P&G Shares Diaper Making Secrets
On June 24, 2011, President Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national effort bringing together industry, universities and the federal government to invest in emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs and enhance global competitiveness.
Among the major commitments made to the AMP, The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) will make available advanced software at no cost to American small and mid-sized manufacturers through the recently launched Midwest Modeling and Simulation consortium. This highly-valuable digital design tool is used to simulate how urine flows inside a diaper that is moving and shifting as a virtual, computer-generated baby moves.
According to the Associated Press, the technology that P&G will be supplying was developed in a 10-year collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico facility that conducts high-tech research in defense, energy and other industries.
“Parents are always on the lookout for indestructible, military-grade diapers,” Obama joked.
According to the Associated Press, the technology that P&G will be supplying was developed in a 10-year collaboration with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico facility that conducts high-tech research in defense, energy and other industries.
“Parents are always on the lookout for indestructible, military-grade diapers,” Obama joked.
Back to the President’s full AMP plan, it will leverage existing programs and proposals and invest more than $500 million to jumpstart this effort. Investments will be made in the following key areas:
- Building domestic manufacturing capabilities in critical national security industries;
- Reducing the time needed to make advanced materials used in manufacturing products; establishing U.S. leadership in next-generation robotics;
- Increasing the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes; and
- Developing new technologies that will dramatically reduce the time required to design, build, and test manufactured goods.
“Today, I’m calling for all of us to come together — private sector industry, universities and the government — to spark a renaissance in American manufacturing and help our manufacturers develop the cutting-edge tools they need to compete with anyone in the world,” said President Obama. “With these key investments, we can ensure that the United States remains a nation that ‘invents it here and manufactures it here’ and creates high-quality, good paying jobs for American workers.”
The universities initially involved to help deploy and scale these cutting-edge technologies will be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Michigan.
The manufacturers initially involved, in addition to P&G, include Allegheny Technologies, Caterpillar, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ford, Honeywell, Intel, Johnson and Johnson, Northrop Grumman, and Stryker.
The AMP will be led by Andrew Liveris, chairman, president and CEO of Dow Chemical, and Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The AMP will be led by Andrew Liveris, chairman, president and CEO of Dow Chemical, and Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.