"Economic value added (EVA) is a financial performance measure indicating whether a firm created a surplus of profits after covering all of its costs, including capital cost," says Duane Oest, national director of manufacturing and wholesale distribution for McGladrey & Pullen. "The underlying principle is that any business activity must provide a profit or break-even, and earn enough to justify the cost of capital used in its business pursuits. Many companies, such as Coca-Cola, Boise Cascade Corp., AT&T;, Quaker Oats and Briggs & Stratton, have turned to EVA as a new way to gauge and drive financial and operational performance."

For the past three years, the annual PulseMark survey questions more than 25,000 U.S. manufacturers on the status of more than 150 vital manufacturing measurements. The survey examines a "balanced scorecard" of measurements which target plant-based operational, financial, qualitative and efficiency statistics.

The survey revealed process manufacturers, such as refineries, chemical producers and breweries, have had the largest percentage of positive EVA respondents.

China Needs Energy Technology China can afford to meet its burgeoning electric power needs without compromising environmental goals by applying new technologies and accelerating market reforms, according to a report by Battelle. The report, "China's Electric Power Options: An Analysis of Economic and Environmental Costs," is a joint effort by Battelle's Advanced International Studies Unit, the Beijing Energy Efficiency Center and China's Energy Research Institute. Rapid economic growth over the past two decades has made China the fastest growing market for electric power in the world. Since 1990, the country has added the equivalent of one large power plant (600 megawatts) every two weeks. China's heavy reliance on coal to fuel most of these power needs, however, has caused extensive environmental damage. Sulfur dioxide emissions alone, the main precursor of acid rain, cost the economy over $13 billion each year, erasing 2 percent of the country's gross national product. "Chinese planners and government officials have often placed economic growth ahead of environmental concerns," says Jeff Logan, lead author of the report. "But we found that when you consider the full environmental costs of producing electricity, it's actually more economical to use cleaner alternatives, like flue gas desulfurization equipment, natural gas and clean coal technologies" Logan says China also should accelerate its research and development programs on fuel cells, gas and wind turbines, gasification processes, and other advanced power technologies as a way to meet its future energy and environmental goals with the least cost. "We think China could become a leading exporter of these advanced technologies within two decades," Logan adds.

The average worker across a broad range of positions, from administrative to senior executives, say they now send or receive approximately 190 messages on any given day. This volume of messaging, and the corresponding demands of managing the flow and responding in a timely and efficient manner, now shape how people in many different positions and industries actually structure their day.

Meredith Fischer, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Pitney Bowes, says, "Messaging is at the core of virtually all business processes, and managing it now controls people's daily priorities and focus. It has come to the point where a worker's goal for the day is try to conscientiously respond to all the messages that have accumulated, and react to the new messages coming in � but the goal always proves elusive."

The study shows that respondent's feelings of being overwhelmed by the demands of communication correlate directly with having to constantly reprioritize work and juggle schedules to keep up with the volume of messaging. Approximately 60 percent of executives, managers and professionals acknowledged the work that was created in responding to messages caused them some difficulty. All categories of workers that were studied felt overwhelmed by the flood of communication to varying degrees. Yet, the higher up the organizational ladder, the more overwhelmed the individual feels � likely because messaging on a senior level is more "knowledge" oriented.

Interestingly, the research demonstrates that administrative assistants are the least likely to feel overwhelmed even though they report handling the highest volume of messages. This is partly explained by administrative personnel viewing their efforts in dealing with messaging as a "badge of honor." On this level, workers proudly view handling the flood of messaging as one of the main challenges of their job. Also, the messages administrative personnel commonly receive may be simpler or faster to process than others.

The study points to a number of factors contributing to the inordinate level of messaging. As the volume of messaging increases for everyone, workers use a number of different messaging tools at their disposal to try and break through the clutter. It is much more likely in today's workplace to have work groups dispersed in different physical locations and often in different time zones. Seventy-two percent of workers surveyed said that they regularly work with co-workers who are not in the office. This makes real-time, synchronous communication, like face-to-face meetings or voice-to-voice phone conversations, more difficult to schedule and conduct.

These workplace realities and a shift to asynchronous or "time delayed" communications, like e-mail and voice mail, inevitably lead to an increased volume of messaging. Nearly one in four people disagreed with the statement that information flowed "freely" among co-workers in different departments in their organization. People want real-time messaging for both relationship building and immediate closure on content. They are having difficulty in getting it. It's not surprising then that asynchronous messaging is growing at a more rapid pace and that dissatisfaction with the time delayed connection is increasing.

