Manufacturing in the computer age

Today's high-tech products require high-tech processes.

There was a time when manufacturing involved brute strength and took place in smoky mills with water or steam providing the power.

“In the old days a manufacturer would build a piece of equipment, take it out on the back forty, and beat it up,” said Tim Webb, Senior Manager of Marketing at Mechanical Dynamics, Inc., in Ann Arbor, MI. “When something broke, they'd go back to the shed and try a little more metal. That's not an efficient way to build a product in today's competitive market, yet some manufacturers still use this approach. The inefficiency is made worse by shorter design cycles and tightened cost constraints.”