It And Manufacturing Partnerships

The theme of this book is the development of partnerships between manufacturing companies, their suppliers and customers and the facilitating of these partnerships by information technology and telecommunications. In the 1980s the emphasis in manufacturing was on integration 'within the four walls' of the manufacturing plant. The main issues facing researchers and industrial practitioners at the time were CAD/CAM integration, integration of production planning and control systems, the development of sophisticated computer driven manufacturing, assembly and testing systems and their control through sophisticated shop floor control systems. Today the emphasis has moved towards supply chain management (integration of the supply chain through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Just in Time (JIT) or Quick Response approaches) and customer driven manufacturing. This includes the integration of manufacturing and distribution/logistics planning and control systems. Consequently, success for manufacturing companies in the 1990s requires closer collaboration with customers, suppliers and distributors than in the past. Information Technology and the emergence of a powerful global information infrastructure enable manufacturing industries throughout Europe to develop collaborative partnership across the value chain. Successful collaboration is achieved by the sharing of information at all phases of the business cycle, across the supply chain and across national and international boundaries. The need to collaborate across the supply chain has particular consequences for small and medium sized manufacturing (SMEs) companies, many of whom are compared and subassembly suppliers to the larger companies. Indeed the collaboration between supplier SMEs and their large customers has, in many cases, gone beyond JIT supply of components based on orders delivered, processed and frequently paid for using EDI technology and now extends to joint design and engineering activity. Collaboration between manufacturing companies across the supply chain is therefore placing increasing pressure on the developers of the global information superhighway and on the developers of CAD and other engineering software to ensure compliance with emerging standards, such as STEP, in order to allow intercompany collaboration. These are the issues which form the background of this book. The book is aimed at those researchers and industrial practitioners interested in learning about recent progress in manufacturing systems research and application. Mature results emerging from the ESPRIT-IiM programme are presented. Readers: Manufacturing managers an engineers, Quality/process engineers, IT suppliers/vendors, Academic researchers, Technology transfer centres and Industrial associations.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)-- a program of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-- has sought for more than two decades to strengthen American manufacturing. It is a national network of affiliated manufacturing extension centers and field offices located throughout all fifty states and Puerto Rico. Qualified MEP Centers work directly with small and medium manufacturing firms in their state or sub-state region, providing expertise, services and assistance directed to foster growth, improve supply chain positioning, leverage emerging technologies, upgrade manufacturing processes, develop work force training, and apply and implement new information. Strengthening American Manufacturing: The Role of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership is the summary of a symposium convened to review current operations and some of the recent MEP initiatives in the broader context of global manufacturing trends and the opportunities for high-value manufacturing companies. Business leaders, academic experts, and state and federal officials addressed the metrics and impacts of MEP and identified potential areas of improvement. The meeting drew attention to the scale and focuses of MEP, and highlighted the role it plays in supporting and enabling U.S. manufacturers to compete more effectively in the global marketplace. This report includes an overview of key issues raised at this workshop and a detailed summary of the conference presentations.

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) - a program of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology - has sought for more than two decades to strengthen American manufacturing. It is a national network of affiliated manufacturing extension centers and field offices located throughout all fifty states and Puerto Rico. Funding for MEP Centers comes from a combination of federal, state, local and private resources. Centers work directly with manufacturing firms in their state or sub-state region. MEP Centers provide expertise, services and assistance directed toward improving growth, supply chain positioning, leveraging emerging technologies, improving manufacturing processes, work force training, and the application and implementation of information in client companies through direct assistance provided by Center staff and from partner organizations and third party consultants. 21st Century Manufacturing seeks to generate a better understanding of the operation, achievements, and challenges of the MEP program in its mission to support, strengthen, and grow U.S. manufacturing. This report identifies and reviews similar national programs from abroad in order to draw on foreign practices, funding levels, and accomplishments as a point of reference and discusses current needs and initiatives in light of the global focus on advanced manufacturing,

