Industry 4.0 is here and it is completely transforming how companies are manufacturing, improving, and distributing their products. IoT, cloud computing, 3D printing, AI, and other novel technologies are emerging as defining elements of smart manufacturing. Helping drive all of this innovation is Dr. Dean Bartles.
After graduating with a Ph.D. in Technology Management from Indiana State University, Dr. Bartles went on to work on defense technology, when led to his role at Fairchild Republic Company. After working as an Industrial Engineer for five years, he moved on to work for the prominent aerospace and defense company General Dynamics. It was here that he would ensure a number of manufacturing operations throughout the world would be designed and developed.
Spending three decades as the Vice President and General Manager of the $600M Strategic Business Unit at General Dynamics helped position Dr. Bartles as a leading authority on advanced manufacturing. Today, he sits as the President and CEO of Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group (MTDG), as well as Advanced Manufacturing International (AMI). His innovative mind, coupled with skilled management within the sphere of advanced manufacturing, skyrocketed the sales of General Dynamics from $135M to $600M.
Thanks to Dr. Bartles’ extensive experience with advanced manufacturing technology, he has steered these companies in a way that provided reputable management of a wide array of customer portfolios, programs, and projects. His exceptional attention to emerging trends and eye for what works and what doesn’t have both cemented remarkable results for customers.
Inside the Mind of Dr. Dean Bartles
Dr. Bartles has always been fascinated by the progress achieved by technological innovations, especially when it came to the manufacturing industry. For example, he finds it amazing how it is possible to design and shape virtually anything the mind can conjure up with some metal dust and a laser. Additive manufacturing, aka 3D printing, has indeed now become a key tool in advanced manufacturing that is something Dr. Bartles has been spearheading since it first came onto the scene.
Being thoroughly impressed with what 3D printing is doing for the manufacturing industry, Dean seems it as being essential in developing the economy of the near future. Thanks to additive manufacturing, products can be made in larger quantities, at a higher level of quality, and for much less.
Something else that Dr. Bartles finds incredibly important is collecting more data for machine builders and manufacturers. He believes this will allow them to boost uptime while reducing costs. Data is the new digital gold, and provides invaluable insights into how machines are performing when it comes to things like monitoring production status, understanding the condition of a given machine, predicting the malfunctioning of machines, and optimizing the decision-making process.
As someone who has several decades of experience behind him, Dr. Dean Bartles can identify problems before they become catastrophic. He sees some major problems when it comes to developing a standard that machines use for communicating with each other. This closely ties into smart manufacturing, which Dean was a driving force behind it becoming prominent today. Machine-to-machine communication opens up a new array of opportunities for the development of precise and up-to-date data that includes analysis, notifications, and other essential information.
Something else that has been on Dean’s mind more recently is the issue regarding small businesses finding it challenging to integrate advanced manufacturing. This is often due to the higher initial cost required to invest in these technologies. Given this major obstacle, adoption by smaller businesses has been slow-going. Thankfully, Dr. Bartles has come up with a solution.
Advanced Manufacturing International (AMI) was founded to address this very issue. As a subsidiary of MTDG, its role is to assist what are known as small-to-medium manufacturers (SMMs) to modernize by adopting the latest advanced technologies at reduced costs. What AMI provides are advanced manufacturing technologies that can be seamlessly integrated into SMMs for greater profits. Dr. Bartles has been the lead for guiding industry experts to collaborate with these smaller businesses to address problems they face and how they can utilize low-cast solutions quickly and effectively.
A Mind Motivated About Advanced Manufacturing
Dr. Dean Bartles has long been an innovator, and is today helping SMMs become a part of Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing through AMI. As a leader within advanced manufacturing, Dr. Bartles is helping with the further integration and adoption of these novel technologies for the benefit of both businesses and their customers.
You can visit Dr. Dean Bartles website and also follow him on Twitter.
