NUS and Sun-Netscape Alliance collaborate for e-manufacturing portal & competency centre
Singapore, 27 Jan -- Sun-Netscape Alliance and the National University of Singapore's Laboratory for Concurrent Engineering and Logistics (LCEL) will set up an E-Manufacturing Competency Centre and an integrated E-Manufacturing portal.
The Sun-Netscape alliance will provide US$1.8 million of Sun Microsystems hardware, software and the network infrastructure. The collaboration aims to strategically streamline the manufacturing indsutry into core activities like core design, exchange of production between manufacturers and their partners, and enterprise resource planning and scheduling.
Redesigned into Internet portals and integrated to the supply chain, the industry should realise significant costs savings and faster lead times.
LCEL's expertise has been based on research in Internet-enabled manufacturing technologies and it has conceptualised e-manufacturing as comprising different inter-related activities such as e-training, e-factory, and e-logistics. LCEL will contribute the domain knowledge needed to building the portals and will invite partners to participate.
Using its iPlanet range of applications, the Sun-Netscape Alliance will also provide manpower training and R&D support to manufacturing companies in Singapore. "This collaboration will help Singapore manufacturers move towards a fully networked industrial environment," said Professor Low Teck Seng, Dean of Engineering at NUS. "This collaboration will expand both breadth and depth of our engineering education giving our students a broader base to expand their horizons," added Professor Low.
The offspring of this collaboration will be the E-Manufacturing Competency Centre (EMCC). As part of the LCEL, the EMCC will provide the expertise and talent of LCEL in research and development of intelligent tools needed for e-manufacturing. Tools such as an intelligent product information search engine for product design and procurement of components will streamline costs and overheads for the manufacturing industry.
EMCC will also host an E-Manufacturing portal for the die and mould industry as a test bed for e-manufacturing R&D. It will comprise of features like online mould design service, procurement of raw materials and equipment, and online auctions. The need for the E-Manufacturing portal is borne out of the huge customer base of the industry. " The huge manufacturing base in Asia will benefit from this venture not only because of the increased flow and sharing of information and ideas but the significant growth in skills and commerce that will make Asia an international e-manufacturing hub," said Dr Thomas Chong, managing director for Sun-Netscape Alliance in Asia South.