The MTConnect Institute and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) have agreed to establish a cooperative forum to continue collaboration on defining, developing and securing programs aimed at furthering the MTConnect standard.
The MTConnect Institute’s open standards are geared toward fostering greater interoperability between manufacturing controls, devices and software applications by publishing data over networks using the Internet Protocol. The standards offer a solution to the exchange of data from shop floor devices to higher-level systems.
NCDMM’s goal is to deliver optimized manufacturing solutions that enhance the quality, affordability, maintainability and rapid deployment of existing and future defense systems. It fosters collaboration between government, industrial and academic organizations to promote best practices in training, advanced technologies and methodologies.
“NCDMM welcomes the formalization of our strong collaborative partnership with the MTConnect Institute,” said Ralph Resnick, president and executive director of NCDMM and a board member of the MTConnect Institute. “This MoU publicly confirms our mutual dedication and acknowledges our collective agreement to the advancement of the MTConnect standard. I encourage other manufacturing organizations to likewise come forward to rally the manufacturing community around the significance of MTConnect.”
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) furthers a relationship that began when the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) first formed the MTConnect Institute in 2009, noted Courtney Hill, MTConnect Institute’s president and chairman of the board. “Our first joint program launched in 2011 and was the beginning of a series of MTConnect projects, the most recent of which is the MTConnect Challenge 2,” she said.
Participants in the MTConnect Challenge 2, which began in July 2013 and closed at the end of January, are developing software applications that harness innovation and manufacturing intelligence breakthroughs using data acquired via the MTConnect standard. At this year’s [MC]2 Conference, taking place next month in Orlando, Fla., attendees will vote for the top three winners.
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