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The new capability is particularly suited to operations working in the defense manufacturing supply chain, who frequently handle sensitive intellectual property (IP) and high-security information.

“The U.S. invests more than $100 billion dollars into defense research and development annually. In the private sector, companies spend billions each year developing their intellectual property. Protecting the IP of these organizations is a matter of national security, and maintaining American competitiveness on a global scale,” according to Paperless Parts co-founder and CEO Scott Sawyer.

U.S. DoD contract manufacturers are required to adhere to strict security standards, including multi-factor authentication, tight access control, and detailed audit capabilities. As early as May 2023, such manufacturers will

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PARTS (888) 207-2787 be subject to third-party audits to ensure compliance with the standards outlined in the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0. Individual shops will have to ensure that all of their security and IT control processes are CMMC-compliant.

Boston-based Paperless Parts is a Cloud-based estimated and quoting software that supports a broad range of manufacturing functions, including milling and machining, sheet metal fabrication, and additive manufacturing.The ITAR-registered site is hosted on Amazon GovCloud (also used by DoD), and leverages in-transit data encryption using TLS v1.2 with modern ciphers, at-rest data encryption using AES-256, 100% US-based system administrators and support team, a System Security Plan based on the FedRAMP Moderate baseline (NIST 800-53), nightly data back-ups, and more.

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The new Paperless Parts IT Module introduces a layer of security control for shops that require enhanced visibility and access rights management, or any shop bidding for orders connected to DoD programs. With the IT Module, users will be able to use Single Sign-On (SSO) to centralize login and session management via third-party identity providers (including Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Okta, and OneLogin.)

Also, they will be able to restrict users’ ability to access CUI based on individual intelligent permissionsor type of role, so that CUI can only be viewed, downloaded, or shared by authorized users. Permissions are enforced at the User Interface, API, and database level.

Additionally, they’ll be able to flag files that contain CUI data so that access is limited to designated users, restrict other users, or set or remove CUI flags. And IT Module users will be able to track who is accessing CUI and create audit reports by downloading an audit log of all access to or modification of data that could potentially contain CUI.

“As critical national infrastructure, manufacturing is a major target for cybercrime, and the average cost of a data breach to a U.S. small enterprise is over $8 million,” Sawyer continued. “We want to arm our customers with the tools they need to ensure that the data they are entrusted with is as secure as possible.”

Airlines, Pilots Disagree on Pilot Shortage

by Kerry Lynch

Wednesday’s testimony in the U.S. Congress reflected differences in opinion on the existence of a pilot shortage.(Photo: Pixabay)

The state of pilot supply came under scrutiny in the House Aviation Subcommittee on Wednesday as industry stakeholders who testified disagreed about whether a shortage exists and whether measures such as raising the mandatory retirement age for airlines would help.

Regional Airline Association president and CEO Faye Malarkey Black in testimony called the situation “devastating” and said that despite soaring passenger demand, the shortage is decimating small community air service. She said the shortage has been growing for decades, with a chief issue stemming from the FAA’s slow action on advancing pilot training standards.

“The impacts of the pilot shortage are real,” she said. “Currently, more than 500 regional aircraft are parked, and those aircraft remaining in service are underutilized. The impact has been felt by 308 airports or almost 72 percent of all U.S. airports.”

Calling the situation particularly acute among airline captains, she said the fact that 50 percent of the pilot workforce would be forced to retire in the next 15 years will exacerbate the problem.

“Thousands of willing, healthy, and skilled pilots who would like to continue working are being forced out of the profession at age 65, to the detriment of air service across the country,” said Black. Despite the increase in pilot certificates, there still are not enough qualified and interested people to hire, she added.

Last year marked a record for new pilots qualified—9,491—but the number “fell far short of the 13,128 hired by just one subset of the airline industry last year,” she stressed. “It is vitally important that pilot production in 2022 be put in the proper context.”

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) released data in advance of Wednesday’s hearing showing that the FAA has certified 2,658 new airline pilots in just the first three months of this year and 63,932 since 2013, when stricter qualification rules took effect (the so-called 1,500-hour rule). The airlines filled about 40,000 positions at the same time.

