…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.”
