The first major milestone in manufacturing history was in 1785 when modern bulk material handling was first used. Oliver Evans built an automatic flour mill with conveyors, elevators, and similar devices. Other major accomplishments included the Industrial Revolution of the 1820s and the popularization of the American System of Manufacturing in the 1850s. Computers, now a vital part of most industries, were first introduced in 1953 and have been tied to manufacturing ever since. PCs, cell phones, and 3D printing are also modern advancements reshaping our understanding of the manufacturing industry.

According to the United States Census, women made up one-third of the manufacturing industry in 2017. Interestingly, women manufacturers actually make more than their peers in other industries by just under $5000. They still made significantly less than their male coworkers, however, by a staggering 28%. And much like the inconsistent history of both manufacturing and construction, most women in the manufacturing industry are in sales and office positions.

There are untapped benefits in having female workers, though. “Research shows that gender diversity benefits a manufacturing organization through improved ability to innovate, higher return on equity, and increased profitability,” reports Deloitte. “When employees believe that their organization is committed to inclusion, they report better business performance in terms of their ability to innovate. Organizations can also unleash the full potential of their female workforces by creating a culture where unique strengths thrive.” These strengths vary of course, but leadership, creative thinking, and different perspectives are among the perks.

Recently, we spoke with Lori Albright, President and CEO of Stellar Precision. She told us of her experiences as a female leader in the manufacturing industry and what the future holds for her, for manufacturing, and for other women.

INVENTIONLAND (IL): What is it like to be a woman in the manufacturing industry?

LORI ALBRIGHT (LA): I’ve been in Manufacturing for 40 years now, so it’s normal for me.  However, it is quite common for me to participate in customer events or trade organizations and be one of the very few women participating, if not the only one.  A story I frequently recall is when I’ve attended a high-level management meeting of customers and vendors and am frequently mistaken for the administrative assistant or wife of one of my male management team members.

IL: What inspired you to join the manufacturing industry?

LA: My father started this company when I was a teen. Early on I was drafted into it rather than be inspired to join, but as time went by it is something I’ve become passionate about, especially in the marketplace we support.  Aerospace, Space, and Defense are exciting opportunities.  My employees have often spoken about what we do here as a reflection of their contribution to our country.  Many of us have not had the opportunity to serve otherwise and consider it a personal mission to be able to support in this way.  We hear stories from military personnel who have used products that we’ve helped to produce, we get to watch various rocket launches that we have made parts for, all while providing life-sustaining careers for our staff.  How can you not be inspired by that?

IL: How did you rise to become CEO of Stellar Precision?

LA: Stellar is a family business, started by my father in 1979.  He retired in 2003 and I assumed the role at that time.  While I was certain at that time that I was well prepared, there is nothing quite like having to do the job to truly learn the job.  I am always looking for learning opportunities and have had the great privilege to attend the Owner / President Management Program at Harvard Business School, I am active in many trade societies and peer learning groups.  CEO doesn’t mean that you’ve made it – it means that you have a great responsibility to this company, and all its stakeholders, to do the very best job that you can.

IL: Do you see the industry becoming more accepting of women in the future?

LA: I see a significant increase, particularly at my customer levels, of women in leadership roles.  Two of our largest customers have women CEOs (Lockheed Martin and Aerojet/Rocketdyne).  I realize that having women in leadership positions doesn’t always equate to “acceptance,” but there is progress.

IL: If and when do you see the pay gap between men and women decreasing?

LA: At Stellar, we pay fairly based on the job and do not discriminate based on gender.  The pay gap is a more complex issue than equal pay for equal work.  What I know is that there are very few women applying for Machinist jobs which tend to be higher paying careers.  The challenge I see as a manufacturing business owner is that female applicants are few and don’t appear to be going into the trade.  One of the initiatives I work closely with is Women in Manufacturing Day at the Advanced Technology Center at Westmoreland County Community College.  This is our 5^th year of inviting high school aged young ladies to the trade school to meet women who own manufacturing companies and learn, hands-on in many cases, about a variety of opportunities in manufacturing.

IL: What difficulties do women face in entering the manufacturing industry? Any advice for girls interested in manufacturing?

LA: Regarding difficulties entering manufacturing industries, I understand that historically women were not always welcomed by male counterparts.  However, I wonder if the stigma of entering a manufacturing trade is now driven by others who consider it “blue collar,” or unacceptable to families, rather than entering a 4-year degree program.  At Stellar, we pay apprentices on the job, pay for their tuition and books for a 4-year Journeyman program, and they can earn an Associates’ Degree with a few additional core classes.  At that point, they are ready for the trade, hold a degree and have zero debt.  I’d absolutely advise young women to take advantage of an arrangement like this rather than having to pay student loans indefinitely while still being unable to find an entry level job in their chosen field of study.

IL: What is the future of aerospace?

