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Smart Manufacturing Blog

Welcome to your source for all things smart manufacturing. Whether you’re looking for expert insights, hard data, or actionable tips for your plant floor, we’ve got you covered every week of the year.

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Digital Transformation

Plex Manufacturing Blog

What Can Manufacturers Learn from Brass Aluminum’s Quest for Visibility and Automation?

Plex Team January 17, 2024

Running a multi-operational business is an impressive feat, but that hasn’t always been the case for Brass Aluminum Forging Enterprises (BAFE). The company specializes in the production of brass, copper, and aluminum forgings and was originally comprised of only two forging presses, one trim press, and an eight-operator workforce. Over the years, the company has grown both in size and in…

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Digital Building Blocks for Your Enterprise

Plex Team January 4, 2024

From the most straightforward shed to the highest skyscraper, every structure is built with a complex assortment of components. These “building blocks” give the structure support and strength and allow it to be used as designed.As manufacturing industries rapidly adopt Industry 4.0 technologies to create smart and fully digital manufacturing systems, companies are realizing that digital building…

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How Smarter Manufacturing Makes You the Envy of the Neighborhood

Plex Team July 6, 2023

It’s hard enough keeping up with new products or system upgrades offered by the OEMs that built the equipment for your manufacturing operation. Staying current on software updates, new and more efficient electronics, and retrofits to add new functionality is difficult for even the most experienced managers and maintenance teams....

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Clearing Your Manufacturing Hurdles with the Right Software

Plex Team April 20, 2023

On your mark.Get set.Go!As the starting gun cracks, athletes streak down the track to clear hurdles in a race to the finish line. Some will clear them all, others will knock over one or two, and one athlete might seem incapable of getting the rhythm, height, and pace correct and crashes into them all....

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Key Takeaways from the Smart Manufacturing Software Buyer's Guide

Plex Team April 12, 2023

With advanced technology driving industrial digitization across the globe, companies are reaching new heights in efficiency, process optimization, and other revolutionary achievements unheard of even a few years ago.To stay competitive, it's essential to identify superior solutions that align your company with all these technologies. But choosing the best software solution to accomplish this isn’…

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Cure Your Downtime Blues with Smart Platform Views

Plex Team January 24, 2023

Efficiency and downtime are two of the most recognized words in manufacturing. These two words are taught and enforced formally and informally from the executive boardroom to floor supervisors to an operator in their first week on the job.While efficiency has a lot of variables and is calculated as creating as many finished units with the least amount of resources, downtime appears to be simple…

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The Future of Automotive: Your 2022 OESA Supplier Conference Recap

Plex Team December 7, 2022

Many conference attendees recently filled the Suburban Showplace in Novi, MI to gain new insights and collaborate with fellow subject matter experts on the evolving landscape that has become the new automotive marketplace. The Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) held its Supplier Conference “The Future of Automotive Is Calling. How Will You Answer?” and it lived up to its expectations…

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North American Food Safety and Quality: Your NAFS22 Recap

Gerry Abbey October 6, 2022

NAFS22 came packed with insights, ideas, and a shared call to action to achieve food safety and quality like we’ve never seen before. After days of conversations and presentations, the key question that remains is: how do we achieve this, particularly on a national and international scale? Of the many topics discussed over the last several days, these are the ones that stood out most:...

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The Shift to Electric Vehicles and Its Impact on Automotive Suppliers

Bernard Cohen September 21, 2022

The inevitable shift to electric vehicles is here and its impact on automotive suppliers will be drastic. OEMs are making major commitments to reduce their carbon footprint and eliminate their internal combustion engine (ICE) fleets. General Motors, for example, has made a commitment to be completely carbon neutral in their global products and operations by 2040 and eliminate tailpipe emissions…

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