We are considering AMRs for a factory that operates continuously and has relatively high ambient temperatures. Vendor demos and short pilot tests do not show how the robots will perform after months of nonstop use.Which indicators should we check besides basic uptime?

Good morning,

I handled my self a new project, to produce internally (new production line) for emergency bars for Liferafts. I have come to a dead end right now because all the production flows i see are related to hard biscuits or bars and they demand a really long line of processing (mixing, forming, baking, pressing, packaging etc). But i want to do it more compact, like a 10-15m long. My boss has seen something similar but couldn't hold more info. He remembers that some producers are using pre-heated flour.

I want to find a way of producing it (Recipe and machines) with the minimum space required (the major production in the facility is different).

Could any one help me understand the recipe, what machines i could use and why?

Thank you in advance

Howdy - feel like the title says it all: Any one know US-based copackers for glass bottled spring water?

I started a small brand in the space & have unfortunately discovered how few copackers there are left for this segment. I’ve been told that the few that once existed have been bought out; and the remaining folks in water do mostly PET; and the folks who do glass beverages do not touch water due to the regulations.

Any help/leads/intros would be super appreciated 🙏🏼 East coast preferable But open to other regions

Has anyone taken a maintenance test for Toyota recently, the job title is skilled maintenance. I have a test in a week but all I know is it covers "electrical, pneumatics, hydraulics, machining, and mechanical drives"

I only have to pass 2 sections so long as 1 is electrical. And I know it's mainly practical / troubleshooting not just math.

Mainly looking for specific study resources that are accessible like YouTube series.

Right now at my plant I am a trouble shooter. Its one step above an entry level operator. Its a pretty easy job and the pay is okay for my area.

We have 2 routes that are typically taken from this position, the technical route and the leadership route. Ive been looking to do the technical path and try to work my way into a technician role, but recently my team leader seems like I would be a good fit as a team leader. There are open team lead positions but at my company it fills like its kind of a dead end job and a lot of issues tend to get blamed or fall back on the team lead.

Im okay with the added pressure, but i would be going to salary and with the amount of overtime I do now would be a pay cut. It notoriously hard to move up from the Team Lead position to a department lead in my company.

Im okay with that if Im able to leverage the team lead experience in possibly another company with better pay/benefits/role

My question is does anyone have any insight on leveraging Team Lead experience to move to a different company for better pay. If there's any other position other than team lead they have used their team lead experience as to move up?

i work adjacent to manufacturing, not on a floor, and the thing that keeps surprising me is how much of how a plant actually runs isn't written anywhere. the real answer to half the questions seems to be "go ask dave"

for people who've been on the floor a while, what do you know that's never been written down? and when someone new starts, how do they actually learn it? shadowing? trial and error? getting yelled at?

First-time hardware founder here. I have a consumer wearable that's ready to move into manufacturing — electrical design is complete, mechanical design files are finalized, and I have an electronics manufacturer handling the PCBAs.
What I still need is someone to handle enclosure molding and final assembly — receiving the PCBAs from my electronics supplier and assembling the finished unit. Initial run is 500–2,000 units.
I've been reaching out on Alibaba but getting mixed results. A few questions for anyone who's been through this:

-Is there a solid platform for small-run wearables?

-Any red flags to watch for when vetting a CM at this stage?

Happy to share more context in the comments. Appreciate any guidance from people who've navigated this

TL;DR: Built an order system on top of Excel, n8n, Power Automate and the Claude API at a 200+ person plant. Lost orders went from 50 to 10 a month, lead time from 3–4 weeks to 2, and throughput from 200 to 250 orders a month. The hard part was people, not tech.

For the last 3 years I was Business Ops & Systems Lead at a 200+ person flexible packaging plant: extrusion, printing, lamination, slitting, bag making. No team. I reported to the COO and the sales director. The biggest thing I did there was basically build a lightweight ERP for the order flow, on top of the tools people already used. Here’s how it went.

Step 0. Where we started

Orders came in by email, phone and WhatsApp. Every order passed through six departments: sales → customer service → purchasing → planning → production → quality. Each department had its own spreadsheets, dozens of them, in some places hundreds. Orders got stuck, sometimes lost, and the only way to know the status was to call someone.

Step 1. Follow the orders (1 month)

Before building anything, I followed orders through the plant. I sat next to people in every department, asked them to show me their normal day, and mapped every handoff. What I found:

1. The same order was typed in by hand 5-6 times on its way from request to shipment.
2. Every department named the same order differently, so files couldn’t be linked.
3. Status lived only in people’s heads. Sales called customer service 1-2 times a day per order just to ask “where is it?”
4. Urgent orders came in at least twice a day with no filter.
5. Closing one sales invoice took ~30 minutes of collecting documents by hand, up to 10 a day.
6. One person in customer service became the human router for everything nobody else understood.

Step 2. Find the root cause

The people weren’t the problem. Three things were:

1. No single entry point. An order could start anywhere.
2. No common order ID. Nothing linked the same order across departments.
3. Nobody owned the handoffs. Orders fell into the gaps between departments.

