International RP- Conference

From: Wilhelm Steger (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft)
To: RP-ML
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 1995
Subject: International RP- Conference
Announcement for the International Conference on Rapid Product Development (ICRPD)
May 8-9, 1995, Stuttgart, Germany
Venue: Messe Stuttgart, Congress Center
Organisation: Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA)
                            Fraunhofer Institut for Industrial Engineering (IAO)
                            Messe Stuttgart International (SMK)
=46urther information:
        Dr. Wilhelm Steger (IPA), Email: steger@ipa.fhg.de,
        Phone: +49-(0)711-970 1837, Fax:  +49-(0)711-970 1004
        or:
        Silke M=FCller (SMK), Phone: +49-(0)711-2589 302,
        Fax: +49-(0)711-2589 653
Conference Theme:

Globalisation of markets and therefore increasing international
competition makes a lot of companies re-think their competition
 strategies. As a result they realize that a focus on time-to-market
or quality alone is no longer sufficient to survive. Only those
companies will win the game which are able to satisfy the complete
set of the customer's requirements: time, quality and costs.
Beyond these basic goals there is also need to attract the customer's
attention and money by new and innovative products, which means
that product development has to become very flexible.

In the past a series of technologies, e.g. CAD, CAM, CAP and NC
manufacturing was identified to solve these problems. Rapid
Prototyping, Solid Freeform Fabrication or Generative Manufacturing
- which all stand for new methods of building physical parts directly
out of CAD data - represent the latest trends in manufacturing
 technology. However, all these techniques reveal only a technological
view on how product development can meet the tremendous challenges
in the future.

And in fact, not the use of a single technology provides better
products faster for the market but the integration of a large number
of them. Therefore aspects of information processing, cost,
quality and time management, team work, organisational issues
and a lot of more enabling technologies like data highways, multi
media or dis=1Ftributed databases have to be taken into account as well.

The Conference on Rapid Product Development will address all
these important issues including their interrelationships for the first
time within one event. It will be a forum for experts from all over the
world to experience and discuss how the puzzle of technology and
organisation is put together to achieve maximum success while
considering company-specific requirements.

The speakers are both from industry and university to bridge the gap
between latest research trends and application. The presentations
will cover the following topics:

*       Industrial Requirements for Product Development in Global
         Markets
*       Organisation for Rapid Product Development
*       Generative Manufacturing and Conversion Technologies
*       Integrated Information Technology
*       Success Stories about Rapid Product Development

The Conference goes along with the Computer Aided Technologies
fair CAT'95, which gives an excellent opportunity to see and feel how
the different tools for Rapid Product Development work together in
re-designed business processes.