Intelligent manufacturing systems program turns ten: another ten to go.

The global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) manufacturing research and development program has just finished it first 10 years of work, involving more than 1,000 companies, universities and government research organizations in dozens of projects. The experience so far has proven to be

Other nations and regions are expected to continue their participation, including Japan, which should confirm its involvement by May; Canada, whose government is going through the process of ratifying the new IMS "terms of reference"; and the European Union, which is engaged in a lengthy bureaucratic process of approval from its 25 member nations. An EU decision is expected by the end of this year.

Oversight of the next phase of the IMS program, which has expended more than $300 million for manufacturing R&D over the past decade, is moving from the United States to Korea, with Kwan Rim, chairman of Samsung's Advance Institute of Technology, taking over control of the IMS International Steering Committee. Rim received his Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Northwestern University in 1960 and taught for years at the University of Iowa before leaving the United States to eventually join Samsung, a global manufacturing powerhouse.

The United States government has decided to stay active in IMS, providing a modest contribution to fund U.S. participation in the IMS organization. So far, the federal government has not provided funding for research programs. This year, a total of $55 million will be spent on IMS projects by participating companies, including many from the United States, and government funding agencies overseas.

"I'm very, very happy with the moves being made in the United States to improve participation" in IMS, said outgoing chairman of the IMS International Steering Committee Bob Cattoi, formerly senior vice president of research, engineering and manufacturing for Rockwell International.

A new U.S. delegation is being led by Bob Kiggans, president of the Advanced Technology Institute, and includes Jack Harris, director of advanced manufacturing at Rockwell Collins, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clarence Johnson at the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the U.S. government IMS representative.

This group of Americans is charged with super-octane fuel to make a big difference" in the program's success in the United States, said Cattoi.

Moving the oversight of IMS to Korea is also viewed by some as being an asset. Korea's manufacturing sector is considered to be leading the world in technology and application of automation processes. Says Kiggans: "Manufacturing is severely challenged in the United States and we are not at the top of the mountain any more. We have a lot to learn from the other regions."

At a Washington, D.C., press event announcing the program's continuation, Kiggans said the new IMS team in the United States will be "vigorously" pursuing new R&D projects because "IMS will be the engine of global economic growth for the 21st Century." The U.S. industrial base needs to be transformed through investment in high-impact manufacturing technologies "to support a reduction in the trade deficit," he said.

There is no shortage of technical subjects that can be pursued by a collaborative, international consortium of companies and university and government researchers, said delegates from all of the regions participating in IMS.

Model-based engineering and the development of simulations that can test complex products before they are assembled from components made by suppliers from around the world is one area of interest among IMS participants. There is support for a project that helps develop a new "global" manufacturing curriculum for engineering students who can then operate in a "common" language in factories located throughout the world.

International research is needed to lead a transformation away from the current dependence on cellular manufacturing and toward fully automated tabletop micro processes capable of producing highly specialized, custom products. There is the need for a focus on high-value product innovation to help renew the fortunes and prospects of manufacturers. Introducing new features into products such as microelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology is a major challenge to global manufacturers. And there is a growing need to improve the environmental aspects of manufacturing processes and the products that are produced. Product disposal, social responsibility, sustainable manufacturing, energy efficiency, reduced use of raw materials and environmental friendliness, particularly as huge populations in the developing world become major consumers of manufactured goods--"those issues are the drivers" of manufacturing over the next decade, said the Prof. Yuji Furukawa, head of the IMS delegation for Japan.

U.S. participants in IMS are developing a project aimed at robust design that would improve quality and drive down costs over the lifecycle of a product. ATI is working with Rockwell Collins on developing the scope of the project, and has approached Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Sandia National Laboratories.

IMS is an ideal vehicle for smaller manufacturers to get linked into a global network of the most innovative manufacturers worldwide, say those involved. Switzerland, the smallest member of the IMS collaboration, was among the first to renew its membership because of the benefit its companies received by working with global powerhouses such as BASF, Boeing, Caterpillar, Fujitsu, Honeywell, Hyundai, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nissan, Siemens, Sony, Toyota and dozens of others involved in IMS projects.

The intellectual property protections that have been painstakingly developed during the past 10 years by IMS participants have enabled global competitors to cooperate on finding solutions to common problems. The intellectual property protections can provide small- and medium-sized manufacturers with ownership of technologies that they are then able to sell back to companies that helped fund research.

"Intellectual property protection is a major success story coming out of IMS," said outgoing IMS managing director Kevin Lewis. After 10 years "there has not been one instance of litigation" over ownership of IP.

Executives involved in IMS are not overly eager to court China's participation, however. Over the past two years, the group has had one informal inquiry from China about joining IMS. IMS managers have not extended China an invitation. "We would welcome them only if they showed more respect for intellectual property rights," said Kiggans.

To view the completed IMS project summaries and three dozen proposals for new projects, go to http://www.ims.org. IMS has also just completed an "Impact Report: History and Achievements of Phase I," also available for viewing at the IMS Web site.

The IMS Program: Heaving, Swaying, Surging, Pitching, Yawing And Rolling

The international Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) program is, in many respects, an "ideal" research endeavor, says Bob Falstad, general counsel at Sematech in Austin, Texas. IMS is similar to the concept of "six degrees of freedom," which is used in the robotics and mechanical engineering fields to describe the complete freedom of flexibility of motion, Falstad told those attending an awards dinner in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 10-year anniversary of IMS. Falstad, who helped create the intellectual property protocols used by the IMS program, said that IMS entails all the "dimensions" needed for a comprehensive R&D enterprise. No other such R&D program exists. The six degrees of freedom in the IMS program are:

First: IMS projects must be international in scope, not just domestic.

Second: IMS projects must have at least three partners from three regions of the world; they are multi-lateral, not just bi-lateral. Many projects have 30 partners involved;

Third: IMS projects involve a broad array of manufacturers, from those involved in classic manufacturing to providers of high-tech controls to the extraction industries;

Fourth: Projects span the full range of the innovation cycle, from pure research to product development. The entire product development cycle is represented in IMS projects;

Fifth: Projects include participation from the private sector, academia and government entities--they need not be just from industry; and

Sixth: The size of participating enterprises ranges from small to medium to large.

A mechanism that has complete freedom of motion has six degrees of freedom. Each of the following is one degree of freedom:

1. Moving up and down (heaving);

2. Moving left and right (swaying);

3. Moving forward and back (surging);

4. Tilting up and down (pitching);

5. Turning left and right (yawing); and

6. Tilting side to side (rolling).

Top Patent Recipients, 2004

UNIVERSITIES:

1. University of California (424)

2. California Institute of Technology (139)

3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (132)

4. University of Texas (101)

5. Johns Hopkins University (94)

6. Stanford University (75)

7. University of Michigan (67)

8. University of Wisconsin (64)

9. University of Illinois (58)

10. Columbia University (52)

INDUSTRY:

1. International Business Machines Corp. (3,248)

2. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (1,934)

3. Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (1,805)

4. Hewlett-Packard Development Co. (1,775)

5. Micron Technology Inc. (1,760)

6. Samsung Electronics Co. (1,604)

7. Intel Corp. (1,601)

8. Hitachi (1,514)

9. Toshiba Corp. (1,310)

10. Sony Corp. (1,305)