7 Ways to Promote Factory Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that 5,147 workers died on the job in 2017. That’s more than 14 deaths every day — and this figure doesn’t include all of the workplace accidents that resulted in serious injury and permanent disability. Even just a little education, awareness, and mindfulness can help make factory floors… Read more »

Robots and Humans: Who Makes a Better Manager?

Robots and humans have different strengths and weaknesses. If you need heavy lifting, lightning speed, and pinpoint accuracy without errors, you want a robot for the job. If the task requires nimble decision making, creativity, considering thoughts, feelings, and emotions, responsiveness, and the ability to adapt to circumstances, humans take the cake. You would think… Read more »

What’s the Fastest Way to Fix an Indramat System?

Downtime costs rack up quickly. It may seem as though finding a local repair shop in your town would be the fastest way to fix an Indramat system, but this is almost never the case. Indramat products haven’t been made in nearly 20 years. Your typical third party repair shops that don’t specialize in Indramat… Read more »

Humans Need to Get More Human to Stay Ahead of Automation

What will become of the human work force? We’re seeing an unprecedented level of automation in the workplace, and the forecast calls for more robots. Some people are throwing in the towel, accepting the fate of a worthless worker, and figuring out the logistics for a universal basic income to ensure that an unemployable human… Read more »

The Tortoise, the Hare, and Indramat Repair

Nearly everyone knows the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. The tale is number 226 of Aesop’s Fables, and it’s often used to demonstrate the importance of patience, perseverance, work ethic, and dedication. These are great all qualities to possess, but the lessons learned from the Tortoise and the Hare don’t always apply. Take… Read more »

Is Universal Basic Income the Answer to Automation?

People are panicking about automation. Specifically, people are worried that increasing automation and robotization will result in large populations that are unemployable. Automating all of the low skill jobs means that only the highly skilled, trained, and educated will be able to earn a living. So what will we do with the unemployed? Some people… Read more »

A Constant In Manufacturing

If you don’t like the weather in (insert name of state or region), just wait a few minutes. The saying is attributed to Mark Twain who was commenting on the sheer volatility of New England’s climate, but it seems as though most regions claim it as their own. The state of manufacturing isn’t quite as… Read more »

Who Is Qualified to Work on Indramat Products?

Trust only qualified personnel when you need troubleshooting support, service, or repair for your Indramat motion control system. There’s significant risk involved when you go to a third party for Indramat repairs. Working on Indramat products requires special knowledge, skill, and expertise that a general repair shop may or may not possess. So how do… Read more »

(Robotic) Dog for Lease: Boston Dynamics’ First Commercial Robot

The crew at Boston Dynamics are rock stars in the world of robotics. The world goes mad every time they release a wry and edgy video showing their robots’ latest advancements (and very often kicking them). Then, everyone sits, waits, and patiently hits refresh at the Boston Dynamics YouTube page until they upload another. It’s… Read more »

Robots Can’t See Beyond What’s on Paper

Sometimes things that look good “on paper” don’t end up working well in practice. For example a team can have better athletes in every position, a better coach, and a better record, but still lose to the underdogs. Everything from forms of government to business strategies to romantic relationships that seem fail-proof often fail. That’s… Read more »