The first day was devoted to press conferences and special sessions. The main conference began Tuesday morning with a keynote from ARC Founder and President Andy Chatha. He presented a new model—building upon his Collaborative Manufacturing Model—dubbed Collaborative Value Network. The idea is to model a move toward a single corporate-wide network that integrates all departments.

Don Taylor, vice president of Advanced Materials at The Dow Chemical Co., in Midland, Mich., walked attendees through a case study of the value of collaboration and team development that helped the company assimilate its acquisitions—and move the culture of the business to one that is closer to the customer.

A total of five concurrent tracks at the event covered topics involving manufacturing technologies, applications and standards.

ARC Advisory Group Inc.
(www.arcweb.com)