Oil and gas powering US manufacturing industry.

It is widely accepted throughout the world that, oil and gas is the best source of non renewable energy that is currently available to mankind. The applications and the possibilities that come with the use of oil and gas as energy sources are endless. Our everyday life would be very different if not for oil and gas, as our dependence on them range from simple household appliances to the running of cars, machinery, industries etc. So how great would it be if there is a drop in the cost of energy-specifically oil and natural gases, as it has been the continuous case over the recent past.

Also, at the moment U.S is one of the most attractive places to manufacture.Today, a large percentage of U.S GDP is taken control from the manufacturing industry . Due to this reason, naturally, there is a large boom in the field of manufacturing industry. One factor for the increase in interest in manufacturing engineering can be attributed to the above mention drop in the prices of oil and gas.All of these positive signs in the oil and gas trade have created more opportunities to manufacturers as well as they are also supplied with new machined equipment . There will be increased need for new and innovative manufacturing technologies that will help meet the growing demand and increase overall productivity. This in turn increases the opportunities in the manufacturing engineering field.

Manufacturing engineers also expect to see an increase in the amount of manufacturing technology used specifically in oil and gas applications. Such technology includes advance machinery such as reliable rugged machine tools with long boring bar and deep milling capabilities, as well as high horsepower, large bore, multiple spindles, multiple turret machines and those with bigger overall work envelopes.

All these new improvements and innovations are happening due to the increase in the need for oil and gas, and with the continual drop in their energy price I believe that the field of manufacturing engineering will be a hot topic in the coming future with lots of benefits being available to manufacturing engineers all over the world. 

Sources:

• Brian Papke (). Oil and gas industries powering US manufacturing. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sme.org/MEMagazine/Article.aspx?id=71172&taxid=1433. [Last Accessed 03/30/2013].
  

Radio Frequency Identification

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is one of the most recognized, rapidly developing, easy-to-use technologies that will re-shape the world and the human everyday life. It offers a means of transmitting data through wireless transmission through very small and low cost devices, which makes this technology very popular among the industries. This opportunity arises from the confluence of the continued march of electronics miniaturization and recent innovations that dramatically drive down the cost of manufacturing microelectronic devices. Some complex applications of RFID technologies are missile guidance, aircraft identification transponders, automatic toll way identification, access control, central locking systems in automobiles and asset identification and tracking. This technology is also used in supply chain management in order to eliminate human errors, reduces their inventories, reduce the loss and waste and improve the safety and security of the process.

How this system works

A typical RFID system is composed with RFID tags, RFID readers, RFID antenna/middleware and RFID application software. In this system, the RFID tags are attached to the objects. Each tag has an internal memory which it stores the information about the object, such as the unique serial number, manufacture date, product specification and etc. The tags start to transmit the data once they pass via the field which is generated by the antenna. The reader captures the information and sends them to the RFID application software to process the data and then identify the object and the data in it. The goal of the RFID technology was  on readers and tags which are used to transmit low volumes of information which are used by systems.  But this has been changing as, today RFID technology is used in supply chains to transmit huge volumes of data and these information can goes through new RFID application called the savants.

Active and Passive RFID

There are two types of RFID technologies: Active and Passive RFID. Active and passive RFID systems have the similar working mechanism. The major advantage in active RFID system is its long reading ranges and its larger storage of data, whereas the passive RFID systems can only be used up to three to five meters, and its storage is less than 128 bytes. Active RFID system uses its own internal power, which is provided from its internal tagged battery, whereas passive RFID does not have its own power to generate its signals.  Passive RFID tags some sort of external power to generate its signals.The main advantage of active RFID and passive RFID is that it enables multi-tag reading. The active RFID can recognize thousands of tags at once, whereas with passive RFID will recognize only few hundreds. These tags can be recognized at a very fast pace.

Advantages in using RFID technology

The major advantage of using RFID technology is that it is much more powerful than other AutoID technologies such as the bar codes. An organization can easily implement this technology into their process, since it is cheaper than other technologies. The RFID tags can stand at any harsh and hazardous environments such as near highways or even under the surface of the earth. They enable the multiple tags reading and writing at long ranges. This technology is most suitable for the identification of mass productions.

I think, this blog will help you a general idea about the RFID technology which is widely used in our organizations today. This technology will help to change the global supply chain and the human life will also be affected in many ways such as grocery, shopping, lodging, anti-counterfeit of ID card and etc. Therefore in my opinion, I think it is always good know about these developments and how they are used.

Thanks.

Source:

• Automation Production systems and computer-integrated manufacturing by Mikell P. Groover
• http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/7632-rfid-the-next-generation-auto-id-technology
• Stewe Lewis, (2004). A basic introduction to RFID Technology and its use in the supply chain.. e.g. Jet Powered Motors. (), pp.
  

What is Industrial Engineering?

Are you interested in learning how things work? How a process is built? Do you enjoy the rewarding feeling of success? If so, you might want to think about choosing a career path in industrial engineering! Unlike electrical, mechanical or civil engineering, industrial engineering is one of the most diverse careers you could find in the field of engineering.  An industrial engineering has a broad scope where an industrial engineer can easily be  working as manufacturing engineer, system engineer, an operation researcher or else a human factors and safety engineer. So if you choose a career path in industrial engineering, you would have a wide range of opportunities and lot of options in hand. As mentioned above, you could be an industrial engineer working at a manufacturing plant as a lean coordinator or a human factors engineer working at a health care facility or even start your own firm. These are the variety of career opportunities available to you if you are an industrial engineer. This is why I chose industrial engineering as my major.

What does an Industrial Engineer do?

Industrial engineering is formerly described as a branch of engineering engages with the improving of complex systems and process. It mostly deals with the improvement, development and implementation of incorporated complex systems which include people, information, money and resources. In simpler words, industrial engineers look for different ways and methods to make products/services offered to customers cheaper, easier and faster, by improving its process and quality.

A major success for an industrial engineer or an IE should be their ability to detect when a process needs to be improved. The only way this could be done is by understanding the process itself that needs to be improved. Only then you start to identify the areas that needs to be improved in the present system and can devise a method to improve the system. Improving a process does not solely fall on just improving the machinery. Sometimes the area of improvement may lie in where and how people do their work. May be it is a change in routine that is needed, or a change in the workstation design. So as an industrial engineer you should be open to all possibilities of improvement in a work place.

What is the purpose of industrial Engineering?

As mentioned above, we IEs focus mainly on how a process or a product can be improved from their current state. Some would argue and say that what we do it not important; that a product might still be made even if the process of making is faulty and outdated. It is true to some extent. A product could still be made with outdated or faulty processes, but the difference would be that how would you be able to afford them at a decent price. For example, the computer that you are reading this on, the espresso machine at your work place, the steam cooker in your kitchen would not have been affordable if the processes that used to make them were very expensive and outdated. So therefore by improving the process, we also reduce the cost of operations thus reducing the cost and leading to higher profit margins. This is important from a business stand point.

So in conclusion I would like to say industrial engineering is a great career opportunity for everyone as it is a diverse field and offer many different opportunities. There are many more applications to industrial engineering other than improving processes. So if you are interested to know more about industrial engineering, please take few minutes of your valuable time to watch the video below. Who knows, you might like what you see

Source:

• (). Industrial Engineering. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/index.cfm?objectid=4710703B-0EAD-59C0-B6D2309B3335C8D4. [Last Accessed 03/30/2013].
• (). What do engineering do. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pitt.edu/~ejg40/EngineeringCareers.html. [Last Accessed 03/30/2013].