Last Updated: May 3, 1994 _________________________________________________________________________ Manufacturing and the NII DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT PART I: What Is the Application Arena? Description of Manufacturing [footnote 1: For the purposes of this paper, "manufacturing" refers to the discrete parts manufacturing industry, although the trends, issues, and opportunities discussed in this paper can be applied to a great extent to other industries.] From automobile and computer products to wood furniture, U.S. manufacturers face intense competition that threatens their very survival. Indeed, today's competitive advantage knows no national boundaries, going only to those manufacturers who can rapidly respond to ever-changing market demands with high quality, customized, competitively priced goods. U.S. manufacturers and workers have the skills, desire, and potential to succeed, but their success is by no means certain. In the new manufacturing paradigm, the efficient and effective management, manipulation, and use of information is essential to sustained economic vitality and growth. With information as a strategic asset, the integration of information technologies -- in an infrastructure of communications networks, hardware and software applications, databases, bulletin boards, and other services glued together through common interoperability and data exchange standards -- holds one critical key to manufacturing success. An advanced National Information Infrastructure (NII) will enable both the modernization and up grading of traditional design, development, production, and support processes as well as the complete re-engineering, optimization, and integration of separate business functions, activities, and enterprises. NII applications in manufacturing have the potential to transform and significantly improve all stages of manufacturing operations, from technology/market assessment and R&D to aftersales support and product disposal or reuse. Effectively applied information technology has a greater potential to change the way manufacturers do their work than the steam engine had in the Industrial Revolution. While the gains in productivity, quality, flexibility, and cost will be large, the greatest benefits will be realized through the combination of technology with organizational and managerial changes, enabling entirely new ways of working -- as well as the creation of entirely new industries. The potential benefits of an advanced NII to manufacturers come from the gains in a number of areas. The ability to quickly and efficiently transfer data within and among operations can revolutionize the design process, enabling concurrent collaboration and communication among suppliers, partners, customers, and competitors at distributed locations. It can enable the rapid vertical and horizontal integration of companies; accelerate first time optimization of products from design to production; reduce the number of design changes; enable "virtual" modeling, simulation, and testing; reduce waste and in crease yields -- with greater quality and increased flexibility and responsiveness. Imagine a future where: - Customers "custom design" products such as automobiles and clothing, electronically transmitting their requirements to remote locations capable of quickly manufacturing and distributing these products. - Companies rapidly and easily form alliances needed to produce new products, employing advanced manufacturing concepts such as "agile" and "virtual" manufacturing. - Small- and medium-sized companies advertise their manufacturing capabilities over computer networks and efficiently bid on projects required by other companies. - "Software system brokers" connect users who have a need for temporary access to sophisticated manufacturing tools that would normally be too expensive to acquire. - Manufacturers and suppliers use "intelligent" procurement systems to facilitate and speed parts procurement, billing, and payment transactions, reducing costs, improving accuracy, and meeting customer demands in a timely manner. An advanced NII can make available the best manufacturing application tools, knowledge bases, product information, and training materials regardless of location. Using advanced databases, bulletin boards and other services available on the NII, manufacturers can rapidly disseminate requirements and specifications for parts and subassemblies, letting the most qualified and competitive suppliers respond without prejudice to location or size. Over computer links and networks, companies can quickly adopt innovations in materials, parts, and manufacturing processes, advising suppliers of new capabilities at reduced costs. With an advanced NII, companies can quickly integrate data from distributed resources and use this data to create, model, test, and evaluate products, processes, and enterprises in real time and under a wide variety of simulated conditions, guaranteeing first time optimization while satisfying unique customer preferences and manufacturing requirements. With the continued development of other advanced manufacturing technologies such as intelligent machines and processes, engineering design and planning systems, and intelligent sensors and controls, U.S. companies can fully implement advanced manufacturing techniques such as concurrent engineering and agile manufacturing. By integrating advanced manufacturing technologies with an advanced NII, companies can identify, record, and manage a product throughout its life cycle, enhancing the quality, flexibility, and responsiveness of their manufacturing operations, while generating rapid production and product improvements and reducing unusable inventories, waste, rework, and costs. An advanced NII can also create entirely new business opportunities in such areas as services for processing, analyzing, and disseminating manufacturing information. It can create new opportunities for consulting services to assist companies in identifying opportunities to improve or reengineer their business processes and to develop strategic plans for migrating from their existing infrastructure to advanced manufacturing and other information technology applications. Finally, and most dramatically, in combination with other NII applications arenas such as electronic commerce, digital libraries, and education, an advanced NII in manufacturing can greatly affect the overall cost and efficacy of an entire business operation, including financial transactions, market analysis, workforce education and training, and supplier/customer relations. By linking businesses via electronic commerce and banking services, financial settlements can be made in real time with minimal paper work, thereby reducing outstanding balances and financial risks for small businesses. Through real time networks with suppliers and customers, companies can identify trends, respond to problems, survey needs, and quickly prepare for and swiftly react to everchanging market demands. Finally, advanced education and training available via the NII can help workers develop new skills and remain prepared, flexible, and comfortable with information technologies in the face of continuous and rapid technological change. What Is the Public Interest in Promoting the Application? The national impact of a highly advanced manufacturing infrastructure can be enormous in terms of international competitiveness, economic growth, and standard of living. Manufacturing accounts for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and represents approximately 17 percent of all U.S. employment. It is the foundation of a diversified, interdependent, vibrant economy, providing a large share of the industry funded R&D and purchasing heavily from the service sector to support its operations. In addition, the service sector, which represents more than 70 percent of the U.S. economy, is increasingly dependent on high quality, low cost, customized goods supplied in a timely manner, and relies on manufacturers for the