Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, now believes that his company must rely more on manufacturing and less on financial services. We could not agree more.

After frequent appearances on home decorating TV shows, stainless steel refrigerators with French doors became the hottest item in home décor. Needing to meet this new market demand, appliance manufacturers scrambled to get new models into stores. Among these was General Electric, one of the world’s largest appliance makers.

With principal operations in Hangzhou, China, H3C Technologies Co. Ltd. has become a leading global supplier of IP-based networking products, primarily through its creation of IToIP architecture to meet the industry trend of “open and convergence.” In 2004, company growth led H3C to install a new production line based on the Genesis GC-60D and GI-14D platforms.

TI Automotive’s manufacturing facility in Fuldabrück, Germany, specializes in making prototypes of plastic fuel pipes that must be processed by thermal forming. In the past, these measurements were conducted with the help of gauges and other mechanical inspection tools. Now they're done with TubeInspect, an optical tube measuring system.

In May 2005, Microsoft announced its latest innovation for digital entertainment and gaming, the Xbox 360, along with a new line of Xbox 360 wired and wireless controllers. The Xbox 360 controller-functional test system needed to perform tests similar to those of the original Xbox controller test system, but demanded higher-performance signal capture to ensure a high-quality user experience. 

Modine Manufacturing Co., a developer of heat transfer cooling systems for vehicles, has placed a high priority on flexibility since its founding in 1916. To maintain this tradition, the company operates several “focused factories,” including one in Pontevico, Italy. 

Every corporation wants to be innovative. But, being innovative is not a behavior. It’s not something on your to-do list between picking up dry cleaning and writing performance reviews. Innovation is the by-product of plans, processes, people and behaviors.

DeWys Manufacturing is continually looking for ways to improve its fabrication process. That drive for constant improvement led the company to recently invest in additional robotic welding equipment and reconfigure its manufacturing systems to increase capacity. 

Recently, NBS installed an intelligent feeder and materials management system throughout its highly automated Santa Clara manufacturing facility. The system lets NBS electronically track, monitor, match and record components to PCB assemblies while in-process, eliminating the practice of manual logging.