The Problem
Despite having the world's largest research enterprise, the excessively long time it takes to develop a concept into a working technology hampers U.S. industry's ability to compete effectively in a global market. Why?

The current infrastructure of research, development, and implementation (RD&I) in the U.S. is not conducive to effective technology development and deployment. Academia discourages applied development work, while industry cannot justify the financial risk of implementing unproven concepts. The gap created by this situation impedes technology development and deployment.

Before you can transfer technology, you have to develop technology.

Leading the world in concept generation is no longer a sufficient competitive advantage in an age of high-speed communications. Turning these concepts into working technologies quickly and cost-effectively is the key competitive advantage.

Misdirected and insufficient investment has also contributed to the problem. Despite the fact that the U.S. spends more money on research than Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany combined, U.S. firms have largely neglected process-related R&D when compared to their foreign counterparts. In the past, the federal government has also under-invested in manufacturing. Only 2% of the $70 billion federal R&D budget in FY92 was allocated to manufacturing.

In order to face the challenges of a global economy in the 21st century, we must learn to transform ideas into working technologies quickly and cost-effectively.

The Solution
With initial funding from the National Science Foundation, The Manufacturing Institute was created to "bridge the gap" between the traditional approach of academia and the needs of industry. Drawing upon MIT's vast expertise & academic research base and working closely with industry, government agencies, and other universities, we go beyond the scope of traditional academic research labs to develop and deploy actual working technologies all the way to the factory floor.

Our Strategy
Our development efforts are primarily market-driven. We work closely with companies to identify major opportunities for improvement, examine and evaluate potential research concepts, and scale them up into cost-effective working technologies.

Targeted Technological Innovations
A continuous influx of new technologies into manufacturing will be crucial to survival in the 21st century. Unfocused R&D efforts will not suffice in a highly competitive global economy. Technologies will have to be accurately targeted, cost-effectively developed, and quickly deployed in a continuous and systematic manner. This will be especially critical in highly dynamic markets where targets may shift course in real-time. To ensure that the right problems have been targeted and are continuously tracked, we offer our clients a staged investment structure. Each major project we undertake is broken down into several phases, often beginning with a technology evaluation phase, with very concrete milestones. These milestones provide feedback in assessing progress, continued feasibility, and continued relevance.

Fostering Partnerships
With our extensive manufacturing experience and access to the entire MIT research base, the Manufacturing Institute is an excellent partner for industry in undertaking large projects.

Our Goals
It is our goal to become a fast technology conduit between MIT research laboratories and U.S. industry. If we can become the best and fastest at cost-effective technology development and deployment, then the close proximity to the world's greatest R&D enterprise will be a strong competitive advantage for U.S. industry. By bringing together prominent researchers from MIT and other universities, a highly qualified engineering staff, visiting scientists from participating industrial firms, and graduate students, The Manufacturing Institute will be a highly focused technology development center. Another aim is to create an employee pool of rigorously trained engineering professionals from which industry can draw. The Manufacturing Institute will educate students in the science of manufacturing and in the application of innovative manufacturing methods to real problems. Achieving these goals will serve to strengthen American industry's competitive position in the global economy now and into the next century.