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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
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THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing

Committee on Analysis of Research Directions and Needs in U.S. Manufacturing

Manufacturing Studies Board

Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1991

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

This study was supported by Contract No. DMC-8717382 between the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Competitive edge : research priorities for U.S. manufacturing : report of the Committee on Analysis of Research Directions and Needs in U.S. Manufacturing, Manufacturing Studies Board, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-309-04385-9 : $24.95

1. Production engineering—Research—United States. I. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Analysis of Research Directions and Needs in U.S. Manufacturing.

TS176.C6 1991

91-17465

658.5'072073—dc20

CIP

Copyright © 1991 by the National Academy of Sciences

No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use, without written permission from the publisher, except for the purposes of official use by the United States Government.

Printed in the United States of America First Printing July 1991 Second Printing October 1992

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

COMMITTEE ON ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH DIRECTIONS AND NEEDS IN U.S. MANUFACTURING

CYRIL M. PIERCE, Chairman, General Manager,

Manufacturing and Quality Technology Department, GE Aircraft Engines, Cincinnati, Ohio

AVAK AVAKIAN, Vice President (retired),

GTE Government Systems, Concord, Massachusetts

GERARDO BENI, Director,

Center for Robotics Systems in Microelectronics, University of California, Santa Barbara

WILLIAM G. HOWARD, JR., Senior Fellow,

National Academy of Engineering, Scottsdale, Arizona

RAMCHANDRAN JAIKUMAR, Professor of Business Administration,

Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts

JOEL MOSES, Dean of Engineering,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

GUSTAV J. OLLING, Chief,

Automotive Research and CAD/CAM User Systems, Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Michigan

HRIDAY R. PRASAD, Manager of Technology Planning,

North American Automotive Manufacturing Operations, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan

A. TIM SHERROD, President,

Savant Solutions Company, Menlo Park, California

DAN L. SHUNK, Director,

CIM Systems Research Center, Arizona State University, Tempe

JAMES C. WILLIAMS, General Manager,

Engineering Materials Technology Laboratory, General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio

MICHAEL J. WOZNY, Director,

Rensselaer Design Research Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

Staff

VERNA J. BOWEN, Staff Assistant (from Dec. 17, 1989)

LUCY V. FUSCO, Staff Assistant

THOMAS C. MAHONEY, Acting Director

KAREN L. MILLAN, Staff Assistant (until Dec. 16, 1989)

KERSTIN B. POLLACK, Study Director; MSB Director for Program Development; MSB Deputy Director

JOHN SIMON, Consultant, Writer-Editor

ERIC A. THACKER, Research Associate (until Aug. 10, 1990)

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

MANUFACTURING STUDIES BOARD

JAMES F. LARDNER, Chairman, Vice President (Retired),

Component Group, Deere & Company, Davenport, Iowa

MATTHEW O. DIGGS, JR., Chairman,

The Diggs Group, Dayton, Ohio

CHARLES P. FLETCHER, Vice President of Engineering,

Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

HEINZ K. FRIDRICH, Vice President,

Manufacturing, IBM Corporation, Purchase, New York

DAVID A. GARVIN, Professor,

Business Administration, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts

LEONARD A. HARVEY, Secretary of Commerce,

Labor, and Environmental Resources, State of West Virginia (Retired), Vienna, West Virginia

CHARLES W. HOOVER, JR., Professor,

Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York

JOEL MOSES, Dean of Engineering,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

LAURENCE C. SEIFERT, Vice President,

Communications and Computer Products, Sourcing and Manufacturing, AT&T Company, Bridgewater, New Jersey

JOHN M. STEWART, Director,

McKinsey and Company, Inc., New York, New York

WILLIAM J. USERY, JR., President,

Bill Usery Associates, Inc., Washington, D.C.

