Dallas-based Texas Instruments is betting big on American-made chips, with an ambitious plan to invest up to $30 billion to build as many as four new semiconductor fabrication plants in Sherman.
TI said Wednesday it will begin construction next year on the first two plants producing its 300-millimeter wafers used in everything from cars and trucks to industrial machinery. It estimates chip production will start by 2025.
Two additional plants could be added at the 4.7 million-square-foot site in Grayson County to meet future chip demand. The company said the plants could employ as many as 3,000 workers when complete.
Launched in 2018, the Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative in collaboration with McKinsey & Company. The frontrunner companies that comprise this network continue to demonstrate the true potential of 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) technologies to transform the very nature of manufacturing. The 90th lighthouse has recently been recognized, marking more than a fivefold increase since the launch of the network.
Stroll has signed off on an ambitious 400,000 square foot campus plan to be built on the land he has acquired around the current premises.
This will include a factory, wind tunnel, conference centre, auditorium, heritage department and other offices.
As well as being fully sustainable, it will feature state-of-the-art 5G facilities and the latest technology to ensure that Aston Martin can be right at the forefront of the latest advances.
I have been called "Vinnie Vertical" because I am constantly asking vendors about industry specific capabilities. In 2020, countless businesses asked them the same question as vertical edge applications from telemedicine to distance learning to eCommerce/automated fulfillment allowed many companies to survive or even thrive. I posted last week about changes in 4 industries. Here are four more.
Bob Stutz of SAP kicks it off with commentary on grocery stores and related eCommerce. What used to be a routine, boring shopping experience has become a lifeline for people. He points out how much volume has moved to eCommerce - "every day has been like Black Friday" (SAP's commerce engine handles 561 GMV - Gross Merchandise Volume - that's larger than at Amazon and other online retailers). We talk plenty of other CRM in the fuller session here.
At 2.41 it is Marty Groover, Partner, C5MI. C5 in the company name comes from his background in the Navy. He also spent years at Caterpillar and is now a big advocate for Industrie 4.0 - digital factories and the industrial Internet of Things. The fuller interview is here
At 5.35, it is David Watson, an Executive in Residence at Health2047, the innovation and venture arm of the American Medical Association. He describes the explosion in telemedicine after being "in experimental mode" for two decades. During this crisis, the UC San Francisco health system saw 50% of outpatient visits move to telemedicine. It was 2% prior to that. The fuller interview on other big changes in US healthcare are here
At 7.30 it is Sarvesh Mahesh of Tavant. He talks about seismic changes in real estate as the market moves to virtual home tours, and the mortgage process becomes increasingly digitized. The full session is here
As with its other models, Tesla gave Cybertruck some thoughtful goodies. It has 120-volt and 240-volt power outlets and an onboard air compressor, turning the truck into a mobile power station for work sites. According to previous Twitter reveals from Musk, it can parallel park itself (now a common feature in new cars) should it ever wander into a city. And, for unclear reasons, it’s bulletproof, at least to a 9-millimeter handgun. Though when Musk invited Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen to throw a metal ball at the window, the result was major cracking, and a somewhat embarrassed CEO.
But other electric pickups are coming. Startup Rivian has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and has repurposed an old Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Ill. Its R-1T pickup is slated to go on sale in late 2020 starting at $69,000. Michigan-based Bollinger is promising a muscular-looking 614-hp pickup for $125,000. Lordstown Motors, a fledgling truckmaker, is taking over the GM factory outside Youngstown, Ohio, to make electric pickups. It said Thursday that its first truck, the Endurance, would go on sale next fall starting at $52,500.
MotorTrend on potential manufacturing efficiencies
If the Cybertruck is a shock to the eyes, it's a jump-start to reimagining the foundational assumptions about vehicle appearance, engineering, and manufacturing. Remember Elon Musk's plans to leapfrog car assembly with a high-speed, robotic, alien dreadnaught "machine-that-builds-the-machine" that would fire-hose Model 3s out its tailpipe? He had to sheepishly remove some of the robots and conveyor belts to speed things up. Now, the "machines-that-will-build" the Cybertruck will go dramatically skinnier, scaling the dreadnaught down to simple dinghies that groove and bend (with the $200 million paint shop getting an auditor's line drawn through it). Real progress is assembled from the debris of failures.
Autoblog on why the concept car will likely evolve
Given how extreme the design is, don't expect that the Cybertruck as presented last night will reach production unchanged. In fact, it’s about as concept car-like as any previous Tesla reveal to date.
In true concept car fashion, there are no mirrors or wipers, and the lighting is also questionable. This concept doesn’t even appear to have camera mirrors installed anywhere, and who knows when those will be greenlit by U.S. regulators anyway. The Cybertruck has just one light bar in the front and another light bar in back. We’re not sure where the third brake light is yet either. It looks like the turn signals may be hiding down by the bumper, but the light bar across the front appears to house both the headlights and one massive DRL.
(Ford's) new Advanced Manufacturing Center in Redford, Mich., just north of its Dearborn, Mich., headquarters. The 100,000-square-foot center was an investment of $45 million, and it brings together engineers and specialists from across the company to collaborate.
You can have a look at some of the gadgets in use in the attached slideshow.
The automaker is using new technology such as virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing and small robots (not the giant caged ones it's been using for years) in different ways.
Most readers order print-on-demand or Kindle versions of the book. Those formats depend on impressive robotic and content management technology of their own. When it comes to scale for customers who want bigger orders, I turn to the plant of Corporate Graphics, based in North Mankato, MN.
The two videos show the impressive speed and precision of their production process. You can read more of the tech here.
My rep, Randy Kroenke, sent me a note as he started shipping the first batch this afternoon
"The books turned out great, you will especially love the matte lamination on the cover, crisp text and PUR (polyurethane reactive) super-strong glue used for binding and lay-flat presentation and reading."
If you need 25 copies or more, please send me a note.
For example, in China, we have linked our suppliers together in a mass customization platform called COSMOPlat, which automates each step of production — in this case, for our Yunxi Generation II washing machines, which were introduced in October 2017. (Yunxi means smart and mute.) Among the suppliers are Dalian Eastern Display Company, Diehl Controls (which makes the computer-based controller), Rold (which makes the door lock), and Hangzhou Kambayashi Electronics (which makes the solenoid valve). The single automated process takes a customer’s order, designs the specifics, calls for the appropriate components from the suppliers, manufactures the machine as the parts arrive (there is no warehouse), delivers it to the end-user, and arranges for monitoring and service when it is in use.
In a production hall as clean as a hospital, pea-size beads of white plastic pour into what looks like a minivan-size Adidas shoe box, complete with three white stripes down the side. That’s fitting, because in just a few seconds the machine heats and molds the stuff into soles of Adidas running shoes, with only one worker needed to wedge in pieces of plastic called stability bars. This is Adidas AG’s “Speedfactory,” where the shoemaker aims to prove it can profitably produce footwear in high-cost, developed economies. By next fall the facility, as large as half a soccer field, will employ about 160 people to make 1,500 pairs of shoes a day, or 500,000 annually.
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