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Refrigerant firms in bid to prompt customer change
Andrew Gaved ManufacturingI have written here before about the way the F-Gas regulations in Europe were revised in such a way as to drive uptake of lower-GWP refrigerants, with their combination of production quotas and use bans. I have also written here before about the warnings from those familiar with the supply process.
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The root causes of poor communication on project teams
Sue Dyer Construction & Building MaterialsFor the past 10 years, I've asked project teams this question: "From your experience what it is that makes one project succeed and another fail?" Over 95 percent of team members said good communication was the reason for their success and poor communication was the reason for their failures. Clearly, communication appears to be the key to team success.
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How does industrial design work?
Renee Eaton EngineeringThe popularity of industrial design (also known as product design) has accelerated due, in part, to a new wave of designers and advances in technology, materials, processes and capabilities that have dramatically improved the design options available to clients. Working closely with engineers, industrial designers are trained on function, aesthetics, ergonomics, anthropometrics and manufacturing processes to provide clients with the best "working" concepts from sketches, to renderings, to CAD models that create their final products.
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Why ‘asbestos-free’ insulation may contain asbestos
Don Moses Facilities & GroundsIn June of 1996, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) lobbied the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to put a date in their new asbestos regulation — 29 CFR 1926.1101, the Occupational Exposure To Asbestos (Construction Industry Standard) — to say all materials installed after 1980 were, in essence, not asbestos-containing materials.
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Where are the women? Male-dominated workplaces need to diversify
Danielle Manley Distribution & WarehousingOver the past century, women have made significant strides in achieving equality in workplaces, everything from narrowing the pay gap to increasing women in leadership and senior management roles. However, when taking a closer look at individual industries, it's apparent that the push for gender equality is just beginning to affect traditionally male-dominated industries like construction and mining.
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A look into the future of the cooling industry
Andrew Gaved EngineeringWhat will the cooling industry look like in 2030? It's a bold question that was asked just before Christmas by the European cooling and ventilation groups EPEE and EVIA. In their collaborative conference named "EUREKA 2016: Heating, Cooling & Ventilation: Sustainable technologies for a better life," they brought experts from around the industry together to imagine what the so-called Generation Z would require from their refrigeration and HVAC — and thus how the industry would need to adapt to create the conditions.
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Intel’s latest move puts spotlight on tech side of autonomous cars
Ross Lancaster Science & TechnologyThe line between the automotive and tech industries is perpetually being blurred. In fact, CES — the tech world's giant annual electronics show in Las Vegas that takes place every January — featured so much auto technology this year that observers joked that the letters no longer stood for "Consumer Electronics Show," but rather "Car Electronics Show."
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Going low tech: When 3-D scanning just won’t work
Renee Eaton EngineeringWhen designing a product or part, many people take inspiration from what's around them and end up looking to have an object 3-D scanned in order to modify or reproduce it. In 3-D scanning, the term "reverse engineering" has a specific meaning: converting the messy point cloud or polygonal data into a file better suited for engineering CAD software (e.g., STEP, IGES or native SolidWorks files).
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Welcome home: Manufacturers are near‑shoring again under Trump
Delany Martinez ManufacturingIn recent years, it looked like inversion would become the new law of the land for many industries in the United States. The trend was led in part by the high-profile case of U.S.-based Burger King buying Canada-based Tim Hortons to "relocate" and dodge domestic taxes.
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Somali pirates are back: How will this affect your supply chain?
Ryan Diller Distribution & WarehousingAt the turn of the decade, Somali pirate attacks on shipping vessels were an international epidemic, with 237 attacks occurring in 2011 alone. Such attacks rapidly dropped off, though, and following the release of 2013's Oscar-nominated "Captain Phillips," the sensation all but disappeared from media coverage.
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