NORMAN - Norwegian Manufacturing Future

-In an unstable global world, continued development of the manufacturing industry's competitive power is of paramount importance. Through the research centre Norwegian Manufacturing Future (SFI Norman), companies and scientists from NTNU and SINTEF have produced research aiming to contribute to strengthening the competitive power of Norwegian manufacturing industry. The overall challenge addressed, is the ability to create flexible and automated production systems, supported by modern control and good logistics, and which draws competent staff through attractive jobs. Through workshops and active company participation, the innovation needs of the individual company are joined into mutual, researchable problems. This creates a set of research topics, and the results from the research activities are translated into innovations in the companies. This is often realised through associated innovation projects and EU funded development projects. The level of the research is demonstrated through extended international scientific publication.

Norwegian manufacturing has a unique potential in the global economy, but its success will depend upon continuous innovation of products and processes. The Norwegian Manufacturing Future (NORMAN) Centre is based on the assumption that Norwegian manufactur ing has a promising future, especially in the manufacture of high-value and technology-intensive products. The availability of skilled labour, competence-intensive products, high levels of productivity and the capacity to innovate, combined with very stro ng infrastructure, will continue to give Norwegian companies an advantage. The vision of the NORMAN centre is to: Develop new and multi-disciplinary research on next-generation manufacturing, and create theories, methods, models, and management tools th at enable Norwegian manufacturers to thrive in global competition. The research in the CRI will be performed at NTNU/SINTEF within the following areas: product development, manufacturing systems engineering, operations management, decision support syste ms and innovation management. Based on industrial challenges identified by the 16 industrial partners in NORMAN and the state-of-the-art knowledge, NORMAN will collaborate in the following three research areas: * Collaborative Product and Process Develop ment - From emerging ideas to manufacturing with high profit margin * Adaptive Factory - Improving manufacturing efficiency, adaptability and flexibility * Transparent and Robust Manufacturing Networks - Streamlining operations in manufacturing networks and global value networks. The research areas are based on utilisation of ICT enablers such as wireless communication, sensors, modelling and simulation, and collaborative technologies. Since these areas involve a wide range of research fields, the work will be carried out in a transdisciplinary context. The objectives of the Centre are to develop new management principles, methods, system tools and industrial demonstrators.