Constant improvement is key to compete.Constant improvement is key to compete The secret of America's future competitiveness does not lie in dazzling scientific and technological breakthroughs, but instead will be the result of step-by-step work that improves existing products and the way they are manufactured. Mastering this "cyclic cyclic /cyc·lic/ (sik´lik) pertaining to or occurring in a cycle or cycles; applied to chemical compounds containing a ring of atoms in the nucleus. cy·clic or cy·cli·cal adj. 1. development process" is critical to our country's ability to compete, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Ralph Gomory, president of the Sloan Foundation Sloan Foundation, fund established (1934) by automobile executive Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. as a philanthropic institution supporting research in various areas. In its early years it stressed support of U.S. economic education and research. and former IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) senior VP for science and technology. Gomory recently spoke at a two-day Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. conference on "Economic Growth and the Commercialization of New Technologies," sponsored by the Technology and Economic Growth Program of Standford's Center for Economic Policy Research. Scientific innovations have produced great new technologies, such as the invention of the transistor or the semiconductor. But our fascination with big breakthroughs also has produced a "mythology" about the enduring economic impact of these inventions, Gomory observed. "We are okay at getting things started - but not at winning the longer race." The innovation process is dominated by the scientists building a product around a new idea. The cyclical cyclical Of or relating to a variable, such as housing starts, car sales, or the price of a certain stock, that is subject to regular or irregular up-and-down movements. process is dominated by the manufacturing engineers The profession of manufacturing engineer is defined as a person having the education and experience to understand and control manufacturing systems such as processes and/or automation, including industrial processes and equipment used to produce goods. making incremental Additional or increased growth, bulk, quantity, number, or value; enlarged. Incremental cost is additional or increased cost of an item or service apart from its actual cost. improvements to existing products. "It is in this area where we have significant problems today," Gomory said. Whether a jet engine or a chip is being designed, the cycle includes a development and manufacturing phase. While the current product is in the manufacturing stage, a development team should be working on the next generation of the product. "The length of the cycle itself is a very important parameter," Gomory told the audience. One company may take three years to produce the product; another company may have a two-year cycle. The company with the shorter cycle thus will begin its second-generation product before the first company gets its product out the door. "The company with the shorter cycle can develop a tremendous advantage over its competitors. The short cycle also will give a company more ability to adjust to the market." This means that there must be close ties between manufacturing and development. Manufacturing personnel should be involved early in the development process, and products must be designed that are easy to manufacture, to help speed the products to market. The cyclic development process is not the result of an outside push, but an inside pull. "The key pullers have to be internal people." |
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