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The Paradox of American Manufacturing
Pages 12-25

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From page 12...
... rate of productivity growth has lagged that of many other industrial nations. In each of these years, many dismissed this as a consequence of our tremendous lead in absolute productivity, the development of the emerging industrial nations and the rebuilding of those nations decimated in World War II.
From page 13...
... NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR 1986 1987 1988 $Billions 165 175 SOURCE US DepartmentolCommerce 185 195 205 215 THE PARADOX OF AMERICAN MANUFACTURING 13
From page 14...
... 1980 1981 I Total Manufacturing SOURCE U S Department ol Commerce 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 High-Technology Manufacturing » "AW RGURE 4 U.S. manufacturing productivity growth.
From page 15...
... Education Quality To possess a strong manufacturing sector, the nation must have a technologically competent work force and engineering force. This is especially important if we are to exploit our technological advantages to balance other disadvantages, such as comparative labor rates or cost of capital.
From page 16...
... These have severely hampered the ability of management to respond to competitive situations and to the evolution of advanced manufacturing processes. It is management's role to bring workers into every step of the operation and ins!
From page 17...
... However, even with the high cost of capital, such revolutionary improvements are, in many cases, still available to manufacturing companies. These include dramatic improvements in time-to-market for new products, quality levels, or responsiveness to customers' needs.
From page 18...
... Control systems that embody extraordinarily complex phenomenological models of the process will be able to provide real-time adaptive capabilities at an affordable price. • Systems: Many of the critical issues in manufacturing competitiveness lie in integration of all functions of the manufacturing enterprise.
From page 19...
... Many of the NSF Engineering Research Centers concentrate on manufacturing research. NBS hopes to extend their knowledge conduit from their Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF)
From page 20...
... Also, in most American companies, the definition of process occurs sequentially with the definition of product, being initiated only after the final product design is released. This creates a longer lead time for the transformation of design information into manufacturing and process definition and also inhibits the ability of manufacturing engineers to affect the design with respect to its manufacturability.
From page 21...
... All of this drives process knowledge back to the design engineer, forcing an early evaluation of manufacturability as the principal objective. It also seeks to capture process and manufacturing knowledge from an aging work force of manufacturing engineers.
From page 22...
... According to a 1987 report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council Office of International Affairs, 'The total number of research publications by Japanese engineers surpassed the output of French and West German researchers in the 1970s, and the USSR in the early 1980s." In the mid-1980s the number of Japanese technical publications will probably surpass the British and be second only to that of the United States. The three top corporate recipients of patents in the United States in 1987 were Japanese companies.
From page 23...
... They may also decide that corporate strategy will allow product customization to meet specific customers' needs. The manufacturing strategy to fit that particular corporate strategy requires highly integrated design and manufacturing systems to reduce the time-to-market.
From page 24...
... • The financial strength is there, and the devaluation of the dollar should assist corporate profits, which combined with low interest rates will allow capital investment in manufacturing technologies and systems. • Universities are willing and able to create the necessary scale and quality of manufacturing education and research programs.
From page 25...
... National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council Office of International Affairs.


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