Department of Commerce, The United States IMS Secretariat, Room H4226, Washington, D.C. 20230

A -- THE INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS (IMS) PARTNERSHIP CALLS FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST AND PROPOSALS Sol 0002. Contact Point, Dr. Andy Wan, 202/482-0151, Fax 202/219-3310, e-mail awan@banyan.doc.gov. All interested American individuals, companies, universities and other organizations are invited to participate in the international Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Partnership. To express your interest to participate, simply mail or fax the information requested below to the Department of Commerce Contact Point. Optionally, you may call or contact by e-mail Dr. Andy Wan, Manager, The United States IMS Secretariat for information and to express your interest in participation. This notice is published to ensure wide dissemination of the opportunity to participate in this international partnership. The following questions and answers may provide you the basic information you need. (a) What is the IMS Partnership? The IMS Partnership is an industry-led international collaboration involving industry, academia and government in the following six regions: the U.S., Australia, Canada, the European Union countries, Norway and Switzerland, and Japan. Launched in April 1995, after a successful two-year feasibility study, the IMS Partnership's governing International Steering Committee is seeking consortium proposals in advanced manufacturing. The Committee already endorsed two international consortia in September 1995 when it met for the second meeting in Toronto. It is expected to endorse two additional consortia soon. Each consisting of about 40 partners, the four consortia. Globeman 21, Next Generation Manufacturing Systems, Holonic Manufacturing Systems and Gnosis, are undertaking industry-relevant R&D to advance world manufacturing. (b) Who should participate? If you are interested in international cooperation or trade and you are engaged in the technological, organizational, or trade aspects of manufacturing, you should participate. (c) What should I do if I am interested? You should provide the information as requested below to the United States IMS Secretariat as soon as possible. Once the information is received, your name and interest will be included in an Interested Entity List. We use the List to foster consortium formation. To that end, we distribute the List domestically and internationally to those, including yourself, who express an interest to IMS participation. For this reason, you should not include any proprietary information in your reply. You are encouraged to communicate with those who have similar interests as you in order to join an existing consortium or to form a new consortium. If you decide to form a consortium, you should supply a research abstract to the U.S. IMS Secretariat. If your research abstract meets the basic requirements for participation, you will be asked to prepare a full proposal. There are two calls for proposals annually, in the spring and the fall. The deadline for the first round of proposals in 1996 is March 15, 1996, for endorsement by May 17, 1996. The deadline for the second round is September 15, 1996, for endorsement by November 22, 1996. (d) How about international partners? Partnership with foreign entities is one of the basic requirements for participation. If you have foreign contacts in the countries mentioned above, you should ask them to join your proposed project. To facilitate the partnering process, the U.S. IMS Secretariat will provide you the Interested Entity List from the U.S., as mentioned above, and lists of interested entities from the foreign countries of the six regions. In addition, at your request, the U.S. IMS Secretariat will attempt, on your behalf, to locate U.S. or foreign entities that have the similar or complimentary interests as you. (e) How about funding for my project? You may apply for funding from relevant programs within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Department of Defense (DOD), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), among others, or use your own sources. Your foreign partners may apply for funding from the IMS funding agencies within their respective countries. The following is the basic information the U.S. IMS Secretariat needs to facilitate your participation. Please identify any information you consider to be proprietary and not to be divulged. (1) The name of your organization, division, and address. (2) Your and your contact person's name, position, phone number, Fax number, e-mail; total number of employees (or students); your organization's annual turn-over; capitalization, and year of foundation. (3) Your main business activity: i. User of technology, ii. Original equipment manufacturer, iii. System integrator, iv. Controls vendor v. Software vendor. vi Consultants, vii. Academic, viii. Research insurance, ix. Other (please describe). (4) Your technical interests. i. Total product life cycle future general models of manufacturing systems; intelligent communication network systems for information processes in manufacturing; environment protection, minimum use of energy and materials; recyclability and refurbishment; or economic justification methods. ii. Process issues: clean manufacturing processes that can minimize effects on environment; energy efficient processes that can meet manufacturing requirements with minimum consumption of energy; technology innovation in manufacturing processes; improvement in the flexibility and autonomy of processing modules that compose manufacturing systems; or improvement in interaction or harmony among various components and functions of manufacturing iii. Strategy/Planning/Design tools: methods and tools to support business process re-engineering; or design support tools to support planning in an extended enterprise or virtual enterprise environment. iv. Human/Organization/Social issues: promotion and development projects for improved image of manufacturing; improved capability of manufacturing workforce/education, training; autonomous offshore plants (integration of supplementary business functions in subsidiaries); corporate technical memory; or appropriate performance measures for new paradigms. v. Virtual/Extended Enterprise issues: methodologies to determine and support information processes and logistics; architecture to support engineering cooperation across the value chain; methods and approaches to assign cost/liability/risk and reward; or team working across individual units within the extended enterprise. vi. Other (please describe). (5) Please describe your interest commensurate with technical interests you select from the list above. (6) Please describe the type of domestic and foreign partners you are seeking: i. User of Technology, ii. Original Equipment manufacturer, iii. System integrator, iv. Controls vendor, v. Software vendor, vi. Academic institute, vii. Research instituted, viii. Consultants, ix. Other (please describe). (7) Reason for participation: i. Acquire or develop technology, ii. Develop vendor and user networks, iii. Increase exposure to and the understanding of international markets, iv. Increase understanding of technology trends, v. Develop and apply international standards, vi. Other (Please describe). (8) Please give a brief narrative of your interests. (324)

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