Digital Manufacturing

Sustainability has long been a spoken ideal in the manufacturing world. Notwithstanding this desire, it remains a major challenge to achieve end-to-end transparency especially in areas like resource consumption, waste generation and material sourcing. Sustainability is best achieved by viewing processes and products as part of a large, overarching system, rather than in isolation. This approach requires collaboration among stakeholders from various stages of product lifecycle management, including development, supply chain, and operations. Together, they can develop clear, measurable sustainability benchmarks based on current goals and bottlenecks. To meet the goals of sustainable manufacturing, our center focuses on creating a holistic view of the product lifecycle, employing a digital thread and digital manufacturing systems to innovate, streamline and error-proof manufacturing operations. Specifically, we are developing sensors, database, algorithms and models to improve manufacturing efficiency/agility and in turn building a greener and more equitable future.