“…the recent years’ remarkable surge in availability of real-time information has enabled business management to remove large swaths of inventory, safety stocks, and worker redundancies, and has armed firms with detailed data to fine-tune product specifications to most individual needs.”
Alan Greenspan
Federal Reserve Board Chairman
The Center for Manufacturing Enterprise Integration (CMEI) will address the enterprise R&D needs for the next generation. CMEI will focus on integrating operational decision-making and control of geographically distributed enterprises. This will be accomplished using open information and control systems at various levels ranging from sensors to supplier (S2S). The Center will pursue the following three areas of interest:
e-Manufacturing Across Enterprises Adaptive supply chain control using software agents for automated procurement of production material and supplies for just-in-time manufacturing. Open standards for integrating enterprise applications over Internet II for high-velocity collaboration and control in distributed enterprises. Models to predict complexity, scalability, modifiability, and responsiveness for engineering globally distributed enterprises.
Distributed Production Control Reconfigurable production systems that automatically respond to supply chain and shop floor conditions by adjusting capacity, production schedules, maintenance schedules, and inventory levels. High performance computing and communication to support real-time responsiveness in integrated production and extended enterprise systems. Simulation and mathematical models for predicting dynamics of integrated distributed enterprise.
Distributed Process Control Reconfigurable computing architectures using field programmable gate arrays for intelligent sensing and embedded control. High speed signal processing for monitoring, diagnosis, condition based predictive maintenance, and adaptive control. System-on-a-chip which integrates sensor, signal processor, controller, and network communication, to form pico networks for embedded control in industrial automation.
IMEInc.com will be a laboratory for advanced research and hands-on experimentation with S2S technology. It will serve as the enterprise integration arm of various manufacturing facilities on campus and will be equipped with state-of-the-art information technologies such as SMP servers, clusters, high-speed networks, sensor networks, open architecture controllers, and enterprise software (e-business, SCM, ERP, APS, MES). This will serve as a valuable resource to industry partners by providing a “neutral” test-bed for verifying interoperability of open architecture products.
IMEInc.com will provide the infrastructure for synergistic activities with other centers and leverage several resources at Penn State such as the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education and Nanofab facility for manufacturing nanoscale devices. This lab will also support student projects especially related to the multidisciplinary curriculum in Integration of Distributed Manufacturing and Business Enterprises.
Industry partners will constitute a consortium to advise CMEI of their R&D needs as well as guide the educational direction of the Center. Annual membership dues from industry partners will be used to fund pre-competitive research projects. Results from this research will be available to all industry partners and will be published in open literature. Industry partners can enter into nondisclosure agreements with individual faculty or a group of faculty in CMEI for sponsoring proprietary research projects as permitted by relevant Penn State policies and intellectual property agreements.
CMEI faculty will work with industry partners to develop short courses and executive briefings on technology advances. Partners will also participate in career fairs, guest lectures, and act as mentors for students in the Center. For membership information, contact Dr. Vittal Prabhu.