MTConnect is an open, interoperability standard for the shop floor and "manufacturing arena" that aims to connect all manufacturers' machine tools, devices, equipment, and systems via this recognizable, XML-based format to any other device or entity using the same standard.

This lofty undertaking is being driven by a consortium that includes The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and several capital equipment manufacturers and suppliers, with technology developed in tandem with Sun Microsystems and UC Berkeley.

The importance of a standard to connect OEMs, suppliers, partners, customers and prospects cannot be overstated. AMT goes so far as to compare its importance to the standardization of screws/threads over 100 years ago. Look at the impact of that standard.

And I'm more than inclined to agree. For years, some in manufacturing have been declaring that the information age would, in part, make a manufactured part or product a "data packet" - with material, inventory, tolerance, logistical and other data associated or "attached" to it. This standard, if successful (re: accepted), would bring manufacturing in step with the mainstream technirati and open up a "Collaboration Age" that would spur indescribable creativity and efficiencies.

You can join the fight. Visit MTConnect, read a little, and sign up for a membership to help advance virtual manufacturing.

For more:

• MTConnect Overview


• Interoperability Requirements for Smart Machining Systems


• MTConnect Implementation Presentation

No matter where this finds you, regardless of your place in the manufacturing hoi polloi, regardless of your proclivities, beliefs, or condition - please accept our sincere wishes for you:

• May you, your family and your business prosper in the new year.


• May you find creativity and inspiration.


• May you find ways to expand your business that take you to new heights and successes.


• May all your relationships - personal and professional - grow and prosper.


• May you and yours enjoy peace, tranquility, and happiness.

Know that as manufacturers you are appreciated. You translate ideas into mankind's progress. Whether you design, build, assemble, purchase, support, transport, weave, finish, machine, fabricate, weld, affix, or in any way create, we salute you.

Thank you, from us to all of yours. Godspeed.

The other day, a good friend and I were talking about a trip he took to New York. While there, he heard someone discussing the fairly well documented period of the 1980s, when Japan - then flush with cash - began buying U.S. "trophy properties" like the Sears Tower, Pebble Beach golf course and others of that ilk.

My friend said he then heard this cat spin the story around to China's spending of late. To paraphrase the paraphrase: while the Japanese went out and spent thinking the trophy properties would retain their value longer, today China (and India, for that matter) are scarfing up "operating assets."

My friend said this guy looked him dead in the eye and asked, "Who's smarter?"

Man, now that's as rhetorical a question as I've ever heard.

Many small- and medium-sized manufacturers often find it difficult to react to the rapidly evolving global supply chain in an interconnected world. The velocity of change and the greater, changing expectations of your customers and prospects all make it a moving target that can seem impossible for some to adjust to.

The story of Haas Automation offers interesting examples to consider when a company – your company – must change and adjust to thrive in manufacturing.

First, consider the turmoil the U.S. machine tool industry was going through when Haas emerged in the 1980s. Japanese machine tools that outperformed U.S. machines had the industry freaked out. Machines were expensive and, while automated, were relatively complex to run and maintain.

Simply put, what Haas did was to confront the dynamics of the times and react in creative ways:

• He utilized foreign labor to his advantage - he didn't resist the realities.


• He embraced the commoditization of discrete parts manufacturing, realizing that technology and automation drive economics down and spread availability to a broader adoption. He introduced affordable machine tools to a market that didn't really have them – often times cutting costs when others' were rising. And he introduced user-friendly controls that were more easily adoptable by a less-skilled labor force.


• He vigorously marketed his brand. When others were feeble, Haas spent a substantial amount of resources to build and sustain the Haas brand.


• He redefined the distribution network. He shunned traditional, independently operated distribution by buying or creating "outlets" that were internally controlled. He integrated technicians and repair directly into the channel, focusing on just the Haas line (as opposed to traditional distributors that service and repair more than one line). Today, Haas Factory Outlets serve the world.


• He wasn't afraid to make mistakes. In Haas' own words: "Honestly, a lot of our products, our models that we come up with are dogs. It is not uncommon for us to build a whole model and say, 'Well, that thing turned out to be a dog. Get rid of it.' And we do."

Now, some may point to Mr. Haas' recent legal issues and use them as an argument against this premise. But they miss the point: it doesn't discount the creativity and courage it took to create something viable and lucrative. His company, its success, and its principles can't be dismissed.

(For a rare and comprehensive interview with Gene Haas, check out SwarfBlog.)

Haas reacted to change by lowering costs, improving service, promoting itself to the right audience (at the right time) and embracing the changes that times presented.

Good advice, that.

Aerospace titans Airbus and Boeing are in the midst of adjusting (some might say redefining) their supply chains with regard to suppliers. Simply put, both companies are on dissimilar paths to the same supplier management shake up.

Boeing is looking to transform itself from the primary designer/manager/director/integrator enterprise to one that relies heavily on its suppliers to provide many of those services as front-line, highly participative partners in those processes. Boeing is gambling that this shift will reduce product life cycles by enabling suppliers to participate - or even lead - throughout the entire life cycle of a part, component, or aircraft.

While there's pain in this transition for many active or prospective suppliers, the current flux is offering insight into the evolving roles of what is likely to become the new successful supplier in manufacturing:

Highly functioning, high-service extensions of the OEM.

