Rs of 3D Printing: FDA's Role
Science and research

FDA supports and conducts research to further advanced manufacturing technologies, and the evaluation of products manufactured using these technologies. Ways we do this include:

In-house 3D printing facilities

FDA's Additive Manufacturing of Medical Products (AMMP) core research facility is a multi-center collaboration. It augments Center-specific resources and houses high-end, industry-grade 3D printing equipment, software, and expertise that can be used across the Agency to perform cutting-edge regulatory research with this advanced technology.

The AMMP Lab will establish a scientific foundation to assist the Agency with its assessment of advanced manufacturing, and provide the critical infrastructure FDA will need to meet the regulatory demands of the future. FDA's in-house 3D printing facilities enable FDA scientists to develop standards and metrics for use of 3D printing for medical products; conduct research to determine how the 3D printing of drugs impacts active and inactive drug components; and identify critical quality processes and controls that affect the safety and performance of drugs and devices.

Academic programs

Many U.S. universities have established advanced manufacturing academic programs. Some of which are funded through FDA grants. For example, in August and September 2018, FDA awarded a total of eight grants, using Cures Act authorities, to institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations to study and recommend improvements for the continuous manufacturing of drugs and biological products, as well as similar innovative monitoring and control techniques.

Public-private partnerships

FDA representatives actively participate in ongoing public-private partnerships to proactively address regulatory challenges presented by advanced and continuous manufacturing technologies. These partnerships include U.S. government agencies, academia, research institutes, and industry. Examples of these partnerships include federally supported advanced development and manufacturing centers, the Manufacturing USA Institutes, and America Makes. Also see: FDA Efforts to Connect Manufacturers and Health Care Entities: The FDA, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, and America Makes Form a COVID-19 response Public-Private Partnership and 3D Printing in FDA's Rapid Response to COVID-19

HHS Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (HHS-CIADM)
Since 2015, FDA has been working with BARDA to advance innovations in continuous manufacturing for BARDA-supported MCMs, including those manufactured in HHS-CIADM facilities.

DoD Medical Countermeasures Advanced Development and Manufacturing (MCM ADM)
FDA also works closely with the Department of Defense (DoD) to support priority MCM development and availability, including advanced manufacturing.

Manufacturing USA is a network of 14 regional institutes, each with a specialized technology focus. The institutes share one goal: to secure the future of manufacturing in the U.S. through innovation, collaboration, and education. Each institute is designed to be a public-private membership organization that provides vision, leadership, and resources to its members. Its goals are to enhance industrial competitiveness, increase economic growth, and strengthen U.S. national security.

FDA's Medical Countermeasures Initiative ( MCMi) and other FDA centers and offices are actively involved in Manufacturing USA Innovation Institutes (MIIs) including BioFab USA, NIIMBL, and America Makes.

BioFab USA

BioFab USA is an MII run by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI). ARMI's mission is to make the large-scale manufacturing of engineered tissues and tissue-related technologies more accessible/practical, benefiting existing industries and grow new ones.

BioFabUSA works to integrate innovative cell and tissue cultures with advances in biofabrication, automation, robotics, and analytical technologies to create disruptive research and development tools and FDA-compliant volume manufacturing processes.

National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL)

NIIMBL is a public-private partnership dedicated to advancing biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation and workforce development, funded by a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Department of Commerce and with additional support from industry partners. NIIMBL seeks to 1) accelerate the translation and adoption of innovations in biopharmaceutical manufacturing that will positively impact the safety, quality, rapid accessibility and secure supply of biologic medicines, 2) support the development of standards and regulatory science that will ensure consistent, high quality products, and 3) support the development of a highly-skilled workforce trained to support the biomanufacturing and regulatory community.

NIIMBL facilitates collaboration between partners from industry, academia, non-profits, and government agencies to:

Advance innovative manufacturing technologies to bring life-saving and life-enhancing biologics products to market faster and at reduced cost,

Establish reference standards and measurement technologies to enhance efficiencies, and

Cultivate a world-leading biopharmaceutical workforce through novel training and education programs.

FDA and NIIMBL participate in a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) which creates a research partnership, in the pre-competitive space, to support research, development, testing and training in the field of advanced manufacturing innovations to enhance the biopharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem.

Through this mechanism, FDA researchers can collaborate with NIIMBL members to respond to NIIMBL project calls with proposals initiated either within the Agency or by a NIIMBL member. Also see Funding opportunities below

FDA researchers should refer to the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Working Group for more information on how to apply.

America Makes

America Makes is a national accelerator for additive manufacturing and 3D printing. Managed and operated by the non-profit National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes is a public-private partnership with member organizations from industry, academia, government, non-government agencies, and workforce and economic development resources working together to innovate and accelerate additive manufacturing and 3D printing to increase our nation's global manufacturing competitiveness.

FDA is a member of America Makes and participates in research, standards, and road-mapping activities to foster high quality innovation in 3D-printed medical products.

November 13, 2020: Determining the impact of 3D printing response activities (update) - FDA has initiated a study to summarize the impact of non-traditional and community responders using 3D-printing in addressing supply shortages and gaps in medical supplies. The U.S. public health, safety and security will benefit from identifying the best practices and lessons learned from the COVID-19 response. If you are affiliated with a health care provider or are a community responder and would like to contribute to the study, please go to the America Makes website.

Funding opportunities

FDA funding

FDA funds research and development to support regulatory science and innovation under the FDA Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). Advanced manufacturing opportunities may be submitted in areas of interest including:

3.0 Support New Approaches to Improve Product Manufacturing and Quality (examples)

7.0 Facilitate Development and Availability of Medical Countermeasures (MCMs) to Protect Against Threats to U.S. and Global Health Security (examples)

For more detail, and information on funding deadlines for the current fiscal year, see Extramural Research.

Other funding

Guidance and information for industry

Recently updated guidance documents specific to advanced manufacturing include:
Search the complete list of FDA guidance
An August 2020 executive order directed FDA, in consultation with federal partners, to identify a list of essential medicines, medical countermeasures and critical inputs that are medically necessary to have available at all times in an amount adequate to serve patient needs and in the appropriate dosage forms.

The executive order also directs the FDA to coordinate with our federal partners on a number of additional issues, including strategies for acquiring the products on the list, accelerating domestic manufacturing and identifying and addressing supply chain vulnerabilities. The FDA is working on this coordination. The FDA believes that the adoption of innovative technologies, such as advanced manufacturing techniques could enable U.S.-based pharmaceutical manufacturing to bolster its competitiveness with foreign countries and help ensure a stable supply of drugs critical to the health of U.S. patients. As companies look to increase domestic manufacturing of the products on this list, we encourage them to consider adopting advanced manufacturing technologies.

Stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments on the public docket.

More information from FDA

Emerging Technology Program

FDA established an Emerging Technology Program in 2014 that works collaboratively with companies to support the adoption and use of advanced manufacturing for both new and existing drugs. The team assists companies that want to implement innovative technology, including continuous manufacturing, by helping them to identify and resolve potential scientific and regulatory challenges and providing guidance to their technology development and implementation.

FDA's Emerging Technology Program is intended to encourage technology for use in product design and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Video transcript

CBER Advanced Technologies Program

In 2019, the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) established the CBER Advanced Technologies Team (CATT) to promote dialogue, education, and input among CBER staff and between CBER and prospective innovators/developers of advanced manufacturing technologies that are intended to be implemented in CBER-regulated products.

3D printing links

Learn how FDA works with 3D printing for innovative research and regulation.

Other related links

Press, statements, and publications

December 15, 2020: FDA Insight podcast: Advanced Manufacturing - Dr. Jeffrey C. Baker, Deputy Director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology Products in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, joins Dr. Shah for a discussion on how FDA's efforts help innovation and implementation of Advanced Manufacturing technologies regarding food and drug safety.

January 14, 2020: Mind the Gap: Bridging the 'Valley of Death' for U.S. Biomanufacturing, a blog post from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), includes information about FDA collaborations to help innovate U.S. biomanufacturing.

March 19, 2019: Nondestructive Analytics for Biologics and Continuous Biomanufacturing lecture recording, presented by Bruce Yu, PhD, Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director, Bio- and Nano-Technology Center, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy - In this CERSI lecture, Dr. Yu provided background on a nondestructive analytical technology, Water proton NMR (wNMR), discussed examples of applying wNMR to inspect FDA-approved biologics (vaccines, vaccine adjuvants, and a therapeutic protein) and a non-biologic complex drug (Ferrlecit), and described how wNMR can be used to improve continuous biomanufacturing.

F ebruary 28, 2019: FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Office of Pharmaceutical Quality (OPQ) published its 2018 annual report (PDF, 5.3 MB). Among other innovations, in 2018, FDA approved two New Drug Applications (NDAs) based on continuous manufacturing. This type of manufacturing eliminates breaks between steps during the process of making a drug. Among other things, this reduces opportunities for human errors during the stops and starts in a process.

February 26, 2019: Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., and Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on FDA's modern approach to advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing (FDA news release) One of today's most important tools for modernizing the pharmaceutical industry is a process known as continuous manufacturing. This approach transforms the traditional, step-wise manufacturing processes into a single system that's based on modern process monitoring and controls. It enables a steady output of finished drug products as raw materials are continuously added to the closed system. Today, we're taking new steps to help advance the adoption of these manufacturing innovations.

February 13, 2019: Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. on new programs to promote the adoption of innovations in drug manufacturing that can improve quality and lower drug costs (FDA news release)

September 20, 2018: FDA awards grants to foster innovation for advanced manufacturing technology as part of the agency's efforts to ensure a robust and reliable supply of biological products (FDA in Brief)

August 1, 2018: FDA supports critical research to spur innovation for continuous manufacturing technology to support and advance drug and biologics development (FDA in Brief, on grants awarded)

July 13, 2018: FDA Budget Matters: Investing in Advanced Domestic Manufacturing (FDA Voices, by Scott Gottlieb, M.D.)

December 4, 2017: Statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on FDA ushering in new era of 3D printing of medical products; provides guidance to manufacturers of medical devices

September 28, 2017: FDA issues guidance to help advance novel technology to improve the reliability and safety and help lower the cost of pharmaceutical manufacturing (FDA in Brief)

September 11, 2017: "Continuous Manufacturing" - Common Guiding Principles Can Help Ensure Progress (FDA Voice blog - ARCHIVED)

Events

March 12, 2020: Modernization of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing through the Adoption of Advanced Technology (Silver Spring, MD and webcast)- Hosted by FDA, this presentation will provide an overview of advanced manufacturing technologies and methodologies, and discuss the many steps the FDA is taking to help realize the potential of advanced manufacturing, and highlight success stories of successful implementation of advanced manufacturing which holds great potential for improving the quality assurance of drugs.

March 19, 2019: Nondestructive Analytics for Biologics and Continuous Biomanufacturing lecture recording, presented by Bruce Yu, PhD, Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director, Bio- and Nano-Technology Center, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy - In this CERSI lecture, Dr. Yu provided background on a nondestructive analytical technology, Water proton NMR (wNMR), discussed examples of applying wNMR to inspect FDA-approved biologics (vaccines, vaccine adjuvants, and a therapeutic protein) and a non-biologic complex drug (Ferrlecit), and described how wNMR can be used to improve continuous biomanufacturing.

March 12, 2020: Modernization of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing through the Adoption of Advanced Technology (Silver Spring, MD and webcast)- Hosted by FDA, this presentation will provide an overview of these advanced manufacturing technologies methodologies, discuss the many steps the FDA is taking to help realize the potential of advanced manufacturing, and highlight success stories of successful implementation of advanced manufacturing which holds great potential for improving the quality assurance of drugs.