LA: My knowledge of the future of aerospace is driven by my experience with my customers.  They are all forecasting previously unseen increases in the number of new programs and the volume of work in existing ones.  The future looks bright, technology is rapidly advancing, the jobs pay well.

The post Industry Profile: Women in Manufacturing appeared first on Inventionland.

This new claim entails all Apple stores, offices, and data centers spanning across 43 countries. To be clear though, this milestone does not mean that all apple facilities are directly connected to renewable resources. Instead, it means that the company is putting renewables back into the grid, offsetting their energy consumption from facilities that aren’t powered by renewables.

This method not only benefits the company from a renewable standpoint, but it also helps with the overall goal of reducing our carbon footprint.

Apple claims to have 25 renewable energy projects currently in operation with 15 more projects soon to be implemented. With all of the projects combined, Apple will be producing 1.4 Gigawatts of clean energy – the equivalent output of a little over 4.6 million solar panels.

In order to achieve a renewable energy output of this magnitude, Apple has implemented your basic solar panel fields and wind farms. Unlike other companies striving for clean energy, Apple has also implemented newer sustainable solutions like bio-fuel cells and micro-hydro systems – a type of hydroelectric power.

“We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it,” stated Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Considered a major step in the right direction, this new ‘green’ initiative being adopted by companies across the globe who, like Apple, will help lead way for a more sustainable future.

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1) The Industrial Revolution

The first major shift in the manufacturing industry came during what we now refer to as the Industrial Revolution. This was a shift that occurred in the 18th century where, instead of items being produced by hand, processes were invented which allowed items to be produced by machines. It began in England in 1760, finally reaching the United States by the end of the 18th century.

The dramatic reduction of material cost and production time impacted several industries including the textile industry. Prior to this period, textiles were mainly made in people’s homes and merchants would provide the basic equipment and materials needed. This meant workers would make their own schedules, which made it difficult to regulate.

The shift from man to machine changed not only the production process, but caused a dramatic shift in the market as well. For example, prior to the Industrial Revolution, textiles were primarily hand spun and made of wool. Enter the spinning jenny, a machine which enabled an individual to produce spools of thread simultaneously. The power loom was also invented during this period, which mechanized the process of weaving cloth. The combination of these two inventions caused cotton to overtake wool in the textile field.

The iron industry also made some major developments during this period. According to the History website, an Englishman named Abraham Darby discovered a simpler and cheaper method to produce cast iron, using a coke-fueled furnace (rather than charcoal fueled, as was previously used).

In 1712, the steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcom and this began to be used to pump water out of mines. By the late 18th century, Newcom’s invention was improved upon by James Watt and it was now used to power machinery, ships and locomotives.

While the Industrial Revolution raised standards of living for the upper and middle class, the lower and working class still struggled. Because the demand was greater than the supply, new factories were forced to open and the hours for workers were extremely difficult. Unskilled workers were easily replaceable and children were employed and used for highly dangerous tasks like cleaning the machinery. The demand on workers during this era is what ultimately led to the 1833 Factory Act, which placed restrictions on the working hours of children and set standards to protect workers.

2) Assembly Line

The next shift in manufacturing was the introduction of the assembly line. The assembly line was first patented in 1901 by Ransom E. Olds, a car manufacturer. His method allowed his company to produce 20 units per day, which eventually increased their output by 500 percent in one year. Because they were creating more vehicles, this allowed them to drastically decrease their prices. The method used by Olds ended up serving as the model form when Henry Ford created his own system.

Ford is credited as the father of the assembly line as well as of automotive mass manufacturing. He improved on Olds’s system by using moving platforms and a conveyor system. The vehicles were towed by a rope which would move them from station to station. This way, workers could just assemble the different pieces as they arrived at their stations.

The plant was producing what they called the Model T car. Prior to this shift, cars were considered a luxury item. It was fairly expensive when they first released it, initially the cheapest price was $825 (which was equivalent to about $18,000 in today’s currency). But as production efficiency increased, they were able to drop prices drastically so the vehicles were more affordable.

They also kept prices low by eliminating some waste and sticking to one product. They would only have to build one model allowing the engineers to develop a system of interchangeable parts from that single prototype. This drastically reduced waste and improved the ease of the process, making it more possible for an unskilled workforce. According to History’s website, ads at the time stated, “No car under $2,000 offers more, and no car over $2,000 offers more except the trimmings.”

These vehicles were not only affordable, but they were of high quality. They had 22-horsepower, four-cylinder engines and were made with a brand new heat-treated steel, which made the vehicle lighter and stronger than the competition. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford manufactured around 15 million Model T vehicles.