products it sells as well as the hardware, software, and other technologies it uses to market, support, track, and evaluate its inventories and sales. In the face of shortening technology and product life cycles and increasing technological complexity, the ability to manufacture high quality, competitively priced goods such as microelectronic components, automobile and aircraft parts, and telecommunications devices in the United States is critical to the nation's overall economic competitiveness. As a result, in addition to their own economic value, manufactured products contribute to and often drive technological innovations in downstream products and services, and therefore much of the value added in the economy. The ability to integrate highly sophisticated, nextgeneration components into downstream products and services requires close working relationships among component and end product manufacturers and service suppliers. Historically this synergy has been difficult to achieve between U.S. companies and foreign suppliers. In addition, as information and information exchange become more valuable to economic performance, those countries that develop an effective advanced information infrastructure will gain competitive advantage in global markets. Instead of just chasing low wages, as has been the trend in the recent past, manufacturers increasingly will choose to locate and invest in countries whose infrastructure is able to handle the rapid and efficient control and dissemination of information and the integration of diverse business operations. Consequently, an effective advanced NII in the United States can make the United States the country of choice for manufacturing and manufacturing R&D, with enormous and lasting positive impact on the national economy. Evidence of the Benefits Numerous studies and implementations of advanced manufacturing applications supported by an improved information infrastructure demonstrate the impact the NII can have on manufacturing products and processes. It should be noted that while automation and networking of existing manufacturing processes will bring significant benefits to many U.S. manufacturers, the ability to manufacture differently, that is to integrate traditionally separate manufacturing processes in combination with new management and business practices, will bring the lion's share of benefits. Specific Examples Edward Deming and other quality champions have found that the process of design exerts the most influence over a product's life cycle. For example, approximately 60 percent of a product's cost is fixed early in the process of design and, overall, the design process may fix as much as 90 percent of the total cost of a product. The application of information technologies such as computer-aided design and concurrent engineering techniques, however, can reduce product defects by as much as 80 percent. Other studies support these results. For example, one study found that advanced manufacturing techniques that enable the rapid exchange of information not only increase quality and cut the number of design changes by 50 percent, but also reduce total costs by 30 to 60 percent, development time by 35 to 60 percent, design and product defects by 30 to 80 percent, and scrap work by 58 to 75 percent. An advanced NII will enable manufacturers to take full advantage of the productivity improvement potential of computer-aided design and other information technology and advanced manufacturing technologies [Carver, pp. 14,20].[footnote 2: For more details, see Winner, Robert, "Information Infrastructures for Integrated Enterprises," Institute for Defense Analyses, Volume I, 1991.] Combining significant investments in advanced manufacturing equipment and techniques with intensive education and training programs for its workers, John Deere & Co. has been able to reduce production costs and design time while improving product quality and productivity. "[Acting] as a blueprint for the revival of other manufacturers," Deere has introduced advanced manufacturing methods such as just-in-time inventory control, teamwork, and supplier integration with the results of reducing inventory by 20 percent, cutting design time by 33 percent, and speeding delivery time to twice a week from twice a month. Deere's investments in both technology and workers have led to a dramatic resurgence in its competitive position. Profits that rebounded in 1993 are expected to increase by an additional 35 percent in 1994 [Kelly, p.65]. Thanks to computer-based concurrent engineering and improved communication among design teams which enabled simulation, consistency, and the sharing of data among concurrent work teams, Intel Corp. has been able to reduce the time from design-to-sample in half, even though product complexity doubled. In addition, the company achieved a 95 percent success rate on the first silicon fabrication of new products. As a result of those successes, Intel Corporation, in the face of a dozen Japanese competitors, has retained 95 percent of the flash memory market [Davidow, p. 94]. Faced with heavy competition from Asia that had driven out all other U.S. pager manufacturers, Motorola implemented a concurrent engineering system, completely revising its production strategy. Using soft automation, flexible computer controlled machines, a new modular conveyor system, and a computer-based order entry system, less than 18 months from the program's start order times were reduced from one month to minutes; manufacturing time, from 5 hours to 3 [Manufacturing A La Carte, p. 29-32]. In the Japanese automobile industry, implementation of proprietary concurrent engineering systems enabled Japanese auto makers to decrease time-to-market for new cars by more than 30 percent, helping them to gain considerable market share and to increase pressure on U.S. auto makers [Carver, p. 20 ]. A study of the impact of a common data management, storage, retrieval and exchange service for transferring in a standard digital format all contractor design and manufacturing data among the Air Force and its B2 subcontractors found significant savings. This study, CALS Contractor Integrated Technical Information Service (CITIS): Business Case Feasibility Study, determined that the CITIS would lead to a 50 percent reduction in the number of attendees at meetings between contractors and the Air Force, a 5.4 percent reduction in the total B2 spares dollars, a 23 percent reduction in modification lead time, a 1.8 percent increase in the average availability of aircraft fleet, and a 90 percent reduction in the contractor data submittals. The total estimated cost savings ranged from a minimum of $536 million to a maximum of $894 million, for investments that ranged from $9 million to $30 million. Through the use of just-in-time inventory control and total quality management practices, Harley Davidson reduced manufacturing cycle time for motorcycle frames from 72 days to just 2, while increasing final product quality from 50 percent to 99 percent; Digital Equipment Corporation reduced overall inventory from 16 weeks to 3, while reducing its defect rate from 17 percent to 3 percent; and 3M attained a 70 fold reduction in critical defects, appearance defects, and packaging problems [Davidow, p. 94, (from O'Neil and Bertrand, Developing a Winning JIT Marketing Strategy, 1991)]. Through its use of the ODETTE (Organization of Data Exchange via TeleTransmission in Europe), an electronic communications network, the French automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citron was able to create closer, more efficient ties with its many suppliers and implement "just-in-time," "quick response" inventory control. As a result, Peugeot, "was able to reduce inventories and operating costs, while increasing the quality of its products and customer satisfaction levels. The company went from a monthly order cycle to a multi-day one. It improved inventory turnover by nearly 40 percent, cut the number of nonassembleable cars on the line by 70 