“We have been describing our competitiveness by our rate of innovation, and we were happy to let others do the manufacturing,” explained Rakesh Nagi, head of the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering. “As long as you have the idea, you own the space for a little while. For Nagi, it is about “core” and “context.” For many years, innovation and engineering have been core interests; manufacturing was context—something we were willing to give away.
Written by Rick Kubetz
“We have been describing our competitiveness by our rate of innovation, and we were happy to let others do the manufacturing,” explained Rakesh Nagi, head of the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering (ISE) at Illinois. “As long as you have the idea, you own the space for a little while. However, it seems like we have been unable to sustain the competitive edge.”
Rakesh Nagi For Nagi, it is about “core” and “context.” For many years, innovation and engineering have been core interests; manufacturing was context—something we were willing to give away.
“Agile manufacturing was intended to identify synergies between core and context among the players,” he said. “Americans are exceptional as far as generating new and innovative products. Rather than doing everything ourselves, we have gravitated to what we are good at, and left the manufacturing to others who could do it cheaper. This requires a lot of movement of information and data between the designers and outsourced manufacturers, and if there are gaps in communications, quality control is often a casualty.”
Nagi noted that as the labor rate differential diminishes, and fuel and transportation remains expensive, many companies are bringing the work back home. That is where the concept of digital manufacturing comes in—providing the necessary synergies through the sharing of information from design to delivery through a product’s lifespan.
“Design is almost totally digital at this point,” Nagi remarked. “The digital part of manufacturing initially manifested itself in the form of computer numeric control (of machinery). It now includes additive forms such as 3-D printing.
“Where our department is exceptional is that we work at these issues at a larger level—supply chain, logistics, inventory control, distribution. We design the optimum configuration of these factories. Sustainability, in the form of product lifecycle design for remanufacturing and recycling, has also become a key consideration for industry. Once we are able to empower our students with end-to-end to product realization—uniting core and context—we can train a new breed of engineers that will be able to do the innovation cycle a lot faster.”
Deborah ThurstonTo close the gap between academia and industry, ISE has recently joined the Center for e-Design, a collaborative research partnership organized and funded under the National Science Foundation’s Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program.
“We have joined with seven universities and more than forty companies with the goal of finding innovative solutions to engineering challenges in industry,” explained ISE professor Deborah Thurston, Illinois’ principal investigator for the partnership. “The Center’s research is oriented towards large-scale, complex projects, often involving multiple collaborators at various locations. In addition to our five research thrust areas, the Center will also contribute expertise and resources to a new Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) in Chicago.”