The Rise of Distributed Manufacturing, MFG Day Highlights, and More

It may be hard to believe but, in case you missed last fall's Manufacturing Day 2013, we're already half way to this year's celebration. To mark the six-month occasion, this week's round-up is a reminder of how manufacturing has evolved over recent decades, what it means on a national and global scale, and how models of the near future will yet again change the game. 

[Infographic] What Manufacturing Really Looks Like

Last October, we contributed to MFG Day through the sharing of events, articles, case studies, and other content within our social networks while tens of thousands of other individuals with a passion for manufacturing contributed in other ways. Guess what, we’re half way to MFG Day ’14. This infographic (right) discusses manufacturing from various perspectives, including enablement through job creation, economic benefits, and last year’s results from MFG Day. Full infographic and article here.

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The Rise of Distributed Manufacturing and 7 Advantages over Traditional Manufacturing

This article provides a foundation for thinking of how your manufacturing practices may change in the years to come as more and more organizations are moving away from traditional approaches. Adam Robinson of Cerasis provides insight into distributed manufacturing practices, leveraging a large number of partner factories and mind pools to create agile supply chains. Robinson backs his discussion with seven advantages of distributed manufacturing and why this process is believed to become the norm. Read more.

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Takeaways from 2014 IPC APEX EXPO

LNS President and Principal Analyst, Matthew Littlefield, was in attendance at this year’s APEX EXPO which took place March 23-27. Littlefield not only had the chance to speak during the EMS Management Council session, but also to participate in the latest industry announcements and meet many of the exhibitors.

During the EMC Management Council session, discussion was focused on the following and we have provided the presentation slides for your review:

• The trend toward reducing cost and improving quality
• The increased participation on the supply chain from OEMs
• The importance of Operational Excellence for maintaining competitiveness
• The role of Operational Excellence in responding to the upcoming Conflict Minerals legislation [this topic generated the most discussion among the group]

During the event, Mentor Graphics announced the launch of Lean NPI solution. The goal of this is to perform Design for Manufacturability analysis earlier in the process based on actual production data located within Valor. Compare this to performing it later in the overall process, which can generate multiple feedback loops between board design and manufacturing with engineering change orders.

4 Critical Components Missing from Most Cost of Quality Programs

There has been an increase in industry focus on quality, and our research team has been recognizing the positivity around implementing cost of quality (CoQ) programs. CoQ measures four buckets: the costs of internal and external failures and the costs of correcting and preventing those failures. Because it translates quality costs into quantifiable terms executives understand, the cost of quality is increasingly being seen as a must-have continuous improvement tool. However, quality teams are often leaving out critical areas of measurement during execution. Four missing components.

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