Collaboration and globalization are the watchwords of the Sept. 18 Design Day conference at Plastics Encounter Indianapolis being co-presented by Plastics News and the Industrial Designers Society of America.
The 16-speaker program geared toward industrial designers, product developers and plastics processors will explore some of the best practices used to compress time to market and to cope with the pressures of working with global supply networks.
Following are some recent speaker additions:
* Tom Morris, chief information officer and co-founder of Aptec Corp. in Daytona, Fla., will discuss how his firm is working with Electrolux to get its newest vacuum cleaner from concept to commercial production in seven months.
* Tim Coonahan, vice president of sales for Radius Product Development in Clinton, Mass., will share the Nypro Inc. subsidiary's ``speed to volume'' strategy for developing an award-winning, injection molded software case for Microsoft Corp.
* Philip Thompson, manager of Whirlpool Corp.'s KitchenAid Brand Design Studio in Benton Harbor, Mich., has been added to a panel that will debate the impact on designers of increased offshore manufacturing. Thompson joins the following senior design managers on that panel: Motorola Inc.'s Bruce Claxton, Ford Motor Co.'s Richard Gresens, and Sunbeam Corp.'s Augie Picozza.
Thomson Multimedia Inc.'s Lou Lenzi sets the stage for their debate with a session-opening keynote address, ``You Can Globalize Design, but You Can't Design Globally: How to Succeed in Today's Cutthroat Markets.'' Lenzi is vice president of global business development and new ventures for Indianapolis-based Thomson, which makes consumer electronics under the RCA and GE brand names. The former IBM Corp. design executive previously headed Thomson's 72-person design team in the Americas.
Ron Reich, director of mechanical design and release for Segway LLC, will partner with representatives from GE Plastics and molder C&J Industries Inc. to talk about the product development process for the Segway Human Transporter. They will assess the project from a plastics perspective, including materials selection challenges in the ambitious, secretive effort.
A panel titled ``Molders are from Mars, Designers are from Venus'' will include five design, engineering and marketing officials: moderator Mark Dziersk, Herbst LaZar Bell's senior VP of design; Greg Adams of GE Plastics; Bob Battey of Steelcase Inc.; Scott Henderson of Smart Design; and Gary Vande Berg of Bemis Manufacturing Co.
Beyond this full-day design conference, the Sept. 17-19 Plastics Encounter Indianapolis trade show will feature galleries of award-winning designs, including some products from IDSA's 2002 Industrial Design Excellence Awards competition, and from the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s Structural Plastics Division design contest.
In addition, a full-day Management Day conference on Sept. 17 - co-presented by the Mid-America Plastics Partners Inc. - will include presentations and roundtable discussions on business and management issues for processors. Topics will include growth and survival strategies, lean manufacturing, improving workplace safety, and strategies for coping with soaring healthcare insurance costs.
To register, or for more information, call (888) 368-7229 or go to www.plasticsencounter.com.
