Smart manufacturing technologies, administration, public and private partnership work to revitalize U.S. manufacturing

Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition provides a specific, targeted, actionable roadmap for smart manufacturing that will keep American industry globally competitive. Smart Manufacturing targets driving higher U.S. exports, lowering time-to-market, leveraging dynamic demand driven economics, driving zero incidents and emissions performance, taking advantage of integrated energy management and the smart grid, empowering consumer demand for sustainability, and cutting escalating government regulatory costs by automating the various agency reporting processes.

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The Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, a group of public and private-sector organizations collaborating to revitalize American manufacturing through the enhanced use of information and communication technologies, recently held a two day workshop in Washington, DC. Workshop participants identified, defined and prioritized meaningful uses of Smart Manufacturing, such as: driving higher U.S. exports, lowering time-to-market, leveraging dynamic demand driven economics, driving zero incidents and emissions performance, taking advantage of integrated energy management and the smart grid, empowering consumer demand for sustainability, and cutting escalating government regulatory costs by automating the various agency reporting processes.

Several policymakers attended the Sept. 14-15 meeting, themed “Implementing 21^st Century Smart Manufacturing,” as well as a wide range of manufacturers and  major automation and information technology system vendors. The group produced a series of actionable and fundable milestones to help drive a previously created technology roadmap, which was designed to help put American manufacturers on a path to Smart Manufacturing. Speakers included Patrick Gallagher, Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Dr. Henry Kelly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Sridhar Kota, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Science & Technology Policy (via video).

Seventy five participants and observers from industry, academia and government attended the two day event. The event was made possible, structured and organized by Dow Chemical Company, Rockwell Automation, Honeywell International, Praxair, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Texas at Austin, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering.

Discussion topics included operational development requirements, collaborative approaches to overcome barriers, private-public co-investment models and building and sharing experience. The workshop also defined key program requirements for creating technologies of a successful Smart Manufacturing initiative, such as: data-to-knowledge conversion, using such knowledge to create operating models, applying these operating models to  optimize key plant assets, especially for global enterprises, and combining people, knowledge, and models to maximize performance.

Finally, participants identified potential programs in support of energy efficiency, environmental performance, sustainability performance, environmental health and safety, demand-driven supply chain and economic performance.

The Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition is a group of committed manufacturers, suppliers and universities that are collaborating to revitalize American manufacturing.  For more information and to access information on the technology roadmap developed by this group please go to smart-process-manufacturing.ucla.edu.

Also read:

IMTS 2010: Engler touts national manufacturing strategy;

Intel-led $3.5 billion Invest in America Alliance helps U.S.-based tech companies; and

Manufacturing news: 3 positive signs.

- Edited by Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering, CFE Media, www.controleng.com