Be Paranoid, Android: Here Come the Humans

Let’s make sure we have a well-educated manufacturing workforce, and then let’s get out of their—and our—way.

A little planning goes a long way in ensuring your first automation project’s success. Here are four steps that will help identify the right products and processes ripe for automation and the right initial project to put a “win” on the board and catalyze automation.

With the move to a more digital experience, innovators everywhere will have a more straightforward way to submit their designs for manufacturing, receive feedback, and track progress.

We started Bright Machines to fundamentally change the way manufacturers build products – so that no disruption (however big or small) can get in the way of scalable production. This year validated that goal more than ever, and we’re proud to have been able to support our customers.

In 2021, manufacturing will see a fundamental shift in how its leaders view progressive change – from unrealized vision to practical reality. As a result, an industry that’s nimbler and more flexible will emerge. Here are five ways we believe the industry will evolve next year.

2020 has been a whirlwind for just about everyone, but it has been a roller coaster in the world of manufacturing. To reflect on this tumultuous time, we’ve assembled six important manufacturing stories from 2020.

Early automation shouldn’t be an afterthought for product assembly. When leveraged early, automation allows for rigorous process development, seamless retooling, and ultimately gets products to market faster.

By implementing Bright Machines Microfactories into AQS factories, their vision to streamline their assembly is becoming a reality – they look forward to outstanding outcomes, including improved OEE.

US manufacturing policies should enable the industry to compete and thrive in a global marketplace while optimizing for sustainability and job creation.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to building out an assembly playbook, but well-thought-out implementation can make factory output much smoother when automation is introduced into the process.

Every so often, we are reminded that modern manufacturing is actually quite fragile despite years of optimization. The coronavirus pandemic has provided a brutal reminder of this fact, but significant manufacturing disruptions are not new.

Software-Defined Manufacturing strategies leverage software, computer vision, machine learning, adaptive robotics … and the current workforce.

Bright Machines offers the industry ten fundamental differences, including being software-defined.

Lately, it appears to have become fashionable to bash robots and automation. The talk track goes something along the lines of “more hype than reality” or “humans are better” or “even the smartest have failed.”

Bright Machines announces new features to microfactories that equip manufacturers with the tools they need to be both informed and efficient as well as help them manage pandemic specific risks and future-proof against such unforeseen outlier events.

Albert Yanez Sr., Corporate EVP & President of the Americas at Asteelflash USA, talks about factory resiliency, reshoring manufacturing, and why the company is betting on Bright Machines to support their move to automation for assembly.

Bright Machines Microfactories have proven to deliver numerous benefits for screwdriving system assembly: improving product quality, creating lines that can be deployed fast, and that respond to changing demand, improving scalability, and producing high yield.

Automation continues to get better. It is already excelling at the repetitive assembly steps which used to slow down and add cost to smart-meter production. A smarter, faster, more productive production line is only a conversation away.

Bright Machines named a 2020 BloombergNEF Pioneer, selected for our innovative technology, potential to scale, and industry momentum.

Bright Machines Microfactory reaches one year milestone, enabling customers to improve scale, efficiency and quality.

Today, more than ever, manufacturers of household appliances are looking for ways to reduce per-unit production costs without sacrificing the ability to scale when growth opportunities present themselves. And that opportunity, despite or perhaps even fanned by COVID-19, looks promising, with Allied Market Research projecting global demand for home appliances growing more than 25% to a cool $750 billion by 2025

Bright Machines announces the Factory Resiliency Fund, up to $50M to help manufacturers put our automated microfactories to work and not be constrained by their access to capital.

As the corona virus has spread, worldwide supply chains were interrupted, followed by an unprecedented shift in product demand and most recently by mandated factory shutdowns imposed on non-essential product manufacturing lines. The author discusses the impact of these disruptions and explores how we can mitigate these forces that threaten to destabilize manufacturing.

Bright Machines team members in our Tel Aviv office engaged in an opportunity to put their engineering expertise and our technology to use by collaborating with Ichilov Hospital Laboratory,  Impact Lab and iCobots to establish a non-human testing line for Covid-19.

One networking equipment manufacturer found itself running into a (fire)wall as it fielded a team of human operators for heat sink assembly. Using a Bright Machines Microfactory it re-imagined and re-energized manufacturing processes.

As the world feels the full weight of the Covid-19 crisis, we should individually prioritize the safety of ourselves, our families, friends, neighbors and communities. But in times like these, I believe companies also have a special responsibility to support their employees, communities and customers. Coronavirus poses a serious and immediate concern for companies around the world and directly affects the health and safety of tens of thousands of people.

In the past, networking equipment manufacturers looking to automate their assembly lines may have balked at the implementation times of first-generation automation solutions, which typically took 12-18 months to implement. Today’s next-generation automation showcases radically better implementation times.

Reskilling an entire workforce is no small feat and not the responsibility of any one party. Success relies on support from a complex web of institutions from government, to industry, to academia. Still, technology companies can play a more proactive role by considering the following factors.

No matter how big or small, possible disruptions can impede your manufacturing operation at any time. In order to ensure a healthy supply chain, one that can seamlessly weather uncertain storms, it’s imperative for today’s manufacturers to incorporate local-first strategies.

By Greg Eden, CMO, Bright Machines Automation is good for manufacturers and, ultimately, the people buying and using the products being made. So, why isn’t it much more pervasive in today’s factories? […]

As speakers have evolved from music players to multi-faceted smart devices, including the voice user interfaces of a growing legion of digital assistants, their presence at home and work has grown. Audio devices of all shapes and sizes, built by a variety of manufacturers, are everywhere.

Bright Machines Microfactories increase production and lower cost per unit.

In 2002, Diagnostics for the Real World (DRW) began with a lofty but admirable goal: to tackle the world’s most serious infectious diseases through breakthrough point-of-care diagnostics. Led by Dr. Helen Lee of the Diagnostics Development Unit at the University of Cambridge, our mission from day one has been to bring these technologies to resource-limited regions that otherwise lack access to advanced medical care. Throughout the years, we’ve managed to remain small and nimble, focused first and foremost on maintaining the quality and accuracy of our SAMBA diagnostic instruments and test cartridges. After all, when developing critical diagnostic tests for remote areas, the product performance simply cannot be compromised.

By Bartosz Mazurek, VP Electronics Segment, Bright Machines Electronics manufacturing has seen a good deal of transformation in the last few decades – the implementation of advanced pick and place was a […]

Automation technologies are nothing new. Since the dawn of time, new inventions have been introduced into society with the ultimate goal to help improve our lives. From the wheel to the printing press, the powerful impact of automation is inevitable in shaping our future. And whether or not we welcome these advances with open arms, these forms of automation have had a profound impact on the way we produce, purchase and participate in our society.