At Managing Automation's third annual Progressive Manufacturing Summit, which this blogger's been attending this week, we've so far heard from MA Editor-in-Chief David Brousell, DuPont Chief Engineer and VP of Engineering and Operations Jim Porter, Valero Energy Corp.'s Kirk Hewitt, Sun Microsystems' Lance Johnson, Avago Technologies' Hong Siew and many others.

And we still have plenty more to come, on innovation and efficiency, Lean Six Sigma, sourcing strategies, connecting the supply chain, operational excellence, business transformation, future technologies and more.

According to "Progressive Manufacturing" philosophy, productivity improvements are only part of the response to such massive forces as globalization, competitiveness and "market-flattening technologies."

Says Brousell:

Achieving and maintaining excellence through cost reduction, lean and other efficiency techniques are standard, ongoing practices that must be balanced with breakthrough business thinking and innovation.

Simply put, business transformation + advanced tech = progressive manufacturing.

The following are progressive manufacturing's traditional six disciplines -- or masteries:

1) Business Model Mastery
2) Innovation Mastery
3) Customer Mastery
4) Supply Chain Mastery
5) Data and Integration Mastery
6) Training and Education Mastery

In addition to these, two new disciplines have been added this year:

7) Operational Excellence
8) Leadership

On their own, these may sound basic, but that is only because they are. They are basic disciplines -- but also critical and elusive to master. Further, taken together, they form a new framework for ensuring business' ability to compete effectively in the global manufacturing marketplace.

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6/14 UPDATE

Manufacturing and Business Mega-Trends Noted at the Summit

In a show of hands by audience members here at the conference:

• About 3/4 are approaching manufacturing with Lean;
• The remainder are doing Six Sigma; and
• Only a handful approach their operations with Lean-Six Sigma.

According to DuPont:

• Unprecedented Demands
• Shrinking Capabilities
• Globalized Supply Chains
• Increased Security
• Tighter Regulation
• Flat Productivity

According to Deloitte:

• Globalization -- "It's here, and it's only going to accelerate," said Douglas Engel, vice chairman and U.S. manufacturing industry practice leader, Deloitte & Touche, USA LLP. Engel cited a $9 billion company in China that only operates regionally... and it's looking to operate globally.

• Innovation -- This ranks as the top priority for revenue growth for U.S manufacturers, in a survey of 1,000 companies of all sizes across all geographies. (More to come on this next week)

• Cost Reduction and Outsourcing -- Pretty self-explanatory... .

• Mergers and Acquisitions -- "Are they doing us a favor or not?" Engel asked. "It remains to be seen."

• Service Revolution -- This has become very strategic... and usually profitable.

• Green Revolution -- Everyone's talking about it, it's appearing in CEO letters to shareholders, and more and more companies are getting LEED-certified... yet "no one seems to have figured out how to make money from it." Making green commercially viable (i.e., making green by going green) "will play a much larger role in every organization's value chain," according to Engel.

Finally, in a panel discussion called "Connecting with Customers," by representatives of Sun Microsystems, Credence Systems and Avago Technologies:

Increasingly more (to the point of almost all) customers expect a buying experience influenced by the consumer side of business. This is happening across verticals, for all manufacturers providing some sort of product.

For example, construction managers ordering compressors for a project expect Amazon.com-like data to know up-to-date delivery status (e.g., tracking numbers, real-time delivery info.).

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There is much more, and we'll bring IMT readers the highlights of the discussions by industry leaders at the 2007 Progressive Manufacturing Summit. Next week we'll provide a summary of major developments addressed here at the Summit: the successful formulas of leading small and major enterprises, lessons learned and the struggles many continue to face in manufacturing, as well as what businesses are doing to achieve and maintain excellence.