Using the Pause for the Upturn?

I think most producers are always looking at ways to be more agile. Recently there is an additional focus on being "green". Agility on the plant floor allows for shifts in product mix by having programmable controllers and CNC machines used in work cells. Green is now focused not only on emissions, but on ways to reduce costs by being more efficient in the indirect materials used.

When the next upturn comes, chipmakers aim to have much leaner, more agile fab operations ready to capitalize on it. That was a dominant theme at the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Intiative (ISMI) conference in Austin, TX (Oct. 22-23). Chip factories will also run greener, cutting costs at the same time, by using less energy, water, chemicals, and other consumables.

Lean manufacturing has been a mantra for decades and a way of life for Toyota since it reached maturity in about 1975. The current immense slowdown will shock many managers with the realization that some "lean plants" are not as flexible as hoped. I am sure the lean idea will be refreshed and become even more entrenched in modern thinking.