Autodesk Puts PLM in the Cloud

For small design shops and large corporations, no-muss, no-fuss Autodesk PLM 360 is a sophisticated, cloud-based PLM system available to “anyone, anytime, anywhere”—and inexpensively. PLM is nothing without reporting capabilities. Here, the bar chart shows the number of ECOs created per month—on top of a line showing the previous year’s monthly average for ECO creation. […]

Advancing Manufacturing Technology at Ford

Ford is deploying its 3-Wet paint process in facilities around the world—both in greenfield and brownfield sites. The process not only provides environmental benefits through the reduction of emissions, but requires significantly less energy, reduces the footprint of the paint shop, and accelerates vehicle throughput, all without sacrificing anything in the way of quality paint […]

Advancing Manufacturing with Manufacturing Software

The new Max Trochoidal Width parameter in Esprit 2016’s ProfitMilling strategy allows passes to vary from wide to narrow, which lets machinists generate trochoidal movements for any size or shape pocket. The New Hole Recognition feature in Esprit 2016 automatically recognizes different types of holes, including partial and coaxial holes, and names them accordingly. It […]

Acura and ADAS

Acura is finding increased interest in ADAS, particularly among Millennial customers. Will advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technology make a difference to customers for luxury cars and crossovers, especially younger ones? Jon Ikeda, vice president and general manager of Acura, thinks so. “We are working toward a zero-collision society, and this approach”—as in equipping vehicles […]

A Brief History of smart: Production Car As Fashion Statement

The smart car lineup for the U.S. consists of three fortwo models, with the most visible difference being the convertible version (“passion cabriolet). The other two are similar, although the entry model, “pure,” has less content than the more-upscale “passion.” Most of the people who have made $99 “reservations” with smart USA are opting for […]

Introducing “IoT Platforms” – Part II

These are the core components of ThingWorx, an IoT platform. Related: Digital Domain As with so many things, the devil is in the details when comparing Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. The following overview of two such platforms is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison, but it should give an indication of the breadth of such products. […]