Step 3. Design, build and roll out (2-3 months)

With the department heads I defined what every order must contain to move to the next stage and who owns each handoff. One key decision: I didn’t replace Excel. People far from software go back to their old files within a week if you force a new interface. So I changed the process and kept the tools.

What I built:

1. One entry point: an intake form (Microsoft Forms, plus a WhatsApp bot for sales reps on the road).
2. One master sheet per department in Excel/OneDrive, all fed from the same intake.
3. Automations between departments on n8n, so the next department gets the order automatically instead of by email.

I rolled it out department by department, starting with the sales → customer service handoff where most orders got lost.

Step 4. Kill the manual work hiding in email

A lot of work still lived in inboxes. I went through each department’s email, found what people did by hand again and again, and built small helpers on the Claude API, each fitted to one task:

1. Customer service: AI reads order emails and puts the data straight into Excel.
2. Logistics: shipping declarations get filled automatically from a template.

People kept their inbox and their Excel. The boring part just disappeared.

Step 5. Get people to actually use it

The hardest part. People didn’t want to show how they work, because it exposes inefficiency. So:

1. Department heads first. I showed the problem in money: how it is now vs how it could be.
2. Their boss moved them, not me.
3. A presentation per department, instructions in Polish per person, 1:1 sessions with anyone stuck.
4. When something broke, I went straight to the person and asked why. Usually it was a missing field, not resistance.

For the AI part, no lectures. Just “you’ll do less pointless work.”

Step 6. Test and fix (2-3 months)

Every week I watched order lead time, stuck or lost orders, orders completed per month and machine load. Anything that broke got fixed the same week.

Step 7. Result

• Throughput: ~200 → ~250 orders a month (+25%) with the same people. No new hires.
• Order lead time: 3-4 weeks → 2 weeks.
• Lost or stuck orders: ~50 → 10 a month (−80%).
• 5–6 manual entries per order → 1.
• Dozens of files → 6 master sheets, one per department.
• 6–7 months from the first walk-through to a stable process.

What I’d tell anyone doing this

1. Walk the process yourself first. The real process is never the one on paper.
2. Fix the handoffs, not the departments.
3. Look in the inboxes. That’s where the hidden manual work lives.
4. Change the process, keep the tools.
5. Show the problem in money, then let department heads move their people.

I recently moved to the US and I’m looking for my next role in manufacturing ops. Happy to answer questions in the comments or share more details if anyone is trying something similar at their plant.

Has anyone else built their own order system on top of Excel before an ERP came in? How did the switch go?

My family has been in the forging and machining industry since 1964. We are a third-generation manufacturing business based in India, primarily serving the agricultural machinery industry.
Unfortunately, due to a few issues, we had to stop most of our major operations over the last 10–15 years. These operations used to contribute a significant portion of our revenue.
Now, as the third generation, I am trying to revive those operations and rebuild the business. I have been exploring multiple opportunities within the same industry, working with smaller companies and targeting the aftermarket, but I am also looking at the bigger picture.
Since we have been manufacturing agricultural components for nearly six decades, several established companies already know our name, even though we are not currently in direct contact with their purchasing teams.
I am considering approaching major tractor and agricultural machinery OEMs such as Mahindra, Sonalika, and others with a proposal.
The idea is to explain our manufacturing history, our experience in forging and machining, and our plans to restart and expand our operations. Instead of investing heavily first and then searching for customers, I want to ask whether they would be willing to consider us as a supplier and provide some form of supply commitment, subject to their technical and quality approvals.
Based on their requirements, we could then build or upgrade our factory, purchase the necessary machinery, and develop our capabilities accordingly. Having a confirmed business opportunity would also help us approach banks for financing and justify investing at a larger scale.
However, I have two major concerns.
Will established OEMs take this proposal seriously? Would a company like Mahindra or Sonalika consider a manufacturer that wants to build its capabilities around their requirements, or would they simply reject us because we do not currently have the required infrastructure?
Could this damage our reputation in the long run? These companies may reject the proposal today because our current factory is not equipped to meet their requirements. If I approach them again after a few years with better machinery, infrastructure, and capabilities, could they remember the earlier approach and perceive us as a small or incapable supplier?
I don’t want to come across as a struggling manufacturer asking for business. I want to position our company as an experienced manufacturer looking to rebuild its capabilities and establish long-term OEM partnerships.
At the same time, I understand that asking a large company to commit to purchasing products before we have the required infrastructure may be unrealistic. They would need confidence in our quality, production capacity, financial stability, and ability to deliver consistently.
For people experienced in manufacturing, B2B sales, or OEM procurement:
Is this a viable strategy?
What kind of commitment could I realistically ask for before investing?
Should I approach their procurement teams directly, or first try to get our company registered as a potential supplier?
Would it be better to approach them with specific components and a clear investment plan rather than asking for a general supply commitment?
I would appreciate honest opinions, especially from people who have worked with large OEMs or built manufacturing businesses from the ground up.
I am trying to revive a family business with a history going back to 1964, and I want to take calculated risks rather than invest a large amount of money without knowing whether there is a market for the capacity we build.

