All sectors of our industry worldwide are poised on a revolution equally important as the introduction of powered machines ushered in the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Most businesses find themselves competing on strategies which balance responsiveness, customization and quality. The market place rewards market share to those businesses that do best in this competition at a price that conveys value to the customer. Information is absolutely critical in this competition and makes the difference in growth, prosperity and survival. Companies which apply information technology to form equal partnership alliances with customers and suppliers and to enable internal quality focussed operations to compete with agile, time-based processes will ultimately win in the market place.

Topics currently under investigation include:

• Working as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt Coach with industry, business and hospital services in application of team-based six sigma problem solving methodology in quality, financial and safety improvements.  
• Assessment of the integration of technology, leadership and organizational culture to establish continuing competitive advantage.

Dr. Sam Winchester is Klopman Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management. Currently he is involved as a Master Black Belt Coach in support of the College's Six Sigma Black Belt program for industry, business and health services.  Prior to this he had developed a worldwide influence in the application of Information Technology and Total Quality Management practices to transform textile manufacturing operations locally and to link and coordinate the effective flow of materials and information globally through a complex of value-adding manufacturing steps.

Dr. Winchester was appointed to the NCSU faculty in 1992 as Klopman Distinguished Professor and during 1994-95 was interim director of the Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute in the College of Engineering. He was a senior examiner for the North Carolina Quality Leadership Foundation and also served on its board of directors. He was a board member of the Textile Research Institute, The Textile Institute, BB&T Center for Leadership Development, East Carolina University Foundation, and Centura Bank. He chaired the new Information Technology Special Interest Global Group of the Textile Institute. He was also on the Editorial Board of the Textile Research Journal. At DuPont he received corporate awards for Continuous Quality Improvement and for Marketing Excellence. His publications center on total quality management, information technology in textiles, and manmade fiber production.  Dr. Winchester is currently Registrar and Director of Mentoring at Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, NC.

Professor Winchester was born October 6, 1935 in Eastern North Carolina and after serving as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, received B.S. degrees with honors in 1961 from North Carolina State University and his Ph.D. in 1967 from Princeton University in Chemical Engineering. He joined E.I. DuPont Company in 1965 as a research engineer in its Experimental Station Laboratories for the new spunbonded nonwovens ventures and participated in the development and startup of two unique, high technology manufacturing operations. He subsequently led technical teams ranging from R&D groups to multi-site, multi-functional technical organizations supporting product and process research and development which covered the spectrum from in-bound materials through manufacturing, customer processing and end-use performance support.