A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Adverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
May 2018 #10226 Page #35
Technology, Progress, and Owning the Future of our Industry The Third in a Series on the Servo Revolution
Steve Shrader, Business Development/Operations, Hundegger USA
S
o far in this series, I’ve talked about how job descriptions have evolved as the industry has matured. Along the way, I’ve emphasized that the objective is not to impress you with the advanced power of the servo—it is to impress upon you the importance of the journey of keeping up with advancements, both as individual companies and the industry as a whole. Now, it’s time to hone in on what keeping up will really mean to all of us.
Hans Hundegger once said his machines “helped the small independent CM compete with the large CM.” Today, technology remains a central component in maintaining and growing a business. Alongside that technology journey, we must be aware of the human components that will be essential to success.
The Machinery to Keep Up with Technology In today’s technologically advanced world, computers can perform just about anything that we can imagine. The technological innovations have helped usher in amazing new opportunities and possibilities. CMs are investing in equipment, software, automation, and even robotics. But sometimes, it’s actually a question of whether a machine can perform the tasks that our people imagine. The lack of productivity growth over the past 10 to 15 years has been a hot topic of discussion. Investment in the CM industry has been strongly concentrated in a few areas, while labor productivity— the key driver of profits and wages—hasn’t grown much at all. You can see the computer age everywhere but in manufacturing productivity statistics.
Hundegger is not alone in offering CMs high precision fully automatic machines. Today’s CMs have choices at every stage of their manufacturing effort. And the advancements are coming faster than ever. The important question for CMs, however, is to ask themselves—how much (more) advanced equipment do I need now, and how much return on investment can I expect? Is equipment the sole driver of productivity? Continued next page PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982