Assembly Planbook - July 2008 - (Page 38)

State of the Profession 2008 Job Satisfaction by Industry 54% 45% 42% 39% 36% 35% 34% 29% 33% 37% meet deadlines for projects. “Heavy workloads and time constraints tend to increase job stress,” says one respondent who currently claims to be doing the work of three people. “I am so busy keeping the status quo that I do not have time to implement needed change,” notes a different individual. “I enjoy what I do, but there’s not enough time to accomplish all that is required,” laments another overloaded respondent. New Technology Drives Growth Manufacturers need to leverage new technology to stay competitive in today’s global landscape. Fortunately, most assemblers are optimistic about future investments in capital equipment. When asked, “How do you see your company committing resources toward improving assembly operations during the next 3 years?” more than half (56 percent) of the State of the Profession respondents said “more resources.” Only 13 percent said “less resources,” while the remainder (31 percent) said resources will remain the same. Assembly professionals plan to implement a wide variety of new technologies, such as robotics (31 percent of respondents), machine vision (29 percent) and radio-frequency identification (26 percent), to boost productivity. Robotics is most popular in the plastics and rubber products industry, which includes manufacturers of belts, bottles, pipes and fittings, and plumbing fixtures, where 49 percent of respondents claim they will use the technology in their plants during the next 12 months. Fabricated metal product manufacturers (39 percent) also expect to invest heavily in robotics technology. Machine vision technology is most popular in the computer and electronics product manufacturing industry, where one-third (34 percent) of respondents will be implementing new devices in ) “Thred Taper has saved us over 2,000 man-hours a year.” — Bob Jensen (Production Supervisor, McNeilus Trucking) Find out how Thred Taper, the world’s only automatic PTFE taping machine can do the same for you: • Improves quality vs. hand wrapping • Reduces taping costs up to 500% • Wraps ﬁttings in about 3 seconds • Increases component reliability www.thredtaper.com 1-800-846-7325(SEAL) The World’s Only Automatic PTFE Taping Machine Federal Process Corporation 4620 Richmond Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44128 Phone: 216.464.6440 - Toll-Free: 1.800.846.7325(SEAL) - Fax: 216.464.2080 38 ASSEMBLY / July 2008 www.assemblymag.com ASB03084Federal.indd 1 2/11/08 12:49:30 PM http://www.thredtaper.com http://www.thredtaper.com http://www.assemblymag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Assembly Planbook - July 2008

Assembly Planbook - July 2008 Contents Editorial Quality in Assembly Station to Station Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Surviving the Roller Coaster The Human Side of Manufacturing Do Your Fasteners Need a Preapplied Thread-Locker? Manufacturing Innovation A Century of Progress Trendsetting Plants Pulse Tools Get Smart Plastics: Design for X Product Reviews Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - July 2008

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