Volume 1, Number 2

Welcome Aboard 'Spaceship CiME'

In manufacturing, the term "Enterprise" continues to be used unabated. While we can appreciate the desire of management to think in the grandest terms, we also want them to recognize that the factory, the plant, the domain where manufacturing produces things and stuff is the primary point of value-added and, therefore, the place where profits are made � or lost.

Let us launch, with this magazine, a companion to "The Enterprise." Blatantly playing off the successful films and television series, let us make this "Spaceship CiME," going into uncharted depths of technology that some only dream but others make possible.

To find our way through the astral planes of today's manufacturing, we'll need a guidebook and a fearless crew. CiME will be your manual for integrating engineering, design and manufacturing for the betterment of the whole &endash; dare I say it &endash; Enterprise. Our focus is clearly on improving engineering and manufacturing by means of integrating technologies &endash; within the four walls of the factory and throughout the supply chain. In addition, we'll present management insights into how technology and its corollary, technique, work together.

Our crew members, our contributors, come from many disciplines, functional areas, companies and countries. They have ventured forth and made first contact with modern manufacturing technology. They have been there, done that. Now they will share with you the what, why and how of their challenges, failures and ultimate success. After all, those who have traveled these roads know that nothing goes as smoothly as the sales brochures would indicate.

We mentioned that our crew comes from many countries. Information knows no boundaries, something that is strikingly obvious when one considers the Internet and global communications. Today's manufacturer is not located in the community, the nation or the region. It is part of the world. From a small machine shop in Thailand to a multinational conglomerate in London or New York, we have all become dependent on global markets and business to continue to grow and prosper. The multinational aspects of the companies that develop computer software and hardware, controls, networking, machine tools, robots, assembly and processing equipment is equally obvious. Throughout the year, our editors will interview top executives of global companies for their insights on these and other topics.

Systems are dynamic, they change, they move, they develop, they expand and they contract. Our system view must include all the factors involved in creating a product, how they relate to each other and how they work as a whole. To deal with the whole system of integrated manufacturing, we can't leave anything out, assume anything is irrelevant. We must address both the scientific and artistic approaches, the small as well as the big, whatever is thought, perceived, imagined, produced. By focusing on the system, the integration of separate entities "from art to part," we'll have global success.

"Operating Manual for the Spaceship Earth" was the title of a 1969 book by R. Buckminster Fuller. He coined the term "Spaceship Earth" and was, perhaps, the person most responsible for making "synergy" a common term. From him we take our course for "Spaceship CiME," to consider the world a single source of manufacturing information, available to all who need it, for we are all in this together.

This is your magazine, we are only its stewards. We welcome your feedback, stories and suggestions for subjects to cover or people to interview in future issues. And please visit our World Wide Web site at http://207.69.204.147/cime/cime.html, another source of information.

-- Tom Inglesby, editor