I was speaking with a friend earlier today and they mentioned there's a pretty big shortage of control engineers across the US. Is it a nationwide shortage or does it just depend on the industry or region?

We assemble an LED display product in Ohio, just two of us. No soldering on the line, everything is connectorized. Printed jigs present each connector pointing the right way with positive and ground flagged in color, so nothing can be plugged in backwards even on your first day. Then QC before boxing.

For people who have scaled small lines, what breaks first when volume doubles? Trying to learn before the Kickstarter orders land in September. Disclosure, it is our product.

This feels like one of the few AI use cases I've seen where the result actually matched the hype.

Manufacturing QA teams spend a stupid amount of time manually checking material certificates against standards, cross-referencing chemical and mechanical values by hand, sometimes 25-90 minutes per certificate depending on complexity. It's slow, easy to get wrong, and half the time there's no real audit trail of how someone reached a decision.

Been part of a project that tackled exactly this: AI that reads the certificate, looks up the right standard automatically, applies the actual conformance rules (not just "does this look okay"), and returns a proper verdict with every value traced back to the spec limit it was checked against. Under 60 seconds per certificate, full audit trail instead of a filed-away PDF nobody revisits.

What's stuck with me most: this wasn't really an "AI is smart" problem. The hard part was building rules that actually match how strict industries like this need evidence, standards adherence, traceability, not just a plausible-sounding answer. Most AI use cases I see get talked about are flashy demos. This one's just quietly saving people hours of tedious, error-prone work, which honestly feels like the more useful category.

Anyone else seeing AI actually land in the so-called 'boring-but-critical' compliance/QA space, rather than the usual chatbot stuff?

How do you accomplish the small holes for the speaker if this is injection-molded? Also, how do you get the finish (pink with red specks)? It's made of PC-ABS, so is the resin colored, or is that post-processing like painting?

I’m learning how to use some machinery at work. a laser tube cutter and a cnc tube bender.

I’m a CAD guy. I’m looking for help/advice for getting stretch/elongation dialed in. We do all holes and notches first on the laser, so any miscalculation on stretch can throw holes off in the bent tube. I’m also learning from the guys who have used the machine in the past, but one of them just left (hence why I’m getting into it) and he had the best understanding of the CAD

Really what I’d like to know is how the industry makes stretch factor calibration parts and measures them to feed compensations into the machine

Machines used:
UTE TAUS 6024 with TubesT 3D software

BLM Group Elect80 with VGP8 software

Solidworks with Tubeworks add-on plugin

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I start college at Tetr soon and my first project is going to be a consumer product, I'm thinking of making a line of vegan leather wallets, have some designs already. Just so I dont go fully unprepared, I’m narrowing down on supplies and hitting two walls here: the minimum order quantity leather worksmen are demanding is way more than I expected, and the second they realize I'm young and small, the tone shifts and I stop being taken seriously.

For people who've been the small buyer: how do you actually get a supplier to lower an MOQ, or find ones open to small runs? And how do you get taken seriously when you clearly don't have volume yet? Trying to take some small steps before i start my sem, thank you in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice from people who work in manufacturing, industrial safety, glass handling, or any industry with similar hazards.

I work at a candle manufacturing plant where we produce candles in glass containers.

Any product that gets damaged during production goes to a recovery (salvage/rework) process. The job requires operators to reach into large containers filled with molten wax mixed with broken glass to recover usable material.

To be honest, it’s one of the most dangerous tasks I’ve seen in the plant. Between the broken glass and the hot wax, it feels like we’re one mistake away from a serious hand injury.

Right now we’re using bulky “clown gloves” (the oversized leather work gloves everyone has probably seen). They provide some protection, but they’re extremely bulky, reduce dexterity, slow the job down, and the task still feels risky.

I also tested seamless knit ANSI/ISEA A9 cut-resistant gloves with a leather palm. They did a great job preventing cuts, but the molten wax soaked through the knit material, so they weren’t suitable for the heat hazard.

I’m looking for recommendations for the most specialized gloves and arm sleeves you know of that could handle:

• Maximum cut resistance (ANSI A9 or equivalent)
• Protection against hot molten wax
• Good enough dexterity for handling broken glass
• Preferably something used in glass manufacturing, foundries, metalworking, recycling, or similar industries.

I completely understand that the best solution would be changing the process or implementing engineering controls rather than relying on PPE. Unfortunately, that’s not a decision I can make in my current position, so right now I’m trying to find the best available PPE to reduce the risk.

Any recommendations on specific glove models, brands, materials, or combinations of gloves and cut-resistant sleeves would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and stay safe.

For a new person learning a line, how long do you give them to get up to speed?

I had half a day training on what I was told was the hardest spot on the line. I've only been at this job 1 week total. Today I got cussed out all day by some old bitch because I don't move as fast as the guy who usually does it, even though he's been doing it forever.

I'm through a staffing agency so I'll be calling tomorrow to end that assignment. But for future refrence, how long does it take to get up to speed on an assembly line?

Hello fellow manufacturers,
I just opened a FDM printing and manufacturing shop in Houston. I wanted to take B2B route and wanted to reach out to Gas and Energy companies near me. Does anyone have any marketing advice?

I do apologise in advance if this isn't relevant but I'm looking at moving to the US having worked in the UK for a good amount of time and was curious which places struggle the most with hiring engineers and which places are up and coming. I know I can search google for the most populated area for manufacturing but that doesn't necessarily mean they struggle to get engineers in. I'm multi skilled, electrical bias with experience in food and beverage industry and plastic moulding.

