Posted August 29, 2017

 

By Kevin Fenters

 

This summer, I learned an old dog can learn new tricks, after all. After missing a step near my home in Surf City, N.C., I found myself waiting. Waiting for the swelling to subside before scheduling surgery. Waiting for the swelling to subside before getting a cast. Waiting for the bones to heal before starting physical therapy. Then, just waiting.

 

Life doesn’t stop and my customers apparently do not share my enthusiasm for waiting. “How can I be productive with this?” I thought. But then I discovered my backside DOES work as well as feet for navigating steps, my dining room table DOES hold everything I need to work all day without getting up, and six different VPNs CAN replace getting in a car to be there. It took one very motivated team member (thanks to my wife) to help reengineer my workspace. Today, my productivity is better than ever!

 

I had developed the mindset that my now unreachable office space provided the only means to be productive. After all, I’ve been optimizing it for almost 20 years. But that optimization was marginal, incremental and based on the constraints of status quo. It took a few broken bones to change my “big picture,” my mindset.

 

And, yes, this has everything to do with Advanced Manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturers have the ability to adapt and to remain competitive in a rapidly changing environment. They possess the mindset to constantly assess what would make them more competitive, evaluate all available technologies, re-think operations and methods and then act quickly to achieve objectives.

 

While Wikipedia states multiple definitions of Advanced Manufacturing; the two I find most interesting are:

 

1. "Advanced manufacturing centers upon improving the performance of U.S. industry through the innovative application of technologies, processes and methods to product design and production." Finally, a recent survey of advanced manufacturing definitions by the White House and states: "A concise definition of advanced manufacturing offered by some is manufacturing that entails rapid transfer of science and technology (S&T) into manufacturing products and processes." (PCAST, April 2010.)
    

2. “Other sources define advanced manufacturers as those that "succeed" in today's competitive environment. One source states that: "What differentiates certain companies is a unique ability to create a competitive advantage in this environment. These manufacturers think and do faster and, by definition, these advantages make them advanced." (Industrial College of the Armed Forces) The White House survey lists some experts as defining advanced manufacturing "solely by advances that led to decreased cost or increased productivity." (PCAST)

 

The first definition implies that advanced manufacturers achieve performance improvements through innovative use of science and technology; and furthermore, possess the ability to rapidly incorporate such innovation. It is not implied that science and technology has to be new, just applied in some innovative way. Innovation comes from two sources:
 

• External – Sustainable competitive advantage exists only if the innovative science and technology can be used exclusively within the textile industry.

• Internal – Sustainable competitive advantage exists because the innovative science and technology is developed in-house and inherently exclusive.

 

The second definition implies that advanced manufacturers possess the resources with skill, knowledge, experience and motivation to think and do; then empower those resources with the authority to think and do quickly. Making decisions solely on the basis of reducing costs or increasing productivity strongly suggests that advanced manufacturers apply innovative use of accurate, real-time decision-making systems. Decision-making systems:

 

• Model manufacturing plants from the perspective of information sources, information destinations, processes and decisions made.

• Identify which information processes and decisions can be automated, and create the ability to automate them.

• Identify which information process and decisions can’t be automated, but create guidelines and rules for personnel to follow in making manual decisions in a timely manner.

 

Furthering Neil Cahill’s point discussed in my last blog, advanced manufacturers have the mindset that no matter the age of the equipment and facilities, making correct decisions at the appropriate times based on accurate information is paramount to “think and do faster.”

 

Over the next few blogs, we’ll cover some specific examples of decision-making systems implemented in a variety of industries.

 

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.