National Manufacturing Week Takes Off on Political Note Feb 24, 2004

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National Manufacturing Week 2004, composed of six tradeshows and expos, showcased appliance industry vendor presentations as well as conference programs that covered myriad areas from design to automation, enterprise management to plant management, cleaning technology to licensing technology, as well as several other issues.

The four-day event runs Feb. 23-26 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, U.S.

The show kicked off on a political note with a "Play Your Part" rally in support of the National Association of Manufacturing's "Campaign for Growth and Manufacturing Renewal." The politically charged event was held to serve as a platform for getting out manufacturing messages and concerns to U.S. politicians and policymakers. Rally attendees were asked to customize an existing letter "shell" to their Congressional representatives letting them know the challenges manufacturers are facing as well as asking them to support the current recovery in U.S. manufacturing after its most recent slump.

Synchronizing intellectual property (IP) with a product lifecycle management (PLM) process, lean manufacturing, convergence, and the miniaturization of devices stood out as some of the major areas of discussion on the Manufacturing Showplace floor.

"Why hasn't PLM taken off? Because it is almost to much to handle," Michael M. Campbell, vice president of product management for PTC, an engineering software and product development company, told APPLIANCE in an exclusive interview at National Manufacturing Week. "With manufacturing sometimes taking place halfway around the world, you need to have a good system in place for synchronizing the IP [in a product] as part of it. But the time is now for PLM."

The six shows that are under the Manufacturing Week umbrella are the following: