ASSEMBLY Magazine

🎧 Midweek Listen: AI inspection systems are becoming more valuable only when manufacturers can trust the data behind them.

In this episode of ASSEMBLY Audible, Blake Maurer discusses why structured manufacturing data is becoming increasingly critical for AI-driven quality inspection, traceability and modern quality management systems.

The conversation explores how manufacturers are moving beyond isolated inspection tools toward connected quality systems capable of supporting faster decision-making and more reliable production oversight.

https://www.assemblymag.com/media/podcasts/6446-assembly-audible/play/399-blake-maurer-on-ai-inspection-structured-data-and-modern-quality-management

Blake Maurer on AI Inspection, Structured Data and Modern Quality Management Blake Maurer of Loopr AI discusses how manufacturers can improve quality inspection by combining human expertise with AI-enabled visual inspection systems. He explains how platforms like Loopr are designed to reduce variability in inspections, digitize quality records and structure manufacturing dat...

What if robots could learn a task the way a new worker does?

Watch. Listen. Practice. Improve.

That is the idea behind FARMAR, an international project developing AI-powered robots that learn real-world workflows from human experts instead of relying only on traditional programming.

Farmers will demonstrate tasks and explain their routines. Those movements and spoken instructions will be converted into step-by-step directions that coordinated teams of robots can follow.

The first use case is agriculture, but the manufacturing implications are hard to ignore: robots that can learn from expert operators, adapt to changing conditions and eventually take on more variable work in real production environments.

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100118-ai-powered-robots-learn-real-world-tasks-from-human-experts

Image Courtesy: Sync via Adobe Stock

Robotic applications are growing in the United States: https://brnw.ch/21x3AB0

U.S. Robot Industry Experiences Double Digit Growth CHICAGO—The number of industrial robot installations in the United States increased 11 percent to reach 38,000 units in 2025, according to new data just released by the International Federation of Robotics.

Is robotic disassembly the answer to overflowing landfills?
https://brnw.ch/21x3A34

Appliance Manufacturer Uses Robots and AI to Disassemble Products Panasonic uses AI-powered robots to automatically disassemble appliances, enabling recycling, material recovery, and circular-economy sustainability.

Labor costs are no longer the only variable driving global manufacturing strategy.

A new Boston Consulting Group report says AI-enabled Factory of the Future systems, advanced automation and tariff pressure are changing how automotive and aerospace manufacturers evaluate where to build products.

The shift could narrow the cost gap between high- and low-wage regions, making automation readiness, digital infrastructure and productivity central to location decisions.

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100116-tariffs-ai-and-automation-reshape-global-manufacturing-strategy

Tariffs, AI and Automation Reshape Global Manufacturing Strategy BOSTON — Artificial intelligence, advanced automation and rising tariff pressure are beginning to reshape where automotive and aerospace manufacturers choose to build products, potentially reducing some of the long-standing cost advantages of lower-wage production regions, according to a new repor...

Lockheed Martin has opened an 88,000-square-foot missile assembly facility in Courtland, Alabama, to support production of the Next Generation Interceptor for the Missile Defense Agency.

The purpose-built facility uses digital manufacturing tools, automation and data-driven workflows to support repeatable production of complex missile defense systems.

For aerospace and defense manufacturers, the key detail is how the plant was designed around the product from the start: streamlined workflows, reduced handling, tighter tolerances, connected design data, configuration control and quality assurance as production scales.

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100138-lockheed-martin-opens-missile-assembly-facility-in-alabama

Lockheed Martin Opens Missile Assembly Facility in Alabama COURTLAND, Ala. — Lockheed Martin has opened an 88,000-square-foot missile assembly facility in Courtland to support production of the Next Generation Interceptor for the Missile Defense Agency.

Some of the most important work doesn’t get attention.

It just gets done—day in and day out, on the line and beyond it.

The push to localize battery production in the United States continues accelerating.

Anthro Energy and EnPower are partnering to scale domestic lithium-ion battery manufacturing, highlighting growing industry focus on supply chain resilience, U.S.-based production capacity and next-generation battery technologies.

As battery demand expands across EVs, electronics and industrial systems, manufacturers are increasingly looking to reduce dependence on overseas supply chains while strengthening domestic production infrastructure.

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100066-anthro-energy-enpower-partner-on-us-lithium-ion-battery-production

Anthro Energy, EnPower Partner on U.S. Lithium-Ion Battery Production BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Anthro Energy and EnPower Inc. have signed a master memorandum of understanding to jointly develop and scale domestic lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing for defense, robotics and autonomous systems applications.

Can machine learning catch fastening errors that traditional tools miss?

Even with torque and angle monitoring, some fastening defects still slip through. This piece looks at how manufacturers are using machine learning to detect subtle anomalies in rundown data—one of the hardest problems on the assembly line due to limited failure data and rare events.

It’s a shift from threshold-based checks to pattern recognition, and it could redefine how fastening quality is validated at scale.

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100026-machine-learning-detects-fastening-errors

Machine Learning Detects Fastening Errors Ford engineers are studying whether AI can play a role in detecting faulty run-downs. To do that, they first had to determine what constitutes a data anomaly.