The country’s manufacturing sector has been on the decline over the past few years. This is due to the rapid emerging shift from the manufacturing industry to the service business. Consequently, this has reduced the global competitiveness of the United States manufacturing industry. Consequently, a new approach has to be incorporated in both the manufacturing and supply sectors to enable the country to maintain its global competitiveness. The most effective solution is the adoption of a systems approach that offers a new dimension in solving complex problems in almost every sector of the nation’s economy.
According to President Barack Obama, rebuilding the United States manufacturing sector is the key to helping the country win the future. This is certainly a fact; America must have a robust domestic manufacturing foundation to maintain its position as the global trendsetter in innovation. The president’s sentiments might have been driven by the major shift from the manufacturing sector to the service industry. This has reduced the global competitiveness of the country’s manufacturing quarter. Rebuilding the manufacturing sector will present an institutional base for learning and developing capabilities together with process skills, which is nowadays being entwined with core R&D skills. One of the key methods that America can use to rejuvenate its manufacturing sector is through adopting a systems approach particularly in product design to enhance the quality of manufactured products. This will ensure that the country remains at the top of the manufacturing world even in the future.
Manufacturing offers groundwork for different types of innovations. However, America should realize that these innovations could be impeded if the pr...
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... continuous innovation in industries.
There is a need to rebuild the US manufacturing sector through locating manufacturing and R&D centers close to each other. This will enable engineers to discover how to design products that are both of high quality and economical to make them commercial successes. To win the future, the United States manufacturing industry must employ a more integrated systems approach in most of their product designs and together with synchronized engineering techniques. Systems approach is a rational tool for mobilizing science and technology to solve large-scale complex problems in a complete logical manner. Since the systems approach boosts operations excellence, increases efficiency, improves supply chain agility and allows continuous innovation in industries, it is more vital than ever in the current economic and industrial setting.
American manufacturing is moving into new era of proficiency through software based production systems that are qualitatively different than in the past impacting all aspect of manufacturing such as the way companies address customer needs and wants, research and development, the product development and production process, and the platforms and footprints employed in execution, testing, and servicing (Ludwig & Spiegel, 2014).
The U.S. industries have been outsourcing manufacturing for several decades now. U.S. companies thought they were reducing costs by outsourcing development, manufacturing, and process-engineering abilities. Consequently, U.S. corporations’ knowledge, skilled workers, and supply chain, which are the necessities to producing advanced products, have vanished. For example, almost all notebook computers, cell phones, and handheld devices, which were once created in the U.S., are now designed in Asia. When a major U.S. company outsource, it pressures their rivals to do the same thing. They also lose the expertise of process engineering, which would interact with manufacturing on a daily basis. Minor companies and skilled workers go to where the jobs and knowledge networks are no matter where they are geographically in the world. This decline of trade in the U.S. has caused a negative chain reaction to their suppliers of sophisticated materials, tools, production equipment, and components. U.S. industries do not have a way of coming up with new ideas for the next generation of high-tech products...
Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry with the assembly line invention; this new factory idea came from him observing the continuous-process production. “The most significant piece of Ford's efficiency crusade was the assembly line. Inspired by the continuous-flow production methods used by flour mills, brewer...
The automotive industry is one of the most important sectors of the economy for every country in the world. It involves a large number of corporations and institutions engaged in the manufacturing process of motor vehicles including designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling. It contributes to the global economic growth by generating a significant return and creating a ripple effect on supporting the supply chain as well as providing job opportunities for the skilled workers (ACEA, 2016).
This paper will summarize the Custom Fabricators, Inc. case study by Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, p. 44, answer the discussion questions shown in Figure 2, and define the role of Operations Management at Custom Fabricators, Inc.