percent, and offers customers nearly 30 percent more models to choose from [Teresko, p.36]." PART II: Where Are We Now? Background The information infrastructure has always been a fundamental part of manufacturing in the United States and many companies and government agencies have excelled at information exchange, control, manipulation, and use. As seen above, there are numerous success stories which highlight the fact that U.S. manufacturers have been and remain at the vanguard of the design and implementation of leading edge advanced manufacturing technologies. In addition, U.S. companies maintain strategic advantages relative to their foreign counterparts in a number of key information technologies, including hardware and software and telecommunications equipment. While many U.S. companies are leading the world in R&D and deployment of advanced manufacturing technologies, the overall use of information technologies by manufacturers in the United States, especially small- and medium-sized manufacturers, remains low (see tables below). With some notable exceptions, most U.S. companies are organized to take advantage of stable, mass production markets and have specialized tasks, seeking to minimize expenses, divide and separate work. To increase the speed of design and production and reduce costs, they have developed and implemented automated technologies, such as computer-aided-design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), and computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). Their successes in the past have led to the further fragmentation and division of labor and activities and the creation of narrow, focused activities within rigid, hierarchical bureaucracies. The result of these trends is that, for the most part, where information technologies have been developed and applied to manufacturing operations, it has been done with a high degree of sophistication yet with a narrow focus that makes integration of these manufacturing technologies not economically feasible. As a result, while U.S. manufacturers excel in product R&D and innovation and the automation of individual components of the overall manufacturing process, they frequently fare less well in the combination of individual technologies into an integrated manufacturing system, embodying such concepts as concurrent engineering, total quality management, and just-in-time inventory control. Moreover, most U.S. manufacturers have traditionally invested less, and subsequently use less and performed more poorly in commercial product improvement and process improvement relative to their foreign counterparts. For example: In the 1970s and 1980s, fixed capital investment in manufacturing (as a share of manufacturing output) was 1.5 times higher in Japan than in the United States. In developing new products and processes, Japanese firms allocate to tooling and equipment almost double the share of total project costs as the amount spent by American companies. . . . Over three-fifths of U.S. machine tools are 10 or more years old, while more than one-quarter are 20 or more years old. . . . Proportionately, Japan now uses numerically controlled (NC) machine tools at 1.5 times the rate in the United States 27 per thousand manufacturing workers compared with 18 per thousand in the U.S. [Shapira, p. 3]. Adoption and diffusion rates of technology are also a problem in the United States. A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology reports that it takes 55 years for 90 percent of United States manufacturers to adopt a technology, compared with 18 years in Japan [Manufacturing Extension Partnership, p. 10]. In addition, while the use of information technologies for inventory control and tracking are reaching saturation in retail applications, they are far less prevalent in the industrial sector, where, for example, only some 30 percent of products are barcoded [Stevens, p.17]. As seen below, investment, adoption, and diffusion rates are most acute for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, whose rates trail those of larger companies, and dramatically lag foreign competition (see tables below). Table 1. Percent of U.S. Establishments Using Selected New Manufacturing Technologies in 1988 by Size of Establishment (employees) Technology 20-99 100-499 500+ Design and Engineering Automation Technology (CAD/CAE) 29.8 percent 54.4 percent 82.6 percent Flexible Manufacturing Cells or systems 6.5 16.2 35.9 Numerically Controlled/Computer Numerical Controlled machine tools 35.9 50.0 69.8 Local Area Network for technical data 13.1 25.9 58.6 Local Area Network for factory use 11.0 22.9 50.7 Intercompany computer network linking plant to subcontractors, suppliers, or customers 9.7 22.7 41.8 Programmable Controllers 22.5 48.1 77.8 Computers used for control on the factory floor 18.9 41.0 68.0 [Source: Shapira, p. 13.] Table 2. Japan-U.S. Ratio of Advanced Manufacturing Used By Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (fewer than 500 employees) and Large Manufacturers (over 500 employees) Advanced Manufacturing Technique SME Large NC/CNC Machine Tools 1.4 1.1 Flexible Manufacturing Cells 4.3 1.9 ComputerAided Design 1.1 0.9 Automated Inspection 2.9 1.5 Handling Robots 4.1 1.4 Automatic Warehouse Equipment 5.8 1.8 Assembly Robots 2.1 1.2 [Source: CTI study, based on data from the Industrial Technology Institute.] Low investment, adoption, and diffusion rates are a concern since it is only through the use of a technology that familiarity with its capabilities occur. Low investment and low diffusion rates mean that businesses which are initially uncomfortable with new technologies remain skeptical of the ability of advanced manufacturing strategies to affect competitiveness. In addition, firms that under-invest in new manufacturing equipment lag not only in their comfort and understanding of information technologies, but consequently in the use of combinations of technologies for modern manufacturing techniques such as continuous flow processing, just-in-time inventory control, and concurrent engineering. This under-investment puts U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage in world markets. Private Sector Activities Today, the increased pressure to reduce innovation time, the growing technical complexity of products and processes, and the need to be more responsive to external demand for quality, customization, and cost are rapidly shifting the manufacturing paradigm from one that rewards low cost, mass production manufacturing systems to one that rewards small production run, flexible manufacturing systems. This situation is true for small and large firms alike. As a result, companies are seeking ways to break down the walls that have traditionally separated operations within a company as well as the barriers that have inhibited communication with customers, suppliers, partners, and even competitors. To remain competitive, many companies, in particular large companies, are investing heavily in automated manufacturing equipment, process technologies, and networking capabilities. For example, the Boeing Company has invested $5 billion in creating a paperless design and manufacturing infrastructure for its next generation "777" aircraft. Other manufacturers, such as General Motors, Ford, Newport News Shipbuilding, Caterpillar, and Intel have instituted programs to develop or purchase new equipment and technology and integrate them with existing capabilities in order to create a seamless, flexible manufacturing environment. Yet, despite the achievements of these and other of America's premier manufacturers, without the development of an advanced NII capable of transmitting data quickly and efficiently from one application to another inside and outside their operations, most businesses will remain isolated and incapable of integrating their applications interacting with other companies, suppliers, and customers in a timely and cost-effective manner. In an attempt to remedy this situation, U.S. companies and government agencies are