All Features
Ryan E. Day
Aquiline Drones Corp. (AD) quips that, “All roads lead to AI.” Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) integration make that statement hard to argue against, and the astute application of AI to AD’s cloud-based services also makes a lot of sense. So, smart drones are a real thing. But…
Amrou Awaysheh
You’ll probably hear the term “net-zero emissions” a lot over the coming weeks as government leaders and CEOs under pressure talk about how they’ll reduce their countries’ or businesses’ impact on climate change. Amazon, for example, just announced that more than 200 companies have now joined The…
Tom Stacey
Europeans and other Western nations have dominated automotive excellence for more than a century. Whether it is the satisfying thud of the door closing on a Volkswagen from Wolfsburg, or the beauty of a Ferrari from Modena, these brands are iconic—and very lucrative for their manufacturers. When we…
Tad Haas
According to Forbes, employees whose voices are heard are nearly five times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.
Every team leader must keep their employees engaged and motivated so that they can benefit from their expertise. They can achieve this by taking a holistic approach…
Chip Bell
Necessity is the mother of invention. And few things are more necessary to the success of an organization than customers. Leave that thought on the page, and we will return to it shortly.
Napoleon knew that a military force’s success directly correlated to the food it was provided. He offered a…
John Hayes
Read any article on automated warehouse vehicles, and it’s pretty easy to see there is a lot of hype. Although automation in automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs)—my specialty—have come a long way, they are not replacing all warehouse workers.
In an interview with…
Andrew Maynard
Elon Musk announced a humanoid robot designed to help with those repetitive, boring tasks people hate doing. Musk suggested it could run to the grocery store for you, but presumably it would handle any number of tasks involving manual labor.
Predictably, social media immediately filled with…
Lauren Dunford
Manufacturing is stepping up investment as the U.S. economy recovers from the challenges of 2020. Nearly 40 percent of manufacturers have increased CapEx spending, with less than 7 percent planning to spend less, the National Association of Manufacturers reports.
With that investment, factories…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
You may work in a state-of-the-art lab, but do your ergonomic practices still linger in the 19th century? If you spend more than five hours a day at a microscope, leave work with blurred vision and a persistent downward tilt to your neck, then the answer is, sadly, yes. In that case it’s time you…
Joe Chew, Jeroen van Tilborg
The Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed and tested an innovative optical system to precisely measure and control the position and pointing angle of high-power laser beams with unprecedented…
Sana Kazilbash
Davis Technical College, a community college in Utah, is offering the United State’s first-ever CNC machining training course for blind students. The institute’s pilot course, CNC Enhanced, was completed in fall 2020 by three visually impaired students—who proved so successful that they are now…
Peter Dizikes
First published August 25, 2021, on MIT News.
In 2010, the city of Rio de Janeiro opened its Operations Center, a high-tech command post centralizing the activities of 30 agencies. With its banks of monitors looming over rows of employees, the center brings flows of information to city leaders…
Ann Brady
Better buying power, greater efficiencies, and more innovative ideas are not just for big businesses. The publication of ISO 44003 is helping smaller players flex their collective muscle by making the most of strategic partnerships.
How many of us cooped up at home during the lockdowns and travel…
Clare Naden
Remember the days when large paper maps filled the car, and holidays were booked by a travel agent? Neither do most people. Technology had already revolutionized the world of travel before Covid-19, and the trend has been catapulted as many more things move to digital. From virtual-reality tours to…
Ann Brady
Innovation is the fuel that drives a successful business. Organizations that give their managers and employees the tools to respond to and make the most of opportunities, both internal and external, are well placed to grow profits, improve the health and well-being of their employees, and thereby,…
Mayank Kejriwal
Imagine you’re having friends over for lunch and plan to order a pepperoni pizza. You recall Amy mentioning that Susie had stopped eating meat. You try calling Susie, but when she doesn’t pick up, you decide to play it safe and just order a margherita pizza instead.
People take for granted the…
Boris Babic, Sara Gerke, Theodoros Evgeniou, I. Glenn Cohen
For many of us, our electronic device can be a communications lifeline, entertainment system, and professional networking hub. If trends continue, it may become our health advisor as well.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) medical apps are a growing segment of the $10 billion market for healthcare…
Susan Robertson
Most people who work in a corporate environment are familiar with some type of personal style indicator—Meyers Briggs Type Indicator, Strengths Finder, DISC profile, and others. However, there’s a less well-known one that’s particularly relevant and useful in innovation, and it’s specific to your…
Edis Osmanbasic
In June 2021, Google enriched its Google Cloud Platform with Visual Inspection AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, purpose-built solution designed to quickly and accurately detect defects and errors in a variety of production pipelines.
It is a continuation of Google’s previous efforts to…
Zach Winn
This story was originally published by MIT News.
For small healthcare groups like dentist’s offices, one sick staff member can mean a day’s worth of cancelled appointments. Such offices can either continue short-staffed, which could negatively affect patient care, or reschedule appointments,…
Saligrama Agnihothri
Health-tracking devices and apps are becoming part of everyday life. More than 300,000 mobile phone applications claim to help with managing diverse personal health issues, from monitoring blood glucose levels to conceiving a child.
But so far the potential for health-tracking apps to improve…
M. Mitchell Waldrop, Knowable Magazine
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.
If the cascading upheavals of the past year have done nothing else, they’ve spurred widespread calls for reform and renewal in just about every institution we have.
A mishandled public-health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an economic…
Dawn Bailey
The spirit of service—for a small clinic started in 1913 to provide free care to Los Angeles (LA)—lives today in the servant-leader aspirations of 2019 Baldrige Award recipient Adventist Health White Memorial (AHWM), a 353-bed, safety-net hospital.
The community of two million people that AHWM…
John Preston
‘This government is obsessed with skilling up our population,” said Boris Johnson in his recent speech on “leveling up.” There’s still a fair amount of uncertainty about exactly what the United Kingdom prime minister’s plan to level up the regions will involve, but manufacturing and skills seem…
Dave Pierson
I’ve heard additive manufacturing is key to driving innovation in our industry, but how does it really deliver value? We’ve looked at some additive manufacturing machines, but how can we justify the expense when we’re trying to eliminate our capital expenditures? Is additive manufacturing worth the…
