Next-gen manufacturing plant investment

In response to market momentum, GM begins to invest in its manufacturing future. ...

... "it would invest about $890 million to upgrade five North American plants to build the next-generation V8 engine for its full-sized pickup trucks. " ...

Via Reuters: GM to invest

Systemic Continuous Improvement Strategy for World Class Performance

Next-generation manufacturing survey offers insights into benchmark performance for global competition. Key strategies for achieving world-class performance levels include continual improvement, customer-focused innovation, and sustainable development. Improvement activities should transcend traditional boundaries of the company and integrate strategic partners, such as suppliers. ...

... "Systemic continuous improvement; Record annual productivity and quality gains that exceed the competition through a companywide commitment to continuous improvement. " ...

Via Fosters: Manufacturing survey insights

Global Competition through Lean Manufacturing

Small manufacturing firs turn to lean techniques to increase their global competitiveness. ...

... "Quabaug and Mar-Lee, which each compete against lower-cost areas like China, streamlined their methods of operation to become more efficient and handle changing customer needs. Their use of so-called lean manufacturing and innovation puts them on the forefront of next-generation manufacturing ... " ...

Via Worcester Telegram: Next Gen Manufacturing Competes Globally

Wisconsin Next-Gen Manufacturing Plan

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle will focus strategy on manufacturing industry with initiatives that promote lean manufacturing and innovation, continuing to position Wisconsin as a leader in manufacturing. Increased funding will enable small- and midsized manufacturers to use the lean manufacturing services of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. ...

... "Launch a Next Generation Manufacturing Plan to make manufacturers leaner and help them produce and export the highest-quality products made by the most skilled workers; " ...

Via Wisonsin Governor Jim Doyle: Strategy to Foster Innovation and Strengthen the Economy

The Next Generation Factory Uses Lean Techniques to Shift Thinking

AMD's Dr. Douglas Grose sees lean techniques as a strategic imperative to streamline the Next Generation Factory (NGF). ...

... "Building on its pioneering efforts in the adoption of Lean techniques and Automated Precision Manufacturing in semiconductor factories, AMD is joining with industry partners, including ISMI, to develop new tools and processes for further streamlining both front-end and back-end production. For example, current practice across the industry is to move wafers through the process steps in 25 wafer batches, but most of the tools can only process a few or even one wafer at a time, greatly increasing the amount of time it takes to process an entire 25 wafers, slowing the delivery to the customer and extending time-to-revenue for the manufacturer. Small Lot Manufacturing (SLM) and Single Wafer Tools (SWT) are proposed changes that would greatly improve manufacturing efficiency, but requires an industry-wide shift in thinking. Collaborating on addressing this issue and others magnifies the impact by distributing investments of time, talent and money across all the parties that ultimately benefit. " ...

Via AMD: Customer at Center of Chip Manufacturing


Related:

Rapid Prototyping, Tooling and Manufacturing: "A major break-through has been achieved in rapid manufacturing by moving from SLS to SLM. "

Rapid Manufacturing

NGMTI: "The purpose of the Next Generation Manufacturing Technology Initiative (NGMTI) is to accelerate the development and implementation of breakthrough manufacturing technologies ... "

Manufacturing - Next Generation Manufacturing: "This will require factories that can be quickly reconfigured to adapt to changing production and that can be operated by highly-motivated and skilled knowledge workers. "

Customer Centric Enterprise: "Solving the trade-off between customer centric manufacturing on the one hand (meaning high variety and fast responsiveness) and low costs, stable capacity utilization and high quality on the other necessitates incorporating systematic methodologies for manufacturing planning, process design and quality assurance in an integrated manner. "