beginning to develop, demonstrate, and promote NII-related manufacturing applications and services. These activities take the form of industrial extension services, enterprise integration and electronic commerce applications, and R&D consortia. They include the following: The Manufacturing Extension Partnership The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is an industrial extension service designed to help U.S. manufacturers modernize manufacturing equipment, redesign processes, and improve relations with suppliers and original equipment manufacturers. The MEP achieves this through regionally based extension centers which provide technical assistance with new management and organizational practices, shop floor design and manufacturing process evaluation, workforce education and training programs, and deployment of appropriate advanced manufacturing technologies and manufacturing best practices. A key component of the MEP is its information infrastructure program, known as LINKS, which electronically connects the MEP's Manufacturing Extension Centers to a vast array of technology resources available throughout the nation (e.g., national labs, private services, universities). The LINKS pilot program, Technologies for Effective Cooperation Network (TECNet), effectively demonstrated the potential value of linkages among the Extension Centers. The next stage is to add services requested by clients and centers and to implement a user friendly front-end allowing transparent access to data repositories resident on the major network systems (e.g., World Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS, etc.). Databases of best practices, firm demographics, and corporate information will be added to the system along with access to manufacturing analysis and workforce assessment tools. Eventually video teleconferencing, on-line training, and the capability to perform electronic commerce with business and product data will be added. Most of these applications will be initially developed, implemented, expanded, and extended through the following projects sponsored by the Technology Reinvestment Project and deployed by the MEP: The Manufacturing Extension Partnership's Technology Network (MEPnet) is an electronic network and communication system intended to expand and enhance the TECNet pilot. It will start by linking the NIST Manufacturing Technology Centers (MTC) and Manufacturing Outreach Center (MOC) to each other, providing access to federal technology resources and the ability to communicate directly with clients. Eventually it will provide a forum for direct communications among small- and medium-sized manufacturers. Employing the capabilities of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) Enterprise Integration Network (EInet), MEPnet will provide a set of online services, including directories, design and analysis tools, databases, and search mechanisms for the secure, easy, and timely exchange of manufacturing information in such areas as process analysis, benchmarking, quality assessment, and best practices. This scalable prototype will connect MTCs, MOCs, 2 National Laboratories, Department of Defense Centers, and can be extended to a potential user base of 370,000 small- and medium-sized manufacturers. Manufacturers' EnterCorp (MEC) will provide a practical, comprehensive, integrated, electronically linked service for manufacturers to quickly pinpoint specific needs and match them with the best network resources to fill them. MEC is a consortium of midwestern manufacturers that, in cooperation with Sprint, will use an enhanced version of EInet to enable smaller companies to share resources in the areas of product realization, design, prototyping, analysis and testing, production, and training. The initial market for MEC services is the 5,000 small- and medium-sized manufacturers in Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado. Partners in the organization include Allied Signal; Colorado State University; Day and Zimmermann, Inc.; DeMaTec Foundation, Inc.; Kansas Manufacturers Association; Kansas State University; MidAmerica Manufacturing Technology Center; Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp.; Metropolitan Community Colleges; Pittsburg State University; Sprint; and the University of Missouri. TEXAS-ONE, created by the Texas Department of Commerce, is intended to help small Texas manufacturers become comfortable with electronic commerce by providing an electronic network that is easy to access, affordable, and contains applications that are targeted at the small manufacturer's needs. Core participants include the Texas Department of Commerce; the Texas Department of Information Resources; the Texas Innovation Network System; Texas Marketplace; the Institute for Manufacturing and Materials Management at the University of Texas, El Paso; and the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC). Initial applications include Borderbase, and on-line information systems providing demographic, socioeconomic, market, and customs data in support of U.S./Mexico commerce; Texas Market Place, a statewide electronic bulletin board service to promote buyer/seller exchanges; and the Texas Assessment Center, which provides information on hardware and software products as well as access to State information resources. CommerceNet is an open, Internet-based infrastructure to support the exchange of electronic data conceived of and operated by a consortium of Silicon Valley's major electronics manufacturers, software developers, and information service providers. Created under the auspices of Smart Valley, Inc. -- a consortium which includes Hewlett Packard, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Apple, National Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments -- CommerceNet will enable companies to revolutionize the way they design, manufacture, sell, and support their products by making interactions with customers, suppliers, and partners efficient, high quality, flexible, and responsive. Demonstration of the power and effectiveness of CommerceNet will attract hundreds and eventually thousands of small- and medium-sized companies, creating an integrated marketplace for the design, production, sales, and support of semiconductors, electronics, computers, and software capable of meeting the demands of 21st century manufacturing. National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols The National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP) Consortium, led by IBM and including participants from the software industry, private and public research organizations, universities, and defense and commercial products companies, is developing a series of computerbased protocols to enable the widespread deployment and use of virtual enterprises within America's industrial community. Sponsored in part by the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP), the NIIIP will provide the software architecture, tools, and mechanisms to allow diverse organizations to work together as a virtual enterprise toward common goals by means of computer technology. The NIIIP will demonstrate several Challenge Problems through pilot projects which show the value of concurrent product and process design, project control, and distributed manufacturing. The NIIIP will consolidate, rationalize, and integrate a set of standards upon which applications will be built and virtual enterprises will be formed. The approach is to converge commercial off-the-shelf standards and tools, take advantage of the skills and experience of Consortium members (the leading practitioners of each of the relevant technologies), and develop an easily-accessible and secure "plug and play" environment that embraces both new and legacy applications and offers a powerful solution for the virtual enterprise. Rapid Response Manufacturing Four large U.S. manufacturers -- General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Texas Instruments, and United Technologies -- have joined forces with