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Knowing exactly what the customer wants is key to successful manufacturing. There are a variety of ways find out what's wanted, but an important strategy these days is something called electronic data interchange (EDI).
That helped Leap Technologies Inc., Otsego, Mich., get IBM Corp.'s latest L40 SX laptop computer onto the market in 13 months instead of a normally projected two years. Another key was one of the latest technologies in plastics design and manufacture--one that enables products to be manufactured directly from computer-aided design (CAD) files.
Leap--in full electronic cooperation with the Plastics Technology Center of Lexmark International Inc., Lexington, Ky.--was responsible for the design of the plastic housing and slanted keyboard design of the 7-lb notebook-sized computer.
(Lexmark was formerly...