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Next Generation Manufacturing project

Modern Machine Shop , July, 1997 by Golden E. Herrin
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The NGM project is a 15 month study supported by ten U.S. industry-based organizations and four
U.S. government agencies. Funding to initiate the project is in the form of a $1 million matching
grant from the four U.S. government agencies: the National Science Foundation (NSF), the
Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Institute for
Science and Technology (NIST). The ten industry-based organizations participating in the project
are: the Agility Forum, Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) at MIT, DOE's Technologies Enabling
Agile Manufacturing (TEAM), the Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-
I), the National Coalition For Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM), the National Association of
Manufacturers (NAM), the National Coalition for Advanced Technology (NCAT), the National
Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and
Coalition for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (CIMS).

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The mission of NGM is to create a broadly accepted, industry driven model for a Next Generation
Manufacturing enterprise along with an "action plan" that can help individual U.S. companies
achieve world class manufacturing. Project members think of NGM as the "voice of industry" since
there are several hundred professionals from a wide range of the industrial sector and enterprise
sizes participating in the project.

The "action plan" is the primary deliverable of the NGM project that will define cross-cutting
enabling technology systems and practices that address specific barriers to achieving "Next
Generation Manufacturing." The plan will include both delineation of current best practices and
near term actions, as well as long term research and development activities that will allow industry
to move on to the next generation of manufacturing.

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One product of the NGM project so far has been the development of a set of "strategic objectives"
(or attributes) of the Next Generation Manufacturing enterprise. These attributes are intended to
describe an enterprise ten to 15 years from today in addition to serving as the guiding principles
for the NGM study. The attributes are:

* Customer Responsiveness - The NGM company will be able to identify and meet an individual
customer's specific needs by supplying an integrated set of products and services that are fit to
initial requirements of function, cost, and timeliness. Products and services must also be readily
adapted to evolving requirements.

* Physical Plant And Equipment Responsiveness - The NGM company will use an ever growing
knowledge base of the science of manufacturing to implement reconfigurable, scaleable, cost-
effective manufacturing processes, equipment, and plants that can rapidly adapt to specific
production needs.

* Teaming As A Core Competency - The NGM company will practice teaming inside and outside
the company to bring all the needed capabilities rapidly to bear on development of their products
and services.

* Human Resource Responsiveness - The NGM company will depend upon highly capable and
motivated individuals and teams empowered to respond in a flexible work environment to
customer requirements.

* Global Market Responsiveness - The NGM company will develop its manufacturing strategy to
anticipate and respond to a continuously changing global market with infrastructures tailored to
individual, local customer requirements.

* Responsive Practices And Culture - The NGM company has continuously evolving core
competencies, organizational structure, culture, and business practices to anticipate and respond
rapidly to changing customer demands.

For each of the above attributes there are barriers that currently exist in achieving the status
needed to create an NGM enterprise. As part of the NGM project, the specific barriers to achieving
such status have been identified. The action plan, which will formally be released in January,
1998, is intended to give a path by which these barriers can be crossed or possibly eliminated.

Manufacturing plays a central role in the United States' ability to successfully compete in
international markets. Consequently, the posture of the United States in global markets requires
that companies respond more rapidly to market opportunities occurring around the world which
means that time-to-market will become a key competitive differentiator.

Additionally, the successful NGM company of the future must be more productive, produce higher
quality goods, hold tighter tolerances, and work with much shorter manufacturing lead times.

U.S. manufacturing must realize to take advantage of these new efficiencies in product
development that organizations need to interconnect, so that software systems interoperate, and

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individuals interact. These are the challenges being addressed by the NGM project.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Gardner Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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