Manufacturing Excellence

Ensuring the Future Through Innovation, Science and Technology

Manufacturing Excellence

Committed to agile, cost effective and environmentally friendly manufacturing, the Foundation will: develop and apply innovative manufacturing methods for sustainable products and processes; promote the integration of information technologies and revolutionary management approaches that support agility and collaboration; and refine miniaturization and mass customization processes for unique biomedical and environmental applications.

The engine of economic development and, ultimately, community well being, is constructive product development in the broadest sense — consumable goods, durable goods, and services. To achieve this goal, the CTC Foundation will promote research and development resulting in innovative and sustainable products, and the education, infrastructure, and methodologies to pursue manufacturing excellence.

Furthermore, the Foundation, together with partners and funders, focuses on issues that demand attention but are not addressed by existing funding agencies and mindsets, thus contributing to defining the agenda and supporting enhancements in:

Innovative Products and Processes

Manufacturing, from durable goods to food to software, is changing rapidly, highlighted by emphases on miniaturization, mass customization, and adaptability. The Foundation’s impact will be felt in driving continued development in areas such as nanotechnologies, advanced rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, and "smart" materials.

Sustainable Products

With consumption increasing in developed and developing countries, the supplies of raw materials and means for product disposal are quickly dwindling. The Foundation will advance and facilitate corrections through initiatives such as smart design, zero-emission and zero-waste manufacturing operations, and the reincarnation of used products or waste as nutrients for nature or industry for the manufacture of new products.

Revolutionary Management Methodologies

Innovative and sustainable product development requires revolutionary changes in management that promote a systems approach and out-of-the-box thinking. The Foundation promotes the achievement of these goals through concurrency at all levels, creating the agility to react rapidly to unanticipated customer needs, and internal capabilities to handle chaos fluidly.

Ubiquitous Access to Knowledge

The diverse expertise and backgrounds needed for critical decision-making in innovative and sustainable product development in today’s environment requires instantaneous access to knowledge from a variety of disciplines. In addition to off-line education and training and enterprise knowledge management, the Foundation promotes worker and manager competitiveness at all levels by facilitating 24-hour on-line knowledge access through such innovations as wearable computers and ultra-robust Personal Digital Assistants.

PBS Program New!

The Foundation is working with experienced PBS documentary producers (Clare and Bob Mason, married), who have more than two decades of experience as a team working on the ideas of W. Edwards Deming, Ph.D.,who was the architect of Japan’s post-War economic recovery - they sell profitably Demings’ complete set of videotapes in which Clare Mason was the interviewer. A set of tapes is some $8,000 (http://www.managementwisdom.com/; www.cc-m.com). Their first documentary was entitled, “…If Japan Can, Why Can’t We?” and the second series was underwritten by IBM and entitled, “Quality or Else.” Systems Thinking is more than ISO or Six Sigma - the emphases are constant product improvement as well as Valuing One’s Human Resource meaningfully and really.

How Hospitals Heal Themselves is a 57.5 minute program to be available on PBS in April 2006. Documents how the “continuous improvement” thesis of W. Edwards Deming was implemented in two hospital systems in St. Louis and Pittsburgh. The latter was founded by former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill.

This Good News: How Hospitals Heal Themselves report will show the viewer that every city and region in American can begin to get a handle on the cost of health care delivery while reducing waste, unneeded suffering, and frustration experienced by doctors and nurses. This change does not require new investment, and there is no blame involved in taking action. The results are improvements in patient safety and clinical outcomes and an understanding of the methods and benefits of continual improvement.

This is not a technical or instructional program. It is a "good news" report for healthcare professionals, patients, community and local government leaders -- the opinion-leading public concerned about this vexing national issue.

After broadcast, the online and DVD versions of the program as well as the book will be distributed. The educational kit will contain discussions of the major issues, complete interviews by doctors and nurses and an instructional path for those who want to understand better the PRHI and SSM models. The online version of the kit is intended to be dynamic, being modified and updated as more is known and the principles more widely practiced. The importance of understanding the universal application of the thinking and the methods represented by the continual improvement cannot be overstated.

The production team’s career has stressed “best practices” and continuous improvement (www.managementwisdom.com). They own and sell the Dr. Edwards Deming Library; Dr. Deming was the mentor of the Japanese after the Second World War, who taught the Japanese what is now known as the Toyota Principles, Six Sigma, etc.