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Vol 32 - No 06 - September 2006 Editorial As the Editor, I would like to say goodbye to Katie Sweeney who recently left the post of Communications Manager to start a new job and get married in September. I would like to wish her well and on your behalf, thank her for the great job she did in helping me make Control the magazine that it is today. Here are some thoughts of an old Manufacturing and Supply Chain Specialist. The world economy is continuing to change, especially with the on-going conflict in the world today. Low cost and highly competitive developing countries are having an increasing impact on all developed Western economies, not least here in Britain. We have moved out much of our manufacturing to the Far East and hardly a week goes by without another round of service jobs moving to India. As new products become ever more complex, regulation more onerous and the supply chain increasingly global, achieving excellence in manufacture and supply is critical to organizational success. On average, companies invest billions - and many years - to bring products from concept to release. It is critical to retain patent protection for marketing and amortization of the initial investment by reducing the time between the initial concept and the approval of the final delivery of the new product. Therefore the development of new, higher value products, which is the life-blood of any company, will strive to move away from commodity production wherever possible. However, upon completion of development, production may begin in earnest or small production trials may begin. Information infrastructure is key to capturing and exchanging critical research and development data. Researchers need to spend more time on concepts than on information management. An integrated information technology system is needed, and the documentation that leads to early product validation. These are areas that are increasing in priority, and companies are faced with the fact they have to have validate systems etc. Malcolm Granger, FIOM Related Topics:
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