Manufacturing is struggling to find people to fill open positions in the various career opportunities they represent. The skills gap or skills needed by manufacturers has caused challenges in filling those open positions. Adding to this dilemma is that student interest in these careers has reduced, with the focus being on obtaining college degrees right out of high school. Due to these changes, manufacturing and education are partnering in ways to increase student interest and fill open positions. This study is looking to better understand one such partnership and how the activities students’ experience influence their career decision making. The Manufacturing and Engineering Partnership Program (MEPP), located in the Midwest partnered with local manufacturing companies to increase awareness and student interest in manufacturing. This research will add to the literature on whether partnerships like the MEPP program can add to the pipeline of people needed in the manufacturing industry. The purpose of this case study is to understand how the MEPP partnership’s activities shaped participating students’ interest in manufacturing careers. In specific, the goal is to capture students’ responses to the experiences in this partnership program and how they influenced their future career plans. These outcomes can help partnerships evaluate their activities or assist parties looking to create a partnership understand from a student perspective what activities most made an impact. Upon examining the results on the sixteen interviews, the partnership program does influence student interest in manufacturing careers. In the case of the sixteen students, ten of the 16 students are in or still pursuing careers in a manufacturing field. All sixteen students noted benefits in the career exploration process. Recommendations for future research is to have more studies to determine if students get into a manufacturing careers later in their lifetime. The implications are that the manufacturing industry and K-12 partnerships represent new opportunities to help in the career exploration and career decision making process. Providing more opportunities for students to understand and apply for the program like MEPP could be beneficial. As discussed in prior themes, the exposure MEPP provided further helped students to determine if a manufacturing related career is the right opportunity for them. This presents an opportunity for partnerships like this to investigate providing classes like MEPP as an elective course for exploring career opportunities. The research set out to understand how the activities in a K-12 and manufacturing partnership program influence career decision making. From the perspective of the students, there were multiple activities that were impactful and not all connected them to careers in manufacturing. While 10 of the 16 students currently chose careers in manufacturing, all 16 of the students found the Manufacturing and Engineering Partnership Program to be a beneficial part of their career decision making process. The exposure this partnership presented students helped them to determine a course of action for their future careers.

This book presents state-of-the-art research, challenges and solutions in the area of human–robot collaboration (HRC) in manufacturing. It enables readers to better understand the dynamic behaviour of manufacturing processes, and gives more insight into on-demand adaptive control techniques for industrial robots. With increasing complexity and dynamism in today’s manufacturing practice, more precise, robust and practical approaches are needed to support real-time shop-floor operations. This book presents a collection of recent developments and innovations in this area, relying on a wide range of research efforts. The book is divided into five parts. The first part presents a broad-based review of the key areas of HRC, establishing a common ground of understanding in key aspects. Subsequent chapters focus on selected areas of HRC subject to intense recent interest. The second part discusses human safety within HRC. The third, fourth and fifth parts provide in-depth views of relevant methodologies and algorithms. Discussing dynamic planning and monitoring, adaptive control and multi-modal decision making, the latter parts facilitate a better understanding of HRC in real situations. The balance between scope and depth, and theory and applications, means this book appeals to a wide readership, including academic researchers, graduate students, practicing engineers, and those within a variety of roles in manufacturing sectors.

European manufacturing industries are changing fast. Amid the pressures of globalisation, emerging markets and shifting geographical patterns of consumption and production, competition and collaboration need to be redefined. The book contains roadmaps for survival in the emerging global competitive arena by and for practitioners, as well as concrete examples and theoretical studies across industries. New forms of cooperation are analysed which combine intensive collaboration with high competition in networks of excellence among suppliers, manufacturers and customers. The success factors for such industrial networks are described in detail, as well as their benefits and potential risks. In a multidisciplinary approach, the book draws on parallels from other fields and disciplines in order to explore the many facets of competition and collaboration.

The Manufacturing USA initiative seeks to reinforce U.S.-based advanced manufacturing through partnerships among industry, academia, and government. Started in 2012 and established with bipartisan support by the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act of 2014, the initiative envisages a nationwide network of research centers for manufacturing innovation. As of May 2017, 14 manufacturing innovation institutes had been established to facilitate the movement of early-stage research into proven capabilities ready for adoption by U.S. manufacturers. To better understand the role and experiences of the Manufacturing USA institutes to date, a committee of the Innovation Policy Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on May 23, 2017 drawing together institute directors and manufacturing policy experts along with leaders from industry, academia, and government. Participants addressed the role of the manufacturing institutes in increasing advanced manufacturing in the United States, examined selected foreign programs designed to support advanced manufacturing, and reviewed recent assessments of existing institutes. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.