the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Energy to create a consortium to improve the process of rapid response manufacturing (RRM). The ultimate goal of the consortium is to reduce the time it takes an enterprise to design and manufacture products and get them to market. The RRM Consortium intends to enhance and adopt key technologies to enable the use of advanced, highly integrated systems for manufacturing. RRM consortium participants work to create computer-based tools to better assure an accurate first part, achieve one-pass product designs by developing intelligent software systems to analyze and choose optimum designs, and provide simultaneous consideration of manufacturing process constraints in the generation of initial designs. Included in the project is the development of a core architecture that will permit the "plugging in" of a variety of focused engineering tools, thereby enabling companies to use numerous suppliers as well as develop additional "next-generation" tools. The American Textile Partnership The American Textile (AMTEX) Partnership, initiated in mid-1992, is a collaboration of 30 fiber, textile, apparel, and retail companies working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories to provide assistance to the U.S. soft goods industry. The AMTEX Partnership features long range, strategic R&D planning, technology transfer from the public to the private sectors, and an operational framework through which potential projects can be successfully implemented and directed. In January 1994, AMTEX announced a $20 million project -- Demand Activated Manufacturing Architecture (DAMA)|mdash|designed to develop a computer-based communications, analysis, and simulation architecture to link the entire textile supply chain to an electronic marketplace. This project is expected to reduce an estimated $25 billion a year loss due to stockouts, inventory, and distressed pricing that result from communication inefficiencies within the textile industry. Center For Electronic Commerce Combining a focus on small firm assistance and manufacturing information management, the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) has developed the Center for Electronic Commerce (CEC). The CEC serves as a bridge between government and industry for electronic commerce, supporting the development and broad deployment of electronic commerce within industries through a program of pilots, demonstrations, training and outreach. The CEC works with industry groups (both large customers and their smaller suppliers) to work out the technical and business aspects of effective communication and information sharing and also acts as a hub for sharing information on electronic commerce with other outreach centers across the United States.|en|Examples of CEC pilots include a cooperative project with the Automotive Industries Action Group (AIAG) to develop new ways to manage order release and scheduling of automotive components and a project with the Michigan office furniture industry, a $25 billion industry, to shorten product order-to-delivery time to 5 days. The National Initiative for Product Data Exchange (NIPDE) The National Initiative for Product Data Exchange (NIPDE) is an industry-led, government-facilitated partnership that includes companies, corporate consortia, standards organizations and government agencies. Experts detailed to NIPDE from participant organizations are located together at one site to work for a fixed period of time on a standards development plan for digital information agreed to by senior executives from both industry and government. A primary focus of NIPDE has been the coordinated development and deployment of the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP). NIPDE has identified and catalogued over 400 on-going product data exchange projects accounting for approximately $50-$70 million of annual corporate and government expenditures. NIPDE's "Roadmap" methodology enables companies to evaluate product data exchange strategies, establish plans for their implementation, and monitor how well they help achieve specific business goals. NIPDE's 11 Capability Action Plans (CAPS) coordinate and optimize members' efforts to get early, usable pilot demonstrations of product data exchange capabilities into manufacturing operations. The NIPDE "Master Plan" milestones and schedules help participants review, coordinate, and maximize their own product data exchange efforts. The Department of Commerce hosts NIPDE at NIST's Gaithersburg headquarters. PDES, Inc. PDES, Inc., is a 26-member joint industry/government consortium focused on accelerating the development and implementation of the emerging international Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP). PDES, Inc. is making substantial progress in influencing and accelerating STEP's development and implementation. Within PDES, Inc., the Development Group focuses on mechanical and electrical/electronics applications and STEP support activities while the Deployment Group conducts pilot projects and develops migration strategies to help members implement STEP in their enterprises. Pilot projects currently underway include AEROSTEP, a project supporting intercompany exchange of product definition data during the development of commercial aircraft design; the Advanced Weapons System pilot project, a demonstration of STEP in an advanced weapons system development environment; and the PreAmp Program, designed to develop precompetitive generic technology using STEP to improve concurrent engineering for the U.S. electronics industry. The Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support Initiative The Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support (CALS) Initiative is an industry and government strategy to enable more effective generation, exchange, management, and use of digital data supporting the life cycle of a product through the use of international standards, business process change, and advanced technology application. The CALS initiative was started in September 1985 by the U.S. Department of Defense with the goal of enabling the integration of enterprises on a worldwide basis through the development, implementation, and integration of digital information standards for product design, manufacture, and support. The vision is for all parts of a single enterprise to be able to work from a common digital database, in real time, on the design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and servicing of products. The five primary areas of the CALS initiative are: (1) Technology Development and Demonstration: Develop and demonstrate technologies that can support the integration, management, and secure electronic interaction of large volumes of digitized data, (2) Acquisition Process: Implement policy and procedures, program management guidance, and other contractual processes for major system acquisitions, (3) Technology Infrastructure: Address the way industry and government receive, store, and transmit data, (4) Standards: Integrate selected existing international and national standards, and (5) Training and Outreach: Develop an information dissemination process for effective cultural change needed to implement the CALS initiative throughout government and industry. Government R&D Initiatives Within the federal government, there are numerous existing programs explicitly focused on R&D for advanced manufacturing within eight federal agencies, totaling more than $1.3 billion for fiscal 1994. These activities are coordinated by the White House's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Within the NSTC, the Civilian Industrial Technology Committee supports advanced manufacturing through its subcommittee on Manufacturing Infrastructure, while the Communications and Information Committee oversees advanced information technology R&D through the High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology (HPCCIT) Subcommittee. In addition to government involvement in many of the projects cited above, following below is a summary of key R&D programs sponsored by the federal government related to manufacturing applications for the NII.