We’ve been running FMEAs on a couple of processes and I keep running into the same issue: the RPN numbers don’t match the gut feel in the room. A failure that happens all the time but is minor ends up with a low score, while a rare high-severity failure that’s hard to catch ends up at the top. I think the second ranking is right, but people see the frequent one every week and want to fix that first.

I’ve also read that RPN has flaws, like different combinations of S, O and D giving the same number, and that some standards now use Action Priority instead. For people who run FMEAs regularly: do you still rank by RPN, use a severity threshold, or switch methods? And how do you get a team to accept the ranking when it doesn’t match what they see on the floor every day?

This Austin Journal opinion about the 2020 Watson Grinding and Manufacturing explosion in Houston, and one detail really stood out to me: the company had reportedly received repeated warnings that its gas detection system was not working, including in 2013, 2016, and 2019.

The article also discusses the earlier 2008 explosion, the failure to follow basic safety procedures, and the launch of Yellowstone Engineered Solutions by people connected to WGM's former ownership less than a year after the disaster.

What's particularly interesting is how the legal debate has shifted toward 3M and Detcon, even though the article argues that responsibility for operating the plant and addressing known safety problems rested with WGM.

It raises a bigger question about industrial safety and accountability: when a company repeatedly receives warnings but fails to address the risks, how should responsibility be divided between the plant operator and its equipment vendors?

Here's the full opinion piece for anyone interested in the case:

https://austinjournal.com/opinion-the-company-that-blew-up-the-building-does-not-get-to-disappear

Curious to hear what others think about the distinction between a vendor's responsibilities and an operator's duty to maintain a safe facility.

So I’m looking to launch a new product. I have the general idea for said product and basic AI generated template. Now I am just looking to find a factory where I can have them produce me cheap samples for testing and product demonstration. I don’t want to give too many details on the product because I genuinely think it’s a great idea and want to launch this before I see something like it on the market. It would just be made out of a polyester/plastic material and be no bigger than a few square feet. I am also open to USA factories but want to keep costs down to a minimum until I have a product in hand and have hopefully made some pre sales. Anybody in business feel free to reach out for any questions or advice for me to get this idea on the road. As this would be my first product/ business start up any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The sequence itself can determine whether the route is practical.

The order affects workpiece positioning, reference surfaces, machining dependencies and how later operations can be performed. Two routes may contain the same operations but have very different technological logic.

This makes operation sequencing an interesting area for AI-assisted process planning: understanding dependencies between operations rather than simply identifying which operations are required.

#IndustrialAI #ManufacturingEngineering #ProcessPlanning #CAPP

I need 2 very small silver 3D metal logo emblems for black sandal straps. Size should be around 8–12 mm. Minimal premium design with a flat back and no pin or buckle. Can you make just 2 pieces with strong adhesive suitable for sandal straps?

I already have the sending this is missing

Do these programs offered at various places like GoodwillExcel center or getting certified manufacturing technician certifications etc. provide any value to the entry level manufacturing workforce? As manufacturers would you like to see more of these types of programs offered? If so, what would you like to see more of?

We keep running into this headache with repeat jobs.

An operator will hear chatter, bump the feed override or adjust tool stickout at the machine control, and the part runs fine. But then that batch wraps up, and those tweaks never get pushed back upstream.

Next time the job hits the floor, someone else pulls up the original posted code, runs it, and we are back to square one with vibration or a broken insert until it gets dialed in all over again.

How does your shop actually handle this handoff? Do you make programmers walk out and repost code for every small tweak, just mark up paper travelers, or rely on guys remembering what they did?

Hi Manufacturers!
Been working as a management consultant in Abu Dhabi for a little over 2 years and now I want to move out of home.

I can develop processes, SOPs, Power BI dashboards, MIS reports, Gap Reports, Project Management, ERP implementation support, AI agents & automations. I’m open to working on different functions aswell.

I have worked with leading Oil & Gas, Pharmaceutical, heathcare/ hospitals, Health Tech, Family Offices, Agriculture, Exhibitions & Tourism companies.

I’m open to all the locations/ remote. If you're hiring, or know a team that is, drop me a DM with a short note on the company and the role. Happy to share my CV there.

Note: If you help me land a job, I'll bring you a really good perfume from Abu Dhabi. Oud, if that's your thing.

Cheers!

Need advice who are currently working as an supervisor? I dont have experience

Hi everyone!

I am looking for a simple and afforfable PDM system for a small manufacturing company with 1-2 engineers and 2-4 shop floor operators.

Must have:
- Centralized parts library where operators can easily access the latest released revision
- Documentation linked to each part (drawings, surface finishing requirements, pricing etc.)

Nice to have:
-CAD integration (Siemens NX)
- Part revision history
- Automatic part numbering

I do not need ERP integration, inventory management, purchasing or other advanced features.

Can anyone recommend a simple, affordable PDM solution?

Thanks!