Better Product Design Through a Simple Square ChartDesign structure matrix analysis helps improve products and organizations
Fri, 08/03/2012 - 13:07
Suppose you were asked to streamline the process of real estate development. Or to better organize the offices of an international manufacturer. Or to explain how the parts of a digital printer interact. The complexities of all these tasks would… Aircraft Engineered with Failure in Mind May Last LongerNew design approach tailors planes to fly in the face of likely failures
Mon, 06/25/2012 - 10:53
Complex systems inhabit a “gray world” of partial failures: While a system may continue to operate as a whole, bits and pieces inevitably degrade. Over time, these small failures can add up to a single catastrophic failure, incapacitating the system… Robotic Assistants May Adapt to Humans in the FactoryNew algorithm allows robots and humans to work side by side
Thu, 06/14/2012 - 14:26
In today’s manufacturing plants, the division of labor between humans and robots is quite clear: Large, automated robots are typically cordoned off in metal cages, manipulating heavy machinery and performing repetitive tasks, while humans work in… Exploding the Myths of ManufacturingContrary to popular opinion, the industry is not in a state of terminal decline
Tue, 06/05/2012 - 11:51
The manufacturing sector, its advocates note, is burdened by negative stereotypes. Outsiders often mistakenly think that manufacturing consists of jobs that are “dumb, dirty, and dull,” as MIT President Susan Hockfield said during a recent… The Secrets of the SystemMIT’s ‘Beer Game’ sheds light on the mysteries of manufacturing and business
Fri, 05/04/2012 - 09:18
“Everyone, take your order slips and move the shipment to the left,” says Nelson Repenning, a professor of systems dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “Factories, brew beer.”
With that, six groups of high-achieving managers from a… Engineering a Safer WorldFor our increasingly complex systems, safety requires more than harmless parts
Thu, 04/26/2012 - 15:44
Innovations in software and technology are creating increasingly complex systems: cars that park themselves; medical devices that automatically deliver drugs; and smartphones with the computing power of desktop computers, to name a few. Such complex… A Tough CalculationStudy: Female students wary of the engineering workplace
Thu, 04/05/2012 - 09:17
Why don’t more women enter the male-dominated profession of engineering? Some observers have speculated it may be due to the difficulties of balancing a demanding career with family life. Others have suggested that women may not rate their own… Calculating the Cost of Advanced Manufacturing The Environmentally Benign Manufacturing research group studies the life cycle of new technologies
Tue, 03/27/2012 - 10:02
For Tim Gutowski, advanced manufacturing is an opportunity not just to boost employment, but also to improve the environment.
Gutowski heads MIT’s Environmentally Benign Manufacturing research group, which looks at the environmental cost and impact… When (and Where) Work DisappearsOutsourced manufacturing wipes out one-third of per-capita gains realized by trade with China
Wed, 02/29/2012 - 10:35
The loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs is a topic that can provoke heated arguments about globalization. But what do the cold, hard numbers reveal? How has the rise in foreign manufacturing competition actually affected the U.S. economy and its workers… Putting Lab Life Under the Lens Economist Scott Stern advances the scientific study of, well, scientists
Tue, 02/14/2012 - 11:35
Scott Stern doesn’t work in a laboratory or have a degree in the hard sciences. You’ll never find him using a genome sequencer or an MRI scanner. Yet he knows more about some aspects of science than almost any practicing scientist does.
That’s…
