The latest figures from the CBI show that manufacturing output growth slowed in the quarter to February.
The survey of 366 manufacturers found that total and export order books strengthened on the last month, while remaining comfortably above their respective long-run averages.
Fujitsu is to close its last remaining production facility in Europe as the PC maker moves its product business to Japan.
The company plans to shutter its product development, manufacturing, and logistics centre in Augsburg, in southern Germany, by September 2020 “at the latest”.
The move will directly affect 1,500 employees, in addition to another 300 situated elsewhere in Germany. Fujitsu, which employs around 5,500 staff across the country, claims it is looking for “socially acceptable” solutions for all employees affected by the change. This means it has ruled out dispatching the staff with a samurai sword in the office carpark.
The US National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has written to congressional and Federal Communications Commission leaders to oppose stricter regulations for Internet service providers.
The FCC is hatching out new plans that would dictate internet service providers’ freedom to manage web traffic on their networks, aiming to ensure that ISPs do not discriminate against any content in ways that could harm competition or consumers.
President Barack Obama wants the FCC to have the strictest rules possible to protect net neutrality. He suggested a legal pathway that would reclassify internet service so it is regulated like a utility.
Needless to say the telecom and cable companies think this will stop them from charging their consumers twice for the same service and they say this will be a bad idea.
NAM wrote that current proposals to regulate the Internet with early 20th Century–era laws severely threaten continued growth. It urged everyone to oppose any efforts to regulate the open Internet.
Though business groups NAM and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have both previously submitted comments to the FCC opposing utility-style Internet regulations.
Verizon and AT&T are among 14,000 members of the manufacturers’ association, so we guess we can see where the outfit is coming from.
“The internet and technology is a critical tool for manufacturers to grow their business,” NAM Technology Policy President Brian Raymond said in an interview. “(Our members) get concerned if the government is going to slow down their business in any way and they see this as one of those ways.”
Raymond pointed out that AT&T’s recent tactic of threatening to pause investments in new high-speed internet connections unless it gets is way is proof that an enforced open internet was a bad idea. Of course you could also argue that AT&T is just trying to scare the FCC into doing what it is told and it will lose a lose a lot of money in the long term if it does not move to high-speed internet connections.
“Whenever there’s a pause in investment by any kind of company due to regulatory uncertainty, it’s going to have a trickle-down effect on the whole manufacturing community,” Raymond said.
Despite high start up costs, more and more businesses are planning to use 3D printers for a whole variety of applications.
IDC surveyed 330 people employed by companies with 100 or more staff that are planning to deploy 3D printing.
The survey revealed that the primary uses are prototyping and product development, there are many other reasons for deploying 3D tech.
Pete Basiliere, an analyst at IDC, said that by 2018 nearly 50 percent of retail, heavy industry and life science manufacturers will employ 3D printers to make parts.
“Respondents felt overwhelmingly that using a 3D printer as part of their supply chain generally reduces the cost of existing processes, especially R&D csts,” he said. The cost reduction for finished products is around four percent.
When choosing a 3D printer, 37 percent of those surveyed ranked quality as the main factor, while 28 percent considered price the most important. And 37 percent of the 330 people said they had just one 3D printer and 18 percent owned 10 or more.
“3D printing vendors that take the time to articulate the value of their product in terms that align with their clients’ needs will be well positioned to capitalise on any future growth,” said Basiliere.
A report from a market research company said that security is becoming a key question for wireless networks used in industry.
IHS said that wireless network devices in factories worldwide will rise from 2.1 million in 2012 to 3.4 million by 2017.
Mark Watson, an associate director at IHS, said there’s a gorwing trend in the bring your own device (BYOD) in the manufacturing sectors, with people using both smartphones and tablets to monitor and control industrial equipment.
“Such devices may lack adequate security, offering hackers easy access to confidential data – or allowing them to spread malware through factory automation systems,” he said.
To counter the threat, some manufacturers are employing the so-called honeypot method – essentially a fake system that lets business monitor hacking threats.
He said that WirelessHAT and ISA 100.11a are the major industrial wireless technologies and used more in process industries, while WLAN and Bluetooth are more common in discreet industries.
LG Display is about to kickstart the mass production of smartphone bending display screens.
According to the Korea Times, the flexible displays are expected to be in the channel ready to ship to OEMs.
In a statement to the Times the company said that it had completed the development of its first flexible displays.
It will be using a 4.5th generation glass-cutting technology for the OLED flexible displays. Monthly capacity for the line was set as 12,000 sheets.
LG spokesman Frank Lee said there was a rapid need for display advancements.
Already LG is hoping to get the leg over its rivals by releasing a smartphone with the technology later this year..
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology used in the LG bendable display screens is apparently thinner, lighter, and more flexible than conventional LCD displays.
While it is unbreakable and bendable smartphones could curve with a user’s body movements so that the devices sit more comfortably in a pocket or pack into any number of compartments.
When the sudden rush of flexible screens come out, it could kickstart the smartphone market which has suddenly ground to a hold as the US and European market became saturated.
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