NCMS, GE and MEDC Partner to Bring Advanced Modeling & Simulation to Manufacturers

• Partnership between National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, GE, and Michigan Economic Development Corporation will provide small- and mid-size manufacturers access to critical tools.
• Inaugural center promoting advanced digital manufacturing to open in Michigan in early 2013.
• Additional centers, connected by a collaborative national innovation network, to follow across the nation.

Ann Arbor, Mich. – November 13, 2012 – The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) announced today that it has partnered with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to establish the first innovation center in a national grid that will accelerate manufacturing in Michigan and across the country by providing easy access to digital modeling and simulation tools for businesses.

GE’s AMSTC in Van Buren Township, MI

GE’s Advanced Manufacturing and Software Technology Center, located outside of Detroit, will host the first NCMS Predictive Innovation Center (PIC). Through this effort, Michigan companies will forge a path to increased global competitiveness, by providing manufacturers with a virtualized approach to building that combines high performance modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A), data mining tools, and the digitization of processes to optimize speed, reliability, and efficiency.

“When you talk about creating jobs and growing the economy in Michigan, these are the kind of long-range opportunities that will really make a difference,” said Rick Jarman, president & CEO of NCMS. “With the help of this center, small- and mid-size manufacturers will be able to deliver solutions faster, and expand their supplier reach to large companies. It is incredible to imagine the hundreds of small companies in Michigan that will have the potential to grow as a result of this premier facility.”

Steve Reagan of L&L Products, Inc. (Left) with Chris Fick, NCMS (Right)

“Michigan manufacturers – and the talented workers they employ – help make our state a global center of innovation,” Michigan Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Michael A. Finney said. “We are proud to support efforts like this that cement our manufacturing dominance and help our businesses compete, grow, and create new jobs.”

MEDC has provided a grant for the creation of the center, which is matched with industry support from NCMS members. The premier center will be open to the public in the first quarter of 2013.

About NCMS:

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, the largest cross industry collaborative Research & Development consortium in North America, is dedicated to driving innovation in commercial, defense, robotics and environmentally sustainable manufacturing. NCMS has over 25 years of experience in the formation and management of complex, multi-partner collaborative R&D programs, and is backed by corporate members representing virtually every manufacturing sector.  For more information on NCMS, visit http://www.ncms.org/

NCMS rolled out its plan to revitalize American manufacturing in 2011, forming the Digital Manufacturing Strategic Interest Group (DM SIG), a collaboration of hardware and software providers, industry, and academia, collectively advising development of a national grid for manufacturers, a physical and virtual collaborative environment to drive adoption of essential 21^st century tools. For more information on NCMS’ digital manufacturing initiative please visit http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/digital-manufacturing-initiative/.

About GE:
GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ge.com.

VIDEO:  “A Sign of Goodness”

Produced by The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences

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Secretary McHugh responded by saying that modeling and simulation is absolutely essential. He went on to say that modeling and simulation offers some of the best ways we can ensure our soldiers are acclimated and prepared for what they see in theater, and he said the technology is becoming increasingly important to our military.

Not only can modeling simulation help our soldiers be better prepared for the battlefield, it also has the potential to give them superior tools to help ensure their safe return to their families. Modeling and simulation will impact every critical training and equipment purchase for the foreseeable future.

NCMS is moving forward with a practical strategy to place high performance computing tools, critical to modeling and simulation, within the reach of every manufacturing company in the United States.

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The National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium (NDEMC) announced their formation last week in a White House press conference. NDEMC’s focus is to use HPC technology to energize the U.S. manufacturing sector. The consortium includes NCMS, the Council on Competitiveness, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the Ohio Supercomputing Center (OSC), and Purdue University, as well as industrial partners John Deere (Deere and Company), General Electric, Procter & Gamble, and Lockheed Martin.

The consortium, as co applicants, were funded with a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce and an additional $2.5 million investment from industrial partners. The NDEMC will be tasked to spread adoption of advanced modeling and simulation capability using High Performance Computing, or HPC, throughout the supply chains of some of our nation’s leading manufacturing OEMs. While large manufacturing companies successfully use these tools to improve their products, smaller companies lack the resources and technical knowledge to do so. NDEMC will attempt to fill that gap by relying on consortium members to reach this “missing middle” of late adopters before it is too late.