HERBERT B. VOELCKER,

Charles Lake

Professor of Engineering,

Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Staff

VERNA J. BOWEN, Staff Assistant

DANA G. CAINES, Staff Associate

LUCY V. FUSCO, Staff Assistant

THEODORE W. JONES, Research Associate

THOMAS C. MAHONEY, Acting Director

KERSTIN B. POLLACK, Deputy Director, and Director of New Program Development

MICHAEL L. WITMORE, Research Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

Preface

The Committee on Analysis of Research Directions and Needs in U.S. Manufacturing was charged by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with (1) identifying and ranking manufacturing-related technologies and disciplines to produce a comprehensive national manufacturing research agenda, and (2) performing in-depth analyses of some of the technologies and disciplines identified in that agenda. Concluding that the most important purpose of university efforts in manufacturing engineering and technology is to attract the most capable students to manufacturing careers, the committee determined that a national research agenda should address topics that encourage and develop students and faculty, while meeting industry's needs for new technology and high-leverage technical concepts. The committee reasoned that the audience for such an agenda extended beyond the program directors in the NSF's engineering directorate to the research community in government, industry, and academe.

The nature of manufacturing suggests a research spectrum ranging from concept definition to proof of concept feasibility to development of applications and implementation mechanisms. The committee reasoned that if problems are carefully selected and thoughtfully researched the results will provide the basis for practical application, and therefore agreed to focus on only the front end of this spectrum —definition and proof of concept. The committee nevertheless recognizes that improving the pipeline from concept to commercial viability is also an important issue in U.S. manufacturing.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

The committee established four criteria for qualifying and ranking research:

  1. each project should be researchable within NSF's or other government agencies' accepted guidelines, and results should be available within a reasonable time frame;

  2. the research results should be useful in multiple industrial applications and provide capabilities and experience that advance manufacturing operations and competitiveness;

  3. research results should promote fundamental change in management practice and culture; and

  4. each project should expand scientific research relevant to manufacturing problems, encourage academic researchers to emphasize an interdisciplinary approach, and promote greater rapport between researchers and practitioners.

Interdisciplinary topics and problems in soft areas—e.g., management, human resources, and education—were deemed as important as the technology issues. The committee decided that the best way to handle soft issues is to encourage researchers to study new technologies and disciplines and their implications for managers, workers, and organizations concurrently. When shortcomings are evident in existing practices in these areas, however, the committee agreed to include relevant research topics in the comprehensive agenda.

The committee then subdivided manufacturing into six categories and nominated panels to develop research recommendations in each:

  • intelligent manufacturing control,

  • equipment reliability and maintenance,

  • manufacturing of and with advanced engineered materials,

  • manufacturing skills improvement,

  • rapid product realization, and

  • alternative concepts in manufacturing.

Subsequently, it was decided to narrow the categories further. Materials developed by the panel on alternative concepts in manufacturing were used to help develop an overview of the report and to add management and organizational issues to what were initially largely technology-oriented materials on the product realization process (“rapid” was dropped from the descriptor for that category because it was thought to be implicit). The final report thus recommends research in five general areas:

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×
  1. Intelligent Manufacturing Control

  2. Equipment Reliability and Maintenance

  3. Manufacturing of and with Advanced Engineered Materials

  4. The Product Realization Process

  5. Manufacturing Skills Improvement

CYRIL M. PIERCE, Chairman

Committee on Analysis of Research Directions and Needs in U.S. Manufacturing

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Frank Press is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Samuel O. Thier is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Frank Press and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
×

THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1991. The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1618.
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To maintain competitiveness in the emerging global economy, U.S. manufacturing must rise to new standards of product quality, responsiveness to customers, and process flexibility. This volume presents a concise and well-organized analysis of new research directions to achieve these goals.

Five critical areas receive in-depth analysis of present practices, needed improvement, and research priorities:

  • Advanced engineered materials that offer the prospect of better life-cycle performance and other gains.
  • Equipment reliability and maintenance practices for better returns on capital investment.
  • Rapid product realization techniques to speed delivery to the marketplace.
  • Intelligent manufacturing control for improved reliability and greater precision.
  • Building a workforce with the multidisciplinary skills needed for competitiveness.

This sound and accessible analysis will be useful to manufacturing engineers and researchers, business executives, and economic and policy analysts.

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