RPMI Symposium 2000

From: Tom Richards (tomr@aicasting.com)
Date: Fri Jul 23 1999 - 13:22:12 EEST


Hello All,

Marshall Burns wrote to reginald.ponder@marc.gatech.edu regarding their RP&M
symposium in early 2000. All RP people should visit
http://rpmi.marc.gatech.edu and weigh-in. Marshall's statement included the
following:

"If you happen to agree with what I'm saying, that doesn't mean that you can
solve the problem by directing your promotion of the conference to CEOs,
lobbyists, and entrepreneurs. Because, by and large, those groups do not yet
have any idea that fabbers are a phenomenon worth paying attention to. You
have a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. The purpose of your conference is to
raise the consciousness of America about the fabber future, but to get
attendance you need to find people who are already believers."

Marshall Burns' insightful comments make sense to me: CEO's, Professionals &
Entrepreneurs had better become aware of what could happen.

I would like to see a plenary session built around a possible or probable
emerging TENSION between two kinds of MANUFACTURERS of widgets, and the
parts for widgets: A) Organizations (companies) vs B) Individuals (fabbers
or cottage industries), as they might soon be competing for production of 1)
prototypes, 2) early economical production quantities at minimum investment
by consumers and 3) full-scale production quantities, of either I) Same
Design from OEM's, catalogs or dealers or II) Custom Designs or Reverse
Engineerings per order. It could become a classic struggle over distribution
channels. Given the rapidly emerging internet communications and market, I
would bet on a new paradigm to emerge and prosper, of B) producing 1,2 & 3
of II, if RPG+M people do their jobs well. Canny CEO's themselves might well
apply the new paradigm within their organizations.

Best Regards, Tom Richards, Metallurgist

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:52:12 EEST