Lean Digital Thread

August 17, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: The Manufacturing Metaverse Revisited

In my May column, I talked about the hype around the metaverse and looked at how the technology may be leveraged by manufacturers in the future. Because the metaverse is only starting to be built, the topic was a bit abstract, but the recent announcement of a partnership between Siemens and NVIDIA brings the industrial metaverse one big step closer to (virtual) reality. In this column, I will discuss the new partnership, the technology each party brings to the table, and how manufacturers can benefit from the collaboration.

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June 29, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: The Secure Digital Thread

Securing intellectual property has become a priority for manufacturers, and recent reports from the U.S. and EU governments highlight the risks and direction for securing the supply chain. For example, in February, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published an assessment of supply chains supporting electronics manufacturing. Following closely in March, Europol released the 2022 Intellectual Property Crime Threat Assessment report, bringing attention to the risks counterfeit electronic components pose to supply chains. Let’s look at some of these recent publications and how they affect manufacturers.

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May 11, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: The Manufacturing Metaverse

If you follow technology news, you’re aware of the buzz about the metaverse. Even if you do not follow technology news, you have likely heard that Facebook has rebranded itself as “Meta” to align with its focus on the metaverse. You may be wondering what the metaverse is all about and how it applies to manufacturing. Zac Elliott of Siemens shares his perspective.

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April 12, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: Closing the Loop on Manufacturing

Throughout this series of articles, we have looked at the benefits of implementing a digital thread for electronics manufacturing. In this edition, I would like to close the loop (pun very much intended) on the lean digital thread and discuss closed-loop manufacturing. In closed-loop manufacturing (CLM) the systems and business processes used to design, plan, manufacture, and use a product are connected, thus enabling continuous improvement and self-organization of production processes.

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March 08, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: Keeping an Eye on Quality

So far in this series of articles, we have looked at current trends in the supply chain and the challenges facing manufacturers. In general, the takeaway has been that we must do more with less: We need to be more flexible while simultaneously decreasing labor input, and we need to be more efficient while also managing component shortages.

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February 16, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: Streamlining the Internal Supply Chain

In response to labor shortages exacerbated by the global pandemic, many manufacturers are leveraging digitalization and automation to reduce labor needs and improve productivity in the factory. This is not exactly a new trend, as many manufacturers have used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and automated production lines to drive their manufacturing operations for many years. However, as new processes are automated and existing automated lines are connected to the full factory, there are many pitfalls to avoid and challenges to overcome.

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January 19, 2022

Lean Digital Thread: Achieving Supply Chain Resilience

The shortage of semiconductor components emerged during a hypergrowth of demand for semiconductor chips. To emphasize the magnitude of the hypergrowth, the global semiconductor market is projected to grow from $452.2 billion in 2021 to $803.1 billion in 2028—almost 78% in just seven years, or an average of 8.5% annually. The combination of this growth in demand and the shortage of semiconductor chips poses a great challenge for the entire electronics industry and for manufacturers, particularly.

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December 15, 2021

Lean Digital Thread: (Pro)curing the Supply Chain Virus

Turn on the news and you’re likely to see images of something that was never considered newsworthy in the past—shipping containers. In fact, the entire supply chain has suddenly become big news due to the ongoing, severe global backlog that is preventing consumers from getting the goods they need on a timely basis. It’s a true global crisis. Since the supply chain crisis coincided with, and was hugely exacerbated by, the COVID-19 pandemic, many expect that it will be resolved when the pandemic recedes. However, that is not necessarily the case. Some major changes, such as increased demand (especially for electronics) and labor shortages, are likely to continue for many years into the future, becoming the new post-pandemic normal.

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November 11, 2021

Lean Digital Thread: Why is Everyone Suddenly Interested in Supply Chain?

Prior to the global pandemic, most people didn’t give the supply chain much thought. There was no reason to—consumers had become accustomed to simply clicking on an item on a website, and it would magically arrive on their doorstep the next day. What difference did it make how it got there and where its components were produced as long as everything was running smoothly? That reality has changed drastically in the past year and a half since the onset of the pandemic. Suddenly, it seems like there is a backlog of several months on every item, from cars to washing machines to books; the supply chain has become the headline news in leading publications.

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April 13, 2021

Lean Digital Thread: AI Wields Powerful Weapon in Counterfeit Components

The world is still very much in the middle of a pandemic that has been altering the global economy in multiple ways. For starters, millions of employees suddenly found themselves needing to have the technical resources to work from home, their children had to start attending elementary school via Zoom, and, as a result, the demand for technology has seen a recent spike to unprecedented levels.

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January 25, 2021

Lean Digital Thread: Achieving Operational Excellence Is a ‘Must Have’

Are current manufacturing processes no longer suitable for electronics? Newer consumer-buying patterns are pressuring factories to rely on technology to become more dynamic and agile. The latest technologies can be successful in streamlining certain processes, but the whole business process, entrenched in bad habits, merits real change. Here are five of the best positions for change.

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November 24, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: Micro-Solutions—Solving One Challenge at a Time

As promised, Sagi Reuven jumps back to the manufacturing floor and shares his thoughts on the role of a manufacturing execution system (MES), reporting, and analytics. Reuven describes in more detail the micro-solutions concept and why he thinks it will make a huge impact on achieving productivity excellence.

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October 21, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: Accelerating Global New Product Introduction

James Dyson once said, “Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It’s coming up with ideas, testing principles, and perfecting the engineering, as well as the final assembly.” In this column, Sagi Reuven describes the importance of process engineering or new product introduction (NPI) and how process engineers can make a big difference.

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September 30, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: DFM Is Now as Easy as Spellcheck

In past columns, Sagi Reuven has written about topics mostly related to the shop floor. In this column, he talks about design for manufacturing (DFM). It is clear to everyone in the Industry 4.0 era that the holy grail is to close the loop between design and manufacturing.

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August 26, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: Data-Driven Decisions and Micro-Solutions in Manufacturing

In past columns, Sagi Reuven has written about two pillars: (1) data collection and the basic questions you can answer, and (2) material management and its impact. In this column, he discusses the next level—changing the mindset from reporting to analytics and focusing on making small improvements.

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July 22, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: Driving Productivity Excellence—Lean PCB Manufacturing

During the last few months, thanks to COVID-19, Sagi Reuven felt the supply chain impact on our hardware production for the first time and hence dedicates this column to effective material management.

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June 16, 2020

Lean Digital Thread: Realizing ROI Starts With Making Smart Data

Sometimes, you think too much about the bits and bytes, and you forget why you started this journey; we’re all caught up in a tornado of marketing buzzwords. In Sagi Reuven's debut column, he shares how initialization has to start by turning data into smart data.

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