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Introduction
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a responsibility to promote U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards. Manufacturing technology is a key area that enables industry to produce products of high quality and affordable cost. The importance of manufacturing technology has been recognized within the President's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC): the council's Committee on Civilian Industrial Technology (CCIT), chaired by Mary L. Good, Undersecretary for Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce, gave special attention to this cross-cutting area by establishing the Subcommittee on Manufacturing Infrastructure.
Figure 1-1 summarizes the history of interagency activity in manufacturing in the recent past. The manufacturing focus started in 1991 as part of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (FCCSET) process. The purpose of FCCSET was to coordinate federal research funds focused on manufacturing technology by allocating the available funds more effectively.1 The NSTC, established in 1993, replaced FCCSET. Chaired by the President of the United States, the NSTC is intended to provide a greater national role for science and technology in addressing national priorities. NSTC contains a number of focus areas, of which manufacturing is one. Development of the manufacturing infrastructure framework began after NIST's First National Conference on Manufacturing Technology
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OSTP. (1993). Advanced Materials and Processing: The Fiscal Year 1993 Program. Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology. Washington, D.C.: Office of Science and Technology Policy. |
in 1994, and two subsequent workshops refined the evolving products. The framework continues to evolve; the most recent round of development occurred at the 1995 Second National Conference on Manufacturing Technology.
Many government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels are already addressing a spectrum of manufacturing needs and have plans for further efforts. However, these government agencies historically have not interacted among themselves or with industry, academia, or workforce organizations to explain their programs and obtain a broad spectrum of comment regarding how well these programs satisfy user needs. Moreover, many industrial leaders feel that the United States has regained the leadership in manufacturing technology that was lost 10 years ago and, in the face of even greater international competition, have said they would redouble their efforts to stay ahead of their global competitors.
In April 1994, NIST conducted the first national conference on manufacturing technology. This conference, “Manufacturing Technology Needs and Issues: Establishing National Priorities and Strategies,” attracted over 700 people, of whom approximately 70 percent were from industry and academia. An important panel session, “Matching
Industry Needs to Government Programs,” took a major step forward by considering how industry and government perspectives could be brought closer together. This first conference was recognized as a significant national forum for the discussion of manufacturing technology needs and priorities.
ORGANIZATION OF THE 1995 CONFERENCE
Subsequent to the 1994 conference, the Manufacturing Infrastructure subcommittee of CCIT established key working groups, drawing significantly on participants from the 1994 conference. These working groups met in the fall of 1994 and winter of 1995 to prepare white papers on the following topics:
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advanced manufacturing systems,
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engineering tools for design and manufacturing,
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advanced manufacturing processes and equipment,
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manufacturing training and education, and
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technology deployment.
With the addition of the topic of business practices, added for the 1995 Second National Conference on Manufacturing Technology, these six areas are intended to comprise the elements of the manufacturing infrastructure necessary to ensure that the United States maintains world leadership in manufacturing technology. As shown schematically in Figure 1-2, the six areas overlap to some extent. For instance, advanced manufacturing systems provides an integrating interface and technology deployment pervades all infrastructure areas.
The Second National Conference on Manufacturing Technology was held on April 18–20, 1995. Its theme of “Toward a Common Agenda” emphasized the need for government, industry, academia, and workforce organizations to develop and support manufacturing infrastructure programs of mutual benefit. The conference chair was Michael J. Wozny, director of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at NIST. The first day featured keynote speeches and addresses from industry and government, including a description of NSTC–CCIT and its subcommittees on Manufacturing Infrastructure and Advanced Materials Processing. This was followed by presentations by representatives from seven key industrial sectors, highlighting the manufacturing needs and issues of their respective industry sectors. These presentations were intended to set the stage for the workshop sessions during the second day.
Copies of the five white papers that corresponded to each workshop session (except for the topic of business practices) were made available at conference registration. Each workshop session had two cochairs, one from government and one from industry. In most cases, the sessions started with prepared remarks that quickly led to group discussion. The session cochairs prepared summary reports that were shared with the entire conference during the last session of the day.
The third and final day of the conference was devoted to overviews of federal manufacturing-related programs and tours of NIST laboratories. The complete agenda of the conference is given in Appendix A.
REPORT OBJECTIVES
This report is an independent evaluation of the 1995 Second National Conference on Manufacturing Technology by a broad-based team of experts on manufacturing. These experts were assembled by
the National Research Council under the aegis of its Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design (formerly the Manufacturing Studies Board). All members of this committee attended the plenary sessions, and one member attended each of the panel sessions. This report, which constitutes the committee's findings, summarizes and assesses the key results of the conference and provides recommendations for the Third National Conference on Manufacturing Technology.