Those are some of the predictions by a panel of leaders from industry and government who were asked by the editors of Chemical & Engineering News to look into the future.

The panel's predictions are featured in an article entitled, "Industry's Bright Outlook." They include:

• Twenty-five years from now, virtually no pollution of air, earth or water will come from chemical plants. This achievement will grow out of determination already in place to make products more efficiently, with less waste; to recycle chemicals when possible; and to dispose of them responsibly when it's not possible.
  
  
• Globalization of markets will spread out both manufacturing and some research centers toward Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. With a growing number of the most modern facilities abroad, the United States' reputation as a chemical-export giant will shift toward exports of industrial technology.

More than one-third of the study's participants give poor or failing marks to their distributors in such critically important areas as their commitment to the manufacturer, their ability to penetrate local markets, their sales capabilities, and their inventory management practices.

The Industrial Performance Group finds that manufacturers must shoulder much of the blame for distributor shortcomings because they:

• Neglect to tell their distributors what's expected of them.
  
  
• Fail to adequately prepare them for the assigned tasks.
  
  
• Take much too loose of an approach to managing their distributor relationships.

Nearly 30 percent of the 250 manufacturers surveyed give themselves poor or failing marks in defining their distributors' roles and responsibilities in the marketing, sale and service of their products. In addition:

• More than half of the manufacturers say they do little with their distributors to develop local marketing strategies.
  
  
• Forty-two percent make little effort to set sales goals for their distributors.
  
  
• Forty-five percent give themselves poor or failing grades in specifying inventory levels to be maintained by their distributors.

The survey's findings should serve as a warning sign for manufacturers who sell through independent distributors, according to Edward Stecki, the Industrial Performance Group's president. "By neglecting their distributor relationships, manufacturers wind up paying higher sales and marketing costs to pick up the slack for distributors who can't or won't do what's expected of them," he says. "The real message of our study is that there are tremendous opportunities for manufacturers to use their distributor relationships to improve their profitability and gain an edge in the marketplace."

Customers are deciding when, where and how to purchase goods and services, demanding them in zero time and influencing price. Technology is enabling it, and globalization is fueling the new era.

The "Era of the Virtual Customer" will be marked by manufacturers grappling with increasing � and more difficult to pinpoint � customer expectations, new approaches to product innovation, worldwide supply and distribution chains and organizational realignment. As a result of technology innovations, customers will become fully integrated into the entire fabric of the manufacturing process, blurring boundaries, and determining exactly when, where and how they will interact with products and services. Quality is now a "qualifier."

"Just as the era of mass production gave way to the era of quality we are in the midst of a manufacturing renaissance where the leaders of today may not be the leaders of the next century," says Mike Fradette, global practice leader for Deloitte Consulting's Manufacturing Practice. "Customer demands have changed radically and traditional recipes for success leave executives ill-equipped to meet the 21st century challenges. The speed required to not just adapt, but also anticipate, market forces in an increasingly unpredictable environment will separate the winners from the losers."

He points out that manufacturing will remain a core engine of growth and wealth-creation well into the next century.

Virtual Reality Brings Industrial Robotic Applications into the Classroom United Kingdom-based Denford, specialists in the manufacture and supply of computerized machines, systems and software for education and training, has launched two new products for use in the teaching of automated manufacturing processes. Both products, VR Robot and VR Computer Integrated Manufacturing System (CIM), are based on Superscape's PC-based virtual reality authoring software, VRT5, and are available to educational establishments worldwide. According to Andrew Denford, chief executive of Denford Limited, "By using virtual reality, students are able to experience opportunities which would otherwise be impractical, primarily because of lack of financial resources in many schools and colleges. Because virtual reality is a real-time experience, students can operate the robot as a true industrial application on a standard PC platform. Proficient students can develop their skills and progress into the VR CIM product to learn about the intricacies of computer integrated manufacturing on equipment which would normally cost in excess of $400,000." Designed as a low-cost introduction to the use of robots in automated manufacturing, the Denford VR Robot system, a VR-based teaching package, brings state-of-the art robotic equipment into the classroom at a fraction of the cost of the full industrial product. The Denford VR Robot is based on the Mitsubishi RV-MI Robot. It incorporates five 3D virtual reality worlds for students to explore and develop their robot programming skills in real time. Each world offers different challenges and training possibilities, ranging from introductory "pick-and-place" activities to advanced programming techniques involving a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) lathe. Students' tasks within the software include learning how a robot operates, how to program a robot using the virtual teachbox (control panel), how to perform robot sequences and how to avoid collisions in the surrounding environment. The split screen displays the VR Robot teachbox on the left side with the VR robot on the right. The student operates the VR Robot by using the mouse to program moves via the on-screen teachbox. The VR Robot and control software provide robot operations for full nesting, jogging and gripper control. Extra features to aid teaching of robotics include descriptions for positions stored in memory, ability to edit memory and "lead by the nose." The robot also allows the creation and testing of robot control scripts using an easy-to-use editor, which can be saved and used as real robot script files. The product replicates a full industrial computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) system. The five virtual worlds show all the elements of a Denford CIM System, many of which can be found in educational and training establishments throughout the world including CNC mills, lathes, robots, conveyors, automatic storage and retrieval systems, automated guided vehicle and vision systems.