October 10, 2018: Manufacturing USA: Securing U.S. Global Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing, hosted by the House and Senate Manufacturing Caucus, and sponsored by American Society for Mechanical Engineers

July 30-31, 2018: Continuous Manufacturing for the Modernization of Pharmaceutical Production, co-hosted by FDA and BARDA, with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, to discuss the business and regulatory concerns associated with adopting continuous manufacturing techniques to produce biologics (e.g., enzymes, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines) and discuss specific challenges for process integration across the manufacturing system

Additional resources

Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing (PDF, 1 MB), a report by the Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing, Committee on Technology of the National Science & Technology Council, White House (October 2018)

Regulatory Perspectives on Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Moving From Theory to Practice: September 26-27, 2016, International Symposium on the Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals - white papers in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States (PDF, 5.2 MB), September 2018, published by the Interagency Task Force in Fulfillment of Executive Order 13806 - Also see: Deputy Secretary of Defense delivers Defense Industrial Base Report to President Trump and President Donald J. Trump Is Taking Important Measures to Strengthen Our Defense Industrial Base

Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

NIH 3D Print Exchange - offers a unique set of models, learning resources and tutorials to create and share 3D-printable models related to biomedical science

How 3D Printers Work (video, 39 seconds, from the Department of Energy)

National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing notice by the Science and Technology Policy Office, February 2018

Achieving Continuous Manufacturing May 20-21 2014 Continuous Manufacturing Symposium, white papers in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) Act (2014) - This bill was signed into law as Title VII of Division B of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (P.L. 113-235) (PDF, 1.9 MB)

Contact FDA

Consumers and general information

Call 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332), or contact the FDA center or office related to your inquiry.

Press

Office of Media Affairs: Email fdaoma@fda.hhs.gov or call 301-796-4540

Industry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On this page: What's new | What is advanced manufacturing? | FDA's role | Science and research | Guidance and information for industry | More information from FDA | Additional resources | Contact FDA December 15, 2020: FDA Insight podcast: Advanced Manufacturing - Dr. Jeffrey C.

# data[].attributes.headline
On Factory Floors, a Chime and Flashing Light to Maintain Distance

# data[].attributes.subject
On Factory Floors, a Chime and Flashing Light to Maintain Distance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

Businesses like Henkel, a big German chemical company, are trying wearable sensors to prevent virus outbreaks among workers.

Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

BERLIN - The 2019-20 National Basketball Association season was suspended for over 140 days after a player tested positive for the coronavirus. But once play resumed in late July, no other players tested positive.

The league was able to evade the virus by requiring teams to live and play their games in an isolated area known as the Bubble, at the closed Disney World resort in Florida.

But a small piece of technology also played a role: a wristband that players, coaches and trainers could wear off the court, and that was required for reporters covering the teams. A tiny digital chip in the band enforces social distancing by issuing a warning - by light and sound - when wearers get too close to one another for too long off. The bands have been picked up by the National Football League, the Pacific-12 college football conference and other sports leagues around the world.

The Munich start-up behind the N.B.A.'s wristbands, Kinexon, is happy with the publicity of helping prevent top athletes from catching the virus, even as such devices raise privacy concerns. Now it is looking toward broader arenas: factory production lines, warehouses and logistics centers where millions of people continue to work despite the pandemic.

One of the companies working with Kinexon is Henkel, a global industrial and household chemical manufacturer based in Germany. When the coronavirus infected about a dozen workers in Henkel's plant in Serbia last spring, the two-week shutdown that followed cost millions of dollars in lost revenue, said Manfred Weber, a senior manager for Henkel.

Video

Credit Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

Henkel was already testing an earlier version of Kinexon's wearable tech, designed to avert collisions between forklifts and workers on high-traffic factory floors. The system's sensors would automatically stop a forklift if it got too close to a worker.

After the outbreak at the Serbian plant and within weeks of the first wave of pandemic lockdowns, Kinexon offered Henkel a chance to test a variation of that technology, called SafeZone. Its half-ounce sensor, worn on the wrist like a watch or around the neck on a lanyard or on a badge, makes a chime and flashes when another sensor is within a prescribed distance for a set period. Henkel agreed to give it a try.

Testing the devices in real life was important to Kinexon.

SafeZone makes a chime and flashes when another sensor is within a prescribed distance for a set period.

Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

The half-ounce sensor, worn on the wrist like a watch or around the neck on a lanyard or on a badge. Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

"What's important in this is not only to have the technology working in a lab - what's important now is to be able to bring the technology to where people need it," said Oliver Trinchera, who co-founded Kinexon in 2012 and is one of its directors, "be it on the factory floor or on the sports pitch."

Henkel tested the system on the entire staff of its plant in Raciborz, Poland, a big facility on the southern outskirts of a medieval coal town, where 250 people work three shifts a day making and packaging powdered and liquid detergent for Central Europe.

The sensors were programmed to go off when two people were within 1.5 meters, roughly six feet, of each other for more than five seconds.

The sensors measure distance using ultra-broadband signals, which Kinexon says are more accurate and use far less energy than Bluetooth signals, the other technology often found in coronavirus tracing apps.

Image

Henkel tested the system on the entire staff of its plant in Poland where 250 people work three shifts a day making and packaging powdered and liquid detergent for Central Europe. Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

Mirella Zielinska, who has worked at the Raciborz plant for five years, said she had quickly gotten used to wearing the device on her wrist. In a fast-moving production line where one of the duties is packing detergent, it reminded her to keep her distance, she said.

"At first we were maybe a bit worried, but it seems so normal now," Ms. Zielinska said in a Skype interview while sitting in an office at the plant.

That's not to say the unexpected doesn't sometimes happen. The sensor detects distances through bathroom stall dividers, for example, triggering the alarm at unwelcome times. And during the interview, a colleague of Ms. Zielinska's poked his head into the office, wondering what she was doing. Before she could answer, both beepers had gone off.

The workers wear the sensors throughout their shift, reminding them to keep their distance even during lunch in the canteens.

Adrian Wycisk, the plant's manager, compared the sensors' chimes to the alert in cars when people haven't put on their seatbelts. "It ultimately changes the behavior in drivers," he said, adding that he has seen a marked improvement in workers' keeping a safe distance.

Adrian Wycisk, a manager at Henkel, left, during a meeting using SafeZone digital social distancing technology to prevent the spread of the virus. Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

The system stores, for several weeks, information on when a worker was near other workers - a potentially useful tool for tracing interactions if a worker becomes infected, but one that raises worries about management's keeping tabs on a worker's movements all shift long.

Henkel said that it gave only a small number of senior managers access to the data, and that the company had distributed pamphlets explaining to workers that the badges would never be used to track their movements. The data records which employees interacted, not where the interaction took place. Mr. Wycisk said Henkel had vowed to retrieve the information only if a coronavirus infection needed to be traced.

The German union that represents Henkel workers declined to comment about the technology.

In the long run, the technology could also help Henkel reconfigure some of its production procedures to avoid close contact, Mr. Weber said.

Kinexon has sold the technology to a number of well-known German manufacturing and cargo companies - the tire maker Continental and the logistics giant DB Schenker were early adopters. Kinexon said it has worked with American companies, but that it was contractually obligated not to release their names.

Overall, the company said it is supplying the technology to over 200 companies worldwide. It estimates its badges have prevented 1.5 million contacts a day, a difficult number to confirm. The sensors are priced between $100 and $200 each.

The Henkel plant in Poland where SafeZone is being used to track and prevent close contact. Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times

The six-week test in Raciborz, during which no worker tested positive, persuaded Henkel to roll out the technology in its cleaning-chemicals production sites over the next year. How many of the company's 52,000 employees worldwide ultimately wear the technology depends on how long the pandemic continues.

If the vaccines are successful and the pandemic is overcome sometime this year, Mr. Weber said, he plans to the reuse the sensors for their original intent: to avoid collisions between workers and forklifts. The fact that such plans would require fewer badges than Henkel acquiring is not a concern.

"I would still say that it is a success," he said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
On Factory Floors, a Chime and Flashing Light to Maintain Distance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Businesses like Henkel, a big German chemical company, are trying wearable sensors to prevent virus outbreaks among workers. Credit... Anna Liminowicz for The New York Times BERLIN - The 2019-20 National Basketball Association season was suspended for over 140 days after a player tested positive for the coronavirus.

# data[].attributes.headline
2021 metal fabrication forecast: The road to recovery continues

# data[].attributes.subject
2021 metal fabrication forecast: The road to recovery continues

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most will welcome 2020's end, but what does 2021 bring? Will we see a return to normalcy? Not likely, but the root cause isn't buried within dangerous flaws in the global financial system. The root cause is painfully obvious, and once the COVID-19 vaccine is more widely distributed, the world economies will again head in the right direction-maybe not quickly or even steadily, but the light at the end of the long tunnel will be there. Gross domestic product will likely continue its rebound going into 2021. But as ever, the pandemic's path could change everything.

"By the second or third quarter, we'll likely be seeing GDP increases in the 3% to 4% range. We'll be looking at a nice recovery-but that's of course contingent on whether we have another lockdown."

That was Chris Kuehl, economic analyst for the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl. (FMA). He added that the dramatic economic rebound reported in 3Q 2020-greater than 30% year over year-doesn't point to an economic panacea; the rebound just came from an exceptionally low place. The second quarter of 2020 might go down as metal fabrication's most challenging in recent memory, surpassing even the challenges faced during the depths of the financial crisis.

The November presidential election nearly ensured a divided government come 2021, and as Kuehl explained, the business community doesn't mind. "If you'd ask the business community for a preferred result, they would have picked a divided government. As the saying goes, 'That which governs least governs best.'"

Manufacturers, not the service economy, are leading the recovery, and for obvious reasons. Because metal fabrication serves so many end markets, fabricators across the U.S. experienced 2020 in different ways. With the OEM shutdowns earlier this year, most fabricators had a rough first half of the year. Even so, many shops in the right markets-renewable, e-commerce, IT and communications infrastructure-never skipped a beat.

How a fabricator will perform in 2021 will depend a lot on what end markets it serves. Market behaviors vary dramatically, but fabricators serve them all with metal fabrication equipment. This is why expected equipment spending can be so telling.

Enter the "2021 Capital Spending Forecast" released this month by the FMA. Total projected spending for 2021 is down, of course, but not off-the-charts down. Going into 2019 readers expected to spend nearly $2.8 billion on equipment. Going into 2021, they expect to spend more than $2.4 billion. That's less than a 15% drop from the 2019 peak-not bad, considering.

These numbers are extrapolated from more than 400 survey respondents. So, yes, it's just a statistical sample, but the results are still telling, especially when it comes to spending trends for different types of equipment. For the first time in the history of the survey, the fiber laser has come out on top. That's significant when you consider that not every metal fabricator adopts laser cutting.

For years welding equipment and power source spending dominated the survey, which was no surprise. A fabrication operation might cut and bend with different technologies-plasma, punch, waterjet, laser, press brake, folder, panel bender, plate roll, and so on-but most shops weld. The big number of welding power source purchases also accounts for all the job shops that might offer only welding and a few other basic metalworking processes. Not every job shop can afford a laser.

Despite this, the 2021 forecast projects nearly $300 million to be spent on fiber lasers alone, and this doesn't even include the more than $85 million expected to be spent on new and used CO2 laser cutting machines. Fiber laser spending surpasses welding power source spending by millions of dollars.

A few years back, press brakes and related forming equipment showed huge gains in the survey, a phenomenon attributed to the need for greater throughput. As more companies ramped up their fiber laser cutting capacity, they needed to ramp up their forming capacity too. Otherwise, they would simply be pushing their forming constraint downstream.

But fiber lasers might be reaching an inflection point on the innovation curve. Machine OEMs have introduced new ways to manipulate the beam, new forms of material handling automation, and new levels of laser cutting power. One productive fiber laser can now serve a host of downstream forming and welding operations. It's not as if the forming constraint has gone away; it's just that recent innovations in laser cutting are changing the throughput equation, in turn driving equipment investment.

During the financial crisis, consumables led the spending categories, which seemed logical. It was a time to retrench, watch, and muddle through. 2021's projections, however, fly in the face of conventional thinking. One would think that after a brutal 2020, fabricators would think twice before making a huge capital purchase. Nevertheless, large equipment investment continues.

Kuehl wasn't surprised. He recalled a recent conversation with a manufacturer outside the fabrication industry, but one that still faces similar skilled labor challenges. 2020 was tough, but now the operation needs to grow again-but it's not hiring. Instead, it's investing in flexible automation.

