February 2006 - Three IDEAS for Manufacturing Success

By Anthony J. Lockwood

This spring, DE will produce three regional conferences. Our Integrated Design & Engineering Analysis Solutions—IDEAS—conferences are pragmatic, not abstract. They focus on what you, OEMs, and small and mid-sized manufacturers need to know and do to leverage 21st Century engineering technologies to succeed—not just to survive—in the global market. You’re invited to attend and to participate. I will be your emcee. And the prospect of playing host to a smarter-than-I bunch of people like you terrifies me.

My fear of audiences stretches back to the 1959 Christmas Pageant at P.S. 25 in Yonkers, NY. I had a solo—playing the bongos I made in kindergarten. I was sitting alone on the stage edge wailing on my varnished muslin and coffee can creation like a red-headed Desi Arnaz, when, suddenly, they broke. The audience burst into laughter. I ran off crying, leaving my stage career and broken bongos behind.

Since then, I have (mostly) managed to hide in the shadows until I was dragged bellyaching and sniffling into writing this column. But I so believe in what we aim to do that even pathological shyness cannot stop me from playing a role that I’d rather avoid.

Why do you “so believe,” Lockwood? Because we in America are losing our technological edge to the rest of the world. Slowly. Sort of like my widening waist, we are surrendering our global leadership even though we swear we’re doing all—er, OK, most or maybe many—of the right things.

Now, I have nothing against the rest of the world. But I want my descendants to design, sell, and make things rather than rely on the kindness of strangers to design, make, and sell them things because we let it get away. We’ve frittered away our edge one industry at a time. Enough already.

We aging Baby Boomers like to think we know technology because we were there at the start of the microcomputer age. But we really leverage technology like the experts say we do our brains: at about 10% of capacity. The rest is misused or idle. Worse, we digitized the job descriptions and processes we grew up with and think that we revolutionized them. No matter how difficult an effort that was—and it was—it’s lipstick on a pig: not a revolution.

Neither time nor your competitors will wait for you. Technological evolution happens all around us. The lines between once disparate disciplines have blurred. Test once validated design. Now design can be driven by test prior to testing. Global design, engineering, manufacturing, and competition requires a management mind set, an employee mind set, and a corporate culture that you didn’t learn in school in the ‘70s or even the ‘90s. Emerging and developing nations missed the microcomputer revolution, but are leaping into 21st Century manufacturing and design while we compete with the technology to beat Y2K.

The adage “the more you know, the less you know” has a corollary: You can never know enough. Come, learn with us at DE IDEAS. Share your insights. Teach the pros and each other.

Go to www.DE-IDEAS.net. Sign up to speak or check the preliminary agenda. Send me your ideas for IDEAS. I promise you, I’ll be there with you ... but without my bongos.

Thanks, Pal —Lockwood