This multimedia presentation is a component of the June 1999 (vol. 51, no. 6) JOM. To best experience this presentation, you should employ the latest version of RealPlayer. As the audio plays, images from the presentation will automatically load in the window to the right.

ATTENTION MAC USERS: Due to incompatability issues regarding the auto-launch of RealPlayer, Mac users may experience some difficulties with this on-line presentation.

Jerome Paul Reimann

Editor's Note: Under the auspices of JOM, this presentation was recorded March 1st at the 1999 TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, during the symposium Professional Development: Collaboration, Research, and Professional Skills. Sponsored by the TMS Young Leaders Committee, the symposium was organized by Elliot Schwartz, Gillette Company, and Livia Racz, Tufts University. Other papers from this symposium may be experienced by visiting June issue's table of contents.

During the 20 century, society has moved from an environment of propriety technology to an environment of abundance of technology. Instead of competing for the same customer base with the propriety technologies, companies that grow and prosper in this environment have found it necessary to look for new opportunities to expand their markets. Collaboration has been found to be an extremely effective methodology for the generation of ideas for companies to find new opportunities to grow and prosper. Since the National Cooperative Research Act was passed in 1984, many organizations have been formed to take advantage of pre-competitive collaborative research and development among competing laboratories and companies. In the more than fifteen years since the law passed, initial investment in this new experiment in manufacturing R&D has grown tremendously. At the same time, companies accustomed to "drawing down" public funds for manufacturing research are realizing that they are in a better position to drive the research, deploy the results and protect their intellectual property rights by funding research initiatives themselves in collaboration with others who are also willing to pool talent and share risks. This presentation will address a number of models for conducting pre-competitive R&D from large consortiums to small collaborative projects. Also addressed will be issues related to acamedia and national laboratory concerns versus private industry, handling of mixed funds from government and commercial entities, and concerns of intellectual property ownership. Fiercely competitive companies have been brought together to perform research and development in areas of new processes, materials, manufacturing tools as well as new methodologies for management and logistics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jerome Paul Reimann is executive director of the Technologies Research Corporation of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.