The global pandemic has thrown a wrench into the global supply chain. Reshoring trends will continue, and so will customers' demand for fabricators to respond quickly. Fabricators have two choices: They can hold more inventory (which could become obsolete or remain unsold) or they can ramp up their ability to fabricate on demand. Quite often automation is the only practical way to scale up production so quickly.
The complete "2021 Capital Spending Forecast" will be available soon at www.fmamfg.org/store.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2021 metal fabrication forecast: The road to recovery continues

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The pandemic has caused obvious economic problems. But some industries have faired better than others: Manufacturing has been leading a recovery heading into 2021. And how metal fabricators perform next year will depend on their end markets and if more shops embrace the fiber laser.

# data[].attributes.headline
Welding Videos from Classroom Video on Demand Database

# data[].attributes.subject
Welding Videos from Classroom Video on Demand Database

# data[].attributes.body
Turn on the transcript to read and view; notice the date on the videos to select more recent material

# data[].attributes.headline
Rethinking the Norm: 5 Ways Manufacturing will Innovate in 2021

# data[].attributes.subject
Rethinking the Norm: 5 Ways Manufacturing will Innovate in 2021

# data[].attributes.headline
Don’t Fear the Robots, and Other Lessons From a Study of the Digital Economy

# data[].attributes.subject
Don’t Fear the Robots, and Other Lessons From a Study of the Digital Economy

# data[].attributes.body
New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A task force assembled by M.I.T. examined how technology has changed, and will change, the work force.

A robot sorting bins at an Amazon warehouse in 2017, the year M.I.T. initiated a three-year study of technology's impact on American workers. Credit... Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

L. Rafael Reif, the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delivered an intellectual call to arms to the university's faculty in November 2017: Help generate insights into how advancing technology has changed and will change the work force, and what policies would create opportunity for more Americans in the digital economy.

That issue, he wrote, is the "defining challenge of our time."

Three years later, the task force assembled to address it is publishing its wide-ranging conclusions. The 92-page report, "The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines," was released on Tuesday.

The group is made up of M.I.T. professors and graduate students, researchers from other universities, and an advisory board of corporate executives, government officials, educators and labor leaders. In an extraordinarily comprehensive effort, they included labor market analysis, field studies and policy suggestions for changes in skills-training programs, the tax code, labor laws and minimum-wage rates.

Here are four of the key findings in the report:

It's well known that those on the top rungs of the job ladder have prospered for decades while wages for average American workers have stagnated. But the M.I.T. analysis goes further. It found, for example, that real wages for men without four-year college degrees have declined 10 to 20 percent since their peak in 1980. (Two-thirds of American workers do not have four-year college degrees.)

Image

L. Rafael Reif, the president of M.I.T., called for a study of "the defining challenge of our time." Credit... Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times

The U.S. economy produces larger wage gaps, proportionately fewer high-quality jobs and less intergenerational mobility than most other developed nations do, the researchers found. And America does not seem to get a compensating payoff in growth. "The U.S. is getting a low 'return' on its inequality," the report said.

Nor does the lagging position of American workers appear to be the result of technology. "It's not that we have better technology, automating more middle-wage jobs," said David Autor, an M.I.T. labor economist and a co-author of the report. "We have worse institutions."

Technology has always replaced some jobs, created new ones and changed others. The question is whether things will be different this time as robots and artificial intelligence quickly take over for humans on factory floors and in offices.

The M.I.T. researchers concluded that the change would be more evolutionary than revolutionary. In fact, they wrote, "we anticipate that in the next two decades, industrialized countries will have more job openings than workers to fill them."

That judgment is informed by field research in several industries and sectors including insurance, health care, driverless vehicles, logistics and warehouses, advanced manufacturing, and small and medium-size manufacturers.

For self-driving cars and trucks, the M.I.T. researchers concluded that widespread use was still a decade or more away. In warehouses, Amazon has made great strides with automated conveyance systems and some robotics, but its warehouses run on human labor, and will for years.

Widespread use of self-driving vehicles like this Waymo van is a decade or more away, the researchers concluded. Credit... Dominic Valente for The New York Times

Despite advances, robots simply don't have the flexibility and dexterity of human workers. Today's robots learn from data and repetition. They can be remarkably adept at a certain task, but only that one. The report cited a fine-tuned gripping robot that could pluck a glazed doughnut and carefully place it in a box, with its shiny glaze undisturbed.

"But that gripper only works on doughnuts," the report said. "It can't pick up a clump of asparagus or a car tire."

The cost and operational expertise required will also slow the widespread adoption of robots. A research team surveyed dozens of small and medium-size manufacturers in Massachusetts, Ohio and Arizona, and found "very few robots anywhere." (Small and medium-size companies, with fewer than 500 workers, account for 98 percent of the nation's manufacturing firms and 43 percent of manufacturing employment.)

"The key ingredient for success is public-private partnerships," said Annette Parker, president of South Central College, a community college in Minnesota, and a member of the advisory board to the M.I.T. project.

The schools, nonprofits and corporate-sponsored programs that have succeeded in lifting people into middle-class jobs all echo her point: the need to link skills training to business demand.

Ms. Parker points to the development of the hybrid field of "mechatronics," which combines basic mechanical, electronics and digital skills for maintaining modern machinery. Salaries go up to $80,000, she said, adding that "everybody who is automating needs them."

The report points to successful programs that offer alternative paths to education and skills training. IBM created a program, P-TECH, that combines high school, community college and work experience with IBM and many other companies. The six-year program is geared to science and technology fields, and to students from underserved communities. Begun in 2011, the program is now in more than 160 schools in America.

"Technology companies have an obligation to help responsibly prepare society for these higher-skill jobs," said Ginni Rometty, executive chairman of IBM and a member of the M.I.T. advisory board.

Google has a leading technology certificate program. The online course typically takes three to six months, and graduates get a Google IT support professional certificate. More than 50 companies have pledged to recognize the Google certificate when hiring technology support staff. The program is the most popular certificate course on Coursera, the online learning network.

The report recommends an employer training tax credit, similar to the current research and development tax credit, that can be applied only to industry-recognized certifications.

A cybersecurity class at Per Scholas in the Bronx in February. Credit... Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

There are a handful of nonprofit job-training programs with proven track records, including Year Up, Per Scholas, Project Quest and JVS. The M.I.T. group suggests making federal grants available to such noncollege training and job programs.

But those nonprofit ventures are still small, reaching tens of thousands a year in total. By contrast, the nation's 1,100 community colleges serve millions of students. The report calls them "the linchpin to America's training ecosystem," and recommends increasing government funding, with support linked to adopting best practices and placing students in good-paying jobs.

The report calls for raising the minimum wage, broadening unemployment insurance and modifying labor laws to enable collective bargaining in occupations like domestic and home-care workers and freelance workers. Such representation, the report notes, could come from traditional unions or worker advocacy groups like the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Jobs With Justice and the Freelancers Union.

The M.I.T. researchers also recommend changes to tax laws that favor corporate spending on machines rather than workers.

Changing the tax code and labor laws is among the most politically controversial recommendations in the report. But the politics are not always predictable and may be changing, said David Rolf, founding president of Seattle-based Local 775 of the Service Employees International Union and a leader of the Fight for Fifteen campaign, the effort to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

President Trump comfortably won Florida in this month's election, but more than 60 percent of Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment lifting the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, from its current level of $8.56.

Mr. Rolf, a member of the advisory board, said the report "pointed to the need for a different economic and legal framework." And, he added, "that's an important signal, coming from M.I.T."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Don't Fear the Robots, and Other Lessons From a Study of the Digital Economy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A task force assembled by M.I.T. examined how technology has changed, and will change, the work force. L. Rafael Reif, the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delivered an intellectual call to arms to the university's faculty in November 2017: Help generate insights into how advancing technology has changed and will change the work force, and what policies would create opportunity for more Americans in the digital economy.

# data[].attributes.body
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About the job:

As the name implies, jewelers work with jewelry. That includes repairs, adjustments, cleaning and more. "We're repairmen, basically," said Janice Robinson, a jeweler at Forsythe Jewelers in Pittsford. "It can be minimum, like a chain solder adjusting a clasp, things like that. All kinds of things need a little adjustment."

Much of the job involves using microscopes for fine-detailed work, and tools like torches for soldering. Those who cut and polish gemstones are known as lapidarists, Robinson noted. She doesn't do that, but Robinson also is a gemologist, one who studies and appraises gemstones.

Qualities needed:

Steady hands and patience are key, as well as the ability to sit and look under microscopes for periods of time. Jewelers work with customers and must be honest, establish trust and sometimes set their minds at ease. "Everybody's jewelry is very sentimental to them," Robinson said. "You have to be able to show people, respectfully, 'We'll take good care of it.'"

Education/training needed:

A high school degree or GED is typically needed to get started in the field. Jewelers fall under the category of "skilled trade workers," Robinson said, and, as such, many would-be jewelers seek training at vocational or technical schools.

Robinson said that she decided to become a jeweler while she was in high school, and that guidance counselors "didn't know what to do with me. I had to figure it out on my own."

She wound up attending a now-closed technical school in Pennsylvania. Locally, places such as the Rochester Arc + Flame Center in Gates offer jewelry classes.

Most colleges don't offer "jewelry repair" programs, Robinson said. Places such as Rochester Institute of Technology offer a master of fine arts degree in jewelry design. Robinson mentioned the Gemological Institute of America and the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts, both of which are in California. Online courses are available, and some jewelry shops take on apprentices.

What the job pays:

According to the New York State Department of Labor, the median salary for "Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers" in the Finger Lakes region is about $53,000. Robinson estimated the salary range from $30,000 to $60,000, depending on experience and the size of the jewelry shop.

The job picture:

Not great. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 10 percent decline in the next decade. Robinson, who started at Forsythe in 1997, said, "There's always a need for skilled craftsmen. And for a lot of kids, college is not for them."

Robinson noted that it's not just jewelry that customers bring to her. "I've fixed purses, shoes, clocks, belt buckles, tea kettles. They don't know where else to go. Churches bring us chalices."

Quote:

Customers often don't know what happened to their jewelry, just that it needs work. "It depends on how hard you are on your jewelry," Robinson said. "A lot of people never take it off. People don't realize, gold is soft ... With chains, every time you stretch it, you're stressing the metal, and it becomes brittle." She recommends frequent cleanings for ring prongs as "preventative medicine."

Where to learn more:

The Gemological Institute of America (www.gia.edu) might be a good place to start, along with the American Gem Society (www.americangemsociety.org).

Other job opportunities
How to become an IT support and security technician Job opportunity: How to become a home health aide How to become a substance abuse counselor How to become a meat cutter How to become a veterinary technician How to become an HVAC technician Alan Morrell is a Rochester-based freelance writer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As the name implies, jewelers work with jewelry. That includes repairs, adjustments, cleaning and more. "We're repairmen, basically," said Janice Robinson, a jeweler at Forsythe Jewelers in Pittsford. "It can be minimum, like a chain solder adjusting a clasp, things like that. All kinds of things need a little adjustment."

# data[].attributes.headline
How remote work affects metal fabrication shops

# data[].attributes.subject
How remote work affects metal fabrication shops

# data[].attributes.body
The Fabricator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Just 12 months ago the national and global manufacturing economies were booming. Personal protective equipment (PPE) on the shop floor entailed safety glasses, earplugs, welding helmets, and gloves-usually not face masks and shields. Factories were working three shifts with 100% staff and orders were stacking up. On any given day there were likely a handful of face-to-face meetings, paper traveler handoffs on the shop floor, and other personal interactions to keep production moving efficiently. This was daily life at the shop-until it wasn't.

COVID-19 wreaked havoc on a global scale, shuttering economies to combat the spread. As states shut down, manufacturers adapted their work flow and maybe even their entire operation to continue producing. To keep physically distant, those who could work at home did.

How did fabricators handle the transition? In all likelihood, that depended on shop communication practices and, not least, the manufacturing monitoring and communication technology it used. In this pandemic age, connectivity has stepped to the fore.

Two Shops, Different Connectivity

Imagine two hypothetical custom metal fabricators, both job shops of equal capacity, revenue, staff, and throughput, but with one critical difference: how they communicate, document, and access information.

