Manufacturing and innovation have always gone hand-in-hand. Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, manufacturers have been willing to explore new technologies and new approaches that could help them improve product quality, increase efficiency, and achieve better business outcomes.
Today, we are in a new industrial era catalyzed by the accelerating pace of digital transformation and continuing advances in everything from sensor technology to materials science and beyond. At the same time, manufacturers are facing new challenges, from unstable supply chains and shortages of skilled labor to a new awareness of the impact of their activities on communities and the environment.
Their response today, as in the past, is continued innovation. These talks from the AU Theater in 2023 show how industry leaders are finding new ways to digitize operations and deploy emerging technologies to unlock new possibilities in manufacturing and chart a course for greater success in the future.
Successful Digital Twins Will Depend on Successful Standardization in Digital Factories
Have you ever stopped to consider that every product you use, from your coffee mug to the chair you're sitting on, began its journey as a simple 2D drawing? The challenge of the manufacturing process is bringing these 2D shapes to life in 3D using real materials. As director of digital twins at Flex, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, Zohair Mehkri believes that digital twins can help us move beyond the 2D approach the industry has always accepted and embrace a 3D perspective from the beginning that supports transformation and collaboration. This requires optimization not only in the fabrication, but in the design and engineering process, enabling the digital and the physical worlds to constantly inform each other.
Innovating to Deliver Defense Availability
A number of factors distinguish manufacturing for military use from other types of manufacturing. For one thing, the products tend to be highly specialized, complex, and manufactured in low volumes. They also tend to have long lifecycles—many must operate for decades. And it’s difficult to predict exactly how they’ll be used during that time under the dynamic conditions of combat. Jonathan Morley of the Babcock Group shares the challenges of managing production and maintenance of specialized equipment such as air ambulances and naval frigates and the inherent difficulty of maintaining a supply chain for every part on every platform. To address these issues, Babcock has established a new digital engineering and manufacturing team, capable of re-engineering parts and manufacturing them in innovative ways. Morley shares one project involving the “light gun,” a critical weapon on the battlefield, and their creation of a sustainable supply chain for parts. The team is now focused on scaling their solutions, improving affordability, and enhancing sustainability in the defense industry.
BOLT: Building Optimization by Leveraging Technology
“Building the building before it’s built”—that’s the goal Joseph Zabrosky and his team embrace as they imagine, design, model, and finally construct new factories for Tesla. As lead for BIM, VDC, and reality capture at Tesla Technologies, Zabrosky has developed a new acronym that defines his approach: Building Optimization Leveraging Technology (BOLT), an approach that encourages collaboration, data sharing, and unified working environments. The goal? To continuously improve their processes through the active involvement of all team members. He also highlights the importance of sustainable design, which is at the heart of Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.
Learn more about the future of manufacturing anytime at AU.