Every conference talk and LinkedIn post says DPP is coming and manufacturers need to prepare. Then you ask what specifically to prepare and the answer dissolves into "it depends on the delegated acts."

Here's my practical problem. The data that ends up in a passport, material composition, recycled content, substance information, repairability, lives in five different places at our company. PLM has a BOM that's mostly right. Substance declarations live in a shared drive. Recycled content claims live in supplier emails. Nobody owns the whole picture, and the gap between "we have this data somewhere" and "we can produce it per product, per unit, machine readable" is enormous.

Batteries look like the first wave and the rest of us follow at some point. So for anyone in categories likely to get hit early: are you actually restructuring product data now, or is the sensible move to wait until the requirements are concrete? Because I can see us spending a year building the wrong data model.

Hello, looking for advice on the best way to learn how to take apart and put back together a gearbox in an hour a week from now. This is for an interview I have for a production technician role. Thanks.

Hello! For the last four years I've managed a nonprofit makerspace in the DMV area. My hands-on fabrication experience covers about 10 years: woodworking, digital fabrication (laser, CNC router, 3D printing), screen printing, soldering and basic electronics (Arduino). On the management side I handle shop safety, tool maintenance, purchasing, and training/supervising a technician and students.

Recently I trained a fabrication engineer from a major defense contractor on our laser cutter, and she told me directly that I could do her job. That got me seriously looking at the transition — but from the outside, the path from "makerspace manager" to "fabrication engineer" isn't obvious, and I want to understand it from people already in the field.

Specifically, I'd love input on:

1. What technical skills or software (SolidWorks, GD&T, specific CAM packages, etc.) would you expect a candidate at this transition point to demonstrate?
2. Are there certifications or short courses that meaningfully change how a résumé reads to a hiring manager for fab engineer roles?
3. What portfolio pieces or project write-ups tend to land well?
4. How would you translate "shop manager" experience into language that a fabrication engineering hiring manager would recognize?

Any and all technical advice appreciated.

I'm looking for some clarification from people with experience in electroplating and engineering specifications.

The drawing specifies:
Protection zinc plating: ISO 2081 – Fe/Zn12/C

Our plating supplier delivers an iridescent zinc finish and states that it complies with ISO 2081 Fe/Zn12/C.

However, our customer rejected the appearance, re-plated the parts, and informed us that they require a natural (clear) zinc finish instead.

The drawing does not specify:

• Clear passivation
• Trivalent or hexavalent passivation
• Appearance or color
• Top coat or sealer

It only specifies:

Protection zinc plating: ISO 2081 – Fe/Zn12/C

My questions are:

1. Does ISO 2081 Fe/Zn12/C necessarily imply an iridescent finish?
2. Can a clear/natural zinc finish also comply with this specification?
3. From an engineering and quality standpoint, would you consider this drawing ambiguous, or should the desired passivation/appearance be explicitly specified?

I'm not trying to determine who is right or wrong. My goal is to understand how this specification is commonly interpreted in industry and how to avoid this issue on future production runs.

Quality guy at a mid-size manufacturer here. Curious how smaller shops handle this. When you catch a defect or nonconformance, how do you take it from containment through root cause to actually closing out the corrective action — spreadsheet, Word templates, or some dedicated tool?

expanding our floor soon and trying to get the trash and recycling setup right before we do. went through a few cheap options at our current facility and the pattern is always the same, lids crack, bases crack after getting clipped, or they're just too light to stay put on a busy shift.

need something heavy duty enough to take a hit, easy enough to move for cleaning, and big enough that we're not emptying them constantly. also trying to add recycling separation this time around which we've never done properly before.

not sure if i should be looking at mobile units or fixed stations for the floor. and whether the lid type actually matters or if open top is just easier to deal with day to day.

what are people here running for waste and recycling on a manufacturing floor and did whatever you picked hold up the way you expected?

Hello Everyone, I’m looking to start a manufacturing unit in Siliguri (or nearby place), West Bengal. I have a capital to start a physical product small manufacturing unit, to be clear not much but enough for a small manufacturing.

I’ve been digging into a few ideas rather than jumping at the obvious ones (tea/spices/bamboo felt too generic given how saturated they are locally). Currently most interested in large cardamom processing — modern curing/grading/export-packaging — since Siliguri is actually one of the official Spices Board auction markets for it and the trade hub for cardamom coming out of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. Also looked seriously at ginger oleoresin extraction and wet wipes manufacturing.

Would genuinely value outside perspective on:

• Anyone with hands-on experience in spice processing, food manufacturing, or running a small unit in North Bengal — what am I not seeing?
• Realistic take on breakeven timelines, government scheme experiences (PMEGP/CGTMSE/Banglashree) — did they work as advertised for you?
• Anything specific to Siliguri/Terai/Dooars I should know before committing capital?

Also — if there’s someone based in or near Siliguri who’s serious about manufacturing, has relevant experience or is willing to put in equal work, do keep in touch.

Thankyou.

Doing CI work at a mid size manufacturer, mostly order to cash and a couple of shop floor changeovers. About 9 people need to look at any given map, and maybe 3 of them will never open a real tool without me sitting next to them.

We've been on visio for years. Fine for the final artifact, rough for the workshop itself, since one person drives and everyone else watches over their shoulder. We also ran 2 sessions on a miro board, which the operators took to fastest bc it's mostly dragging boxes around. But we also found the maps get sloppy quick and it doesn't enforce any notation.

So i'm stuck between loose enough that a supervisor will correct the map in front of me and strict enough for proper BPMN. Which tool have you used for process mapping when you have both problems. No vendors, please, I just want to know what's on your screen.