Key Technologies and Strategies for Creating Sustainable Manufacturing Organisations.

Manufacturing has changed radically over the course of the last 20 years and rapid changes are certain to continue. The emergence of new manufacturing technologies, spurred by intense competition, will lead to dramatically new products and processes. New management and labour practices, organizational structures, and decision-making methods emerge as complements to new products and processes. This paper is aimed at providing an overview of the current State of the Art technologies, systems and paradigms currently operational in industry today, with a special emphasis on production and operation management. It identifies the drivers which instigate a step change in manufacturing developments. The paper then goes onto describing some of the Key Enabling Features (KEFs) which are deemed necessary for European based manufacturing industries to remain productive and profitable in 2020.

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Submitted by soroka on Fri, 30/06/2006 - 7:47am.
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Creating sustainable manufacturing organisations

Submitted by iwilliams on Thu, 06/07/2006 - 11:00pm.

Hi Dr Thomas,

Thank you for actively taking part in IPROMS 2006 through your paper. Creating sustainable manufacturing organisations is indeed a challenge of our industrialised world. Do you think the mega trend of globalisation accelerated by new technologies such as information technology offer opportunities or threats to creating sustainable manufacturing organisations?

Thank you.

Opportunities or Threats

Submitted by Thomas on Sat, 08/07/2006 - 9:14pm.

Mr Williams

Thank you for your question.

I think that the more developed manufacturing countries have to stay ahead of the game by ensuring their technologies are intgerated into their complete manufacturing system.

I can only believe that new technologies especially IT based systems can only be seen as an opportunity to become leaner and more efficient. Without this the developed manufacturing countries will soon become under-developed and non-existent

Andrew

Opportunities of Threats

Submitted by iwilliams on Sun, 09/07/2006 - 2:24pm.

Dr Thomas,

Thank you for your response. How can manufacturing firms in developed manufacturing countries encourage their counterparts in other parts of the world to take up sustainable manufacturing so that the development efforts of the present does ‘not compromise the abilities of future generations to meet their own needs’.

Thank you.

Opportunities or Threats

Submitted by Thomas on Mon, 10/07/2006 - 9:23pm.

I think the only way in which developed manufacturing nations can assist in the development of the emerging countries is through greater technical and managerial collaboration.

The traditional model of companies and countries competing against each other must give way to highly integrated collaborative systems which allows companies to work together utilising thier own particular strengths

competitiveness

Submitted by tony fouweather on Tue, 11/07/2006 - 10:35am.

Hello Andrew

Do all these new manufacturing technologies and management ideas give established businesses in Europe the necessary boost to compete with the cheap labour and production costs driven organisations in asia?
Do you think that European business will be able to compete in the long term?

Thanks
tony

Competitiveness

Submitted by Thomas on Wed, 12/07/2006 - 6:07pm.

Hi Tony

This is a very good point. It really is the question that i think needs to be answered now and honestly by academics and industrialists. It is something that we tend not to ask because we may not like the answer.

I think any cost reduction programme has very limited effects. It can only slow down the decline or maybe improve the situation.

Innovative technology will achieve significant improvements but we again we are sadly mistaken if we think western europe and the US are the only countries in the world who use such advanced technologies.

Innovation through New Product Design is critical and the speed at which we can introduce new products is the most important issue. In the future a product with a stamp saying 'not made in China' will be a novelty!!

Key Technologies and Strategies for Creating Sustainable Manufacturing Organisations.

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