[footnote 3: These projects were selected from both the Committee on Applications and Technology and the High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology (HPPCIT) subcommittee's inventories.] The Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications Program The Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) addresses the development of a fully integrated set of manufacturing systems using High Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC) technology. Its primary focus is concurrent product and process design and integrated production planning and control. The centerpiece of the program is the creation of an Advanced Manufacturing System and Networking Testbed (AMSANT) which will support R&D in high performance manufacturing systems and will test high performance computer and networking hardware and software. It will serve as a demonstration and test site for use by industrial technology suppliers and users, and it will assist industry in the development and implementation of voluntary standards. In addition, the SIMA program includes a standards-based data exchange effort for computer-integrated manufacturing that will focus on the improvement of data exchange among computer-aided design, process, and manufacturing activities. Applications may include enterprise integration for manufacturing applications, integrated product/process design, simulation and agile manufacturing. Results will be made available to U.S. industry through workshops, training materials, electronic data repositories and pre-commercial prototype systems that can be installed by potential vendors for test and evaluation. Lastly, NIST will distribute Standards Reference Data, technical information, and digital product data designs via digital library technologies. Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing To support U.S. industry's efforts to meet the manufacturing challenges of today and tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) facilities are teaming with industry in the development of Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing (TEAM). The TEAM project has a twofold mission: collaboration with industry to define critical technology needs, and direct access to the vast DoE scientific and engineering resources -- people and facilities -- that have created state-of-the-art manufacturing systems. DoE's world-class manufacturing resources will unite with industry to: - Define an integrated set of U.S. manufacturing requirements; - Form project teams to address specific technological needs and opportunities through out the manufacturing life cycle; - Promote awareness of available and potential solutions within both the private and government sectors; - Advance current technologies and collaborate to develop new solutions; - Demonstrate and install enabling technologies that will benefit a broad spectrum of U.S. industries without impeding the competitive process; and - Provide a virtual enterprise of technology centers, accessible to all partners. The TEAM project thrust areas are Production Design and Enterprise Concurrency, Virtual Manufacturing, Manufacturing Planning and Control, Intelligent Closed-Loop Processing, and TEAM Integration. In one project, TEAM will work with the Financial Services Technology Consortium to develop billing and payment systems using the NII for the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing and Design Engineering Program The Manufacturing And Design Engineering (MADE) program of the Advanced Research Program Agency (ARPA) focuses on the development and demonstration of key software elements for Integrated Product/Process Development (IPPD) and agile manufacturing applications for the NII. The primary emphasis is on mechanical parts and electro-mechanical assemblies, where today's automation environment is neither integrated nor flexible compared to electronics design and manufacturing. As a result, the program addresses the following areas: - Development of tools for conceptual design that provide a spreadsheet-like capability for iterative optimization of product and process characteristics. MADE will initially focus on design for assembly and assembly process planning, simulation, and control. - Development and demonstration of tools for interoperability, such as self-describing, reusable, sharable product and process representations. In addition, MADE will demonstrate unambiguous interchange of geometry, dimensions, and tolerances in machine interpretable form, and will develop productivity-enhancing capabilities for capturing and sharing data requiring human interpretation, such as design intent. These activities will provide a foundation for enhancement of emerging product data interchange standards such as STEP. - Demonstration of a scalable capability to share multiple types of distributed information among networked applications that were not explicitly designed for interoperability. MADE will prototype a layer of network integration services using intelligent agents to facilitate interactions among coarse grained objects (encapsulated legacy systems), fine grained objects (such as new MADE tools) and man-in-the-loop applications. Initial services will include brokering of services for engineering analysis and manufacturing processes, limited electronic commerce support, and multi-media interchange of information among engineering and manufacturing applications. Agile Manufacturing Initiative Sponsored by ARPA and the National Science Foundation, the Agile Manufacturing Initiative includes a prototype of an information infrastructure to support distributed concurrent engineering, flexible manufacturing, and electronic commerce in manufacturing applications. The vision of agile manufacturing is to enable "virtual companies" to be formed by linking design and manufacturing operations that are physically distributed among a group of companies. The program has three components: (1) an agile manufacturing network ($10M), which will provide access to design and manufacturing applications over both Internet and commercial networks, (2) agile manufacturing research institutes ($5M), which will work with industry groups in important sectors to develop a deep understanding of the business principles and practices for lean/agile manufacturing, and (3) pilot programs ($13M) to demonstrate use of the technology and business practices to achieve improvements in cycle time, cost, quality, and responsiveness to change. Part III: Where Do We Want to Be? The national vision of an advanced NII that supports manufacturing is one of widely accessible and interoperable communications networks; easy-to-use applications that are capable of running on whatever types of computers are available; a diverse collection of digital libraries, information databases, and services; and trained operators and support people. Achieving this vision will require both short and long term goals. Short Term Goals: A short term goal of the NII is for manufacturers, in particular small- and medium-sized ones, to have sufficient information to make adequate investments in both existing and advanced information technologies for the purpose of modernizing current manufacturing practices as quickly as makes business sense. Continued and expanded investment in automation and networking technologies will enable companies to streamline business and manufacturing processes, making them more efficient, effective, and competitive. [footnote 4: As noted earlier, the use of information technologies and the advanced NII is important to business modernization and competitiveness, but it is not the only important factor. Companies must also make changes in management, corporate culture, organizational design, and other "nontechnical" business factors throughout the entire manufacturing enterprise in order to remain competitive.] Through the use of information technologies, management