Orlando, FL, February 28, 2007

Materials and manufacturing leaders talk materials strategy in Orlando

Representatives of leading manufacturers, materials producers, and government agencies met in Orlando to discuss emerging software methods that help optimize the specification and use of materials. This was the second meeting of the Materials Strategy Forum—a collaborative project that aims to guide the commercial development and implementation of software tools that provide cost, time, and competitive advantages to participating organizations.

(More information on materials strategy software and the Forum...)

Materials Strategy Forum meeting

The Forum was launched with an inaugural open meeting in Cincinnati last October (read report), since when the first Member organizations have formally signed up to the collaboration. Members' investment in the project provides them with: early use of the software in developing and implementing their materials strategies; formal input to software development priorities via a unique scheme in which Granta matches Members' investment contributions; and networking opportunities at which they share and learn from non-proprietary best practice.

Forum Members met in Orlando to review the latest software and to discuss their next development priorities. The meeting also included an open seminar, attended by a wide range of organizations with an interest in the benefits of materials strategy solutions (see attendee list, below).

Seminar

Granta introduced the seminar by providing an overview of current software solutions. Attention then turned to keynote speaker Professor Mike Ashby of the University of Cambridge—a world-renowned authority on materials engineering and information technology—who presented the vision for materials strategy software. Professor Ashby focused on the following topics, identified as being of high importance at the Forum's inaugural meeting in Cincinnati:

• Cost modeling for materials and processes
• Process chaining
• Life cycle cost and eco modeling

Following the last of these topics, a demonstration was provided of a prototype database created by Granta to address restricted substances legislation such as the new European REACH initiative. This is an example of an R&D project already at an advanced stage of development, which Granta would be please to progress further with interested customers.

In the wrap-up discussion session, attendees were asked to summarize their priorities for materials strategy—and indeed for general materials information management—solutions. Common drivers included:

• Establishing preferred materials, processes, or suppliers, and the need to control proliferation of materials types
• Implementing a structured approach to considering and adopting new or substituted materials or processes
• Reducing material and process costs in the face of inflationary, volatile, and uncertain raw material prices
• Determining equivalent or "near-equivalent" materials to procure at multi-national locations

The need for materials data management solutions to be integrated into the greater engineering IT infrastructure was also reinforced, with a top priority being the need for materials systems to provide information directly to computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools.

Next meeting

The next meeting is planned for Detroit in September, alongside the Materials Science & Technology (MS&T 07) conference and exhibition. It will complement the materials database session at that meeting for delegates wishing to attend both. The meeting will once again feature an open seminar on the latest developments, to be followed by a technical workshop for Forum Members.

Orlando attendees

The seminar was attended by representatives of:

Agenda & presentations

Attendees can download meeting presentations from this password-protected area »

The meeting agenda was:

Agenda—Members-only Workshop