Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Chapter 143 Intro
There are three (3) active SME Chapters within the state of Alabama, in the Huntsville area, the Birmingham area, and the Montgomery area. The Birmingham, Alabama SME Chapter 143 includes members from the Anniston, Birmingham, Gadsden, and Tuscaloosa areas. One-half of our membership recently agreed to hold formal meetings and to tour manufacturing plants together. At our January 2009 meeting, we plan to elect officials and to discuss formal SME business.
We have a very strong core of Volunteer individuals whose organizations are also offering their support to help us make our chapter stronger, including Alabama Technology Network - ATN, BAE Systems - Land & Armaments Division, Benchmark, Birmingham Fastener, Honeywell ES & S, Motion Industries, Precision Grinding, Quixote Energy Absorption, and Siemen's Energy & Automation. We have already toured two plants together and we attended a LEAN Manufacturing presentation at the Jefferson State Community College campus in Hoover.
On December 9, 2008 we visited the Land and Armaments Division of the world's premier global defense and aerospace company, BAE Systems. Fifteen (15) members were joined by another five (5) non-member visitors, including one who drove in from Anderson, SC. From Atlanta, Dr. Ronald A. Bohlander, Chair, 2008 SME Member Council brought an associate Research Engineer from the Manufacturing Research Center at Georgia Tech to talk with us about strengthening our program offerings and building our leadership team.
The Manager of Operations for the Anniston facilities helped to direct a team of ten (10) hosts from BAE Systems. Along with offering an introductory presentation about their company from its historic roots in the 1800's to current worldwide production capacity spanning all of the continents, they were able to show us how they're integrating LEAN manufacturing principals into their new 12-station line for retrofitting a group of military vehicles that have been in production for years. The tour walked us from casting finished parts from hot, round billets to their newest assembly line. BAE Systems engineers and designs complete systems, manufactures many of their own parts from raw steel, such as steel plate and rounds, and assembles and/or retrofits these military vehicles for their lifespan, until they become obsolete.
Along with a follow-up article about our tour to BAE Systems, we will also begin to post regular articles about our local chapter.
If you would like more information about SME Birmingham Chapter 143 or membership with SME, please, contact our editor, BrianE@PrecisionGrinding.com or visit http://www.sme.org .
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
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