In manufacturing, machines mean productivity. But whether or not they translate to profit depends on several factors, the most intrinsic of which is the machine's quality of work.

Consider a drill press, for example. There's a cost beyond materials and labor for each hole it produces. If the hole is within spec, this cost can be considered neutral. But if the hole's out-of-spec, the cost can be quite high, especially if it requires rework or a recall.

This puts a lot of pressure, as well as importance, on the people most responsible for the quantity and quality of work produced by today's machines. And those people, the guys who make machines do what they're supposed to do, are motion system engineers.

Now not everyone can spot a "motion system engineer," which is one reason why some manufacturers are finding it difficult to compete. They haven’t figured out that just because the word "automation," "control," or "manufacturing" shows up on someone's resume doesn’t mean that person understands the physics required to make a machine drill a good hole. All it means is that, if a machine drills bad holes, they can make it drill more bad holes in a given period of time, and perhaps under the control of computers rather than humans. Big deal.

Next time, we'll discuss how to identify motion engineers. I'll give you a hint, though: Titles have nothing to do with it.

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Berardinis: They haven’t figured out that just because the word "automation," "control," or "manufacturing" shows up on someone's resume doesn’t mean that person understands the physics required to make a machine drill a good hole. All it means is that, if a machine drills bad holes, they can make it drill more bad holes in a given period of time, and perhaps under the control of computers rather than humans. Big deal.

You hit the nail on the head. farr ro often I've seen systems that cannot live up to their potential throughput simply because (what to me at least) are simple basic design flaws such as ignoring Newtons First Law: For every action their is an equal and opposite reaction.

Translate that to "If you are accellerating a load with precision motion equipment, the structure of the machine has to withstand it or things shake..."

Cheers.

Yikes! I really need to do a spell check before posting ;-}