USA's National Center for Manufacturing Sciences practises what many already believe "that collaboration is innovation's incubator"

As the UK Advanced Manufacturing Consortium kicks into place cf. my blog post  "Interdisciplinary Advanced Forming Research Centre, Univ of Strathclyde "The Tech", One of 7 Members of the Advanced Manufacturing Consortium"  here is further supportive evidence from SAE International -Automotive Engineering Online 28 Sept. 2011 that Strathclyde and the Consortium are on the right path and true to The Strathclyde Motto as "A Place of Useful Learning.

To quote a few snippets from the SAE Intl's page on the US National Center for Manufacturing Sciences incidentally founded in 1986.

"In the world of discrete manufacturing today, collaboration is a very hot topic. Driven by the reality of global commerce, the most visible manifestation of this important tool is in design as practiced by many extended enterprises—for example an OEM, its geographically dispersed design centers, and its suppliers. Collaborations such as these can pay big dividends in design cycle time compression."

"However, another type of collaboration, created and optimized by theNational Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) 25 years ago, is a model in which two or more companies or organizations work together to achieve shared goals. Guided by NCMS, collaborators develop a statement of work (SOW) that defines a common objective in precompetitive research and development with well-defined deliverables plus a work breakdown structure (WBS) that defines individual organization efforts in support of the shared goal. In collaborations structured this way, participants share the cost and risk associated with traditional R&D models while bringing their innovations to market faster, at less cost."


There is much more to be learned from the US NCMS approach  and if I remember correctly from the Germany's Fraunhofer Institute.

 More on Materials from SAE
 More Materials Matter from this blogger
Original pointers Global Spec.com Metals_Alloys

Useful learning- enjoy

JA