and shop-floor workers alike increase their familiarity and comfort with information technologies, begin to see the benefit of treating information as a strategic asset, and most importantly, place themselves in position to take advantage of existing NII tools and services to solve real business problems and meet increasingly competitive business challenges. A second and related goal is for manufacturers to use existing NII tools and services in combination with automation and networking technologies to advance their business modernization efforts. NII tools for analysis and simulation, quality assessment, and data management and NII services which enable automated bidding, data conversion, and on-line searches of data bases and directories, enable companies to streamline manufacturing operations and activities. The use of information technologies in combination with NII tools and services, enables manufacturers to better understand their own and other's information requirements and flows and to see the value of an advanced information infrastructure to their business operations. As a result, the risk and uncertainty of additional investments is reduced while the role of information as a strategic asset is further clarified. To realize these short-term goals, initial NII tools and services should support the following manufacturing functions: - Transmission, translation, exchange, and down-loading of electronic design Initial Graphic Exchange Specification, product (STEP), and business transaction data Electronic Data Interchange; - Electronic bidding and proposal, billing and payment processes; - Conversion and translation of data, including legacy (Computer-aided-xxx) data; - Automation of engineering and design change; - Distribution of design and production functions; - Search, identification, location, communication, and coordination of suppliers, customers, partners, and others; and - Advanced planning concepts and implementations. To be effective, initial NII tools and services need to be transparent, easy to use, secure, and cost effective. A sample of initial tools and services is given below: While some tools and services already exist, others will need to be created. Almost all will need to be improved, enhanced, and extended as the advanced NII evolves. In addition, as companies increase investment in information technologies and become more accustomed to NII capabilities, additional, unforeseen tools and services will be needed. An additional short term goal, therefore, is the design, development, testing, implementation, and use of new NII applications for manufacturing. Most applications will be driven by users who will work together and with vendors to define information requirements and to develop, implement, and test them. Table 3. Examples of Initial Tools and Services Tools/Services process analysis tools/access to government services data storage, management, retrieval, and tracking tools/access to government procurement information electronic mail/forums and bulletin boards design tools/best practices databases quality assessment tools/data conversion services online search tools/online training and outreach modeling and simulation tools/electronic bidding networks and services software toolkits and libraries/teleconferencing services benchmarking tools/directories (white and yellow pages) management and organizational design tools/parts catalogues planning tools/referral services Whether in small or large companies, the adoption and deployment of manufacturing technologies and the use of NII applications will be incremental. A fourth short term goal is to hasten this process, encouraging companies to adopt technologies and use the NII faster than has been supported by the free market in the past. At the same time, it is imperative that companies think strategically about their investments in infrastructure technologies, tools, and services, and make all investments in the context of a long-term business strategy that places emphasis on the role of the information management and use in future economic competitiveness. Demonstration and testing of advanced manufacturing techniques such as enterprise integration and "agile" manufacturing will help companies see the benefits of the seamless exchange and use of information throughout an enterprise while providing a model for manufacturers to build toward. It will also encourage all investment to be made in the context of a long term business strategy, so as to avoid "islands of automation" or stove-pipe situations. As a result, to ensure the goal of hastened yet strategic investment in information technologies and NII tools and services, U.S. manufacturers, information technology vendors, and the federal government must encourage the development and implementation of advanced manufacturing pilot projects and testbeds. Long Term Goals Enabling U.S. manufacturers to compete and win in world markets is the ultimate goal of developing and implementing advanced NII applications in manufacturing. There are a number of technical and non-technical issues that need to be addressed for the vision of an advanced NII in manufacturing to become a reality. An essential goal is the establishment of standards for product and business data, network interfaces, and business and engineering practices. While product and process technological innovation is important to economic success, standards are essential. Without standards, effective and efficient cooperation and collaboration cannot occur. Indeed, "in an automated environment, concurrent engineering is impossible without standards [Carver, p. 3]." The same can be said for agile and virtual manufacturing as well as electronic business and financial transactions. Standards enable rapid communication and iterative decision-making. While protection of intellectual property and proprietary interests are critical to increase competition and innovation, they sometimes can provide unnecessary barriers to market competition. For example, some proprietary data formats, incompatible hardware peripherals and reporting requirements, and rigid supply and distribution networks inhibit rather than enhance collaborative activities and restrict rather than improve the speed, accuracy, and flexibility of supplier and consumer transactions. In addition, standards lower the barriers to entry by small- and medium-sized firms, frequently shut out of established markets by entrenched trading partners. Lastly, they reduce the risk of investing in complex products and systems, enabling accelerated market penetration and diffusion of new product and process technologies. For all these reasons, the establishment of international standards for data formats, network interoperability, and business and engineering practices is vital to the long term success of an advanced NII. Just as the private sector has the major responsibility for building the NII, it is the private sector which must play a vital role in standards development and implementation. The federal government can and should aggressively promote action on standards by the private sector and assist in their development and use. Other critical long-term goals include developing the ability to: - Understand how information is absorbed, sorted, accessed, and used; - Scale prototype systems; - Ensure data security and integrity, and maintain intellectual property rights; - Verify (certify) conformance to and compliance with NII standards; - Use benchmarking and other metrics to assess competitive position and evaluate alternative services and suppliers; - Provide adequate education, training, and outreach to overcome social, managerial, and economic barriers (including financial impact and business justification) to use of the NII; and - Maintain long-term research and development and commitment to advanced manufacturing technologies, through support of the Manufacturing Infrastructure subcommittee of the NSTC's Civilian Industrial Technology Committee, the High Performance Computing, Communications