Innovation in Manufacturing The Small Business Conundrum G.Ravishankar, VP of Operations ©2011 CAMT NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION.

Innovation in ManufacturingThe Small Business Conundrum

G.Ravishankar, VP of Operations©2011 CAMT  NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

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• A public/private partnership part of the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

• Partially funded by U.S. Department of Commerce

• Work primarily with small and medium sized enterprises (25-1000 employees, Revenues $3-200 Million)

Who is CAMT?

The Colorado

Association for

Manufacturing and

Technology (CAMT) is a

statewide

manufacturing

assistance center

dedicated to

increasing the

competitiveness of

Colorado

manufacturers.

©2011 CAMT  NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

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Customer expectations

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Multi-nationals, OEMs, Prime contractors

Small Business

Supply chain integration

CostCompetitivene

ssCertification

Sustainability

Innovation

Expectation of Suppliers

Technical skills

Technologies

Applied knowledge

Supplier shortfalls

Capital

Specialized tools

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• Customer responsiveness

• Global competitiveness

• Sustainability and growth

• Innovation (process and products)

Small business imperatives

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CAMT Survey Results:Top Challenges• Lack of skilled technical personnel

• Lack of access to testing/analysis facilities• (SEM, chromatograph, ESD chamber,vibration)

• Lack of access to quick prototype creation resources

• Lack of access to manufacturing resources• (CVD, low volume SMT, specialized coatings)

• Low supply chain leverage, difficult to manage

• Technology transfer generally difficult

• Small business software (simulation, ERP etc.)

• Not aware of state, federal, university assistance

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• New materials/markets• How does a sheet metal shop migrate to carbon fiber sheet

forming?

• How do they integrate nanotechnology surface coatings when all they are familiar with is anodizing ?

• Information technology• How does a manufacturer with a part time IT support

running windows XP migrate to a cloud based ERP system integrated with CRM?

• Quality• How does a manufacturer used to 100% inspection as

required by the customer migrate to an SPC system? When the only three engineers are designers, sustaining engineering and the technical support?

The conundrum: What to invest in?

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• Lack of a migration path to new process technologies• Most companies are mired in old equipment and older

technologies

• Average age of equipment 15-20 years

• Lack of technical resources• Few engineers if any. Old school ‘grew up in the business’

• New hires lack the knowledge of what happens on a factory floor

• Lack of practical knowledge of simple process improvement tools

• Lack of capital (working and business) limit progress• Little investment in process technologies

• Little investment in workforce skills

Where are the gaps?

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Technology Development Path

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Collaboration: Making it really work

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University/ Labs/ Research Org

Multi-nationals, OEMs, Prime contractors

Small Business

Manufacturingtechniques

Methodologies

Joint development

Quality tools

Innovation

Customer provided solutions

Technical skills

Technologies

Applied knowledge

Supplier shortfalls

Capital

Practical toolsApplied Engr

Low cost solutionsInter disciplinary

Open Source

Workforce/Technologies

Specialized tools