The Changing Paradigm for Business Success in Advanced Materials and Components Manufacturing
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endeavor—materials science and engineering (MS&E) — evolved from a collection of discrete, disparate arts and crafts with varied amounts of science and practitioners who generally did not stray from their own specialties to a more diffuse field where researchers take a broader approach to materials research and practice.
Manufacturing Excellence We wish to propose that, as a result of the expansion of knowledge and its related effects, the paradigm for business success in advanced materials and components has dramatically changed from the 1950s to the present, requiring successful firms to practice manufacturing excellence
on a higher level. This term (for want of a better one) is here defined as the accomplishment of all product realization functions at a high level of performance. These functions include: 1. A complete understanding of customer needs and emerging markets, 2. A solid knowledge base in technology, 3. Superior production capabilities, 4. Superior product and process design and implementation capabilities, and 5. Effective organizations for sales, service, and distribution. This article explores the underlying forces that have changed the required ingredients of success in materials innovations. The paradigm changes emphasized here are the requisites for excellence in all facets
of corporate enterprise and new assets. The manufacturing world's focus on high production efficiency and low costs (the basis for advantage in the era of bulk materials) must yield to a new era in which knowledge, people, and flexible physical assets combine to provide strategic advantages when used for manufacturing excellence. We explore five key changes in technology and markets relating to materials producers that underlay major changes needed in the paradigm for success in advanced materials and components manufacturing: 1. The diffusion of MS&E knowledge, 2. Proliferation of products, 3. Systems design, 4. The value of patents, and 5. Lead time pressures. Each of these business climate changes is driving firms to respond in other ways, which we briefly summarize.
Diffusion of MS&E Knowledge Clearly, the understanding of materials and the practice of that understanding (MS&E) have changed dramatically over the last 25 years. In many ways, the changes in fundamental understanding were led initially by research universities and a few corporate R&D laboratories. Significantly, the generation and codification of this knowledge and the training of many scientists and engineers in universities have resulted in the establishment of numerous groups with both the talent and physical facilities to do world-class R&D in MS&E. The number of scholarly MS&E journals has risen from half a dozen in the 1950s to more than 100. Textbooks and monographs have also multiplied. The advance of knowledge has important implications for business success precisely because the knowledge of MS&E has not been limited to a few large firms. Instead, this expertise is spread throughout a diverse set of firms.1 No longer are critical masses of peopl
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