The Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute and its Member Companies intend to perform applied research projects and internships together to advance the field of integrated manufacturing systems. Outcomes of this multidisciplinary, cooperative approach to engineering and manufacturing solutions will include research, education and technology transfer in topic areas including manufacturing operations and operations management, computer integration of manufacturing systems, simulation and production processes, advanced product and product design methods and others.

John Deere Turf Care would like to develop quality systems in its manufacturing operations. The Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute, of which John Deere is a member, engages in manufacturing systems projects and research. On-ite Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute interns and John Deere personnel will be performing these projects.

Small manufactureing companies can benefit from the same process, operations and technology improvements as large companies but often lack the resources, personnel and expertise needed to pursue these improvements. The IMSEI Internship program provides a graduate level engineering student to enable these improvements. The student also gains experience and becomes a more valuable potential employee with expanded skills and expertise. This project will place IMSEI Interns at small manufacturing company sites. Specific tasks will vary according to company needs, but typicall include product/process analysis and improvement, production and resource analysis and planning and production/manufacturing systems development and integration. Internships typically result in improved quality, improved margins, increased capacity and/or better use of resources and technology. Following a statewide application process, candidate companies will be selected based on project quality, company commitment, likelihood of success, degree of impact and availability of graduae students with the appropriate skill set. The companies selected to host interns will be forwarded to Golden LEAF as task order request with budgets, specific project descriptions and expected outcomes and impacts.

NCSU through the Research Assistant will provide research and analysis to SAS as set forth in this Agreement. Such research and analysis shall include, but is not limited to, research, generation, testing, and documentation of operations research software. Research Assistant will provide such services for SAS' offices in Cary, North Carolina, at such times as have been mutually agreed upon by the parties. Research Assistant agrees to abide by SAS' policies and procedures regarding security of SAS' facilities and computing resources. Research Assistant further agrees to submit to background verification. If SAS, in its sole discretion, finds Research assistant's background unsuitable, this Agreement shall terminate immediately.

John Deere would like to undertake projects in quality and related areas in their Cary facility. The Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering (IMSE) Institute, of which John Deere is a member, engages in manufacturing system projects and research. IMSE student interns will work with John Deere personnel on these projects.

Small manufacturing companies can benefit from the same process, operations and technology improvements as large companies but often lack the resources, personnel and expertise needed to pursue these improvements. The IMSEI Internship program provides a graduate level engineering student to enable these improvements. The student also gains experience and becomes a more valuable potential employee with expanded skills and expertise. This project will place IMSEI Interns at small manufacturing company sites. Specific tasks will vary according to company needs but typically include product/process analysis and improvement, production and resource analysis and planning and production/manufacturing systems development and integration. Internships typically result in improved quality, improved margins, increased capacity and/or better use of resources and technology. Following a statewide application process, candidate companies will be selected based on project quality, company commitment, likelihood of success, degree of impact and availability of graduate students with the appropriate skill set. The companies selected to host interns will be forwarded to Golden LEAF as task order requests with budgets, specific project descriptions and expected outcomes and impacts.

This is a proposal to establish a internship at Solectron Corporation for a graduate student in IMSE.

This is a project to develop scheduling procedures for the control of space surveillance assets. The 1st task is to develop a mathematical model that accurately describes the operational physics of the scheduling problem, and then is to use commercially available optimization software to solve the model and to provide a base for computation. The 2nd task is to develop heuristic solution procedures that outperform the commercial software in computation time, are within the decision timeframe of the decision makers, and whose solutions are provably close to the accepted optimal solution.

This research will develop a decision analysis tool to support the scheduling of coal barge traffic. The tool will include a graphical user interface to allow users to develop the required inputs to the model and view the results of the decision optimization process.

Since markets are becoming more spread out and global, optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire supply chain is becoming increasingly important for the success of the U.S. softgoods industry. With the explosion in E-commerce technologies, communication and collaboration are much easier among the entities in the entire chain from the fiber supplier to the retail store. For example, data such as inventory levels, demand forecasts, consumer demand information, and ordering policies can be shared among members of the supply chain to try to minimize the distortion that can occur along it, commonly known as the Bullwhip Effect. Curtailing this phenomenon has the potential to simultaneously decrease excessive inventory and stockouts as well as the variance in order fluctuations, consequently reducing manufacturing costs along the entire chain. Several studies, including some NTC projects (e.g., [11-13]), have tried to develop methodologies that optimize supply chain design and management by determining good sourcing strategies for domestic and off-shore suppliers, facilitating the selection of the best set of collaborative partners and building tools that allow sharing of information. However, while models have been developed for specific cases, no general model exists for determining the level of cost savings that can be achieved as a result of the various forms of information sharing. In addition, characterization of the optimal forms of information sharing based on system characteristics has not been carried out. By quantifying the improvement in performance of the supply chain when different levels of information sharing are employed, a competitive advantage can be gained in the global market. Therefore, we will conduct a rigorous analysis developing new analytical models that will determine the value of information sharing as well as how the information being shared impacts this value (i.e., determine the best forms of sharing).