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+2 +1
China's manufacturing sector contracts for 5th straight month in July
Flash Caixin/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declined to 48.2, the lowest reading since April 2014.
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+25 +1
Americans may soon be seeing far fewer “Made in China” labels at the mall
Sometimes it seems like everything we own has been made in China—the iPhones in our pockets, the TVs in our living rooms, the clothes in our closets, and the toys under the Christmas tree. (And if it’s plastic—the tree, too.) China, after all, manufactures more stuff than any other country in the world.
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+40 +1
The Changing Face of Shenzhen, the World's Gadget Factory
Mention Shenzhen to most people, and they’ll probably think of the vast Foxconn manufacturing plant that churns out high-end phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming consoles for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and Sony. The size of a small city —with an estimated half a million employees—Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant gets media attention not just because of its vast scale and brand-name clients, but also because of the numerous reports of...
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+1 +1
A startup that grows metal expands with money from Founders Fund
A little known Seattle startup could do for metal what 3D printing is doing for other materials like plastic.
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+65 +1
Construction of world's first large-scale vegetable 'factory' underway
Japanese vertical farmer, Spread Co., has begun construction on what it called the world’s first large-scale vegetable factory. The facility will be fully automated from the seeding process to harvesting and be capable of producing 30,000 heads of lettuce per day. The company currently operates a facility in the city of Kameoka that uses artifical lighting and vertical farming techniques to produce four different types of lettuce...
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+18 +1
These are probably the coolest engineering GIFs you'll ever come across
In appreciation of automated manufacturing processes, we present to you a number of engineering GIFs that will interest you
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+29 +1
New technique could make cement manufacturing carbon-neutral
Concrete surrounds us in our cities and stretches across the land in a vast network of highways. Many aren’t aware that concrete’s key ingredient, ordinary portland cement, is a major producer of greenhouse gases. Each year, manufacturers produce around 5 billion tons of portland cement, for every ton of cement produced, the process creates approximately a ton of carbon dioxide, all of which accounts for roughly 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
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+39 +1
Why is Ford's hi-tech factory using ostrich feathers?
The BBC takes a look at Ford's new hi-tech 'mega factory' in Valencia, Spain - one of the world’s most advanced and productive car plants.
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+28 +1
VW engineers have admitted manipulating CO2 emissions data-paper
Several Volkswagen engineers have admitted manipulating carbon dioxide emissions data, saying the ambitious goals set by former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn were difficult to achieve, Bild am Sonntag reported. The paper said VW engineers tampered with tyre pressure and mixed diesel with their motor oil to make them use less fuel, a deception that began in 2013 and carried on until the spring of this year.
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+21 +1
Synthetic biology lures Silicon Valley investors
Tech funders warm to start-ups that use microbes in manufacturing.
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+37 +1
China Aims to Retool Its Manufacturing Industry with Robots
China is laying the groundwork for a robot revolution by planning to automate the work currently done by millions of low-paid workers. The government’s plan will be crucial to a broader effort to reform China’s economy while also meeting the ambitious production goals laid out in its latest economic blueprint, which aims to double per capita income by 2020 from 2016 levels with at least 6.5 percent annual growth. The success of this effort could...
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+29 +1
Cotton Is Piling Up at Warehouses Around the World
There’s enough cotton sitting in global warehouses to make more than 127 billion T-shirts, or 17 for each person on the planet. That’s bad news for investors betting prices will rise. World inventories at the end of this season will be the second-largest ever, just slightly less than last year’s record, according to a U.S Department of Agriculture forecast last week. That’s a signal that supplies will remain ample even after the agency cut its outlook for production
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+25 +1
Rip Curl clothes produced in North Korean factory with 'slave-like' conditions
Australian clothing company Rip Curl has admitted one of its winter collections was manufactured in North Korea, but labeled as if the garments had been made in China. The company, which said a supplier shifted the manufacturing to the North Korean facility without informing them, says it was aware of the swap before Fairfax Media first reported it Sunday local time.
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+21 +1
How Nike Will 3D Print Shoes
3D printing could have specific uses in the shoe market.
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+30 +1
Tesla's Gigafactory grand opening to take place July 29
The company's giant battery manufacturing facility outside Reno, Nevada will be celebrating a grand opening in just two months' time.
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+20 +1
“The Future is Hidden within these Realities”
Selected Translations from "Factory Stories"
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+12 +1
Impact of automation on developing countries puts up to 85% of jobs at risk
A new report from Citi and the Oxford Martin School explores the varying impact that automation of jobs will have on countries and cities around the world, in the near future and the coming decades. Technology at Work v2.0: The Future Is Not What It Used to Be builds on 2013 research by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne which found that 47 per cent of US jobs were at risk of automation over the next two decades, and on the first Technology at Work report, published in 2015.
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+32 +1
A Chinese billionaire is staking his legacy — and thousands of American jobs — on this factory in Ohio
The next chapter of globalization is already unfolding inside a Chinese billionaire's factory in Ohio.
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+14 +1
What it takes to bring "back" a manufacturing job
If you want to know what it takes to bring a manufacturing job back to the United States, the best place to start is with someone who’s done it. Like many manufacturers, the makers of TinkerToys and LincolnLogs shifted a lot of production to China in the late 90’s. “The savings were dramatic,” recalls Michael Araten, CEO of K’NEX. “In the range of 40 to 70 percent in some cases. Primarily it was labor costs but it was also the supply chain – China in particular subsidized the factories, subsidized the trucks to get things back and forth.”
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+21 +1
Sneakers Show Limits of Trade Policy in Reviving Jobs for Trump
American companies from appliance makers to auto parts suppliers have lined up to offer a quiet caution to President-elect Donald Trump as he considers pulling the United States from trade deals: most lost manufacturing jobs aren’t coming back, but higher costs for consumers could.
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