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Design-and-production startup of the IBM Personal System/2(R) L40 SX laptop computer was accomplished in less than 13 months, seven months faster than the industry's typical development time.
Initial design-to-molded parts took less than five months. Tests required of all IBM products took the last eight months.
The speedup of the laptop stemmed from teamwork among three companies and the use of the latest in CAD/CAM technology and electronic data interchange (EDI).
The Plastics Technology Center (PTC) of Lexmark International, Inc., helped IBM bring the new, lighter-weight, more powerful laptop computer to market in record time by completely bypassing the prototyping stage. PTC was assisted by Dow Plastics, resin supplier, and Leap Technologies, Inc., plastics tooling and contract manufacturing services firm.
The state-of-the-art keyboard for the laptop was the prodigy of Lexmark's keyboard engineering team in Lexington, Ky. The keyboard is legal size, with complete sets of function and cursor keys. Because of its design and the material used, the full-sized keyboard does not add excessive weight to the laptop.
"As the designers of the laptop, we believe it's much easier to carry a legal pad than it is to carry a dictionary," says Tony Hancock, manager of Lexmark's PTC.
RESIN SPECS THE FIRST STEP
The development began at ground zero with specification...