AMTRI to lead foresight initiative programme

Citation

(2000), "AMTRI to lead foresight initiative programme", Industrial Robot, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2000.04927aab.003

AMTRI to lead foresight initiative programme

AMTRI to lead foresight initiative programme

Keywords: Research, Manufacturing

AMTRI (Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research Institute), based in Macclesfield, UK is to lead an Associate Programme under the auspices of the Government Foresight Initiative to produce a forward look into the area of manufacturing machinery as it is likely to develop up to the year 2020.

As a contribution to the Foresight exercise, AMTRI will co-ordinate an Associate Programme over a one-year period to develop a "vision of the future" for manufacturing machinery sectors of industry. The sectors selected are machine tools, printing and packaging machinery and AMTRI will be working with relevant trade associations and university partners.

AMTRI will assign a specialist team of research engineers to highlight both marketing and technological opportunities along with the identification of potential threats from foreign competitive products. Other external factors to be taken into account will be based on a STEEP analysis, that is to say those of sociological, technological, economic, environmental and political origin.

It is anticipated that, following the presentation to the Manufacturing 2020 Foresight Panel and publication of the review, an industry-wide seminar designed to attract a high calibre audience will be held. The review will also make a significant contribution to the Foresight Knowledge Pool.

AMTRI had already gained a strong reputation for work of this nature. In June 1999, it was given the green light by the European Commission in Brussels to implement its European initiative, a thematic network called ARMMS (Agile Reconfigurable Manufacturing Machinery Systems), the concept of which is to involve industrial and research partners throughout Europe working together to share information resulting from new research and developments in machinery for manufacturing.

Said Derek Palethorpe of the ARMMS project: "The task is to focus on and accelerate the developments of reconfigurable machinery modules and related integration technology, which have applications in several industry sectors. Typical will be those industries using precision and high speed machinery such as are used for printing, packaging and wrapping in the food and drink industry, as well as transfer and assembly operations in other manufacturing industry sectors."

For further information contact Derek Palethorpe at AMTRI. Tel: (+44) 01625 425421.