We'll call the first shop the semiconnected manufacturer. The company has CAD/CAM and CNC machines, of course, and the usual office programs like Excel. It uses Excel for quoting and has static production boards on the shop floor for scheduling. Managers hold daily meetings to discuss production status, the schedule for the day, and any other necessary business. Operators on the floor work off paper travelers and have standup meetings with necessary operations up- or downstream.

The second shop is the connected manufacturer. The company uses CAD/CAM, a manufacturing execution system (MES), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to program, schedule, and manage manufacturing and business operations. Its machines are internet-enabled, allowing work instructions and programs to be sent directly to the control. Operations that may be offline can be tracked using tablets, bar code scanners, and other technologies.

Work instructions are sent downstream to operators on their control or workstation tablet. With permission-based access to the company database, employees make decisions not on assumptions but on real-time data from the shop floor.

Let's say that both facilities must process 100 laser-cut 4- by 2-in. blanks from 16-ga. mild steel. The customer would like each piece bent to 90 degrees and welded together to create an open box, creating 50 total boxes. Lastly, the customer wants the boxes powder-coated and shipped within five days. Both facilities can process the entire job in-house. Before the shutdown, how would each handle this order, from request for quote (RFQ) to completion?

RFQ to Production, Pre-lockdown

The Semiconnected Manufacturer. The prospect, who probably heard of this shop from a friend or perhaps a quick online search, calls the sales department and has a pleasant conversation in which the staff collects information such as company contact, quantity, material type, basic dimensions, operations needed, and desired delivery date. With this information, the salesperson sends a follow-up email to request a part file from the customer for a more accurate quote. The customer is busy and takes a day to return the email with the necessary part file.

With the file finally in hand, the salesperson forwards it to the manufacturing staff to have a programmer run a nest of the parts and calculate time and cost of each downstream operation. With this information, the sales team then must talk with the production manager to see what the shop's current schedule looks like and what capacity may be available. Before committing to the customer's desired due date, sales checks the production board and walks to the floor to ensure what is on the schedule is on time.

After everything is said and done, the salesperson returns a quote to the customer at the end of the second day but does not receive an acceptance and purchase order until the third morning. Now, with two days left until ship date, the shop must confirm the schedule, prepare the final programs, switch any tooling, and put this part into production.

Only a short turnaround time remains once the final quote is accepted. This leads to more unexpected costs if production runs over a third shift or into overtime-costs that, of course, the customer isn't about to pay for.

With the part in production, the customer, curious about the status, calls the salesperson, who now must make another call to the production manager, who walks to the shop floor and communicates with various operators for a status update before notifying the salesperson and, ultimately, the customer.

The Connected Manufacturer. The customer discovers this shop online through a robust website showing their capabilities and even an online RFQ form. The customer submits their RFQ with all necessary information: contact, material type, quantity, operations, delivery date, and an uploaded DXF file. Once that information is submitted, the customer receives an automated email thanking them for their request and ensuring them they will be contacted shortly. At the same time, sales and production staffs are notified of the request with all the information and part files needed to begin quoting.

Using connected machines and systems, the salesperson begins generating a quote while the system runs nests, assigns operations, and checks upcoming schedules against capacity to generate a cost and completion date. Before the salesperson can release the quote, the production manager is notified to verify the job can be produced. This happens within minutes, with the quote being sent to the customer within hours, if not less. The customer reviews and accepts the quote on the same day, giving the manufacturer four full days of production.

With the part in production, the customer is curious about its status and calls their salesperson. With machines and operations connected via shop floor monitoring, the salesperson pulls up the order and sees exactly where it is in production.

The Shutdown Commences

Reported cases of COVID-19 began to swell in the spring, and the lockdowns commenced. In the U.S., nonessential businesses were asked to close to contain the spread. Manufacturers that didn't traditionally supply essential industries scrambled to find ways to keep their doors open and employees working. Those that could remain open had to find new ways of working while practicing social distancing and other health precautions laid out by the CDC. Using PPE wasn't a new concept for shop floor operators. That said, the business office would experience the most change.

To stay compliant, many companies had to ensure that proper systems were employed to keep business operating as normally as possible. This meant moving management, sales, support, and engineering teams off-site. The crisis forced everyone everywhere to adapt work flows to a remote workforce. This left everyone with a host of questions as they adapted to the new normal.
How will we quote jobs with remote sales, management, and engineering staff?
At the semiconnected manufacturer, quoting jobs is difficult, especially with disparate systems. Everyone still quotes via email, Excel worksheets, and verbal communication over the phone or via teleconferencing apps. Disconnected systems in quoting and planning foster interdepartmental miscommunication between departments that can be seriously detrimental. Jobs might be accepted at a loss or when it's impossible to meet the promised delivery date. With some working remotely and others at the shop, everyone places a lot of calls and sends a lot of email just to receive status updates.

At the connected manufacturer, quoting doesn't see much change. All necessary parties can access pertinent information according to their role. The system consults company data and generates accurate production time calculations, prices, and delivery dates. It records when each task is complete and assigns the next task to the subsequent person in the work flow.
How will we know about upcoming orders and in-process quotes so we can plan and staff properly?
The semiconnected manufacturer still relies on the weekly or daily production meetings, which are now virtual. It's introduced a project management app for certain staff to use internally so they can track quotes, tasks, and production while shopping for a more permanent solution. These methods create a disconnected and cumbersome tracking method too reliant on the human factor. Asking staff to learn new systems during turbulent times, especially when working remotely, poses greater risk of improper implementation and requires a great deal of time-consuming interdepartmental communication. This makes it difficult for management to analyze operations, understand which areas are strained more than others, and how to properly staff.

Employees at the connected manufacturer, on the other hand, were able to pack up and work remotely without difficulty. They weren't working with new platforms, nor did they require training. They just had their platforms installed on their laptops or home PC. And because they relied heavily on web-based tools, they could access needed information from any internet-enabled device.

Employees quickly see orders pending production, orders pending scheduling, quotes pending acceptance, and requirements for each order according to their system permissions. This cuts down on interdepartmental communication and allows management to better understand what areas need staff and other resources.
How will engineering program jobs and send work instructions to operators?
Once the quote is accepted at the semiconnected manufacturer, the engineering department finalizes the job programming and routing and sends it to operations. To reduce face-to-face contact, engineers create a work flow to eliminate paper travelers. They now use laptops and tablets at each workstation to communicate via an internal company chat app. As laser operators finish cutting, they notify the next person downstream and the engineer, at which time they send the next operations instructions.

Still, no one can view statuses of all jobs in real time. Instead, when the customer calls to request a status update, the salesperson still needs to consult production for an answer. Without methods to store and analyze this data, quoting still requires just as many touchpoints as before.

The connected manufacturer has connected machines and, hence, doesn't notice many, if any, changes to the work flow. The engineer still generates the programs from wherever he or she is (maybe the living room couch) and routes them to the proper workstations. As each process is complete, the operators still validate their jobs using bar code scanners, entering data into tablets, or having the machine control report its status back to the company's MES.

Stakeholders access pertinent information at any time. Furthermore, the system continually stores data and builds an ever-larger sample set, making quoting more accurate while offering ways to run what-if scenarios.
How will we know the status of a job in production?
Now using workstation laptops or tablets and a project management application, the semiconnected manufacturer begins to gain insights into the status of production. Again, this is a step in the right direction, but it still requires sales staff to request information from production regarding status updates. In an effort to avoid information overload, the system is set up so that only certain stakeholders in the process can access information. Unfortunately, this creates silos between departments as production may not want sales to have full access to their information.

Conversely, the connected manufacturer uses various production tracking methods, and its staff is already set up with the proper systems to track production. In fact, this shop has begun working on a robust online customer portal so they can see, in real time, that a part just left the laser and is heading to bending. In today's "need-to-know-instantly" world, the customer portal proves to be hugely popular. The shop adds various aspects to the portal so that customers send words of encouragement to operators, boosting morale. This ultimately leads to data-based bonuses and wage increases, since everything is digitally recorded and connected.

The Value of Connection

In today's advanced manufacturing facilities you will find internet-enabled machines, tablets for production tracking, robotic part picking systems, and other connected workcells. All these systems can be programmed and monitored from remote locations.

While productivity and output increase, connectivity allows sales teams to quote quickly and accurately. Most important, connectivity allows manufacturers to store and analyze up-to-date production data to make the most informed decisions about their business. In these tumultuous times, when information changes so quickly, decisions buttressed by current data have never been more valuable.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How remote work affects metal fabrication shops

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Just 12 months ago the national and global manufacturing economies were booming. Personal protective equipment (PPE) on the shop floor entailed safety glasses, earplugs, welding helmets, and gloves-usually not face masks and shields. Factories were working three shifts with 100% staff and orders were stacking up.

# data[].attributes.headline
2010s: Were the 2010s the Golden Age of metal fabricating?

# data[].attributes.subject
2010s: Were the 2010s the Golden Age of metal fabricating?

# data[].attributes.body
The Fabricator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Editor's Note: This is the fifth installment looking at how the modern metal fabrication industry has impacted each decade since 1970, the same era that The FABRICATOR magazine launched. Read about the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
The Great Recession, which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, was the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In many ways, the 2010s could only be better.

Manufacturers, however, were going to have to dig out of a big hole. Cliff Waldman, chief economist for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, told IndustryWeek in 2017 that manufacturers lost 20% of their output and 15% of their workforce during the Great Recession. That was surpassed only by the Great Depression, when the county lost about half of its total output.

The hard numbers behind the headlines were just as jarring. The 2012 report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation titled "Worse than the Great Depression: What Experts Are Missing About American Manufacturing Decline" said that from 2000 to 2011 the rate of manufacturing loss in the U.S. increased at a rate nearly six times faster than any rate in the prior two decades. That translated into a loss of 5.4 million jobs. During that same time, 66,486 manufacturing establishments closed, from 404,758 in 2000 to 338,273 in 2011.

But manufacturers are an optimistic bunch. When the Great Recession came to an end, everyone was eager to get back to work. That's the story of the 2010s.

Metal fabricators became more sophisticated about the way they ran their businesses, diversifying the customer base across several industry sectors and building up cash reserves to weather economic downturns. They also invested in new fabricating technology and automation at a rapid pace. The latter gave manufacturers and fab shops the ability to boost productivity without adding too much overhead, making them more competitive and strengthening their ability to grow the business.

After a very sluggish start to the decade, the 2010s ended up being a positive one for manufacturing. The economic expansion that came after the Great Recession lasted for the entire decade before coming to a halt with the coronavirus pandemic. There's no denying, however, that the previous decade was one of the most vibrant for metal fabricating. A look back at the decade in the pages of The FABRICATOR makes you wonder if those years might be considered the Golden Age of modern metal fabricating.

Time to Rebuild

January 2010

The "2010 Capital Spending Report" from FMA Communications indicated that 2009 wasn't much fun for anyone in metal fabricating. The report showed that respondents were operating at 66% to 69% capacity, when many of the same companies were at 80% just the year before.

Even with that in mind, metal fabricators were primed to boost their spending on capital equipment. Thirty percent reported an interest in increasing their spending in 2010, with only 26% planning to decrease spending. (As a comparison to better times, in 2008 about 51% planned to increase spending.)

Fabricators appeared to show interest in cutting-edge equipment. For example, $120.1 million was expected to be spent on 2D and 3D laser cutting machines in 2010, which was only slightly lower than the $135.9 million that was projected to be spent in 2008.

Getting Paid

February 2010

Cash on hand helps everyone during an economic slowdown. Some shops didn't have the chance to learn that during the Great Recession, but Richard G. Kallage wanted to reinforce that message to the ones that remained.

Kallage, who would go on to be the original Improvement Insights column author for The FABRICATOR, wrote about what fabricators could do to boost their cash position in the feature "Getting paid-faster." In addition to focusing on strategic sourcing and getting better at collections, Kallage focused on lean manufacturing.

"It's a simple concept, really. "The faster a product is produced and shipped (while, of course, meeting or exceeding quality demands), the faster your company gets back its working capital investment," he wrote. He added it was common for lean practices to remove four weeks or more from the cash-investment/cash-recouped cycle.

