The Defense Manufacturing Environment, Change Is The Only Constant

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The defense industry has received much attention in the past year as the result of downsizing operations brought on by the shrinking defense budget. Change, while recently brought to the public's eye, is not a new concept to the electronic equipment manufacturing segment at Texas Instruments. The last fifteen years has brought on major changes in both the structure and operating philosophy of this business segment. Operating division boundaries have changed repeatedly in an effort to keep a logical, technologically sound structure in place to support ever changing business demands. Manufacturing facilities have transitioned at a slower pace but in far more radical ways. In the late seventies and early eighties facilities were built around specific product lines and in some cases specific products. Multiple program single product shops did not exist except in the largest of facilities and then only to support front end operations such as metal fabrication and pre-PWB assembly operations. Assembly and test operations were performed in dedicated areas that were constructed to support a specific product at a predetermined build rate. The dynamic environment of the nineties is precipitating major changes in this approach. Product volumes are dropping while development to manufacturing cycle time requirements are being compressed. Even if time existed to build dedicated facilities, increased competition in a shrinking marketplace has resulted in profitability demands that cannot support large capital investments. The clear direction in this environment is to create flexible factories that can support multiple product lines in both a development and production environment.