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"Lean manufacturing" means different things to different people. To the ruthless, it means "lay off workers and get more from who's left." But to others, lean manufacturing is a strategy for delivering high-quality products quickly and cost-effectively. To get the real story, we spoke with Tom Greenwood, Ph.D., director of the University of Tennessee's Lean Enterprise Forum.

Why is it that we someArial have so much trouble getting the result we want?

In assembly and production plants around the world, flexible gauging has become a vital stage of the manufacturing process, especially in the automotive industry.

The fractional horsepower electric motor business is extremely competitive, and a new idea can give a company an advantage in the marketplace.

Shamrock Boats (Cape Coral, FL) is committed to building high-quality boats, which requires a high-quality manufacturing plant.

Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, AL) has developed a kit for repairing damage caused by impacts on NASA space modules.

A new approach to assembly and service parts storage and retrieval has helped Multi-Shifter Inc. (Charlotte, NC) add a new spark to its manufacturing operations.

Switching from hand marking its flat and rotary mounted equipment tags to an automated marking and identification system has allowed Hy-Tech Machine Co. (Cranberry Township, PA) to increase its productivity by 15 percent.

The Panoz AIV Roadster is 70 percent aluminum and has a curb weight of 2,600 pounds. It is hand-built by the Panoz Auto Development Co. (Hoschton, GA) and is the first aluminum-intensive vehicle manu-factured in the United States. Only 200 are built each year.

The survival and continuing prosperity of manufacturing companies is fundamentally essential to maintaining the way of life in the United States, Japan and virtually every developed nation. The survival of manufacturing companies depends, in turn, on the manufacturing workforce.