Greetings to the Solid-state laser

July 2010

In one of the first articles in The FABRICATOR about fiber laser cutting, Senior Editor Tim Heston described fiber laser technology in place at a shop in Italy. More specifically, Pres Metal purchased a Salvagnini L1Xe-30 sheet metal cutting system with a 2-kW fiber laser from IPG Photonics to boost its laser cutting productivity. The laser cutting machine, according to Salvagnini officials, traveled twice as fast as a 4-kW CO 2 laser as it was cutting.

"If I can cut twice as fast and it's six times less expensive to operate-well, that forms my opinion as to where fiber lasers are going in the market," said Bill Bossard, the former president of Salvagnini America. He was making the point that the 2-kW fiber laser cutting machine was about the same price as a 4-kW CO 2 machine.

Heston wrote toward the end of the article that the CO 2 would remain the "industry workhorse for years to come." He wasn't alone in that opinion. Everyone underestimated the impact that fiber laser cutting technology would have on the industry in the ensuing years.

Getting Into the Design

December 2010

What happens if a metal fabricator can offer its fabricating expertise to a customer who might not be as knowledgeable about design for manufacturability? Good things for all parties involved.

"Fabricator growth strategy: Lower cost brings greater profit" detailed the story of Hi-Tech Industries of New York, Johnson City, N.Y., a metal fabricator that discovered honesty is the best policy with customers. For instance, Hi-Tech Industries' Doug Gardner said he had an RFQ come over asking him to quote a telephone booth-sized component with complicated square tubing needing to marry up with base plates precisely. Because of the component's complexity, he almost decided not to quote it. Instead, he and an engineer redesigned it with fewer parts, and software indicated just how long it would take to fabricate the new design. The quote then went back to the customer.

"And I was honest. I told him I was making more profit [with the unitized-design approach] than if we were to go with something similar to the original frame design," Gardner said. "I told him: 'My profit went up, and your costs just went down. What a country!'"

Diversify or Die

February 2011

In the From the Editor-in-Chief column, I wrote about an anonymous fabricator that told me he didn't want anything to do with military work that was widely available to Midwestern shops. The work was part of a $3 billion Pentagon contract that Oshkosh Corp., Oshkosh, Wis., had won. It had beaten out BAE Systems in 2009 for the contract, and that loss had left a lot of shops in the South hanging after having invested in equipment to cut and form heavy plate. The fabricator referenced in the editorial knew that type of military work could dominate a small shop's attention and leave it very vulnerable.

"Can you imagine saying 'no' to a multi-million contract? That act has to be one of the most challenging apsects of running a metal fabricating business. If you talk to business owners who pride themselves on customer service, they will tell you that the customer is always right. Yet, in reality, some customer may not be right for a metal fabricator's business model," the source stated in the editorial.

Fabricators had learned that diversification was a possible way to at least postpone death. It's been a valuable lesson for many.

Turret Punching in Modern Manufacturing

May 2011

Punching machines, which dominated metal fabricating in the 1990s, still have a place in the modern metal fabricating shop. They just can't be used the same way.

The high-volume jobs that allowed a shop to use a standard set of tools in the same machine without any tool changeover during a shift are long gone. Today metal fabricating is all about short-run jobs.

Dennis Lowry of Mate Precision Technologies wrote a hypothetical tale of a shop that took steps to apply lean manufacturing principles to the punching operation. "Lean on the turrets" provided a road map for fabricators to ensure their punching machines were efficiently run.

What were some of the tips? A design-for-manufacturability process was installed to ensure that the shop floor could handle the new work. A look at nests revealed that they could use punching tooling to create snap lines that allowed parts to easily separate from each other, without the need for deburring. Tooling such as a quadradius tool with four radii on the punch circumference could quickly nibble different-sized large-diameter holes common in many different parts, eliminating the need for a specific tool for each hole size. The team designed standard tooling setups on the different machines to accommodate widely used tooling and left open space for less commonly used tools.

The Big Business of Metal Fabricating

June 2011

The FABRICATOR profiled Mayville Engineering Co., now known as MEC, as part of its FAB 40 coverage. The FAB 40 is a list of some of the most successful metal fabricating operations in the U.S., and the publication ranks them by annual sales revenue.

At the time, MEC expected its sales from its contract and prototype businesses to reach more than $124 million. It's grown a bit since then. Its 2019 sales revenue was $519.9 million. Also, the company announced the launch of its initial public offering of 6,250,000 shares of common stock in the summer of 2019.

"Generally, the large OEMs want to simplify," said Bob Kamphuis of MEC. "They don't want to invest in those basic manufacturing activities. They want to deal with designing, final assembly, and testing their product, as well as strong distribution of that product. They're putting their eggs in the basket that's going to give them the most return on investment."

The Need for Infrastructure Investment

January 2012

"The American Society of Civil Engineers suggested in its 2009 'Report Card for America's Infrastructure' that the U.S. needed $2.2 trillion in infrastructure investment to improve competitive advantage," I wrote in an editorial. Well, things haven't changed much since then, and U.S. infrastructure continues to age. I guess it's going to take several major catastrophes, one right after the other, before Washington politicians recognize the need for rebuilding America.

The Hole Truth With Fiber Lasers

February 2012

Traditional thinking around this time suggested that when it came to laser cutting, the minimum hole size should be no less than the material thickness. Fiber laser cutting technology forced people to rethink that.

"What we have found with the fiber laser is that we can get down to a quarter of material thickness," Salvagnini's Steve Aleshin said. "It's difficult, for example in 0.5-in. material, to measure the quality of the hole when you get that small-to see inside of there without cutting things up. And certainly the customer will have to make the decision if that is a good enough hole.

"But we are making pretty decent holes, down to 3-mm to 12-mm material. It's a straight hole."

Keeping Colleagues Safe

May 2012

Tim Heston wrote in his Biz Talk column about how Erick Ajax had had some restless nights thinking about how two near-miss accidents could have easily harmed or possibly killed his colleagues at his Minneapolis-based shop. After that he decided to get more serious about safety at his company, E.J. Ajax.

"We have about 40,000 men and women who work in metal forming in Minnesota ... We average about one amputation a month in metal forming. That's a pathetic statistic, but it's unfortunately part of my work being on the advisory board with OSHA [in Minnesota]. I do see those numbers quarterly, and it's pretty challenging to look at them," he told a crowd at the 2011 FABTECH.

Today at E.J. Ajax PPE is required and machine safeguards can be found everywhere they are needed. Random drug testing is done, and that covers everyone, including senior leadership. If workers are spotted working unsafely, they are sent home. If the employee gets caught working unsafetly again, they are terminated, no matter how experienced or skilled the person may be.

"I can say that at E.J. Ajax, safety is my absolute highest ethical and moral responsibility," Erick Ajax said. "We must ensure everyone gets to go home safely to their loved ones. If we can't be safe, we're simply not successful. If one of my colleagues gets hurt, any profits are ill-gotten gains in my mind."

Why Cells Work in the Job Shop

September 2012

Folks at CR Metal Products Inc. used to have morning meetings similar to a lot of other metal fabricators-frantically looking at a schedule of more than 1,000 active jobs and trying to figure out where to fit in the hot jobs. After committing to an improvement methodology called quick-response manufacturing, which focuses on the use of cells to reduce the time from when a customer orders a part until the first unit is shipped, that meeting became a lot more relaxed. Everyone was on top of what they needed to do to keep true to the schedule.

So now there is no "Cutting Department" or "Press Brake Department" at CR Metal Products. The floor is arranged in cells, and each is color-coded. (For example, green is for heavy fabrication for up to 0.5 in., orange is for thin-gauge work, and red is for low-volume fabrication.) Employees, who wear colored shirts that align with the cell in which they work, fabricate a job through as many steps as they can before handing it off to someone else.

The approach seemed to have worked for the fab shop in the early 2000s. It was expecting to hit $20 million in revenues in 2013, more than double what the company earned almost a decade before.

Small Changes, Big Results

November 2012

Lean manufacturing begins as small steps, but once people buy into the concept, it can produce big results. Sometimes seeing those small steps helps a fabricator to understand where this type of effort can lead.

In "Why the little things matter," Senior Editor Tim Heston discussed some of the steps that Laser Access, a Michigan job shop, took as it sought to perfect the art of efficient fabricating. For instance, a holder with tin snips, a tape measure, markers, and other basic tools is attached permanently to the fork truck, eliminating the need for the truck driver to go look for them. In another example, sheet remnants are organized vertically and by thickness, so operators can find what they need quickly.

"And when it comes to getting worker buy-in for continuous improvement, making jobs easier is a good starting point," Heston wrote.

Automation Comes to Structural Steel

January 2013

Automation in the North American structural steel industry was almost unheard of in the early 2010s. In "Automation at the end of the line," The FABRICATOR investigated just what might be possible.

The article detailed the possibilities of joining scanning technology with robots. For instance, a robot can pick up an accessory from a nearby conveyor (after it is scanned and confirmed to be the right part) and places it on a structural beam. After the robot has places the part, a 3D scanner on a tack welding robot checks the position, and if all checks out, the tack welding process is initiated. Both the pick-and-place robot and the tack welding robot are stationary, unlike the welding robot that is on a linear rail.

When the first phase of the placement and tack welding is done, the beam is flipped and the process begins again. When the accessories are in place, the beam is sent down the line to the welding robot, where the gas metal arc welding process can finish up the work.

As the decade came to a close, several of these systems were up and running in North American structural steel companies.

Reduce the Downtime in Laser Cutting

May 2013

It's enough to make metal fabricators pull their hair out: The million-dollar laser cutting machine is sitting idle while a lens is manually changed.

As much as the industry had adopted material handling automation for laser cutting machinery, many shops still lived with downtime associated with having to manually deal with laser optics.

As Mazak Optonics' Marc Lobit wrote, "For the record, laser cutting machines without these automated functions [of setting up the laser] can run efficiently. However, it is difficult to maintain long-term efficienct production if the job shop has regular part changeovers. Research done on actual machine changeovers reflects that manual changes typically take around 26 minutes to complete, when done properly, if the shop considers all of the steps involved in a standard setup-set up lens, install nozzle, focus the lens, set the gap, set the focal point, do a rest cut, tweak the lens if necessary, and start production-it can understand how setting up for a job can get out of hand very quickly. Simply put, waiting for an operator delays production while the machine sits idle."

Automated changeover functions took less than one minute. Needless to say, this type of automation is now expected in modern laser cutting machines.

Worried About Skilled Workers

September 2013

The FABRICATOR has conducted a "What Keeps You Up at Night?" survey since 2009, which obviously was in the midst of the Great Recession. By 2013, however, fabricators were less focused on where the next job was coming from and more focused on who was going to available to work on that job.

When asked "What Keeps You Up at Night?" 36% of those fabricators surveyed said "availability of skilled workers" and 19% said the "economy." In 2009, 48% of fabricators surveyed said the "economy" and only 6% said "availability of skilled workers."

The economic recovery, slow though it was, was gaining momentum by late 2013.

FABTECH Breaks Records-Again

January 2014

The 2013 FABTECH attracted more than 40,000 visitors and more than 1,500 exhibitors, making it the largest show since it was first launched in the 1980s. The keynote speaker for the event, economist Alan Beaulieu, pointed to the economy-without the fuel of a tech bubble in the stock market or a speculative real estate market-as being a primary driver for a robust manufacturing sector.

"This is a normal run rate," he said. "GDP is at record-high levels, and it's growing. In fact, this growth isn't particularly fragile, and you'll be enthused about the next five years. And you deserve the credit. You do more with fewer people, and you've made the right changes."

History has proven him correct.

The Heartbeat of the Fab Shop

September 2014

In a recap of a panel discussion at The FABRICATOR 's Leadership Summit, which was held in Austin, Texas, fabricators in attendance got an update as to where solid-state laser cutting, which covers both fiber and disk laser technology, was. By the end of 2013, industry observers estimated that about 20% of cutting lasers sold were of the solid-state variety, pretty impressive growth for a technology that really only made its debut in 2010.

