Manufacturing in New York Area Grows at Faster Pace (Update2)
June 15 (Bloomberg) — Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in June at a faster pace, signaling factories are weathering the turmoil in financial markets and driving the economic recovery.
Read more on Bloomberg
Flextronics eyes more high-end ops in Penang
ELECTRONIC manufacturing services (EMS) giant Flextronics International Ltd is looking to diversify its revenue base by bringing in more high-end operations to its Penang facility.
Read more on Business Times
By adding autonomous mobile robot technology to its portfolio, the deal will enable Adept to provide more flexible solutions for moving components through production environments.
View full post on All Automation World content
SAP announced recently that its cloud-based ERP system known as Business ByDesign will be released in July as a volume-ready product. Excel Polymers, a Solon, Ohio-based manufacturer, is one of about 100 companies that are already using Business ByDesign. In this podcast interview, recorded on June 10, 2010, Excel Chief Information Officer Steve Lubowicz talks with Automation World Managing Editor Wes Iversen about the companys experience using BBD.
View full post on All Automation World content
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Taiwanese iPhone Maker Foxconn Ups Wages (Again) Following Suicides
iPhone maker Foxconn has offered workers at its Shenzhen manufacturing hub in China a 66 percent performance-based pay rise as it tries to deal with the fallout from a spate suicides there.
Read more on Fox News
Ford invests $135 million in 2 Michigan plants
Ypsilanti Township — Ford Motor Co. said Monday it will invest $135 million in two Michigan parts plants as part of a broader effort to bring production of key electric vehicle technology in-house.
Read more on Detroit News
Fern Abrams interview with PCB007
Fern Abrams, IPC’s Director of Government Relations and Environmental Policy, discusses the importance of the organization’s efforts in Washington, D.C. After five long years of lobbying on Capitol Hill, IPC’s members finally feel as though Congress understands how vitally important PCBs are to our national security. That understanding was shown by the appointment of an Executive Agent to the industry.
Join the cause and help lobby for the industry at IPC Capitol Hill Day on June 9-10, 2010.
Filed under: Government Relations Tagged: executive agent, Fern Abrams, IPC Capitol Hill Day 
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Standard Register’s Industramark Business Unit Receives Multiple PRism Awards from Dayton PRSA
DAYTON, Ohio—-Industramark™, a Standard Register business unit, has been awarded five PRism Awards—including the Judge’s Choice Award—by the Dayton Area Public Relations Society of America in recognition of its successful public relations and communications programs in 2010.
Read more on Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
The need for traceability is among the many huge shadows cast by Toyota’s recent recalls. STMicroelectronics is providing a novel approach to circuit board tracking with a Dual Interface EEPROM that adds an RFID link.
The memory chip is attached to circuit boards along with other devices, requiring only the addition of a small antenna printed on the board. This RFID link can be used to track the board during manufacturing and on through its lifetime. It can also be reprogrammed in the field via the wireless link as well as by the conventional I2C bus connection.
As more companies move from bar codes to RFID tags, this sort of approach provides an added incentive to make the transition. RFID tagging makes this link more useful throughout a product’s lifetime. Programs can be updated in the field, diagnostic data can be accessed even when the board is powered down. In the event of recalls, technicians can quickly determine whether a board has faulty code. Wireless communications often make it simpler to perform this task.
Board designers may be able to exploit this technology in a number of ways. It’s an intriguing approach to integration, blending programmable memory and RFID tagging to do more in less space, providing benefits over the lifetime of a product.
Filed under: Boards Tagged: RFID 
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