“Over the past 10 years, the United States has not only reduced airline passenger fatalities but also produced more than enough pilots to meet airline hiring demand,” said ALPA president Jason Ambrosi. “The groups that continue the flood of misinformation and misleading data are only interested in one thing: manufacturing a crisis to lower aviation safety standards and increase their bottom line.”

ALPA blames the decision of the airlines to bump to smaller equipment, park aircraft, and furlough pilots during the pandemic for creating the current situation.When demand returned and airlines rehired pilots, they needed retraining, creating a backlog. Ambrosi told lawmakers he believed enough supply exists to satisfy demand and cautioned against raising the pilot age on the grounds that it would put the U.S. out of sync with international standards.

Heather Krause, director of physical infrastructure for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), noted that the number of individuals qualified to become airline pilots increased between 2017 and 2022 and enrollments in training schools likewise increased. Forecasters project an increase in pilot supply, she testified, but “the extent to which projected supply would exceed or fall short of industry’s demand for pilots is unknown, given uncertainties surrounding future demand.”

Hiring and wage data indicate a strong demand for pilots, and regional airlines in particular have faced difficulties meeting that demand. Airlines have increased pay and the FAA is taking steps to support workforce development, she noted, but it is unclear whether these steps will be enough.

ChatGPT Is Changing Manufacturing... Here’s How To Use It

“The chatbot can provide quick responses for common issues that customers have, enable faster diagnosis and suggest personalized recommendations.”

ChatGPT is making headlines. OpenAI recently released its latest version of ChatGPT, which can provide “human-level performance” on many professional tests, such as the bar exam and the SAT.

But what can it do in the industrial space? Here we chat with Mikaela Pisani, head of data science for Rootstrap, about the newest version of ChatGPT and how manufacturers can actually use the ongoing development of new AI technology to improve business outcomes. Take a look…

ChatGPT might change the manufacturing industry in many ways, creating optimizations plans, predictive-maintenance schedules, mitigating risks, improving communications (making them faster and more efficient), as well provide quality control-detecting anomalies in the available information.

Manufacturers using this tool would be able to make better decisions, reduce costs, improve quality and, as a consequence, have a greater customer satisfaction.

The chatbot can provide quick responses for common issues that customers have, enable faster diagnosis and suggest personalized recommendations. Therefore, it can optimize time in responses giving the user useful information helping manufacturers to build stronger relationships with their customers by providing better service, personalization and responsiveness.

Smart Industry: What concerns/challenges does this tool present?

Mikaela: While ChatGPT and other AI technologies offer significant benefits for the manufacturing industry, they also present several concerns and challenges. AI systems might be vulnerable to cyberattacks, compromising sensitive information. It is manufacturers´ responsibility to ensure security over AI systems.

Also, there is a trend that more and more AI is replacing automated tasks, and without a human in the loop there might be ethical concerns regarding decisions made with these tools. Therefore, manufacturers should consider introducing humans to validate and correct AI results in order to provide a secure service.

In addition, a big challenge for manufactures is the integration of AI systems into the common workflow and processes.The use of AI should be done by steps, enabling compatibility with other systems.

The workforce is not familiar with this technology, so owners need to invest money and time into training workers to integrate the tool in their job. On the other hand, there might be a reduction of personnel, since AI can automate many tasks and processes that are currently being done by people; it might be better for the company to hire trained people rather than wait for the current workforce to be ready for the job. This may lead to job displacement.

Smart Industry: What limitations exist with ChatGPT for application in the industrial space and how long will these limitations exist?

Mikaela: The limitations that ChatGPT have are the following:

1. The lack of actual information.This fact is a problem when you need updated information, and also this model is not very useful when you need to validate the source. In the short term this won´t be a problem, since Microsoft and Google are realizing search engines connected with a language model like this.Therefore, the mix of a search engine and a chatbot will be really powerful tool for searching information fast and getting a summarization.