That wasn't the point of the panel discussion, however. The focus was not on IPM, but on how the fast cutting technologies were reshaping the metal fabrication landscape inside the shop. This included talk of the need for automated material handling to keep the machines fed and material moving downstream to other processes, forming systems that minimized tooling changeover, offline programming for press brakes, and software that tracked overall equipment effectiveness. More than five years later, many shops are having these same types of discussion.

The Emergence of the Small Press Brake

September 2014

The image of a press brake operator bending small parts on a large press brake is not too unusual. In reality, a shop uses what is available to do the job. But is that large hydraulic brake the right machine for the job? Probably not.

Electric press brakes, designed strictly for small parts, became more widely accepted in the mid-2010s. People were looking for speed and accuracy in the small brakes. Such an investment also allowed them to keep their larger brakes open for more suitable work.

What could the small press brakes do? "The economics of small-parts bending" covered several key points:

The AC motor drives on the electric machines react quicker than the valves and gravity associated with hydraulic bending machines.

Speed-change-point transmission as well as bottom-dead-center ram direction reversal occur more quickly.

Cycle speeds improve up to 5 strokes per minute at the same 2-in. open-height benchmark.

An electric machine with a maximum speed of 100 mm/sec. may cycle twice as many times in a minute than a 200-mm/sec. hydraulic machine.

Slow and Steady Growth

December 2014

Senior Editor Tim Heston's forecast article for 2015 didn't necessarily capture the spirit of a red-hot industry, but that was OK for most metal fabricators. Growth of any kind was welcomed.

Doug Olds of Washington Metal Fabricators, Washington, Mo., told Heston that before the Great Recession the analysis and discussion about purchasing fabricating equipment or hiring people was thorough, but relaxed. Postrecession changed that, but not necessarily for the worse.

"The recession helped us in a very strange way," Olds said. "While we took a big hit and a one-year loss, it changed our philosophy on how we do business and how we buy equipment. We're much stronger now coming out of the recession."

Scott Vidimos of Vidimos Inc., East Chicago, Ind., said that the years coming out of the Great Recession were about "making a reasonable profit at the sales volume we have." That included three years of similar growth heading into 2015.

That was the foundation for further and more rapid growth. Some fabricators at the time could feel it.

"I am very positive that manufacturing will have its renaissance. We lost some competitors after the recession, but those of us who are left are that much better," said Garry Griggs of Magic Metals, Union Gap, Wash.

Chipping Away at the Fab Shop

June 2015

I noted in my editorial for the issue that more fabricating companies appeared to be jumping into machining. In a readership survey sent to almost 10,000 subscribers of The FABRICATOR in March 2015, 78% of the 134 respondents indicated that their production operations included machining. Of those that acknowledged chipping activities at their companies, 49% said that machining work had increased over the past 12 months.

A shop expanding its capabilities isn't so unusual, but it's interesting to see the walls come down between the traditional fabricating company and machine shop. One of the main reasons that fabricators have shared over the years for getting into machining was to keep work in-house and avoid contracting out the work. That keeps the fabricator in complete charge of the production schedule, allowing them to meet delivery deadlines.

The FABRICATOR completed the 2020 version of its readership survey earlier this year. When asked about machining activities at their companies, 70% of the 210 folks surveyed indicated that they had some sort of machining capabilities, and of that total, 23% said it had increased from the previous year.

People Make the Difference

July 2015

In his Biz Talk column, "The few, the productive, the skilled," Senior Editor Tim Heston wrote about why companies with engaged employees stand apart. After all, every company has access to the same equipment and manufacturing principles. Something has to make special companies stand out from their competitors, right?

Heston drove the point home in talking about Gap Partners Inc. of Georgia. There it wasn't about the technology or the continuous improvement activities on the official corporate video. People were front and center, and the corporate video contained their stories, their silliness, and their descriptions of what drove them to be their best.

"Most tell about how they get their people to step up, unite, and work together to achieve a better result," said David "Papa Bear" Bowes of Gap Partners. "That's what you hear all the time, and frankly, that's the most difficult part of the job."

After the Fiber Laser Purchase

October 2015

Frank Arteaga of Bystronic asked a good question in his article "What comes after the fiber laser purchase?" It was timely because many fabricators underestimated just what sort of impact this supercharged blank cutter would make on their operations.

In answering this question, the author focused on a hypothetical fabricator, The Fab House. It had just purchased a 6-kW fiber laser cutting machine, and it was in the process of rethinking its operations as the laser was producing substantially more parts per hour than its old laser cutting machine.

So what did The Fab House do? It optimized the front-end order processing, engineering, and programming systems to make them run more smoothly. It invested in automation to help with material handling for both loading raw materials and unloading the cut sheets. It modernized its press brakes and reworked its programming efforts to create a bending process that could keep pace with the laser cutting machine. It took steps to fully modernize its fabricating operations.

FABTECH Continues to Grow

January 2016

The 2015 FABTECH drew more than 43,000 attendees, making the event the largest in its history. But it wasn't done yet.

The Bending Department Evolves

May 2016

The bending department in a fab shop in 2016 looked pretty different than one from 20 years earlier. This article described the many ways:

Atlanta's Tie Down Engineering invested in a bidirectional folder with tall tooling that allowed for flanges up to 19.5 in. high.

A panel bender purchased by A.J. Antunes & Co., Carol Stream, Ill., allowed the company to reduce bending cycle times and eliminate length setups for many jogs.

A.J. Antunes also acquired a press brake with an automated tooling change function. The equipment's impact was best described by the company's fabricating manager: "That part took two hours to set up on the brake, just because it had so many complex bends. Earlier this year, we wrote a program on the new press brake. We went down to two-minute setups. And it was ridiculous how fast we could bend those complex pieces."

Why All the Negativity?

November 2016

In his Biz Talk column, Senior Editor Tim Heston wondered why so much negativity filled the air during the election cycle. Unemployment was around 5%. Wage increases were occurring, up significantly from the year before, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

He suggested two reasons:

If someone were to lose their job, it was going to take them a while to find another one. At the time, almost a quarter of the unemployed had been looking for a job for more than six months.

More companies were failing. The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth analyzed almost 30,000 publicly traded firms and found that the odds of those companies surviving the next five years had dropped significantly. Before the 1970s, that rate was 92%, and by the early 2000s, that rate had dropped to 63%.

People are more confident when they feel like they have job security. In the modern manufacturing economy, that sort of confidence is hard to come by.

Employment Agency for Robots

April 2017

In one of the more interesting stories to appear in The FABRICATOR in recent years, we were introduced to Matt Bush and Rob Goldiez, who both used to work for Scott Fetzer Electrical Group in Tennessee helping to automate a company factory, but who left to launch a company called Hirebotics.

This wasn't just a robotic integrator, however. The goal of the company was to make automation more accessible and flexible than fabricators ever thought. They were able to approach the high-product-mix manufacturing world with this concept because of the emergence of collaborative robots.

The company plan was to hire out the collaborative robots by the hour. It uses off-the-shelf robots and components and can remotely monitor the robots after they are installed in a factory.

Remote monitoring allows Hirebotics to bill only for the hours the robot works. Hirebotics bills its customers weekly, just as an agency would for its temporary workers.

The approach has since expanded to applications such as welding, where the fabricator pays only when the robot is actually welding. Also, because the robot is collaborative, a fabricator doesn't need to set up guarding around the cell.

About Those Collaborative Welding Robots

February 2018

The FABRICATOR took a deep dive into the world of collaborative robots. The story quoted a 2017 Transparency Market Research report that valued the global collaborative robot market in 2015 at $10.3 billion, but also predicted that the market's annual growth rate to be 30%. By 2024 the collaborative robot market was expected to be worth $94 billion.

Again, it wasn't too much of a surprise for metal fabricators that have put robots into action on their own shop floors. Prices have fallen, and the robots have gotten easier to program. Now you have robots that don't have to reside behind a gate. People can work alongside them.

"An extension of this is the ability to deploy the robots quickly," said Manuel Sordo of Universal Robots. "You don't need a team of robotic programmers and engineers on-site to deploy the robot. And you often can deploy them without dramatic changes to your protection."

Early Panic About the Tariffs

April 2018

When President Donald Trump took over as president in 2017, he made no secret about his desire to help the domestic metals industry. On March 8 he proclaimed he was going to apply a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports as a result of a U.S. Department of Commerce investigation that suggested that these imports threaten the viability of the domestic metals industry, which in turn was a threat to national security.

That led domestic prices to jump. As of mid-March, the price jumped to $840/ton FOB the mill for spot tonnage of hot-rolled steel, up from $600/ton in November 2017. John Packard, founder of the Steel Market Update e-newsletter, told a crowd of metal fabricators at The FABRICATOR 's Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz., in March that the hot-rolled steel prices could stay in this range for the foreseeable future.

Luckily, however, that didn't prove to be the case. Prices were as low as $440/ton for hot-rolled as recently as early August 2020. Did the tariffs hurt metal fabricators? On the surface, the price increases seemed to have negligible effect. Did it help the steel mills? More steelmaking capacity has been added in recent years, but the jury is still out on whether the tariffs opened the door for this possibility. Some industry observers fear that there is simply too much steelmaking capacity in the U.S., and that some companies will be forced out as "Steelmageddon" occurs. Time will tell.

The Race for Power in Laser Cutting

July 2018

"High-powered fiber laser gets shop back on track" covered how a 10-kW and a 6-kW fiber laser cutting machine eliminated a huge bottleneck for Progressive Metal Manufacturing Co., which has two facilities in the Detroit suburbs. "I can say that those machines bailed us out. They helped out tremendously. It's really remarkable," said Eric Borman, the company's CEO.

The new fiber lasers had features like automated cutting head changeover and focal length adjustment. They didn't need to warm up and have the beam aligned, a task that used to eat up time when fabricators had to work with CO 2 machines.

"Obviously, speed is speed, but it's efficient in every way. "With something like automatic tip changers, that eliminates three minutes here and three minutes there. Over multiple shifts, that adds up," Borman said. "That's a lot less downtime."

The Power of a 3D Printer

December 2018

As people talk about the future of manufacturing and point to additive manufacturing as that future, metal fabricators aren't paying too much attention. They've got parts to get out the door.

They know a neat tool when they see one, however, and a 3D printer is no exception. Fabricators aren't worried about how the technology is going to revolutionize the future; they like it for what it can do now.

In "Got gauge problems?" we learned that a 3D-printed back gauge can help with the oddball jobs that show up on the bending schedule. Does a part have an irregular edge, making it hard to set against the gauge? Print a gauge insert that mates perfectly against the irregular edge. Say you have a straight bend that you're gauging off of a tapered flange, giving you a 135-degree (obtuse) angle between the side and the flange edge. A standard backgauge finger might not be able to grab that corner very well. A 3D-printed corner gauge insert that fits perfectly into a 135-degree angle corner would help the operator deliver repeatable bends.

For the imaginative fabricator, the future of fabricating is already here. The 3D printer is just another tool that helps complex designs become reality in an efficient manner.

Exoskeletons to the Rescue

February 2019

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are among the most frequently reported causes of lost or restricted work time. Workers in manufacturing have seen their bodies worn out by stresses from repetitive motions, carrying loads, and working in challenging positions.

Your title here...

Exoskeletons have emerged to help combat these repetitive-motion injuries. They are mostly wearable support systems that, with the help of springs, pulleys, and leverage, shift loads from easily fatigued parts of the body, like arms, to the body's core section.

Not widely seen in metal fabricating, these exoskeletons are more common in the automotive industry. Toyota, Ford, and BMW are some of the companies using them on the assembly floor.

Predictions for 2020 in 2019

May 2019

Gene Marks, founder of the Marks Group, provided the keynote address to the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association's Annual Meeting in Nashville in early March. What did he predict for 2020?

He suggested that an infrastructure bill in the $200 million to $1 trillion range was likely to happen.

He thought a new family leave law, with Ivanka Trump's support, would become a reality.

He had a feeling that Congress would move to hike the federal minimum wage to between $11 and $12, which might influence other private companies to match the increase.

When asked about a possible recession, he replied, "No one knows." He was definitely correct with that statement, particularly considering the way that 2020 ground to a halt.