“As the leader in practical innovation for U.S. Manufacturing, NCMS is excited to partner with those who recognize the potential of HPC,” said Rick Jarman, NCMS President & CEO. “We will work to ensure that the NDEMC fulfills its promise of speeding new technology and adding jobs to U.S. Manufacturing and related sectors in technology and service.”

This collaboration will bolster and enhance the NCMS national strategy announced last September. The strategy proposed the creation of a network of Predictive Innovation Centers (PIC), which would focus on the small and mid-sized manufacturer and would offer them the tools, training and expertise to leverage the power of advanced computational technologies. These centers will help to revitalize manufacturing by creating jobs and giving American manufacturers a technological edge in global competitiveness.

NCMS will use its track record of successful manufacturing R&D development to help ensure that the NDEMC service offerings are of immediate practical use to small manufacturers.

“We have been working with small manufacturers on a practical HPC strategy for several years now,” said Jon Riley, Executive Director of Design & Engineering Programs at NCMS. “We are ready to hit the ground running and create a valuable resource that will allow American companies to compete and succeed in the global marketplace.”

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Automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are pressing to innovate in order to increase vehicle fuel efficiency to meet federal CAFÉ guidelines by integrating lightweight materials into new vehicle designs. These lightweight materials pose unique challenges and opportunities that must be addressed. The solutions for some of these challenges may be found in other industries such as aerospace and defense or in new tools and processes.

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) has assembled an innovative suite of software tool providers and cross industry innovators to help manufacturers of all sizes to realize the benefits of lightweight materials while lowering costs, minimizing risk, and speeding commercialization. For the past two years NCMS has been managing the Light Weight Automotive Program (LAMP) awarded by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and is administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).  There are currently seven projects operating under this program.  Each of these projects is leveraging the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) modeling and simulation (M&S), to support the selection and optimization of lightweight materials for their products during the product design phase. The tools developed in this NCMS program will allow companies of all sizes to use this cutting edge capability which in the past was cost prohibitive and generally not available.

For the next phase of this program, NCMS is working in partnership with the DOE to bring together 2-3 additional R&D collaborative projects to continue to accelerate development of the knowledgebase and infrastructure for lightweight materials and manufacturing processes for use in automotive applications.  The objective for each project must be to develop and validate remotely accessed virtual technologies (termed Apps or Sims) leveraging existing M&S capabilities that can significantly reduce the design, development and / or manufacture of lightweight components without compromising cost, performance, safety, or recyclability.  The target is to create the means for numerous small and medium sized manufactures to be able to remotely access these tools.

The goal at NCMS is to assemble cross-industry collaborative teams for each project.   While some participants are not specific to automotive and others are not in automotive at all, every successful project team benefits from a broad set of eyes.  Many of these challenges / benefits addressed within NCMS projects have broad applicability.

MODELING & SIMULATION ENABLEMENT REQUIREMENT

The use of M&S will be a component of each project to develop and demonstrate how these tools can reduce product design time, optimize the material and manufacturing process, reduce cost, and improve environmental sustainability.  Incorporating at least one enabling mechanism granting affordable access to the supplier level will either be an explicit part of each project, or an underlying task will develop and demonstrate these tools across a selection of the projects. Once advanced M&S tools are developed, they need to be validated to assure the tools are accurate and reflect performance.  Each of the projects will require validation of these tools.  Finally, each project shall provide the required electronic, virtual web-based training for automotive suppliers to understand and leverage the developed tools.  In parallel with NCMS’ ongoing partnership with DoE are our efforts to bring modeling and simulation capabilities to the nearly 300,000 small and medium sized manufacturers in the U.S.). 

DEADLINE

The deadline for submission of project ideas is Friday, December 17, 2010 at 5 PM EST.   All submissions should be sent electronically to:  Jon Riley, Executive Director, Design & Engineering Programs Jon Riley, jonr@ncms.org.   For more information about the required content, process, timetable or other questions please contact Jon Riley via email (above) or at 734-995-0556.

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