At the start of September, the number of open jobs exceeded the number of active jobseekers for the 17th consecutive month—a record for the United States economy.

Industry 4.0 has arrived, which means machine shop owners and managers of large manufacturing concerns are all looking at their options for bringing about their own transformation. But what functionality does smart factory equipment really offer? And what types of equipment are worth the price of adoption?

No doubt the U.S. economy is in a boom, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The Conference Board reports the highest levels of job satisfaction in more than a decade. The ratio between the unemployment level and the number of job vacancies is at its lowest level in a half-century

Julie Copeland, CEO of Arbill, the national safety distributor based in Philadelphia, is a board member of the National Manufacturers Association (NAM), which annually produces Manufacturing Day, so it's no surprise Arbill sponsored one of more than 2,730 Manufacturing Day events.