Just What Does Metal Fabricating's Future Look Like?

July 2019

In his Biz Talk column, Tim Heston described Industry 4.0, a term that doesn't mean a lot to many metal fabricators but could play a huge role in the way their shops operate in the future.

Heston provided this overview: "The picture might start with automated quoting, drawing from shop floor and third-party data analytics. Upon acceptance, the job is scheduled and nested automatically, drawing data not only from the shop floor but from the cloud, be it provided by the machine toolmaker, a third party, or both.

"Scheduling and nesting software could also draw from material- and material supplier-specific data; this would make it smart enough to know the implications of nesting long and skinny parts on a certain thickness and grade of a certain mill's galvanneal that has a history of residual stress. So it would know to nest and microtab in such a way to prevent those long, skinny parts from bowing up after being cut and crashing the machine.

"Parts are denested and sorted automatically-again, using data both from the local shop floor and from the cloud-then move on to forming, with bend simulations that consider individual operator preferences as well as the movement of workpieces between each step of a staged bend.

"Once parts are formed, they move downstream immediately. Many jobs ship not in weeks or days but in a matter of hours. How can everything flow so smoothly? Because everything is connected, and everything is learning."

Some Expected a Slowdown in 2020

December 2019

In the 2020 Industry Forecast, most people contacted for comment and who participated in the "2020 Capital Sending Forecast" remained somewhat optimistic for the new year, but there was some trepidation.

"Of course, manufacturing has never been a unified business," said Chris Kuehl, economic analyst for FMA and managing director at Kansas City, Mo.-based Armada Corporate Intelligence. "It depends on what you're manufacturing. We have sectors that are in decline, and ones that are in the middle. The declining ones are those sectors that are most connected to the global economy."

That observation was reinforced by the fact that many metal fabricators with some sort of connection to global supply chains were actually planning for 2020 to be somewhat flat. Many people were waiting for a slowdown as the economic expansion after the Great Recession broke all records with its continued growth. Little did they know that it would come in the form of a pandemic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2010s: Were the 2010s the Golden Age of metal fabricating?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Editor's Note: This is the fifth installment looking at how the modern metal fabrication industry has impacted each decade since 1970, the same era that The FABRICATOR magazine launched. Read about the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The Great Recession, which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, was the greatest economic decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

# data[].attributes.headline
3-D Printing, a Boon for Racers, Inches Closer for Carmakers

# data[].attributes.subject
3-D Printing, a Boon for Racers, Inches Closer for Carmakers

# data[].attributes.body
New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The technology has helped F1 and NASCAR teams gain an edge, but it has not been practical on a large scale. That may be starting to change.

The Czinger 21C, made by Divergent Technologies, has a lightweight printed aluminum chassis. Credit... Czinger

The Belgian racing team Heli had an engine problem. Specifically, under race conditions, the manifold of the four-cylinder turbo diesel in its BMW 1-series exploded, bursting along an ultrasonically welded seam that held together the manifold's two halves.

The team tried reinforcing the seam. But when the car returned to the track, during the middle of a race there was a familiar bang, a loss of power and a pit stop for a replacement manifold. This did not enhance the team's record.

To make a substitute manifold through traditional methods, stamping or casting, would be time-consuming and expensive, requiring tooling, molds and weeks to design and manufacture.

In 2018 Heli took the problem to ZiggZagg, a Belgian company that fabricates parts using an HP 3-D printer. ZiggZagg made a digital scan of the two-piece manifold and after 10 hours had a digital blueprint for a stronger, lighter, one-piece manifold. In its first race with the new manifold, printed using what is known as PA 12 nylon, the part held up and Heli took third. That same manifold lasted until the car was retired earlier this year.

The 3-D printing process has quietly proved its worth in racing from Formula One to NASCAR. Teams are secretive about their exact uses of the technology, but they allow that 3-D printing lets them make complex parts that could not be made by other means.

Image

The 3D-printed manifold made by ZiggZabb for Heli Racing, a Belgian team. Credit... Heli Racing

That's fine for small quantities of exotic parts, but when it came to mass production, stamping, casting or injection-molding have remained cheaper and more practical. However, improvements in 3-D technology now have it poised to arrive on assembly lines where everyday coupes, sedans and hatchbacks are minted.

Volkswagen, one of the few automakers to publicly proclaim its 3-D-printing ambitions, is crash-testing body frame parts it plans to put into its cars by 2023. "For Volkswagen the main strategic goal is to demonstrate the technology is of major use in our real car production," said Martin Goede, head of technology planning and development for VW.

Additive manufacturing, which is the industry's umbrella term for different types of 3-D printing, was envisioned in the 1970s, the first printers arrived in the 1980s, and by the 1990s laser "sintering" was used to fuse powdered metals. Now printers can construct parts from a variety of materials such as metals, polymers and ceramics.

The way most of the printers now work is to fuse together powdered material into thin slices that are stacked together to form a shape, much in the way a package of copier paper with each sheet glued into place would make a solid paper block.

Additive manufacturing allows fabricators to build items that couldn't be built previously, such as parts with honeycomb-like reinforcement in hollow spaces, allowing parts to be lighter, stronger and stiffer.

The other thing it allows is the creation of new alloys. "When you try to create superalloys, they don't mix," said Brad Keselowski, who in addition to owning Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing drives the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup series. "You melt them in a big pot, and they separate like oil and water."

The Jet Fusion 5200 is among the machines Hp has developed for 3D printing - or additive manufacturing, as it's known in the industry. Credit... HP

But these powdered materials don't separate. "Powder is like salt and pepper. When you mix salt and pepper, it stays mixed," he said. "It's allowing new alloys that simply aren't possible in other kinds of manufacturing."

All of this has been a boon to racing. Teams can use computer-aided design to construct digital blueprints of parts that can be printed for use within days rather than weeks, and without creating expensive tooling. The printed parts can be tested on actual vehicles, redesigned and retested, which is valuable because computer models that predict how a part will perform in real life are still just simulations. "I want to build something, try it, and if I don't like it, make another one," Mr. Keselowski said.

The advantage that turnaround gives racing teams can't be overstated.

"We found some kind of new engineering advantage, and we need to build a part and get it on the racecar as soon as possible. Every day that goes by, we lose advantage," he added.

Nowhere has this advantage been used to greater effect than in F1 racing. "Consider an F1 car as a prototype; nothing is fixed," said Paul Monaghan, chief engineer for Red Bull's F1 team. Teams can now customize parts to specific tracks and weather conditions, for instance dialing in a precise amount of downforce for a rear wing. The fraction of a second improvement it may provide matters. "Two-tenths of a second could be two slots on the starting grid order," Mr. Monaghan said. "Ten laps in, you are two seconds clear."

While printing specialized parts to support a team of four cars is practical, supplying 100,000 parts hasn't been. Additive manufacturing has been too slow and the cost too high to be practical for mass production.

But companies like Volkswagen and Divergent Technologies say that is poised to change.

Divergent makes the $1.7 million Czinger 21C, which features a lightweight printed aluminum chassis. Though the company plans to produce 80 cars this year, the 21C is primarily a demonstration of the founder Kevin Czinger's 3-D printing process, which he claims is 10 to 20 times faster than other printers. "That rate in the next few years will double again," he said.

Mr. Czinger said he sped up printing partly by optimizing the process for a limited number of aluminum alloys. He said that Divergent had printed chassis parts that are being crash-tested by two top global car manufacturers, and will print 1,000 suspensions this year for use in a production car, which he declined to name. He said his printers had brought part costs below those for traditional manufacturing. "If you include the tooling or casting, you are actually going to have better economics now," he said. "Otherwise there is no reason to do this."

The Czinger 21C chassis. Divergent says it has printed chassis parts that are being crash-tested by two top global car manufacturers. Credit... Czinger

Volkswagen has planned to introduce 3-D printing gradually, starting with customized trim parts and progressing to chassis parts on production cars by 2023, ahead of an original estimate. "There are breakthrough developments in additive manufacturing," Mr. Goede said.

One such breakthrough is a change in the printing process. Car parts have usually been made by laser "sintering," which fuses layers of powder together. But an older technology called binder printing has been improved to produce durable metal parts faster than laser sintering can. Binder printers use glue to join the metal layers together. The completed part is then heated, burning off the glue and fusing the metal. In tests at VW, binder printing was fast and durable enough for mass production, Mr. Goede said.

Looking toward expected advances, VW estimates the speed of binder printing to surpass sintering by 60 times in the next two to five years. The company is crash-testing the vertical windscreen pillar known as the A-pillar for the T-Roc convertible that may appear on future models.

But it's not game over for traditional manufacturing. There are still challenges to additive manufacturing, like ensuring quality control. For instance, is a part reliable if there is a momentary fluctuation in laser power? How much of a fluctuation is OK? Standards and test methods have to be developed, which is difficult because 3-D printing is rapidly evolving and it's hard for test methodology to keep up.

"As far as anyone can see, there will still be a need for conventional manufacturing when it comes to parts like a car hood," said Tim Weber, HP's global chief for 3-D materials. "Creating a very large, very thin and very smooth part will be difficult with additive manufacturing."

Even VW's ambitious plans concede the need for conventional manufacturing. "Our strategy is there will be no complete elimination," Mr. Goede said. "There will be no entire 3-D body in the future."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
3-D Printing, a Boon for Racers, Inches Closer for Carmakers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The technology has helped F1 and NASCAR teams gain an edge, but it has not been practical on a large scale. That may be starting to change. The Belgian racing team Heli had an engine problem.

# data[].attributes.headline
What's Old Can Be New Again for Businesses: Remanufacturing

# data[].attributes.subject
What's Old Can Be New Again for Businesses: Remanufacturing

# data[].attributes.body
New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An employee working on a circuit board at CoreCentric Solutions in Illinois, which makes components for use in both industrial and consumer products. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

Remanufacturing involves taking products to a like-new condition and is accomplished through a variety of processes and advanced by new technologies like 3-D printing.

An employee working on a circuit board at CoreCentric Solutions in Illinois, which makes components for use in both industrial and consumer products. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series, which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.
Derrick Gaddis knew his equipment was nearing the end of its useful life. Two of his logging skidders - the heavy-duty machines that haul cut timber - needed to be replaced. But most manufacturers at the time had shifted gears to bigger and heavier models, he said, and no longer made the size of skidders required for what is known as selective harvesting, the type of logging his company does.

He and his co-owners of Henderson Timber Inc., in Sigel, Ill., devised a solution: What if John Deere, the original manufacturer, could remanufacture the skidder to repair and upgrade it, comporting with current technology? Deere, which already had remanufactured some of its products, was receptive. A beta test in the woods was in the works.

"When you take a puzzle apart with that many pieces, I thought there would be something wrong. But that was not the case," said Mr. Gaddis, whose company is near the middle of the state, between St. Louis and Indianapolis, and who subsequently had a second skidder "relived," as he called it.

Welcome to the expanding sector of remanufacturing. The practice essentially involves taking products or components, whether in disrepair or at the end of their useful lives, to a like-new condition. Accomplished through a variety of processes and advanced by new technologies like 3-D printing, products as small as a coffee maker and as large as a medical imaging machine can now be upgraded. Rather than recycling or merely refurbishing the item to its original state, the process also enhances the product to make it comport with the latest technology.

While at first glance it seems similar to refurbishing, the results differ. A refurbished engine, for example, might be equivalent to one in excellent working condition but has already been in service for 30,000 miles, while a remanufactured engine should be equivalent to one that has not yet been in service, so it is like new, said Nabil Nasr, the director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

While still a relatively small subset of manufacturing, its use is likely to grow as a result of recent technical advances like additive manufacturing, data analytics and the internet of things, also known as IoT. And it is an integral part of the circular economy that strives to keep materials in the economy and out of landfills.

Roomba robotic vacuums waiting to be remanufactured at CoreCentric late last month. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

CoreCentric's remanufacturing process identifies parts that have already failed and can predict which parts are likely to fail. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

"Remanufacturing is a smart way to continue to advance without creating a lot of waste. The development of new technology is allowing remanufacturing to grow stronger," Dr. Nasr said. "Most of the emission and waste from manufacturing comes from material mining and processing."