and Information Technology Subcommittee of the NSTC's Computer and Information Committee, and other strategic R&D programs. Part IV: How Are We Going to Get There? For the NIl to succeed, the private sector must own and operate it; develop, design, and implement its applications; and make the vast majority of investments. There are several significant barriers, some technical, some cultural, and some financial, to achieving the NII vision. For example, most of the 370,000 small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the United States, who compose nearly 98 percent of all manufacturing firms, have neither the expertise, time, nor resources to modernize their manufacturing processes without some assistance. Moreover, small and large firms alike are inhibited by the difficulty they find identifying and understanding technology trends, generating adequate investment decisionmaking and strategic planning models, implementing new technologies and migrating from old (legacy) systems, and, most importantly, developing a comprehensive business case capable of tying all these factors together. Inexperience with computers and other information technologies and the perceived threat of advanced manufacturing applications on traditional ways of performing work present additional barriers to achieving the NII vision in manufacturing. Accordingly, user acceptance of, and comfort and familiarity with information technology and its opportunities for improving manufacturing competitiveness and economic performance are necessary to developing meaningful advanced manufacturing NII capabilities. Moreover, manufacturers must increase education and training efforts to ensure that workers and managers are comfortable with and ready to use the NII. The federal role is to help the private sector get beyond these and other barriers to making the advanced NII a reality. The federal government must provide an environment in which the private sector can take the lead, seeking to remedy market failures such as low investment or adoption of information technologies, standards, or R&D where necessary. To make the NII vision in manufacturing a reality and to meet both short and long term goals, the following issues need to be addressed and answered through private and public actions: Issues and Questions to be Addressed - The continued modernization of manufacturing processes, in particular through incremental investment by small- and medium-sized manufacturers in appropriate manufacturing technologies, is fundamental to building a strong, competitive, sustainable industrial base in the United States. Early in dications show that programs such as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and other state and local efforts are successful at helping manufacturers make investments and adopt appropriate manufacturing technologies, including communications equipment and computer hardware and software applications for the NII. Should the federal government, building on the successes of the MEP, broaden the scope and reach of the MEP, turning it into a national program capable of assisting small- and medium-sized manufacturers throughout the United States in their preparation for the use of the NII for manufacturing? - In the new manufacturing paradigm, the factors that determine competitiveness -- flexibility, responsiveness, time-to-market, cost, and quality|mdash|all depend on the efficient manipulation, control, management, and use of information. For this reason, information is a company's key strategic asset. While many companies want to modernize their equipment and processes, they often find difficulty in procuring, installing, and configuring new equipment to work with old equipment and in thinking about short-term investments in new equipment and capabilities in the context of a long-term, enterprise-wide investment strategy. To facilitate the investment process, should the federal government increase the scope of the MEP to assist small- and medium-sized companies with their long-term strategic planning and investment decision-making activities? - Standards for product data exchange, electronic commerce, and interoperabiltiy are essential to the development and use of the NII in manufacturing. Currently, however, there are no generally accepted methodology or data format standards to allow easy exchange of data (both engineering and business) between U.S. companies within the same industry or across industries. In addition, information technology advances for manufacturing systems occur at very frequent intervals and there is concern that the standards development process as it is today cannot keep pace with the needs of the manufacturing industry. The federal government can accelerate the standards development and acceptance process by providing strong technical support for standards development and by demonstrating the soundness of technical ideas through rapid prototyping, demonstration of feasibility, and other implementation and validation activities. In which areas are the development and demonstration of the technical underpinnings of manufacturing-related standards for the NII most needed? Does continued federal investment in product data standards (STEP), electronic commerce standards (EDI), and interoperabiltiy standards (OSE) make sense? Is there a need for an overarching standards frame work that ensures that manufacturing applications for the NII are compatible? - The Committee on Civilian Industrial Technology (CIT) of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has identified several areas as critical to the manufacturing infrastructure. These areas include: Agile Manufacturing, Manufacturing Systems Integration, Manufacturing Technology Deployment, Intelligent Sensors and Controls, and Rapid Prototyping. In addition, the Committee on Information and Communications (CIC) of the NSTC oversees R&D for the Information Infrastructure more broadly. What are the specific technical requirements that industry needs to develop, implement, and use manufacturing applications for the NII? Which areas of R&D will stimulate most rapidly the development and use of applications for the NII in manufacturing? What are the best candidates for federally sponsored demonstration projects and test beds? Which federal agency or agencies should coordinate and lead the effort to build and test manufacturing applications for the NII? - While the federal government performs a great deal of R&D and provides demonstrations and test beds, it is the private sector that turns the results of both public and private R&D into commercial products and processes. In the capital intensive, preproduction, latter stages of R&D, however, capital markets often find it difficult to properly assess the risk-return ratio (i.e., expected value) of further investment in product or process development and therefore often do not provide resources to test the commercial viability of high risk products and processes. To what extent is this a problem in manufacturing? Is there a government role in helping capital providers to accurately determine the risk-return ratio of investment in the latter stages of high risk product and processes development? - In the information age, a highly skilled, flexible, retrainable workforce is essential to economic competitiveness. The NII can be used to provide just-in-time, remote, tailored, multi-media education and training applications. (See, for example, "A Transformation of Learning: Use of the National Information Infrastructure for Education and Lifelong Learning"). The dynamic nature of the manufacturing sector necessitates the existence of adequate mechanisms for the identification of current and future trends and needs of U.S manufacturers, assessment of the skills required to perform new tasks and use new manufacturing equipment, and development and delivery of focussed education and training programs directly to workers on the shop floor in a timely and effective manner. 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