Over thirty industrial companies are the founding partners of the Center. They include suppliers such as machine tool builders and control vendors, as well as end-users of reconfigurable equipment.
(left to right) standing: Al Steffee (Director, GM), Steve Holland (Chief Scientist for Mfg.), Jun Ni (ERC), Roger Cope (VP, Lamb/Unova), David Szczupak (VP, Ford), Kevin Bennett (Executive Director, Ford), Steven Director (Dean, U-M, CoE), seated: Bruce Kramer (ERC Program Director), Yoram Koren (ERC Director), Roman Krygier (Group VP, Global Mfg., Ford), Bruce Coventry (VP, Chrysler LLC.), David Hollister (Director, Michigan Dept. of Labor & Economic Growth), Lawrence Seiford (IOE Chair, U-M).
Benefits To Industry:
- Exposure to new ideas and technologies
- Potential utilization of research results
- Student education in manufacturing
- Extension of R&D to industry
- Technical interactions between suppliers and users
- Access to royalty-free intellectual property rights