INNOVATION IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION Topic Innovation in Industrial Production-Forbes News Main Theme Tesla’s Innovation are transforming the auto Industry Main World Region America Subthemes Desirable Electric Vehicles (EV) and Transforming Auto Industry from ICE vehicles to electric vehicles Introducing Main Theme The main theme in this article is how Tesla’s innovations are transforming the auto industry. The company has innovated and produced desirable electric cars like Model X doors. The proponent of this argument hold that the losses that Tesla has had are just short run and hold that Tesla is producing extremely needed electric automobiles. These vehicles have fast speed and go long distance over other rechargeable cars (Gregersen, 2016).
The American economy is a vibrant, free-market system that is constantly developing out of the choices and decisions made by millions of citizens who play multiple, often overlapping roles as consumers, producers, investors and voters. The changes in the organization and performances of the manufacturing industry over the last century have helped shape the American economy. The Automotive industry perhaps made the biggest changes to their manufacturing processes. I will be reviewing the role of the industrialist Henry Ford and his innovative methods that changed the organization and performance of the American manufacturing industry forever. He produced an affordable car, paid high wages and helped create a middle class, which in turn fueled the America Industrial revolution into overdrive mode. I will also review the impact of these performance and organizational changes on the service sector and the agricultural industry. But first we look at the automotive industry.
Manufacturing businesses and business leaders need to increase their focus on key success factors such as: innovation, productivity improvement, investment in people & skills, and funding. Innovation is not just about retention and development, or the latest technology. It’s also about practical and efficient problem solving and business transformation. In the manufacturing industry, this can be achieved by: refining or exploring new supply and distribution channels, establishing new business offerings, developing leaner organizational arrangements, improving processes, providing a better customer experience, and accessing green, clean technology – high on the agenda for environmentally conscious customers (Performance, 2011)
Swamidass, P.M. and Winch, G. W. (2002) “Exploratory Study of the Adoption of Manufacturing Technology Innovations in the USA and the UK,” International Journal of Production Research, vol. 40, pp. 2677-2703.
In 1913 Henry Ford designed and implemented a new strategy to meet the needs of his customers by revolutionizing the automotive industry and manufacturing process. By September 1927, Ford had transformed all steps in the manufacturing process from refining raw materials to final assembly of the automobile which significantly reduced assembly time per vehicle, lowering costs, while increasing productivity (AAM, 2003).
In various ways, all the theories and approaches discussed in this paper seek to achieve on one end result; that is combining high volume and low cost used in mass production with the product customisation, high levels of innovation and high levels of quality related to craft production.
There are numerous methods and processes that industrial engineers use to initiate and maintain the most efficient and productive operations in a manufacturing facility. These methods involve stepping away from the total cumulative process, and breaking down the operations of each and every process. The collaborative flow of these processes is mapped out, and analysis for improvement is done. With the use of industrial engineering techniques, facilities operate considerably more efficient, more productive, more cost effective, and more consistent. The trade of engineering costs for these results is a very positive business decision. Small Engineering Services, Inc. provides the utmost expertise and precision regarding all facets of industrial engineering, and looks forward to continuing its quest in enhancing businesses in their operations.
Computer integrated manufacturing is a relatively new technology arising from the application of many computer science sub disciplines to support the manufacturing enterprise. The technology of CIM emphasizes that all aspects of manufacturing should be not only computerized as much as possible but also linked together via a computer communication network into an integrated whole. In short, CIM has the potential to enable manufacturers to build cheaper, higher-quality products and thus improve their competitiveness.
SEBok, 2013. Systems Approach Applied to Engineered Systems. [online] Available at: http://www.sebokwiki.org/wiki/Systems_Approach_Applied_to_Engineered_Systems [Accessed 7 April 2014]
Manufacturing is one of the areas where information systems have made a major impact. A typical.manufacturing MIS is used to monitor the flow of materials and products throughout the organization. In a manufacturing process, raw materials or parts are transformed to finished products, and a manufacturing MIS is used at every stage. Some of the common subsystems in a manufacturing MIS include: design and engineering, production scheduling, inventory control, process control and quality control.