This grant provides support for a workshop on "Engineering the Operations of Future Manufacturing Systems", which will be held in conjunction with a regional meeting of the National Academy of Engineering on a similar topic, "Engineering to Improve the Operations of Manufacturing Enterprises - A National Symposium" in May 2010. A group of experts in fields related to manufacturing will be invited to discuss how knowledge and expertise from three domains: 1) the physical sciences that underpin the development of modern manufacturing processes and materials; 2) the mathematical sciences that provide models and tools that comprise operations research; and 3) the life and behavioral sciences that provide the basis for human system integration guidelines and models, can be integrated to develop new models and methods to improve the operations of manufacturing enterprises. The group's initial impressions and recommendations will be presented to the NAE symposium to seek feedback and suggestions, and will be revised and then summarized into a report to NSF.
The expected outcomes of the workshop are: (1) A set of recommendations on new areas of research on improving operations within manufacturing enterprises; (2) A potential framework for implementing the recommendations; (3) Identification of new technologies to keep the US manufacturing competitive on the world stage; and (4) Specific recommendations to guide potential changes in engineering education to support future collaborative Operations Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering R&D and academic programs.
