Transforming your equipment management process with RFID
Author: Healthcare Purchasing News

The future state of manufacturing in the United States can't be predicted with spot-on accuracy. One can presume, though, that manufacturers and machine shops will continue to face tough international competition from countries using low-wage labor.

Because the cost of new equipment is essentially the same no matter where it is purchased, how will U.S. shops compete against lower labor costs in the years ahead? According to John Lenz, president of CMS Research, Inc. (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), it boils down to more efficient use of both labor and machine tools.

For 25 years, Dr. Lenz has specialized in the design and operation of machine cells, ranging from flexible labor U-line operations to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The days of buying machines to produce one or two part numbers are gone, according to Dr. Lenz. Rather, shops will want the capability to run a high variety of part numbers across the same set of machine tools. He also believes that through the effective management of such flexible capacity, there is no reason why high-precision parts that require high-end machinery should not be produced in the country where they are consumed. During a presentation at Mazak's U.S. headquarters in Florence, Kentucky, Dr. Lenz touched on some alternate business tools that aggressive U.S. manufacturers may use to survive global competition. Here are a few.

1. Effectively manage flexible capacity. It won't be enough for shops to use robots to tend machine tools and perform other automated duties. In fact, much flexible capacity has already been installed in the United States, but the cost savings have not been as pronounced as expected. That's primarily a result of ineffective management of that flexible equipment.