And during the same time, the falling U.S. dollar is causing Airbus to shift its supply focus - not just for efficiency, but maybe (dramatic license applied) survival.

Consider the following three articles, and the conditions and opportunities they describe:

• Boeing's Big Supply Chain Wager - Though this article was first published in May of 2007 (Managing Automation Magazine) and much has happened to adjust Boeing's approach, it paints a clear picture of how Boeing sees its supplier base performing in the future. While the motivations are clear, the challenge is to persuade a community of manufacturers to change the way they work, and how they do business while maintaining velocity. By spreading the risks and rewards across their supply chains – no matter how quickly and neatly it happens – the change is coming, and suppliers will be expected to respond.


• Airbus Production May Move To U.S. - The declining dollar may force Airbus to move production of the soon-to-be-awarded Air Force tanker to the U.S., should they win the contract. To say this is huge for U.S. manufacturing is an extraordinary understatement. While no final decision has been made, if Airbus were to win and move production to U.S. shores, it would be like when Toyota came into the auto market here. Suppliers should watch and be prepared to capitalize as this unfolds, as huge opportunities will emerge.


• Opposite headings? - While the push of this article is to compare Boeing's forsaking the global supply chain while Airbus embraces it, you'll find more to confirm the Airbus strategy of seeking out sources in "dollar zones" to offset losses realized from the falling U.S. dollar.

Savvy manufacturers should pay close attention to these developments, whether they covet aerospace work or not. These events indicate OEMs and buyers are defining new expectations for what makes an acceptable supplier – expanded services, product life cycle development and ownership, and flexibility.

On 11/29/07, a report titled "Midwest Manufacturers Fight to Stay Competitive in Global Marketplace" ran on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. The transcript and audio files (available via this link) make some compelling and balanced points about what manufacturers in one of the hardest-hit sections of the U.S. are doing to not only survive, but also thrive.

There are some hard truths in the piece – like the story of a capital equipment distributor that no longer can easily find U.S.-made equipment to sell as he once did, and now sells machine tools from Taiwan to support his family, instead.

But there are inspirational and strong cases for optimism here. For example:

• The cost gap between U.S. manufacturers and their lower-cost foreign competitors is down to approximately 17 percent, due to economic factors like the falling dollar and China's adjustments to its currency and taxes.
• U.S. manufacturers can tighten (or even eliminate) the gap by reducing materials costs and controlling (improving) worker productivity.
• Becoming a more participative partner in your customer's design process – not just existing as a parts provider – can insulate your company from competitive threats.
• Develop relationships within "Short Supply Chains" – those where proximity between buyer and source are critical, especially if something could go wrong with logistics or quality.

There are specific examples of successes in this piece, and actually some good advice from an unlikely source. Pass the link around your plant or shop and look for ways you can take advantage.

Shout Out: Jason Busch [www.spendmatters.com

Chances are you've heard of 5S - a first cousin of lean, a system from the Japanese that simplifies the organization and processes of a manufacturing enterprise around "5 S's" or categories:

• Sort
• Shine
• Simplify
• Standardize
• Sustain

Most manufacturers who aren't too familiar with 5S mistakenly think it's about keeping a workplace clean and organized, or that it isn't a process worthy of a higher-functioning enterprise. But it's much, much more than that - it can have real impact on your bottom line by eliminating waste, boosting efficiency, accelerating training for new employees, and more.

Mark Albert, a friend and Editor in Chief at Modern Machine Shop, explained 5S to me like this a few years back: "It's housecleaning for manufacturers, on steroids."

Corporations and SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) have documented real advantages after adopting 5S in their shops. It's an organized system with real benefits that can help focus your enterprise.

For more, check out these resources on the Web:

• Planning for 5s? First Know Why
• This Shop Really Shines...And Sorts, Simplifies, Standardizes And Sustains - Mark's excellent piece on applying 5S.
• ToolingU's online intro to 5S

As a manufacturer today, change is coming at you from two directions.

1. You're dealing with dramatic changes that affect your business every day - constricting/accelerated business and product life cycles, globally expanding competition, rising costs to run your business, and the availability of cheap(er) technology. Where you were once specialized, you're now finding yourself commoditized. To compete - and survive - means adopting new technologies and moving into new markets.
   
   
2. To effectively compete, you're expected to keep up with it all and do things you were never cut out for: you're expected to market, communicate, enunciate and sell in consumer-like, commoditized markets much different than those you learned the business in.
   

What's to blame? Proximity to information. You, your customers, your prospects, and the supply chains to which you belong all have high-velocity access to vast amounts of info. And that accelerates all of us in manufacturing through research, buying and collaboration cycles at greater and greater rates. It creates competitive forces for you quickly and unexpectedly. And it has created expectations in the minds of your current and potential customers:

"Tell me what I want to know and do it now or I'm moving on to the next guy."

MFGx is here to help with your transition to a higher manufacturing plateau, and help you traverse the new research and purchasing cycles that the Internet has created.

MFGx will help you translate the blather into simple concepts that you can use to work better with your customers. MFGx will help you connect and collaborate with the global manufacturing community - to develop new relationships, new ideas and new strategies for your business. In ways that make sense of these changing dynamics, on your terms.

We're responding to the same forces of change that you are. In the coming months, as MFGx expands, get involved here. The MFGx community is about dialogue, not monologue, - you have a say in what we do and where we go. Give us a shout, anytime.