Manufacturing Technology Process
The best way to understand Manufacturing Technology process would be to see them at work in some of the domains. Most process manufacturing initiatives work on the principle of continuous improvement. Manufacturing Technology process is no different with continuous improvement fuelled by passionate research and development done by some individuals and institutes giving us a set of wonderful means to use technology.
What are the advancements made due to the Manufacturing Technology Process?
Firstly, the Manufacturing Process for technology has ensured that most of the manufacturing centric domains are full of improvements at each and every stage. Let us take a simple example. Try and visualize the airplane which was in existence in the 1950s and compare them with the Concords and Boeings that we have today. The transition during these years is owing to continuous research and technology initiatives.
Some examples of advancements made in domains due to Manufacturing Technology process are as follows:
- Industrial Manufacturing Technology - The biggest development in this domain is known as Rapid Prototyping which often describes a software engineering methodology. Rapid prototyping describes a technique for constructing physical objects automatically. The various technologies in use for Rapid Prototyping are FDM, SLS, STL, 3D Printing.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology - Semiconductors often referred to as Integrated Circuits contain complex electrical nodes which connect millions of transistors. The Semiconductor manufacturing technology process has evolved to be a 9-step process starting from Silicon wafers as the raw material to the end product of semiconductors. There are many intermediate stages which deal with semiconductor fabrication. Highly complex and technical methods are used for fabrication and cutting to get semiconductors into their final look.
- Satellite Manufacturing Technology - When the world's first commercial satellite was launched in 1963, the satellite manufacturing technology was nowhere as complex as today. With cost, timeliness of delivery and quality of the satellite at the forefront of satellite manufacturing initiatives, satellite manufacturers have had no option but to turn to automation as an option to achieve all these objectives. Alcatel, EADS Astrium, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences, SS/Loral, are some of the key satellite manufacturers in the United States of America. The critical aspect one has to note here is that though technology has intervened in most of the production schedules, the production schedules of some of the manufacturers still differ. This variation is attributed to extra remedial testing and post-fault manufacturing.
Many analysts have conducted research studies and analytical experiments in this space and most of them have concurred with the observations in many domains. These observations acts as a feeder to many future improvements.