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Summer Tauber Interns Get Hands-On Experience in NCMS’s Digital Ecosystem

For several years, NCMS has invested in supporting the University of Michigan’s Tauber Institute for Global Operations. One result of that investment is that we acquire the talents of interns who are completing their masters’ programs at U of M. The Tauber Institute is a joint venture between the U of M’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering, giving these students knowledge and perspectives relevant to NCMS work.  

The current interns are ready to tackle a project that demonstrates the potential and ability of the new NCMS digital infrastructure, known as the NCMS Digital Proving Ground (DPG).  

The main objective of this Tauber project is to demonstrate the benefit of the digital ecosystem in order to strategically position NCMS’s network for rapid, widespread adoption of digital processes. The Tauber team will work alongside an existing NCMS project team to document the system-level impacts, based on using the DPG and additive manufacturing (AM), instead of traditional manufacturing methodologies. The expected outcomes of this project are for NCMS and their partners to have a better understanding of how digital processes and AM can have a positive impact in specific use cases, and more broadly, for an entire organization. The project also provides valuable work experience for the Tauber students, who will present their findings at the conclusion of the internship. 

For this project, the Tauber team has three goals. They and the NCMS project team will: 

  • Assess the value and opportunities currently available within the DPG across a variety of users and companies 
  • Showcase existing and prior DPG projects to highlight successes and provide insight for future DPG engagements 
  • Reduce the time and effort required for users to be successfully vetted and onboarded into the DPG environment including initial training and startup 

In three phases spanning May 10 through August 13, the Tauber interns will create six unique deliverables and will work with NCMS to achieve the desired results.  

The project will help demonstrate the significant time reduction and cost savings when working within a digital ecosystem and show how the NCMS network can capitalize on the newly recognized value of the digital proving ground. 

“NCMS has had a relationship with the Tauber Institute that goes back more than 15 years,” says Jon Riley, senior vice president of digital enterprise and initiatives.  “The relationship offers professional networking for NCMS leadership and exposure to broad industry challenges for the students.  The ability for NCMS to leverage a team of Tauber students adds what I call creative ‘Tauber intelligence’ to topics of strategic importance to NCMS,” Riley says.