NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the study committee were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. This report is a description of a conference and workshop planned and conducted by the steering committee. It contains the views of the individual participants at the workshop and does not represent the judgment of the study committee. Any conclusions or recommendations reported here are solely those of the individual workshop participants who made them.
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The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Harold Liebowitz are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
This study by the Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design was conducted under task orders 43NANB514047 and 43NANB515077 with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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Committee on the Assessment of the SecondNational Conference on Manufacturing Technology
GEORGE E. DIETER, Chair,
University of Maryland, College Park
WILLIAM E. ALZHEIMER,
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
DOROTHY COMASSAR,
GE Aircraft Engines, Cincinnati, Ohio
WILLIAM HANSON,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
BRAD KIRKWOOD,
Boeing Defense and Space, Seattle, Washington
DANIEL P. SIEWIOREK,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JOSEPH WIRTH,
Raychem Corporation, Menlo Park, California
Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design Staff
THOMAS E. MUNNS, Senior Staff Officer
ROBERT E. SCHAFRIK, Acting Staff Director
JANICE M. PRISCO, Administrative Assistant
Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design
F. STAN SETTLES, Chair,
University of California, Los Angeles
ERNEST R. BLOOD,
Caterpillar, Inc., Peoria, Illinois
DOROTHY COMASSAR,
GE Aircraft Engineers, Cincinnati, Ohio
W. DALE COMPTON,
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
GARY DENMAN,
GRC International, Inc., Vienna, Virginia
PETER S. DICICCO,
AFL/CIO, Washington, D.C.
SARA P. GARRETSON,
New York Industrial Technical Assistance Corp., New York
WILLIAM C. HANSON,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
CHARLES W. HOOVER,
Polytechnic University, New York
FREDERICK J. MICHEL (Retired, Assistant Deputy for
Production, U.S. Army Materiel Command), Alexandria, Virginia
PAUL S. PEERCY,
SEMI/SEMATECH, Austin, Texas
DANIEL P. SIEWIOREK,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
GORDON A. SMITH,
Vanguard Research, Inc., Fairfax, Virginia
Preface
The director of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) served as the host for the first two national conferences on manufacturing technology. The director, Michael J. Wozny, requested that the National Research Council assess the second of these conferences so that subsequent conferences can continue to improve. This assessment also serves as a synopsis of the conference. Complete proceedings of the conference are available from NIST. Both this report and the conference proceedings will be sent to all registered conference attendees.
A committee of seven experts was selected by the National Research Council to conduct the conference evaluation. The charge to the committee from the National Research Council was to summarize the key results of the conference by identifying cross-cutting themes that emerged from the concurrent workshops at the conference and providing recommendations for improving future conferences.
The committee met on April 17, 1995, to finalize its plans for evaluating the conference, and all committee members attended the conference on April 18–19. One committee member attended each of the six workshop sessions, and the chair attended a portion of each session. The committee met at various points throughout the conference and at its conclusion. A second committee meeting was held on June 8–9 to review the draft report and finalize the committee's conclusions and recommendations.
This report presents the NRC committee's evaluation of the conference and offers recommendations for the next conference. The committee is convinced that these conferences offer a unique
opportunity for industry and academia, at large, to gain insight into the manufacturing technology policies and activities within the federal government and to provide feedback to key government managers. The committee lauds the clear intent of the NIST conference organizer to strive for continual improvement in future conferences and hopes this report will help take further steps in that direction.
Comments and suggestions that readers of this report wish to make can be sent via Internet electronic mail to nmab@nas.edu or by FAX to the Board on Manufacturing and Engineering Design (202) 334-3718.
GEORGE E. DIETER, Chair
Committee on the Assessment of the Second National Conference on Manufacturing Technology