Editorial

Two issues that both stem from the current trend towards globalisation are giving me cause for concern.

Keywords: Globalisation, E-manufacturing

Two worlds

The first is also the subject of our Viewpoint (refer to p. 8) and relates to the outsourcing of various stages of manufacturing processes. There are two facets to this "problem", one is at a company level and the other at a national level.

On one hand it seems to make perfect sense to manufacture wherever you can at the lowest possible cost compatible with required quality levels. This frequently means that the products developed in western countries are manufactured in the far east where labour rates are much lower. This looks like a win win situation. The western company is able to produce its products more competitively, the consumer (also normally in the west) gets a very good deal,and the eastern country obtains valuable exports, employment and income.

So - what is wrong with this situation?

I recently attended the 2002 International Symposium on Robotics in Stockholm and one of the keynote speakers described, in relation to the automotive industry, how the US industry had now gone global and had outsourced all the difficult and expensive manufacturing operations (e.g. electronics, dash board assembly etc.) to the far east, and cited all the above advantages in recommendation of this philosophy. It occurred to me at the time that another way of looking at this was that the US had given away all the fun parts and left itself with just the really simple, low skill elements. In other words, it had sold the family silver in favour of short term gain. The same can be said of the majority of developed countries and I would not want to single out the US for particular observation. We are all doing it.

The same arguments that apply to countries can also be applied to individual companies. Outsourcing does have a lot to recommend it, but you need to be careful that you do not give away and lose contact with the very skills on which your company is based.

From the above you may judge that I am not in favour of globalisation. This is not altogether correct. I do think that it has a lot to recommend it, and to me one of the major benefits is that it enables underdeveloped countries to acquire a higher standard of living and make the world more of a level playing field.

Countries and companies do need to be aware, however, that at the same time they are passing their problems and their problem solving skills to someone else.

Manufacturing viruses

At the same conference I also listened to presentations by senior executives from two different companies both of whom were extolling the virtues of e-manufacturing and proudly describing that their manufacturing equipment could be interrogated over the internet. Benefits cited included just-in-time, remote maintenance, production planning and verification and a whole host of other attractions that all stemmed from this ability to control events over the Internet.

The Internet is wonderful - I could not do my job nearly as well without it,and I am sure that many readers are equally grateful for its existence. However,I also know that I am routinely attacked by viruses and the problems that they can cause.

Using the Internet I can access Web sites and acquire the useful information that the site has been developed to promote. I can also, at the press of a button, view the HTML code that powers the site. This information is that the site owner almost certainly does not want me to see, and which has cost him a great deal of money to develop.

The Internet has only been made possible by the development of standards and it is also standards that will make e-manufacturing possible as well. My problem is that these same standards that make it easy for us to use such systems also makes it easy for a malicious, or even totally innocent, third party to hack in and wreak havoc.

I asked the two executives what measures had been taken to make their systems immune to viruses and the silence was deafening. Perhaps, I worded the question badly but it seemed to me that the question was not understood.

I am not saying at all that e-manufacturing is a bad thing but I was very disappointed that the suppliers of manufacturing systems seemed to be content to only consider the advantages and had not, apparently, considered the down side and how it could be remedied.

Clive Loughlin

Call for papers

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