Last week, I attended the imX (interactive manufacturing eXperience) in Las Vegas (September 12-14, 2011.) The imX was jointly sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association (AMTDA). The event had eight eXperience partners: DMG/Mori Seiki U.S.A., Fanuc, Kennametal, MAG IAS LLC, Makino, Methods Machine Tools, Okuma America, and Sandvik Coromant, as well as strategic media partner, Manufacturing Engineering, and three media sponsors, www.cnc-west.com, Micro Manufacturing, and Cutting Tool Engineering.
It was different than any other trade show that I have attended in the past 30 years. What made it different was that the whole focus of the show was benefits for the attendee instead of focusing primarily on benefits to the exhibitors. Traditional shows concentrate on bringing as many attendees as possible to the show to be sales leads for the exhibitors and may offer some technical sessions as an added draw to increase attendance. To attend imX, you had to be invited as a guest by one of the sponsors, the eights partners, or other exhibitors in the event. The goal of imX was to chart a new course for the future of the domestic manufacturing industry by fostering collaboration among American Manufacturers of all sizes.
SME President, Paul Bradley, PE, said that this event was in development for five years. The imX team spoke with members and customers to discover what they wanted and needed from an event. AMTDA and the eight eXperience partners identified the needs of their members and customers. Individual meetings and group discussions between exhibitors and attendees were identified as key needs to provide a higher level of customer engagement and education to create an event that was unlike any other. For the first time, the manufacturing industry came together not as competitors, but as collaborators with the common goal and focus of long-term industry viability. The participants had the opportunity to meet to discuss and foster an understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing their customers and their competition and to explore the latest manufacturing technology.
imX event manager, Steve Prahalis said that their survey of exhibitors and buyers revealed that some hadn’t been to a show in as long as five years. Instead, they were attending corporate technical sessions at plants around the country. They got together a roundtable of CEO’s over a period of three years to come up with ideas for a new kind of event that would be invitation only and incorporate the kind of experience the corporate technical sessions provided, but in one location and one time.
For decades, trade shows for the manufacturing industry were events at which you either exhibited or attended every year. If you didn’t, you would be missing out on the latest trends in your industry, missing out on getting new sales leads, and missing out on networking opportunities with peers in your industry. For show managers, it was easy to sell booth space because trade shows were the “in” thing to do, and attendance at some shows like COMDEX was as high as 250,000.
According to Prahalis, two major events changed trade shows forever: the internet and 9/11. It became possible to keep up with industry trends and find out information about potential sources for equipment, products and services on the internet. If 9/11 and the subsequent recession caused you to miss a trade show, you discovered it didn’t matter as much as you thought it would. You may have missed the networking opportunities, but LinkedIn and Facebook became the replacements.
This is why education received major emphasis at imX in the form of Learning Labs presented by the eight eXperience partners and “knowledge bars” provided by other exhibitors. The Learning Labs provided a small setting where buyers and sellers could share information on business-critical solutions. Each partner had from one to four theaters scheduled at one to five time slots during the three days of the event. A few examples of the topics are: Delivering Productivity from Art to Part, Tooling Trends and Technologies, The Fearless Use of Today’s Technology, and Training within Industry. The Knowledge Bars were intimate sessions to discuss such trends and topics as: manufacturing software, automation, machining, energy, aerospace and defense manufacturing, and medical manufacturing. . Invited attendees were able to sign up ahead of time for technical sessions in the Leaning Lab and “knowledge bars.”
There was a keynote presentation and an interactive industry panel scheduled each day. The keynote presentation on the first day featured the newly appointed National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Chief Manufacturing Office, Michael Molnar. Mr. Molnar shared information about how individual manufacturers can participate in and benefit from the new national Advanced Manufacturing Partnership recently launched by President Obama. According to the Department of Commerce, the Partnership “brings industry, universities and the federal government together to invest in emerging technologies…building domestic manufacturing capabilities to create the new products, new industries and new jobs for our future.”
