Breakthroughs and Possibilities

I had the pleasure of attending Okuma’s Technology Showcase last week, an annual event held at the Okuma America Headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, during which the latest innovations in manufacturing technology are displayed and demonstrated for customers and potential customers.

This year’s event was themed “Breakthroughs and Possibilities”. Over the two days more than 800 attendees walked Okuma’s headquarters and Partners in THINC facility to view a variety of machine tools, software and auxiliary equipment. They also heard keynote speakers discuss the “Digital Age of Manufacturing” and how to put the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to work for them. There was much networking and learning the latest ways in which they might improve quality and production at their own companies.

I learned that Okuma also had a separate event geared toward showing students from the Charlotte area the wonders of manufacturing due to breakthrough technologies and how that translates into many career possibilities. I’m playing on the event theme here, so bear with me, but I really appreciated Okuma’s dedication not just to building machine tool sales, but to building the future manufacturing workforce.

It was a wonderful experience and I came away with a few ideas for technical articles that readers will see in future issues of MMT. For now, though, let me encourage MMT readers to take full advantage of events like this. For Okuma America, the emphasis is on innovation through partnership and developing a network of knowledgeable people who can work together to bring about the best, highest quality solutions for their customers. It’s collaboration like this that keeps American manufacturers ahead of the competition.