Innovation and globalization of manufacturing 2000

The global economic structure is creating immense transformations in the way companies and nations organize production, trade goods, invest capital and develop new products and processes. Tomorrow's manufacturer needs a smaller workforce with higher-order multidisciplinary critical skills in management, labor, process and products to respond rapidly to opportunities and constraints. In this environment innovation is the engine for new products and technologies and globalization provides a new outlet paradigm for that innovation. Innovation and globalization are key strategic issues dealt with by most contemporary manufacturers. This paper will present these concepts and the interdependence between them as well as provide examples from industries in the United States and Japan. Significance: Product and process innovation for a company or industry is not a random event. The seeds of innovation are sown in discovery either directly or in a collaborative fashion. This work describes several paradigms of innovation and challenges companies to evaluate how innovation fits with their long-range business strategic plans.