ANN ARBOR, MI – January 28^th, 2009. The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) has partnered with the Council on Competiveness and AMT - Association for Manufacturing Technology to present the 2009 Compute & Collaborate for Competitive Advantage (C3A) conference.  C3A will explore how companies are using High Performance Computing (HPC) to innovate and increase competitive advantage in the global marketplace.  The C3A Conference will be held September 28-30 in New Orleans, LA.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       While While HPC has obvious benefits, its cost was prohibitive, making it affordable to only the largest companies and organizations.  Recent advances in computing technology, coupled with the rise of cloud computing, have made this valuable resource available to all companies.  HPC promises affordable access to tools that will allow businesses to simulate tasks and processes on a massive scale, resulting in faster commercialization and superior products. 

“HPC is leaving the lab and becoming available to businesses of all sizes.  It’s going to change everything,” said Rick Jarman, NCMS President & CEO. “Companies that use this powerful tool create innovative products faster and more efficiently then their rivals.”  

“HPC remains a largely underutilized competitiveness asset in the United States for the majority of companies,” said Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness. “This represents a huge productivity opportunity for the nation and a competitiveness transformation challenge.” 

Including speakers from Sun Microsystems, PING, Inc., Oak Ridge National Laboratories, General Electric and Louisiana State University, the C3A Conference is targeted towards business professionals, and will help organizations chart a roadmap for utilizing HPC.  The dynamic sessions will highlight how companies are using HPC to create better, more sustainable products with less risk and a faster time to market.   

Register today for this important event.For more information the C3A Conference or to register, visit http://www.ncms.org/c3a/

About NCMS

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) is the largest cross-industry collaborative research and development consortium in North America.  NCMS has a 23 year track record in the management of complex, multi-partner collaborative R&D programs which deliver innovative manufacturing innovations to market faster than traditional methods.

For more information, visit http://www.ncms.org

About AMT

Founded in 1902, The Association For Manufacturing Technology represents and promotes the interests of American providers of manufacturing machinery and equipment.  Its goal is to promote technological advancements and improvements in the design, manufacture and sale of members' products in those markets and act as an industry advocate on trade matters to governments and trade organizations throughout the world.

McLean, Va., January 8, 2008 – QinetiQ North America, a global developer of innovative technology solutions for national defense, today announced that its FluidScan™ monitor has won the 2008 Great Ideas Competition Award presented annually by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) at the Department of Defense (DoD) Maintenance Symposium & Exhibition.  The competition recognizes promising new technologies, processes or business practices that participants decide will have a positive impact on DoD equipment maintenance. 

...This device has the potential, in its simplest application, to provide lab-quality results in real-time for the soldier, marine, airman and sailor in the field under urgent conditions,” said LCDR David Scalf, Commander of the JOAP (Joint Oil Analysis Program) together with DoD’s NCMS/CTMA (National Center for Manufacturing Sciences/Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities) program.  NCMS/CTMA championed this product within the DoD community and was responsible for its submission for this competition.

Full Press Release

Henry Ford Health System is a Michigan non-profit health care enterprise governed by community leaders.  They are one of the nation’s leading health care providers, offering a seamless array of acute, primary, tertiary, quaternary and preventive care backed by excellence in research and education.

www.henryfordhealth.org

Bayer MaterialScience is one of the leading producers of polymers and high-performance plastics in North America.  Their innovative developments in Coatings, Adhesives and Specialties raw materials, polycarbonates, polyurethanes and thermoplastic urethane elastomers enhance the design and functionality of products in a wide variety of markets, including the automotive, construction, electrical and electronics, household and medical industries, and the sports and leisure fields.

www.bayermaterialsciencenafta.com

...Over in Ann Arbor, Richard B. Jarman, president and CEO of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), agrees that a transformation is under way and needs to be nurtured. “So much is currently dedicated to the automotive industry, but that doesn’t mean it has to be,” he says. “What I see in Michigan, and what I am so optimistic about, is that people (in the traditional automotive-related businesses) understand how to engineer and make things. That capability can cross all kinds of industries.”

Jarman, a former Eastman Kodak Co. executive and co-author of the book “Collaborative R&D: Manufacturing’s New Tool,” is a believer in the power of collaborative alliances. At NCMS, he heads the largest cross-industry collaborative manufacturing research consortium in the United States devoted exclusively to manufacturing technologies, process and practices. Its mission is to develop strategic initiatives and programs aimed at sustaining and enhancing the global competitiveness of North American manufacturing.

In mid-2008, NCMS formed the Robotics Technology Consortium, a not-for-profit subsidiary to speed the development of innovative defense ground robotics technology for the U.S. Defense Department and other government organizations. By the end of the year, more than 100 companies had joined the initiative – a classic example of collaborative innovation at work.

“We need to build an innovation ecosystem, if you will,” Jarman explains. “The ecosystem has three major components. The first is talent, and we’ve got plenty of that. The second is continuous investment in that innovative ecosystem. And last but not least, and often overlooked, an infrastructure that says, ‘We know in an innovative way how to manage intellectual property, and we know how to maintain a steady flow of capital and financing when needed.’ . . . I have been in other areas of the country, other areas of the so-called rust belt, where they experience a real brain drain, but there’s a lot of talent in Michigan, and all we need to do is make sure we can invent a system to thrive.”

Full Article

NCMS Chairman Dick Morley, inventor of the programmable logic controller and floppy disk drive, discusses the barriers to innovation and how innovation creates problems that engineering then solves.

NCMS Radio: Dick Morley "Obstacles to Innovation" (20:04)

Subscribe to NCMS Radio on iTunes- search for NCMS.

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The CTMA project "Centralized Fleet Automated Management System", (CFAMS) has recently completed a successful pilot at Sierra Army Depot (SIAD).  To celebrate this milestane a Ribbon Cutting and Demonstration will be held from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25th . The Ribbon Cutting is being held by the CTMA program in conjunction with the Army Materiel Command and is being hosted by LTC Lee H. Schiller, Jr., Commander, Sierra Army Depot.

CFAMS is a vehicle management system that is "best practices" of the commercial sector now being applied to DoD. In industrial/distribution center settings it is used in 32 Ford plants, every Target distribution center, widely-used by WalMart, and by Daimler Chrysler, Nissan, Alcoa, John Deere, Caterpillar, and is being implemented by Mercedes-Benz. It is used in over 110 major postal service locations. The implementation of CFAMS at Sierra has been a successful public/private partnership.

Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, California is located approximately an hour's drive from Reno, Nevada. Below is the link to the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno where we have often stayed. NCMS has reserved a block of hotel rooms, which can be booked until Feb. 3 at $49 for a standard room per night, $80 for a Summit (tower) room per night (plus tax). The Group Name is "Sierra Army Depot Ribbon Cutting".

http://www.grandsierraresort.com