3) Unified Assembly Line

The next major step was the creation of the Unified Assembly Line by Buick Motor Company. The plant was opened in Flint, MI and made headlines as it was able to turn around over 1,300 cars per day. It was built and designed by C.B. Durham, who wanted to obtain the most speed and economy in the assembly operation, while still maintaining quality standards.They were able to cut costs significantly by creating a system of elaborate and intricately designed conveyors in one unified line. A steady stream of finished and tested valve-in-head engines were transported from the engine plant, through a tunnel using a chain.

4) Lean Manufacturing

In 1948, Toyota Motor Corporation developed what they called “Lean Manufacturing”. This process was developed in order to improve the flow of production by identifying and eliminating waste. This system was a drastic change from previous systems as it required more persistence and detailed observation. This system was mostly confined to Japan until the 1970’s when the United Kingdom began to adopt their own system of lean manufacturing. By the 1990’s, the concept of lean manufacturing began to spread outside of the automobile industry. It’s now used in electronics, aerospace, healthcare, construction, and food manufacturing.

Over time, Toyota has worked at improving their own version of the lean manufacturing system, which they still use today. It’s now been renamed the ‘Just in Time System’ and it emphasizes making only “what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed.” Their new system also states that they specialize in: “Producing quality products efficiently through the complete elimination of waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements on the production line.”

5) Robotics

Fast forward to present-day and our manufacturing systems are primarily machine-dominated. It may surprise you, but modern-day robotic thinking began all the way back in the year 1926 with a robot called Televox. This robot was introduced by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the robot could respond to the human voice and perform useful tasks. What set Televox–or Mr. Televox as he was called at the time–apart from other robots at the time were that most of them were very simple robots. They were designed to simply perform crowd-pleasing tricks like smoking a cigarette, firing a revolver, or whistling a pleasing tune. Most were also made with a series of gears and levers and they’d be voiced and controlled by their inventors.

This particular robot, designed by R.J. Wensley, was the first that could be put to real use. Wensley believed that robots could be used for more than just entertainment and Televox was a first approach at this new form of industry. According to an article by The New York Times, Wensley was quoted in 1933 as saying, “In time to come the only work to be done by men and women will be that which requires faculties of discernment, discretion, and judgment. All other work – anything repetitive, routine, standardized – can better be done by machines.”

From then, we’ve made steady progress toward more robotic assembly and manufacturing lines. The 1950’s and 1960’s were huge periods of experimentation and movement towards this future. The first industrial robot was called Unimate and it began work in the General Motors Assembly Line in 1961. George Devol, the creator of the device, went on to create the world’s first robot manufacturing company.

According to Robohub,  Stanford engineer Victor Scheinman created the Stanford Arm in 1969. This was a 6-axis robot which could move and assemble parts in a continuous repeated pattern. This invention drastically expanded robotic manufacturing in ways that are still applied to the modern assembly. At Philips Electronics factory in the Netherlands, for example, production is completed by a number of robot arms assigned to specific tasks.

Today, robotics have reached a new level of innovation. Companies such as Rethink Robotics are even attempting to develop adaptive manufacturing robots which are able to work next to humans. These robots would help to improve efficiency and increase productivity while also being low-cost and user-friendly.

It’s been quite a long journey, but we’re now at a point in human history where mass manufacturing allows products to be made quicker and easier than ever before. Given how far we’ve come, who knows what the future of manufacturing will hold in its (most likely) mechanical grip.

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One scientist carefully removes the lid of a Petri dish containing a volatile, corrosive acid that could cause serious injury. Reaching into the dish ever-so-slowly with a pair of tweezers, the scientist removes a translucent film that researchers later discover could help save our planet.

Eliminating plastic waste from our landfills is an issue that companies across the globe are trying to combat. Creating an alternative to plastic isn’t easy. Those who are able to create their own innovative solutions spend thousands of dollars on research and development, not to mention time–it usually takes a few years until a viable solution is discovered.

Although not everyone is successful, one company has developed a bio-plastic manufacturing process that helps reduce environmental impact, and could revolutionize the packaged foods industry.

Plastic producer Futamura has partnered with sustainable packaging producer Bio4Pack, to create NatureFlex – a sustainable solution to combat the growing issue that is pollution. Most renewable bio-plastics are made using materials such as corn, potatoes, or wheat; however, NatureFlex bags are produced using Cellulose, one of the most abundant organic materials on our planet.

This Cellulose actually comes from the wood pulp of sustainably harvested trees, making it anywhere from 90% to 99% fully compostable. The process is simple: by taking pieces of wood and soaking them in Trifluoroacetic acid, you are separating the cellulose cells from the sugar molecules, creating a cellophane-like film as a result. That “cellophane” is then used to manufacture NatureFlex bags.

Not only do these bags help reduce our carbon footprint, but they are also extremely similar to regular synthetic polymer bags, providing the same texture and durability. Thanks to this break-through manufacturing process, the NatureFlex bag could very well become the future of packaged foods.

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