www.thefabricator.com: Metal fabrication abounds with new technology that can run circles around older machines. Thing is, when you visit shops, you’ll find that new technology isn’t pervasive. Even at the most progressive fabricators out there, decades-old machines tend to run alongside new systems with 3D touch controls and all the bells and whistles. Some shops survive and even thrive for decades relying mainly on very old machines and paper-based information systems. Why is this, exactly?
This is just the perfect article I wanted. When my friend was visiting CMU and walked into different wood shops on campus. He was commenting on how old a lot of the machines were. Then the question of machine and tool ages came pondering inside my head. I feel like in the most common perspective, people would love to upgrade their machines and work more efficiently. But we still work with old machines right now. The process and time span of upgrading something that we use as tools seem to vary depending on various factors. Just as the article has said, it might be because of the people operating them are skilled and work for long spans of time, the demand of machines are different across industries, the products produced are the most important part of the whole fabrication process, the new machines are getting more and more expensive which most venues couldn’t afford a rapid replacement, so on and on. I got a lot of insights from this article, feeling like I can understand more about how the tools and machines in stock in a certain shop are kept and are able to be maintained in a certain way for a long time. I want to read more about AI in metal fabrication, which I think is only mentioned briefly at the very end. At the end of the day, customers only want the product, not really caring about what machine it was made from.
ReplyDeleteThis is the type of article that makes gives me the feeling that the AI hype is really just some sort of marketing scheme. I mean, I understand that AI in manufacturing could be huge. But haven't we had computer controlled machines for decades at this point? Most high tech manufacturing at this point is computer controlled already. Most of it isn't done by hand now, and it works pretty well. I just don't understand the need to put an artificial intelligence into a device that most of the time has one purpose. Maybe error correction. But I feel like there are better uses for the technology then to improve machines that area already computer controlled basically to a letter. Why not farming technology for example? Something that has largely remained not computer controlled and could benefit hugely from technology like this. Obviously there are benefits to AI in manufacturing but I feel like this article is already overhyping what AI can actually do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the title of this article, I had no idea how AI would bring benefits to the metal fabrication industry when it came to managing shop-floor tech. I realize now that just forming a plan to fabricate something takes much longer than I expected, and is an amount of effort that would make a big difference if taken care of by something else. What really resonates with me is the idea of most shops having decades-old machines standing next to some of the state-of-the-art. It’s often a funny contrast, and one that raises questions the article addressed. It’s interesting to go deeper into the logic of this and hear about the development of specialized technology. Towards the end of the article, Heston explains that AI could help in developing customized technology, lowering the cost. This is an area that I hadn’t really considered AI to be used, but I think it’d be very interesting and potentially beneficial to see its application.
ReplyDeleteThis article just makes AI seem like a glorified project manager who will probably be bad at their job, especially with scheduling and managing the floors labor/materials. AI cannot lead a company, it can advise but if you give it the responsibility of a project manager, it’s going to freak out. A few months back, someone did a research study where they essentially gave an AI full control over a vending machine, it was responsible for every aspect of the machine, and could tell people what to do. It freaked out badly. It even shut down operations, including turning off the vending machine, over a snack being late because it felt sabotaged. It didn't realize credit card processing actually exist, so it decided to actually email the FBI over losing 30 cents a transaction. Now imagine if you give it the responsibility of running a metal shop. We’ve had project management software with algorithms, not AI, for years. We should just stick with that and not try to offload leaders to replace them with AI, it’s just not ready nor close to being ready yet.
ReplyDeleteEvery week there are many developments with AI, and this week is no exception. It is becoming more and more prevalent in everyone’s day to day life, but it feels like it has had an overwhelming intrusion into the art industry more than others. Despite my personal strong dislike of AI, it seems that it might actually be helpful in this case. Metal fabrication is a dangerous and tedious job, and using AI and other updated software will make the process more efficient and hands off for the metal workers. The realistic aspect of this though is that it is very expensive to upgrade machines, and if there is the financial availability to do so, people then need to be trained to use those machines. There also must be the consideration of the effectiveness of AI. If everything is already working efficiently and smoothly, why is there a reason to bring in a new source of contention that would change entire processes for the metal fabrication industry.
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