The Materials Strategy Software Consortium

The Materials Strategy Software Consortium is a collaborative project that defines and applies new software to manage materials data and meet the challenges of material selection, substitution and cost optimization.

Benefits include reducing overall manufacturing costs, mitigating the risks associated with global engineering, and improving product quality.

Special Interest Project Groups

• Material and Process Cost Analysis »
  Visualization and analysis of the cost implications of candidate materials in new product development / new market analysis
• Material Substitution »
  Tools to identify—and understand the implications of—candidate substitutes for materials which are withdrawn, obsolete or unavailable.
• Coating Selection »
  Data and software to support the systematic, rational selection of coatings and coated materials

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Membership Benefits

Full Members of the Consortium play a formal role in the specification and development of a suite of tools which will enable better material and process decision-making across the organization: reducing overall manufacturing costs, mitigating the risks of global engineering, and improving product quality.

Member benefits include:

• Software that addresses key issues surrounding managing materials data and meeting the challenges of material selection, substitution and cost optimization.
• Participation in collaborative projects to guides development of the software.
• Privileged and early access to new software and data developed during the project.
• A formal vote in the process to prioritize developments—ensuring that your specific needs are met at a fraction of the cost of developing in-house solutions.
• Networking with other members at regular project meetings and web conferences—helping you to identify and implement best practice.
• Dedicated training and support.

Organizations become entitled to membership of the Consortium by purchasing a qualifying package of materials strategy software from Granta.

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Associate Membership Benefits

All CES Selector or GRANTA MI customers with an interest in the subjects of materials selection, substitution and cost optimization are invited to join the Consortium as Associate Members. Benefits include:

• Attending Consortium and Project meetings and web-sessions, joining discussions, and gaining insights into the latest software strategy.
• Excellent networking opportunities, and exposure to non-proprietary best practice in materials strategy across the industry.
• Joining full members and other CES Selector users in six live web-based CES Selector training sessions each year, with question and answer sessions with Granta experts. UPCOMING TOPICS »

MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION »

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Materials Strategy—Publications

White paper

Download the white paper Optimizing Materials Strategy - can you afford not to? To succeed, manufacturing enterprises need to do much more than simply deliver products that excel at their required function. They must meet wider product design objectives that allow them to address strategic drivers such as cost, environmental legislation, and global manufacturing. Materials decisions are central to these objectives. Sustainable success requires strategies that ensure these decisions are optimized not just for individual designers, but also across the enterprise. This paper outlines an innovative approach that is being applied to address this challenges. Includes case study material not available elsewhere.

DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER »

Materials Strategy Software Consortium invitation

The detailed proposal document The Materials Strategy Software Consortium: An invitation to companies that seek to optimize profitability in their specification and use of engineering materials is available to any organization wishing to assess the Granta solution and membership of the Consortium.

Contact us for details.

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Upcoming events

Date	Location	Meeting
Sept 8	WebEx	Substitution Workshop Webex
Oct 6	Plymouth, MI	Automotive Materials Strategy Workshop (register here)
November	N/a	UCDs circulated for voting
December	N/a	Members' voting

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Previous meetings and seminars

Reports and presentations from past meetings are provided below. Note that presentations are for attendees only and are password-protected.

Date	Location	Meeting	Details	Presentations (Attendee only)
April 14, 2011	Web meeting	Paris report, Projects review, initial discussion of projects for MI 7.0 and CES 2012	Members & Associates only
April 6, 2011	Rhodia Office, Paris	Consortium Meeting & Open Workshop—launched Material & Process Cost Analysis Project	Project details...
Oct 21, 2010	Houston	Open seminar and members' meeting	Agenda...
Apr 14-15, 2010	Detroit	Open seminar and members' meeting	Meeting report...
July 29, 2009	Web meeting	Project update meeting		Download...
Oct 28-29, 2009	Pittsburgh	Open seminar and members' meeting	Agenda...
Dec 2-3, 2008	Chicago	Open seminar and members' meeting	Meeting report...	Download...
May 7, 2008	Milwaukee	Open seminar and members' meeting	Meeting report...	Download...
Sep 20, 2007	Detroit	Open seminar and members' meeting	Meeting report...	Download...
Feb 28, 2007	Orlando	Open seminar and members' meeting	Meeting report...	Download...
Oct 18, 2006	Cincinnati	Inaugural meeting		Download...

 

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