Home > Consortia > Materials Strategy > Overview

The Materials Strategy Consortium

The Materials Strategy Consortium is a collaborative project that guides the development of software to help engineering, manufacturing, and materials-producing enterprises in optimizing their specification and use of materials.

Members

Current members of the Consortium are:

• Emerson Electric
• Moen Inc. (Fortune Brands Home & Hardware) - case study
• DePuy
• Ethicon Endosurgery
• Benteler Stahl/Rohr GmbH
• Granta Design

Objectives of the Consortium

Granta has already delivered the ideal core software platform on which to build materials
strategy software solutions - GRANTA MI. The objective now is to develop a systematic software-based approach to aid the practical implementation of materials strategies. Such strategies aim to optimize the specification and use of materials across the enterprise and throughout the materials lifecycle (below).

The materials lifecycle - manufacturing enterprises need to optimize materials choices throughout this lifecycle in order to achieve functional, economic, and environmental objectives

Meeting this objective requires that we:

• Combine considerations of cost and function to analyze and inform critical materials decisions (‘cost’, while typically assumed to be $ cost, can equally mean another cost such as environmental cost, or a packaging cost such as weight or volume)
  
  
• Make the resulting technical and business strategy available throughout the enterprise, enabling every engineer to apply it directly from their desktop

Experience has shown that satisfaction and value from technology solutions are greatly enhanced if these solutions are not developed ‘in an ivory tower’, but, rather, are developed in close collaboration with stakeholder organizations that have a keen interest in benefiting from the outcome. This, certainly, has been the strong feedback from the analogous Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC) – to the extent that the MDMC is now in its second three-year phase, with an increased membership.

While the objectives of the MDMC are concerned primarily with the management, processing and analysis of materials test data into design data for broad deployment, the Materials Strategy Consortium is focusing on solutions to techno-economic challenges – the aspects of materials specification and use that directly affect companies’ profitability.

Membership benefits

Early use and development of innovative software

• As a Consortium member, you will have early access to the latest versions of GRANTA MI, Enterprise Materials Optimizer, and associated new tools.  Consortium members also benefit from special commercial terms for the software, with enhanced R&D commitment from Granta
  
  
• You will have a formal role in determining the the development priorities for GRANTA MI materials strategy solutions, helping to ensure from the outset that the resulting tools meet your company’s needs
  
  
• More information on the Consortium solution >>>

Networking and support to ensure success

• Face-to-face meetings, conference calls, and web events will allow you to network with peers in other commercial organizations and to learn about non-proprietary best practice
  
  
• Granta will provide support and consultancy to help you to implement and apply the technology successfully

A competitive advantage

• Early adoption of this important emerging technology will provide a head-start over competitors
  
  
• Use of the software will deliver greater efficiency in your management and use of key information, resulting in reduced materials costs and improved product quality