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Do you know where your packages are?
Danielle Manley Distribution & WarehousingWith everyone moving to online shopping and home delivery, the retail and delivery industries are experiencing many changes. Some companies are testing different delivery options that will make them stand apart from the crowd; others are studying the delivery process to determine where they can improve.
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Best of plastics: Bioplastics
Don Rosato EngineeringBy way of an introduction definition, the term bioplastics is not limited to biodegradable or compostable plastics made from natural materials such as corn or starch. With its low cost and low toxicity, carbon dioxide is an attractive carbon feedstock for the synthesis of polymers.
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Global HFC agreement is historic, but now the work really starts
Andrew Gaved Facilities & GroundsLet me start by saying well done to all those from outside of Europe who were involved in the historic agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, to phase down HFCs around the world. The choice of the word "monumental" by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was an apt one.
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What are the traits of the ideal manufacturing worker?
Alan Kelsky ManufacturingFrequently, the American public has been told by all kinds of media outlets that there are loads of vacant manufacturing jobs because U.S. workers do not have the skills needed by manufacturing employers.
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Best of plastics: Medical
Don Rosato EngineeringThe medical device industry is making important contributions to advances in healthcare, and this sector is characterized by a high level of innovation and intense competition. One of the interesting aspects of research and development within the medical devices field is the coupling of diverse biomedical and engineering disciplines.
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Big changes may be coming to how pharmaceuticals are made
Alan Kelsky PharmaceuticalBefore there were drug companies, there were medicine men, shamans and doctors with limited training. Nevertheless, the manufacturing of drugs has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. Back in the days when drugs were first made from plant extracts, they were processed in a batch — albeit with limited ingredients. Today, we still make drugs in batches, but the batches are many times larger and have lots more ingredients.
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How M2M technology can transform your business
Alan Kelsky ManufacturingOnly a generation ago, manufacturing facilities saw the first use of computers on the shop floor to control some minor manufacturing scheduling tasks. Today, computers are ubiquitous in manufacturing plants. They are found as the source of instructions for robotics used in producing items as diverse as reeds for wind instruments to running complex internal analysis and diagnostics for machinery used daily in the manufacturing process.
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Best of plastics: Barrier packaging
Don Rosato EngineeringValue and health are currently driving barrier technology in food packaging. Increasingly busy lifestyles are reflected in growing consumer demands for convenience foods, ready meals and eating "on the go," resulting in high growth in food packaging.
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Automation nation: Proactive approach will benefit self-driving car industry
Ronnie Richard Science & TechnologyScience fiction has always taken ideas about technology and fleshed them out in detail long before industry could ever produce the real thing. Artificial intelligence, space travel, robotics, computers, genetics and much more began as abstract fictional concepts. After years of engineering and plenty of trial and error, many of these "fictional" ideas eventually become reality (still waiting on those hoverboards, though).
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Is EU listening to industry about heating and cooling strategy?
Andrew Gaved Facilities & GroundsI first wrote back in February about the EU's proposal for a heating and cooling strategy — intended to focus on energy reduction from HVAC in buildings, which account for half of the EU’s energy consumption. Now, seven months later, the strategy has been formally adopted by the European Parliament, which has issued its own report paving the way for member states to look at putting it into practice. But the adoption has drawn a mixed reception from leading cooling and heating groups, who believe some of the fundamental ways our industry can contribute have been overlooked.
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