President's Message
Michael F. Molnar, FSME, CMfgE, PE SME President Member Since 1982
smeSpeaks Plotting SME’s Purpose: Skills & Knowledge for Innovation W
e all have favorite teachers from our past, and perhaps why they remain so memorable from many years ago is their role in some notable “ah-ha” mo- ment. It might be an insight of value or clever approach useful throughout our lives. A favorite engineer- ing professor of mine was famous for framing everything in a two-dimensional chart. Every lecture began and ended with such charts. While some thought this was overly simplistic—after all, complex systems have many variables— the lesson to me was with the power of focus. There is value in identifying the two most important factors for anything, and then really understanding how these factors are related. I’ve found this “how would you plot it” focus is really useful in understanding many things. Which leads me to this question: What exactly is the “2D purpose plot” for SME today, particularly with our new brand? By now, I hope you have noticed SME’s new brand and tagline “Making the future. Together.” The brand was unveiled in June and announced in this column by Dennis Bray, our 2013 president. In my October 2013 editorial, I further dis- cussed the reasons for the new brand, symbolism behind the logo and our 2014 implementation focus. You may even have seen a nice new “Rediscover SME” pamphlet, which covers our new vision/mission/purpose statements, explains the four SME “brand pillars” and the five SME “strategic areas.” These are all important, but perhaps those not very involved in SME today may not envision the inherent “purpose plot” of SME. Notably, while we have a new brand, the underlying basis
Technology
Innovative Capacity
Knowledge Gap
for SME has not changed. Rather, our new brand serves to amplify this purpose: To advance manufacturing and attract future generations. The underlying “purpose plot” for SME is all about technology and workforce.
Skills Gap
Workforce
I posed this question to our 2014 Board of Directors and was surprised at the energetic dialog, all in agreement that the above graphic powerfully conveys SME's purpose. Manufac- turing is incredibly important, yet suffers from a misperception that it is not high tech, is somehow separate from design and innovation, and is not a desirable career path. This misper- ception creates both knowledge and skills barriers to advanc- ing manufacturing and attracting future generations. For more than 80 years, everything SME has done is focused on addressing either this knowledge gap, individual skills gap or both. This need is greater now than ever before, and the new brand is all about making our purpose more visible.
January 2014 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 15
Talent-Driven Innovation
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