Would practical courses like welding and machining be useful?

xxChrisxx

Its an intersting view of where manufacturing is going over the next x years. I'm of a firm belief that eventually the human machine operator will be taken out of the equation all together; everything will be designed, tested and inspected on CAD and then manufactured with near full automation.

We've already started down this road with the paperless design of the Boeing 777 and i'd be surprised if everything in industry wasn't designed and built like that within my lifetime.

Ranger Mike

close..Gen Electric tried this factory of the future crap in 1980..the only ones working at the palnt would be maintenance people..changing light bulbs..never happened
nor will it
like the Scarecrow said ..A BRAIN!!!!

xxChrisxx

'Nor will it' is a slightly sweeping statement, and a bit of a bold if I might say.

It'll happen. The advances in technology in the last 30 years have been simply staggering, and I couldnt even speculate as what we'd be able to do in another 30. The human element of the manufacutring process will be eleminated at some point as machines are better at this sort of thing.

Well I think this thread has been successfully hijacked.

Topher925

Be careful how much time you invest in CAD classes, unless you want to be a designer. I've seen a lot of ME's, many with MSMEs, become CAD monkeys and just make pretty pictures of stuff all day. Waste of an education if you ask me since most CAD software can be learned in <3 weeks.

TVP45

Pilgrim, that sounds like a challenge. It takes several thousand hours to be any good on most 3d packages.