From an environmental standpoint, the process is superior to recycling, which captures materials, but loses the labor used in initial manufacturing and uses significant amounts of energy, Dr. Nasr said.

While remanufacturing does not have a glamorous connotation, companies involved are on the cutting edge of both manufacturing and data privacy.

CoreCentric Solutions, for example, processes close to two million pieces of core - or components - each year for use in both industrial and consumer products, said Tom Healy, the company's president and chief executive.

CoreCentric's remanufacturing process identifies the parts that have already failed, and with an intricate propriety database, it can predict which parts "are highly likely to fail." The company, based in Carol Stream, Ill., identifies and replaces the broken parts, and replaces components that have a high probability of failing.

Image

A CoreCentric employee working on a coffee machine. Before remanufacturing, the company must ensure that appliances are physically cleaned but also cleared of personal data. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

But technology also creates new issues. The refrigerator with the touch screen that allows you to send notes home as well as order food? It can store personal data. That smart sous-vide machine that you got as a gift? It can access your devices for recipes. And the robotic vacuum cleaner that spares your back? It not only remembers furniture placement, but also uploads a map of your home to the cloud.

When those products break, remanufacturing requires another layer because of the inherent privacy risks. CoreCentric, as a result, needs to ensure not only that the smaller appliances are physically cleaned, "but these devices need to be cleared and the data removed from the cloud before it can be remanufactured and resold," Mr. Healy said.

Data security is a concern for more than just consumer products. Medical equipment, like those used for M.R.I.s, captures and keeps health information, but at GE Healthcare, Siva Balakrishnan, the general manager for refurbished and remanufactured products, said that for both remanufacturing and refurbishing, all patient health information "is erased from the device. Then, the device undergoes any necessary software updates to ensure compliance with any updated cybersecurity requirements." But even copiers, which are often remanufactured, "store and reproduce images," Dr. Nasr said, adding that the manufacturers must delete the data before remanufacturing.

Presuming that data is removed from devices, remanufacturing is an important component of the circular economy. Original equipment manufacturers now realize that if they wait to think about a second life for a product or component until it is in disrepair or outdated, it could be too late.

Tom Healy, president and chief executive of CoreCentric. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

A growing trend for companies is to plan for remanufacturing in the initial design of a product. "The circular economy starts at the design phase - you can't remanufacture a product if it's not designed to be recycled," said Zoe Bezpalko, a manager of sustainable strategy at Autodesk, which makes both industrial design and consumer software products and is based in San Rafael, Calif. "For example, gluing can prevent recycling. Even black plastic can interfere, because it's not recognized by machines at the waste management facility."

While Mr. Gaddis of Henderson Timber suggested remanufacturing to John Deere for his machinery, the company actually began remanufacturing in 1996, said Jena Holtberg-Benge, who oversees the company's global remanufacturing. "We quickly realized that it's a wonderful opportunity for dealers because the remanufactured parts improve their capabilities.

"At Deere, they bring in the failed part, disassemble it, clean and qualify the subparts, reclaim some and bring them back to new. Then we machine them, reassemble them and send them to the dealers for installation."

One of the biggest challenges is determining the integrity of the components. That is where the use of X-rays and data from sensors comes into play. The REMADE Institute, one of 14 consortiums nationwide bringing together companies, academics and the government to expand advanced manufacturing in the United States, is, among other goals, looking at technology to assess the condition of products and components to determine use.REMADE, which is also led by Dr. Nasr, opened in 2017 to focus on greater sustainability in manufacturing.

Boxes of circuit boards at CoreCentric. Credit... Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

Sensors can provide "more information about what happened in use and manufacturers can make better decisions about whether it's worth remanufacturing," said Michael Thurston, the technical director at the Rochester Institute of Technology's Golisano Institute and a professor at the school. "If there's a heat problem, you might suspect damage, but the sensors can provide additional information about what can be reused."

But manufacturers say that the internet of things is only beginning to change remanufacturing. "IoT offers a huge opportunity as long as it's connected with the original part and doing things like predictive failure analysis," said Peter Anderson, the vice president of global supply chain for Cummins Inc., an engine and power systems company. "It is more pervasive in the aerospace industry, but we're not doing it today."

Additive technology - such as 3-D printing - is, however, increasingly used to fabricate parts that a company may not store, said Ms. Holtberg-Benge, who is based in Springfield, Mo. "To make a part by the original process in low volume can be expensive, so manufacturers are increasingly using 3-D printed parts."

As the technology has improved, the use has become more sophisticated. "There are pieces we couldn't manufacture but could only create with a 3-D printer," said Mr. Anderson, based in Columbus, Ind. "It enabled our designers to design unconstrained."

There are concerns that selling remanufactured products could cut into sales of companies' new inventories, since they can cost from 20 percent to 50 percent less than a new product. "But it's actually a huge opportunity," said Joe Iles, the circular design program lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a British organization that promotes the circular economy. "There are already secondhand sales for many products, and the person who buys a remanufactured item might not pay the extra to buy it new."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's Old Can Be New Again for Businesses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Remanufacturing involves taking products to a like-new condition and is accomplished through a variety of processes and advanced by new technologies like 3-D printing. An employee working on a circuit board at CoreCentric Solutions in Illinois, which makes components for use in both industrial and consumer products. Credit...

# data[].attributes.body
NPR Series : The New Manufacturing Landscape

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Made: The New Manufacturing Landscape

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NPR explores what's new in American manufacturing. After decades of change, a lean and mean industrial resurgence has emerged.

# data[].attributes.headline
New York Times / Factories and Manufacturing

# data[].attributes.subject
New York Times / Factories and Manufacturing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
News about Factories and Manufacturing, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Wire Wizard Welding Products introduced its first catalog dedicated to submerged arc welding and large-wire solutions. The catalog includes the full line of products for submerged arc welding and large wire, including mechanical turntables, guide modules for large wire, large wire conduit, wire pilot feed assists and the PowerBall SAW torch utilizing a patented long-lasting,... Continued

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Welding Productivity - A magazine for fabricators with welding operations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wire Wizard Welding Products introduced its first catalog dedicated to submerged arc welding and large-wire solutions. The catalog includes the full line of products for submerged arc welding and large wire, including mechanical turntables, guide modules for large wire, large wire conduit, wire pilot feed assists and the PowerBall SAW torch utilizing a patented long-lasting,...

# data[].attributes.body
Miller offers a variety of resources for all welders, from experienced professionals to those learning how to weld.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Miller offers a variety of resources for all welders, from experienced professionals to those learning how to weld. Explore our resources to find welding tips to improve your skills, welding videos for step-by-step project instructions and updates on new welding technologies, or to access the Miller Welding Forum and connect with welders like you. Our weld calculators provide recommended settings so you can be sure you're getting achieving the best weld quality. Miller has the resources you need to build the things that matter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Miller offers a variety of resources for all welders, from experienced professionals to those learning how to weld. Explore our resources to find welding tips to improve your skills, welding videos for step-by-step project instructions and updates on new welding technologies, or to access the Miller Welding Forum and connect with welders like you.

# data[].attributes.body
A national advanced manufacturing portal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Manufacturing is the fourth largest industrial sector in the United States, currently employing about 15.6 million Americans, representing aabout 11% of the gross domestic product. The White House has declared manufacturing to be a national priority. Manufacturing workers experience a higher percentage of nonfatal injuries and illnesses per capita than the US workforce as a whole.

| National Science Foundation | Manufacturing USA | Advanced Manufacturing, Cellular Manufacturing

Continued U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing requires new technologies, processes, and skills, especially in the emerging fields of biomanufacturing, cyber-manufacturing and eco-manufacturing. To address that need, the U.S. National Science Foundation is announcing investments in 24 new projects to drive future manufacturing.

Manufacturing Day (MFG Day)-organized nationally by The Manufacturing Institute-is manufacturing's biggest annual opportunity to inspire the next generation about the industry and careers in modern manufacturing-and to say: "Creators Wanted." MFG DAY was created to correct public perception and addresses many misperceptions by giving manufacturers an opportunity to open their doors and show, in

Businesses, higher education, and workforce development organizations can use the updated model when developing curriculum, identifying workforce skill gaps, and detecting competencies required for credentials. The refreshed model helps ensure that workers learn skills that employers need.

Manufacturing USA® institutes are designed to build innovation ecosystems and accelerate technology development and workforce development in critical technology areas. A new law reinforces the institutes' importance to our national security and economic competitiveness and encourages creation of new advanced manufacturing institutes. The potential expansion of the initiative is intended to bo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A National Advanced Manufacturing Portal - Highlighting The NNMI Program | Manufacturing.gov

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Manufacturing is the fourth largest industrial sector in the United States, currently employing about 15.6 million Americans, representing aabout 11% of the gross domestic product. The White House has declared manufacturing to be a national priority. Manufacturing workers experience a higher percentage of nonfatal injuries and illnesses per capita than the US workforce as a whole.

# data[].attributes.body
International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This Top Markets report on Industrial Automation assesses the global market for automation equipment by analyzing U.S. exports in this sector: what products they are, where they are going, and the dollar value attached to each sale.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This Top Markets report on Industrial Automation assesses the global market for automation equipment by analyzing U.S. exports in this sector: what products they are, where they are going, and the dollar value attached to each sale.

# data[].attributes.body
Search Results: Advanced Manufacturing

# data[].attributes.body
100 Best Manufacturing Books of All Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
100 Best Manufacturing Books of All Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 100 best manufacturing books recommended by Jack Ma, Steve Blank, Danielle Morrill, Craig Brown and Chris Dixon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What are product decision analytics? Configurable products, including assemble-to-order, bring customization and choice to customers. They are also complex to plan. Each configurable product can have many possible variants, some of which are not buildable or don't meet the needs of the customer. Gocious enables you to analyze and define your product line features and configurations early, before detail design and production, to reduce time-to-market, waste, and rework.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Manufacturing and Automation Stories, Videos, Articles, Interviews, Reviews & News | ManufacturingTomorrow

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What are product decision analytics? Configurable products, including assemble-to-order, bring customization and choice to customers. They are also complex to plan. Each configurable product can have many possible variants, some of which are not buildable or don't meet the needs of the customer.

# data[].attributes.body
American manufacturers are grappling with the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. This site is designed to answer common questions with resources collected by One Voice for Manufacturing, the combined advocacy effort of the National Tooling and Machining Association and the Precision Metalforming Association.

# data[].attributes.body
The Record is National Tooling & Manufacturing Association’s Monthly Precision Manufacturing Publication

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
National Tooling & Machining Association

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Record is NTMA's Monthly Precision Manufacturing Publication - including updates from the desk of the NTMA President, industry-focused news articles, updates on our members and chapters, and fantastic feature pieces. It also provides information you and your shop can use on benefits, workforce development, and more.

You can find a full archive of the digital versions of our publication below.

The Record Newsletter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Record - National Tooling & Machining Association

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Record is NTMA's Monthly Precision Manufacturing Publication - including updates from the desk of the NTMA President, industry-focused news articles, updates on our members and chapters, and fantastic feature pieces. It also provides information you and your shop can use on benefits, workforce development, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
List of publications related to manufacturing and engineering including additive manufacturing and 3d printing publications.

# data[].attributes.body
www.americanmachinist.com

# data[].attributes.body
www.fabricatingandmetalworking.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The WELDER, formerly known as Practical Welding Today, is a showcase of the real people who make the products we use and work with every day. This magazine has served the welding community in North America well for more than 20 years.

# data[].attributes.headline
Minuteman Library Media Center Databases Page

# data[].attributes.subject
Minuteman Library Media Center Databases Page

# data[].attributes.body
Use the A-Z list or browse by shop. www.minutemanhs.libguides.com/databases

# data[].attributes.body
The New York Times is offering free digital subscriptions for students. A teacher must set it up, so please let me know if you'd like one.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Live news, investigations, opinion, photos and video by the journalists of The New York Times from more than 150 countries around the world. Subscribe for coverage of U.S. and international news, politics, business, technology, science, health, arts, sports and more.

# data[].attributes.body
www.news.google.com