Tag Archives: Manufacturing

GoPro Factory Goes Nomad to Dodge Tarrif Threat

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Despite the fact that the United States and China are currently in the middle of a 90-day “cease fire” in their ongoing trade war, with new tariffs on hold until March 2019 while the two countries try to reach agreement, not everyone is waiting around to see who comes out on top. In a recent press release, action camera manufacturer GoPro has announced their intention to move some production out of China in the face of potential tariff expansions; which many analysts fear will be the result of the current stalemate. That’s right, only some of their production is moving. …read more

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Young Entrepreneurs Learn What Really Goes Into Making a Product

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Just to be clear, the primary goal of the Papas Inventeurs (Inventor Dads) was to have the kids make something, have fun, and learn. In that light, they enjoyed a huge success. Four children designed, made, and sold laser-cut napkin rings from a booth at the Ottawa Maker Faire as a fun learning process (English translation, original link in French.) [pepelepoisson] documented the entire thing from beginning to end with plenty of photos. Things started at proof of concept, then design brainstorming, prototyping, manufacture, booth design, and finally sales. While adults were involved, every step was done by the kids …read more

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Retrotechtacular: Some Of The Last CRTs From The Factory Floor

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It seems crazy having to explain what a piece of technology was like to someone who is barely fifteen years your junior, but yet we have reached that point when it comes to CRTs. There may still be remnants of CRT televisions and monitors left out in the wild, however, the chances that a kid preparing to enter high school has encountered one is slim. While there may be no substitute for the real thing, there is this raw video from [Glenn] who shared his tour of the Sony Trinitron assembly line in the early 2000s.

Sony Electronics’ cathode ray …read more

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A Tour Through the Archetypical Asian Factory

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Overseas factories can be sort of a mythical topic. News articles remind us that Flex (née Flextronics) employs nearly 200 thousand employees worldwide or that Foxconn is up to nearly a million. It must take an Apple-level of insider knowledge and capital to organize such a behemoth workforce, certainly something well past the level of cottage hardware manufacturing. And the manufacturing floor itself must be a temple to bead blasted aluminum and 20 axis robotic arms gleefully tossing products together. Right?

Well… the reality is a little different. The special sauce turns out to be people who are well trained …read more

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How Precise is That Part? Know Your GD&T

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How does a design go from the computer screen to something you hold in your hand? Not being able to fully answer this question is a huge risk in manufacturing because . One of the important tools engineers use to ensure success is Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).

A good technical drawing is essential for communicating your mechanical part designs to a manufacturer. Drafting, as a professional discipline, is all about creating technical drawings that are as unambiguous as possible, and that means defining features explicitly. The most basic implementation of that concept is dimensioning, where you state the distance …read more

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Planned Obsolescence Isn’t A Thing, But It Is Your Fault

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The common belief is that big companies are out to get the little people by making products that break after a short period, or with substantially new features or accessories that make previous models obsolete, requiring the user to purchase a new model. This conspiracy theory isn’t true; there’s a perfectly good explanation for this phenomenon, and it was caused by the consumers, not the manufacturers.

When we buy the hottest, shiniest, smallest, and cheapest new thing we join the wave of consumer demand that is the cause of what often gets labelled as “Planned Obsolescence”. In truth, we’re all …read more

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Week 33 Cyberattack Digest 2018 – Cosmos Bank, Adams County, Apple and others

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It is Monday again, and we are ready to give you an overlook on the latest incidents in the sphere of cyber security. As you remember, for a couple of weeks, the attention of attackers has been totally drawn to healthcare organizations, and this vector… Continue reading Week 33 Cyberattack Digest 2018 – Cosmos Bank, Adams County, Apple and others→

Manufacturing: A Rising Target for Cybercriminals

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Every morning, I start my day by reading email about the latest cybersecurity news. These emails almost always involve data breaches or malware targeting a retail outlet, a restaurant, a healthcare company or a financial institution. What do these cyb… Continue reading Manufacturing: A Rising Target for Cybercriminals→

Threatlist: Manufacturing, a Top Target for Espionage

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Vectra’s 2018 Spotlight Report found that attackers can easily spy, spread and steal information, largely unhindered by the insufficient internal access controls that are in place. Continue reading Threatlist: Manufacturing, a Top Target for Espionage→

RiskRecon’s security assessment services for third party vendors raises $25 million

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In June of this year, Chinese hackers managed to install software into the networks of a contractor for the U.S. Navy and steal information on a roughly $300 million top secret submarine program. Two years ago, hackers infiltrated the networks of a vendor servicing the Australian military and made off with files containing a trove […] Continue reading RiskRecon’s security assessment services for third party vendors raises $25 million→