CompTIA's Electronic Commerce Task Force is a global program that includes the United States, Western Europe, the ASEAN community and South and Central America. The group's mission is to investigate, promulgate and promote global electronic commerce solutions for the computing technology industry.

The Task Force analyzes value chain processes within the information technology industry, from manufacturer, distributor and reseller to clients, including those involved in financing and leasing, value-added networks and clearinghouses. The results of the analysis are then mapped to the most appropriate and established electronic commerce standards in order to create industry conventions for the use of these tools among global trading partners. As these electronic commerce tools and business processes evolve, further analysis is conducted and more expedient tools are evaluated.

The technologies for which the Task Force has helped establish standards, or is currently addressing, include bar code standards, electronic data interchange, electronic commerce over the Internet, and electronic software distribution. Over time, these technologies migrate to additional technologies based on changes within the information technology industry. CompTIA and its Electronic Commerce Task Force intend to address these changes as they emerge in order to ensure the development and implementation of correct conventions for conducting business electronically.

For the past nine years, CompTIA has been the primary organization to develop and implement electronic commerce standards within the information technology industry. As the RosettaNet initiative aspires to establish a standard nomenclature and taxonomy to communicate product data standards, its efforts should be complimentary to the other efforts in which CompTIA and its Task Force are engaged.

CompTIA is a driving force in the development of electronic commerce standards and will continue to work with RosettaNet, and other associations, to minimize duplication and develop cross-industry consistency for the benefit of the entire information technology industry.

Some CompTIA initiatives:

U.S. INITIATIVES

• Solve Year 2000 Problem as it affects EDT relationships in industry.

• Resolve current Channel Assembly issues and monitor the evolution of business models to facilitate the requisite electronic transfer of reporting data among trading partners.

EUROPEAN INITIATIVES

• Where possible and practical, leverage existing U.S. initiatives to expedite the use of electronic commerce in Europe.

• Continue work to establish industry conventions based on the EDIFACT standards in areas related to shipping, invoicing/credit, VAT reporting.

• As appropriate, work with current and existing standards setting bodies and governmental agencies that impact the successful implementation of electronic commerce in Western Europe.

The Shingo Prize is awarded to companies in North America that demonstrate outstanding achievement in manufacturing processes, with emphasis on lean, just-in-time production. The prize is co-sponsored by the NAM and administered by the College of Business at Utah State University.

Three of the seven winners are NAM member companies. The first, Coach Leather Goods in Carlstadt, N.J., is the premier manufacturer of luxury leather goods sold in more than 200 retail and outlet stores. By embracing lean manufacturing, Coach has eliminated the need for quality inspectors while achieving a less than one percent defect rate.

Johnson Controls' Lexington, Tenn., plant produces a variety of automotive power seat adjusters, power recliners, fineblanking and broached parts. The plant has achieved 100 percent on-time delivery for three consecutive years through the use of mistake-proofing and just-in-time manufacturing.

Also achieving 100 percent on-time delivery was Lear Corporation's Winchester, Va., plant, a manufacturer of door panels, speaker grilles, quarter panels and consoles. Through the use of the kaizen method, the achievement of lean manufacturing by emphasizing continuous improvement and the use of teams, the plant has reduced costs by $10 million.

The other four winners of this year's Shingo Prize are: Freudenberg NOK's Gasket Lead Center in Manchester, N.H.; Milwaukee Electric Tool Company's Brookfield, Wis., plant; CYDSA IQUISA (Industria Quimica Del Istmo, S.A de C.V.) in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico; and TREMEC (Transmisiones y Equipos Mecanicos, S.A. de C.V.) in Queretaro, Mexico.



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