Manufacturing, A Sore Topic
You know, there was a time when I was growing up, especially during my high school years, when something made in America meant quality and was a symbol of our pride and our prowess. Now, our power as well as credibility has been greatly diminished, as we have fought an utterly useless war in Iraq, and now the debt crisis which forlorns over the European Union now basically dictates our financial markets. In this regard, the flagship of American products and goods was our manufacturing sector, namely steel, energy, and the automotive industries.
Not to go back to my made in China ranting, but this status symbol of ours is now virtually decimated. I guess I should be thinking happier thoughts as we are only just a week and a half away from Christmas, but I came across some content which reminded me of all this.
How it did will be described in a bit (you have to get through this posting in order to find out), but here is some inside goop: “AVT, Inc. unveiled their new line of automated, self-service parts and product dispensing systems. These turn-key, ready-to-go systems give employees immediate self-service access to the tools and parts they need, while giving employers a tightly controlled system that eliminates shrinkage and improves productivity . . . These systems can be configured to dispense everything from drill bits and socket wrenches to circuit boards and semi-conductors. Employers can set who gets access to each part or product, and the systems keeps track of each time a tool is checked out and returned . . . Other features of the AVT Automated Parts Dispensing System include a camera to verify delivery of the part or tool, and a touch screen display that contains all the pertinent specifications of the item.” (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9419/).
My Take
I do have to admit, that as I read this, I found it to be very unique, and to use that old term I always I have, this is the first time I have seen a Biometrics solution being used to help keep track of inventory and supplies like this. I really think it is awesome, and as one can very readily discern, the benefits are very immediate, such as keeping an exact inventory of what is being used, and taken out; greater levels of reduced shrinkage; and of course, much improved worker productivity (and hopefully morale as jobs in this sector is being extremely decimated by the month). Other features and benefits can also be seen in the above quote.
The technology of choice here is fingerprint recognition, and it only makes sense. In these rugged environments, you want a reliable biometric technology to prove its worth. In this sense, even hand geometry scanning and even vein pattern recognition would work just as well also, and I think even that the latter would prove to be the best. So, now how does of all this relate to my first thoughts of getting “Made In the USA” back into our hands again??? Well, although this biometrics solution is a huge achievement in an absolute sense for its own applications, it is, in my view, a step ahead in reclaiming our manufacturing advantage.
For example, here we see a good ole’ American company coming out with a solution to decrease costs and to increase productivity. This a positive first step in reclaiming our huge competitive advantage we enjoyed once a long time ago. The only way we can really reclaim this one again is to “fight fire with fire”. What do I mean by this??? I mean it is about time that we use our own brains to come up with newer ways to do manufacturing (and other such things) which will get it out of the hands of the Chinese and back into ours, and bring jobs back to the American shores. And this application perfectly exemplifies this.
And of all funny things, it is Biometrics which could very well help us reclaim our distinct advantage yet once again. Biometrics, in my view, is traditionally United States based, so let use this asset in our arsenal to build back American pride ingenuity, promise, and hope. We will reclaim our status in the world once again, but it will not be by leaps and bounds. It will be incremental steps like this one, but hey, even if it is small, it still a very positive move.
Comments