The second day’s keynote presentation featured Peter Schutz, Harris & Schutz Inc., author of The Driving Force and retired CEO of Porsche AG. Mr. Schutz led Porsche to its peak performance during the 1980s and shared his thoughts on how the leadership of people in a company becomes the pivotal competitive edge for business in his address: “Leadership: Extraordinary results from ordinary people.” I especially liked it when Mr. Schutz said, “Only you can create jobs, nobody in Washington can do it.” He emphasized the importance of putting together a team that has “diversity,” of views, attitudes, priorities, and outlook so you can listen and learn from others in making decisions. He advised to “always hire character and teach skills.” He said, “labor costs globally will equalize and transportation costs are going to be critical…quality instead of cost and outperforming will become more important.”
On the third day, the keynote presenter was Jim Carroll, acknowledged as one of the world’s leading global futurists, trends, and motivation experts. In his address on “What do world class innovators do that others don’t?” he outlined eight strategies that world class leaders concentrate on to ensure market success and seize transformative opportunities. In these rocky times, his admonition to abandon doomsday scenarios, put things in perspective, adopt a realistic view, and don’t be afraid of thinking boldly were especially pertinent.
The interactive panels also provided opportunities for executive guests to engage directly with leading end users and industry observers on topics from future technologies to automation and benchmarking.
On Monday, the panel on “Market & Technology Outlook: Charting a Course for the Future” featured an interactive discussion focused on the outlook of key markets and how future enabling technologies impact the way many manufacturers do business. Featured panelists were:
- William J. Geary, Director of Mid-Body Assembly, the Boeing Company
- Michael Packer, V. P. Manufacturing Strategy & Technical Integration, Production Operations, Lockheed Martin
- Peter Schutz, Harris & Schutz Inc.
- Rob Wideboer, Executive Chairman, Martinrea International
- Moderator: Rick Kline Sr., President, Garner Publications, Inc.
On Tuesday, the topic was “The Edge Factor: Best Practices in Manufacturing Automation,” in which the owners of Straitline Components shared their successful transition from a job shop to creators of a line of mountain bike components now used by some of the top competitive racers in the world. Jeremy Bout, Executive Producer of The Edge Factor show, shared the video on “Mountain Biking …Getting Back to Making America Great,” showing how some of the components were made and “the edge factor” of the quality, “made in USA” components played in the race won by Mike Montgomery, freestyle mountain bike rider. Mike Montgomery then commented on the importance of being able to trust his safety and even his life to these quality components.
On Wednesday, the panel shared the results of a comprehensive survey of 200 machining businesses in the panel on “Top Shops: Benchmarking Your Machining Business.” The panel identified optimal shop floor practices, as well as operational and business metrics that define world-class competitiveness in parts manufacturing. Derek Korn, Senior Editor, Modern Machine Shop, Ron Woosel, President, C&R Manfuacturing, Mike Dufford, V. P., Altech Machining participated in the panel moderated by Travis Egan, Publisher of Modern Machine Shop.
On the last day of the show, ImX event manager, Steve Prahalis said that attendees were giving a good rating for the event and had shared some of their experiences. As an example, the owner of a small company from Ohio got to have a private meeting with the technical team at the Kennemetal exhibit, and they provided a solution to a key problem they were having in their shop.
Judging by what I saw at the event, I would say that ImX succeeded in accomplishing its goal to chart a new course for the future of the domestic manufacturing industry by fostering collaboration among American manufacturers of all sizes. I am sure everyone who attended this event will look forward to attending the next eXperience.
People at the show commented that it was different and appreciated how it was done. Knowledge bars were a success, as were many of the other presentations. One big thing compared to other shows, everyone could go to the speakers and knowledge bars, versus having to pay for the conferences like in many other shows.
Additionally, Harry Moser gave a great presentation on Reshoring and his reshorenow.org initiative on Wednesday at imX. Definitely worth catching.
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