Posted June 28, 2017

 

I’m excited and thankful that eTC Publisher Devin Steele asked me to contribute to a topic series blog on Advanced Manufacturing,

 

There is a lot of focus on “on-shoring” of manufacturing back to the U.S., as I’ve recently heard from speakers at the Southern Textile Association’s Northern Division meeting at N.C State’s College of Textiles; in a meeting with Dr. Jeff Joines, department head of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at N.C. State; and in meetings with several CEOs of textile organizations, who talk with me about the advantages of educating, supporting and realizing a re-growth of manufactured textile goods here in the U.S..

 

Having grown up in a small textile town, earned a degree in textiles, worked in various textile management roles and then having moved away to help other industries remain competitive in the U.S., I feel a strong sense of commitment to help achieve these goals for the textile industry.

 

What I’ve learned over the past 20 years can be summarized in the following two statements:
 

1. Cheaper labor doesn’t always make an industry competitive; response to customer demands can’t always be met building high-tech plants with low-cost labor; and
    

2. If a capital investment in technology can’t show a dramatic and swift payback, it may not have been worth doing at all.

 

As a 29-year-old assistant plant chemist and student in the Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering program, I attending the 1992 Automated Manufacturing Expo in Greenville, S.C., and I recall Neil Cahill – a professor at the Institute of Textile Technology (ITT) in Charlottesville, Va. – presenting a discussion on world-class manufacturing. He visited yarn plants in Asia to see what they did that made them “world-class.” I took immediate note of the fact that although they took him into modern facilities to demonstrate their capabilities, he observed that a sister yarn plant right across the road, built 100 years before, had the exact same capabilities.

 

My blog series will focus on how this is possible and, hopefully, stimulate you, as a manager, to envision how your own plants can be more competitive in a worldwide arena. Every plant has its own challenges and uniqueness, and not everything will apply to your specific environment. But over the course of this blog, I hope to help provide insights into what advanced manufacturing is as it pertains to you.

 

First, I’ll define advanced manufacturing and discuss the areas of integration of computers in manufacturing. Second, I’ll discuss where information technology can be used to create a significant competitive advantage for your company. After that, I’ll cover the major characteristics of a globally competitive company in detail, with examples, hoping to provide insight for you to incorporate in your own plants.

 

Along the way, I’ll also provide examples and stories about real-world challenges faced, so that, as managers, you’ll be prepared to deal with those challenges if they occur.

 

Feel free to add comments to any blog. I’ll be glad to tailor your comments and requests in subsequent blogs.

 

About the author

 

Fenters is president and founder of Pyramid Software and has been working with manufacturers in a variety of industries consulting, teaching, architecting, developing and implementing information handling systems for enterprise-, execution- and control-level functions since 1998.

 

His diverse experience and knowledge provides manufacturers with a long-term partner for continual process improvement from needs analysis, systems design, investment justification, technology transfer, software development and assurance of successful implementation.

 

He can be reached by email at kefenters@cimpyramid.com.