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

A -- THE INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS (IMS) PARTNERSHIP CALLS FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST SOL 0001. 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 outlined below to the Department of Commerce Contact Point. Optionally, you may call or contact by e-mail Dr. Andy Wan, Manager, United States IMS Secretariat for information and express your interest in participation. This notice is published to ensure wide dissemination of the opportunity to participate in this 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 U.S., Australia, Canada, the European Union countries, Japan, Norway and Switzerland. (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 outlined below to the United States IMS Secretariat as soon as possible. This information will be kept on file and, if you so desire, will be used for consortia formation. Later, if you decide to form a consortium or become a partner of a consortium, you will be asked to supply a research abstract. If your research abstract meets the basic requirements for participation, you will be asked to prepare a full proposal. The first round of proposals need to be submitted by July 15, 1995, and are expected to be endorsed no later than September 28, 1995. Future proposals will be solicited on a continuing basis and are expected to be endorsed twice a year, in April and October. (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, at your request, a list of entities from the U.S. and the foreign countries mentioned above that may have similar or complimentary interests as you. 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 funding programs within NIST, DOD, NSF, 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 partnership. Please identify the information you consider to be proprietary and not to be divulged. (1)The name of your organization, division, and address. (2) Your or 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 institute, ix. Other (please describe). (4) Your technical interests: i. Total product life cycle issues: 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 procesess 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 institute, 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. (136)

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