Manufacturing Excellence in Global Markets [Hardcover]

Cost cutting by transferring the production capacity to low-wage countries cannot by itself guarantee the survival of the manufacturing industry in the European Community. This book poses a number of topical questions, regarding competitive production for the 21st century, in four key areas.Preface. Co-operative value adding - product, process, resources. Part One: company strategies. Implementing changes successfully - a core process for safeguarding future success. Total Quality Management - co-operating to secure the future. Part Two: systems for production. Production in the twenty-first century - new machine concepts. Open systems in manufacturing - how much openness would you like to have? Optimization potential in manufacturing metrology - aspects of change in the production environment. Part Three: product development. Fast product development - 3D modeling and rapid prototyping. Distributed development - crossing corporate boundaries. Innovation management - linking product ideas to success on the marketplace. Software as a product component - managing development processes. Part Four: procution. condensed process chains - prerequisites and potentials. Clean manufacturing technologies - the competitive edge of tomorrow? Competitive manufacturing processes - solutions for the machine tool industry. Manufacturing micro-components - perspectives for the machine tool industry.