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Knoxville Business News Tennessee Mountain Scenery Background
June 24, 2013 | Tom Ballard

Workshop of accelerating innovation in manufacturing plants set for next month

UT CIS-teknoAre you interested in learning how to instill more of an innovation culture into your manufacturing company?

If the answer is “yes,” you will want to attend an “Innovation Management Showcase” from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 18 at the University of Tennessee (UT) Outreach Center, 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike, in Oak Ridge.

The event is sponsored by UT’s Center for Industrial Services (CIS) as part of its role in the regional Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping Center of East Tennessee (AMP).

“We want to make manufacturers aware of a new tool that will help them more effectively move ideas from the concept stage to commercialization,” said Beth Phillips, Economic Development Programs Manager with UT CIS.

The tool was developed by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), one of the funding programs for AMP.

“The two-hour showcase will explain how manufacturers can ideate, test, maintain and sustain an innovation solution,” Phillips said. “They will learn a new way to increase the number of high-quality ideas without resorting to the traditional brainstorming mode.”

NIST says the new approach can increase innovation speed by as much as six-fold while reducing risk by up to 80 percent.

Lunch will be served at the showcase, so pre-registration is required. To register, reference the showcase and email Patty Wells at patricia.wells@tennessee.edu or call her at 615/532-8657.  For more information about this new innovation tool, contact Jim Slizewski, UT CIS Solutions Consultant at jim.slizewski@tennessee.edu or call 865/974-2249.


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