Often overlooked, process improvement is central to progress
Michael Filler and Matthew Realff identify 8 fundamental process schemas that enable innovation by rearranging manufacturing steps.
- Fundamental Manufacturing Process Innovation (FMPI) drives progress through intangible process changes rather than visible product improvements.
- The 8 process schemas include parallelization, splitting, merging, separation, combination, factoring, subtraction, and addition of steps.
- Real-world FMPI examples include integrated circuit manufacturing using parallelization and 3D printing shifting from subtractive to additive approaches.