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 |  Les Welch has been fixing equipment ever since his bike broke in sixth grade. At
aerospace giant Lockheed Martin he fixes manufacturing. Welch is applying lean-
production techniques pioneered for auto assembly to the manufacture of F-22 fighter planes, bucking the defense industry's history of inefficient production. Traditionally, aircraft: have been built in one spot, with assembly workers walking many kilometers (this has been measured) to fetch thousands of tools and parts. In Welch's approach, a nascent air-craft will move from one work center to another, each designed to minimize worker movement and maximize assembly Convenience. Inventory is also reduced. Eric Ouellette at Lockheed Martin says the changes will cut manufacturing time up to 40 percent. Ouellette, formerly Welch's senior manager, says Welch is" passionate about eliminating waste.' Before earning his indus-trial engineering degree, Welch ran manufac-turing for a large family business that made aluminum toolboxes for pickup trucks. As for his personal tinkering, it's now directed at his 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer.
| | WELCH | | LES | | AGE 32 | | TRANSPORTATION | | LOCKHEED MARTIN |
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| | |  Handheld wireless devices are great for voice and simple data but are frustratingly limited when it comes to handling video—mostly because today's networks were designed for wired computers with robust processors and full-sized screens. Susie Wee, R&D manager for Hewlett-Packard Laboratories' streaming media systems group—and an avid hockey player—is skating around those constraints. Her first move was to devise algorithms that adapt data-heavy video streams to the capabilities of different online computers-The result: a handheld device can receive video at a lower resolution than a workstation, allowing it to display the video much faster. Wee is now developing protocols for moving streamed content away from central Internet servers to cache servers geographically closer to end users. Doing
so would reduce network congestion and interruptions, making video and audio flow more easily to wireless devices. Wee's goal is to turn your cell phone into a full-blown multimedia player—a goal she is speeding toward.
| | WEE | | SUSIE | | AGE 32 | | INTERNET AND WEB | | HEWLETT-PACKARD LABORATORLES |
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| | |  Christoph Westphal invents startups. He restlessly searches for scientific advances he can transform into practical technologies. After grabbing an MD and PhD at Harvard in a mere six years, Westphal did a two-year stint at consultancy McKinsey, where he designed business development strategies for high-tech firms. He jumped to Waltham, MA-based Polaris Venture Partners in 2000 and is now a general partner advising five startups, one of which he cofounded. Westphal brings more than cash to the table: just ask the people at MIT spin off Mimeon, in Cambridge, MA. Robert Langer, a prolific MIT inventor, says Mimeon was launched in 3001 after Westphal asked him "penetrating questions" about the underexploited potential of carbohydrate therapeutics. Langer introduced Westphal to MIT bioengineer Ram
Sasisekharan and his technology for sequencing complex carbohydrates. Within months, Westphal brought in other scientific experts as well as $2 million in seed money. Mimeon is nowzeroing in on its first target: an improved version of the blood thinner heparin—a substance derived from hog intestines that generates $2 billion in sales annually.
| | WESTPHAL | | CHRISTOPH | | AGE 33 | | BIOTECHNOLOGY | | POLARIS VRNTURE PARTNERS |
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| | |  Sean Willerns's quest for simplicity dates back to childhood: he recalls being -stressed that 'Kansas' and' Arkansas' weren't pronounce 'Kansas and Arkansas weren’t pronounced the same way." Now the cofounder and chief scientist of Boston-based Optiant cuts through complexity as an industrial pioneer. Willems, who is also an assistant professor at Boston University, creates software that streamlines the flow of parts and materials to manufacturers. While a PhD candidate at MIT's Sloan School of Management, he wrote an algorithm that optimizes such supply chain flows so manufacturers can cut costs by paring inventory. Previous algorithms solved only pieces of the problem; Willems addressed the task in its entirety. Willems tested his theories with leaders like Hewlett-Packard and Nortel
Networks. When he applied them in a division ofEastman Kodak, the company cut
inventory levels by 40 percent and saved $10 million over two years.The "cool thing about the life I lead," he says, "is that I get to develop the theory at Boston niversity and apply it at Optiant."
| | WILLEMS | | SEAN | | AGE 29 | | SOFTWARE | | BOSTON UNIVERSITY |
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Source From: TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
June 2002
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產業智庫 
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