Schneider Electric, best known in the United States by its flagship Square D® brand, is a leading manufacturer of equipment used for electrical distribution and industrial automation and control. Even though the company has 17 plants in China, Schneider Electric is committed to automation investments in the United States. The company’s strategy includes providing a superior customer experience through delivery, quality, and responsiveness. While many of its competitors have shifted production offshore, the company has invested in domestic plants, such as its Peru, Ind., and Lexington, Ky., facilities. In 2007, the Lexington plant was the recipient of the Assembly Plant of the Year award.

Making Auto ID Work for Assemblers and Getting Payback

Manufacturing managers in every assembly plant need to know how many parts, subassemblies and finished products are in the plant, where they are, and where they should go next. Profitable operation depends on this information, and automatic identification systems provide it in real time. In this presentation, you'll learn how to match the attributes of auto ID systems with your specific needs, how to integrate auto ID into your assembly systems and how to ensure that your investment in auto ID systems will really pay off in terms of productivity and profitability.

The Role of Robotics in Profitable Assembly
Steve Thomas
Senior Project Engineer
Delphi Automotive Systems

Robots have never been more affordable and user-friendly than they are right now, and yet, ironically, many manufacturers are not taking full advantage of the technology. In this session, one of Delphi’s best and brightest will relate how his company designed and built a simple, flexible robotic platform to meet a variety of assembly challenges. You’ll learn how to integrate robots into your own assembly line and how to modify your products and processes to take advantage of robots.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are no longer the Big Three. Toyota has surpassed GM in production and sales, and is selling cars assembled in America as fast as it can put them together. But at the same time, GM is earning a major share of its profits selling cars in Asia. With American and foreign automakers buying and selling each other's marquees almost daily, the key questions facing the auto industry and its suppliers today are: What is the U.S. auto industry and, more importantly, what is its future in the global marketplace? Get the inside story from a real "car guy" who's been reporting on American automakers for more than 40 years.

Defeating Murphy: Quality at Every Step
Bruce Schullo
Site Quality Manager
Plexus Corp.

Regardless of where or how a product is made, quality is the ultimate determinant of market success. Even more so if, like Plexus Corp., you specialize in designing and assembling products for the medical device, defense and telecommunications industries. In this session, you’ll learn how this $1.5 billion contract manufacturer ensures product quality and regulatory compliance from beginning to end. In 2007, the quality control team at Plexus was named one of the best in the country by Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry magazine. How’d they do it? Come to this session and find out!

No matter how sophisticated the assembly process or complicated the equipment, a company's employees are still central to its success¦and nowhere is this more true than in the cutthroat world of electronics contract manufacturing. In this session, you'll learn how Millennium Electronics Inc. has been able to not only survive, but thrive right here in Chicago by making the most of its human capital. In particular, the session will focus on the tools a company can use to maximize profitability by aligning job design and organizational structure with its unique core business strategy.

Project Management

This session will look at how manufacturers can avoid some of the more common pitfalls when implementing changes to an existing production line or creating a new one from scratch. Special emphasis will be paid to planning, reducing costs, avoiding delays and maximizing first-pass yields during ramp up.

Keeping Innovation Alive in the USA
Xerox Corp., Plant of the Year 2005

Learn from another Assembly Plant of the Year winner! Xerox’s assembly plant in Webster, NY, won our award in 2005, and in this session, you’ll find out how the company did it. Xerox was founded on innovation, and the company continues to thrive on new ideas. Since Chester Carlson patented xerography in 1942, a long list of innovations have come out of the company’s many research labs, including the modern computer workstation with its graphical user interface, Ethernet networking, laser printing, powerful computer languages, and print-on-demand systems. Discover how your company can foster product innovation and turn ideas into marketable products.