Oklahoma Center for Integrated Design and Manufacturing
Oklahoma Center for Integrated Design and Manufacturing (OCIDM)
In May of 1989, the Oklahoma Center for Integrated Design and Manufacturing (OCIDM) was one of three Centers of Excellence selected for funding by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST). Including both State and non-State resources, OCIDM has seen funding at more than $13 million since that time to support high-quality research and development projects. OCIDM is based at OSU, but it is a cooperative effort involving key faculty members from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Tulsa. Numerous partnerships have been established with other universities, government laboratories, and industrial firms inside and outside of Oklahoma. OCIDM is focusing its research efforts in three complementary areas of strategic importance to Oklahoma and the nation: design, manufacturing, and system integration. Research target areas within design, manufacturing, and system integration include Computer-Aided Design and Engineering, Manufacturing Processes and Materials, Web Handling, Computer Integrated Manufacturing, and Intelligent Systems. Individual project reports are included elsewhere in this section.
During the past three years significant efforts have been made to establish an Engineering response capability to support manufacturer's in Oklahoma who have less than 50 employees (small firms) or who have less than 250 employees (midsize firms). In the vast majority of these cases these manufacturers have no engineering staff. A few of these firms have limited engineering personnel, and they are usually overloaded. Primary responsibility for this is with the Executive Director of OCIDM, Jim Henderson. In the last three years we have helped over 100 manufacturers move ahead in their process, layout, and design capabilities. Several projects have provided substantial benefit to the company. We are now working to enhance this capability by obtaining federal funding to support applications engineers in the rural areas of Oklahoma, where most consultants are not available.
In addition we have been working with Tinker AFB and the Defense Logistics Agency on the Computer Assisted Technology Transfer (CATT) program. Several tasks on this program have been supported during the past year. Projects include: establishing a manufacturing resource matrix to identify persons capable of manufacturing parts based on the part feature, and establishing a CATT deployment site (CDS) to help manufacturers become involved in providing parts for Tinker AFB. Much of this effort is in direct support of the KC135 maintenance program.
Since its inception in 1989, through 1995, OCIDM has supported 33 companies in research, 42 companies in product design, 29 companies in manufacturing process upgrades, 14 companies with facilities layouts, and 33 companies in technology business and resources.
Sponsors: The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology in cooperation with The National Science Foundation, The Noble Foundation, and industrial and other foundation sponsors.
PIs: Karl N. Reid, James Henderson, Lawrence L. Hoberock, and numerous other faculty members.
CATT Deployment Site (CDS) #1
OCIDM was chosen by the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OCALC) and TASC, Inc. personnel to provide services to small Oklahoma manufacturers to enable them to become government contractors. One of four models in test, we represent a small not-for-profit operation. Three other sites had different operational profiles. We have been thus helping OCALC to identify and qualify new manufacturers for aircraft repairs and maintenance.
Sponsor: TASC, Inc.
PIs: James Henderson
Bob Goodloe (OSU, Okmulgee)
CATT Deployment Site (CDS) #1 Challenge Grant
This special grant enabled a specific focus of CDS activity to be brought to the NorthEast Oklahoma Manufacturing Council (NEOMC). The result was several small contracts for NEOMC members on the CATT program.
Sponsor: Education and Research Foundation
PIs: James Henderson
Bob Goodloe (OSU, Okmulgee)
Grant Proposal for the Support of the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence
This grant provided travel and miscellaneous expenses for engineering support to the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence. It also was the source of matching funds for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) procurement of the D-size color plotter.
Sponsor: Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
PI: James Henderson
Johnson Controls Consulting
This project was a follow-up to Value Analysis Workshops to assist Johnson Controls in the cost analysis for a major customer's program. The result of the Workshops and consultation led directly to reducing this program's loss from $45,000/month to making a profit.
Sponsor: Johnson Controls
PI: James Henderson
Manufacturing Resource Matrix Advanced Research Project
This program is to identify the capabilities of Oklahoma manufacturers for producing machined parts. Identification has been made of over 400 firms in the state. Of these, 119 have been added to an electronically queryable data base which will be accessible on the Internet, supporting search based fundamentally on parts features.
Sponsor: TASC, Inc.
PI: James Henderson
Manufacturing Resource Matrix Challenge Grant
This addition to the matrix of manufacturing resources was primarily for the procurement and activation of the Internet Network Server for the manufacturer's database.
Sponsor: Education and Research Foundation
PI: James Henderson
The Silent Alarm Project
This project will be assigned to a fall Senior Design class in Electrical Engineering in the Fall of 1996. It will help demonstrate the feasibility of a steerable audible alarm that will overcome car radios/stereos when an emergency vehicle approaches.
Sponsor: Oklahoma Northwest Area Vocational-Technical School
PIs: James Henderson
Carl Latino (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
SME Equipment Support - D-Size Color Plotter
Through this and a matching grant, we obtained a color inkjet plotter that will plot up to D size (22" x 34"). This plotter is on the network, and is located in Engineering Duplicating in Engineering North.
Sponsor: SME Education Foundation
PI: James Henderson