MxD partners with our top-tier partners, academic researchers, startups and the U.S. government to launch digital manufacturing projects with commercial potential.
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Featured Projects
Project Collaboration
Making every single part better than the last is a goal too big for any one company to reach on its own. Collaborative projects like these help our partners solve digital problems outside of their core competencies.
View our Open Calls
2022
Technical Data as a Service
Connected digital manufacturing enterprises are collecting more and more data related to stages of the product life cycle. For manufacturers considering digital thread strategies, it’s important to understand the technical elements that result in business value. The technical data package serves as the single source of data throughout the product life cycle; however, it often falls short in providing the needed information for product use, provisioning, repair,and modification. MxD is funding the development of a data-as-a-service tool that automates the creation of a technical data package and delivers technical data sets based on a user’s risk-adjusted, time-phased value.
2022
Rock Island Arsenal Modernization Program
The Rock Island Arsenal Modernization Program aims to assess, develop, pilot, and implement a common set of processes and tools to modernize legacy manufacturing and maintenance facilities using the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center (JMTC) at Rock Island Arsenal (RIA) as a surrogate.
2022
Operational Technology Test Methods
Information Technology (IT) security tests are run to reveal security weaknesses. Security experts and testers use different types of security tests to identify potential threats, measure the potential for exploitation of vulnerabilities, and assess the overall risk. While there are a variety of test methods to apply to IT networks, there is little information and guidance about the test methods applicable to Operational Technology (OT) networks. Industry needs a detailed understanding of the application of existing and reliable test methods on OT networks to mitigate the various cybersecurity attacks.
Current Projects
Project Number: 20-01-A
Supply Chain Enhancements
This project will develop and implement supply chain visibility tasks within the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) Cybersecure Dashboard.
Project Number: 20-15-01
Pathfinder Phase I: Securing 3D Printers in Manufacturing
MxD is partnering with the Department of Defense in the evaluation and development of a risk assessment for additive manufacturing (3D printers) as 3D printers do not currently meet the NIST Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework (RMF).
Project Number: 20-11-04
Physics-Guided Machine Learning for CNC Milling
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Third Wave Systems will optimize computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining parameters using a combination of physics-based models, in-process data, and machine learning to reduce scrapped parts.
Project Number: 20-11-09
Model-Based Systems Engineering for Digital Manufacturing: A Proof of Concept
Georgia Tech teams up with Rolls-Royce to accelerate the maturity of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) models by providing decisionmakers with a methodology aimed at capturing manufacturing and production system considerations in an authoritative source of truth model-based environment.
Project Number: 20-11-11
Digital Twin Tool for Cybersecurity
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Siemens will develop a digital twin tool that enables manufacturers to run cybersecurity tests on virtual replicas of the physical machines and networks on their factory floor.
Project Number: 20-02-07
Visual Inspections Perfected Using AI
The project will integrate an Artificial Intelligence inspection system with the Digital Thread to provide timely, actionable insights about the quality of adhesive dots deposited on a planar surface.
Project Number: 20-11-10
Cyber Threat Mission Builder
University of West Florida and Siemens Dwill developing a tool for creating and simulating cyber threat scenarios against target environments that are based upon real-world threat intelligence and adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures for the purpose of training, testing, and defending those environments.
Project Number: 20-13-01
Docent Phase 3 – Technology Transfer
This phase of the project continues development of the Docent Manufacturing Readiness Assessment software tool with the key objective of establishing a commercial-ready solution with a baseline sustainability model for the support and growth of the tool.
Project Number: 20-05-01
Achieving Resilience Through Proactive Supply Chain Risk Management
This project will knit together best-in-class technology to produce a modularized machine learning-enabled software component (Dynamic Risk Mitigation Engine) that integrates supplier, bill-of-material, and event-based risk information to produce recommendations aimed at preventing supply chain disruptions before they happen.
Project Number: 20-04-01
Digital Transformation Toolkit for SMMs
This project will develop actionable resources to help small and medium manufacturers (SMMs) “get started” in digital manufacturing through implementing detailed case studies at SMM testbeds.
Project Number: 20-16-01
Supply Chain Risk Alert II (SCRA2)
MxD, along with industry partners, will develop a supply chain mapping and risk management middleware platform that provides policymakers and supply chain leaders the ability to efficiently assess a wide range of value chain designs of pandemic scenarios to optimize supply chain resiliency and agility during an emergency.
Project Number: 20-25-01
Pathfinder Phase II: Securing 3D Printers in Manufacturing
Phase II of the Pathfinder project covers the implementation of the security measures that have been identified during Phase I for the evaluation a Markforged 3D printer. During Phase II, the project team will continue to expand and increase security in the manufacturing and use of 3D printers in order to provide assurance for the machines to connect to enterprise networks.
Project Number: 19-13-05
Human Workflow Digital Twin: Fatigue and Motion Analyses
This project will develop a new framework for a human-centered digital twin by developing and demonstrating a viable means to measure worker motion and fatigue during manufacturing assembly tasks.
Project Number: 19-04-04
Digital Twin Testbed for Process Manufacturing
This project will develop and implement a framework for collecting and aggregating various sensor data that will be necessary to build a digital twin of a product, process, and auxiliary equipment.
Project Number: 20-11-01
Securing Voice Control Technology in Manufacturing with Cross-Domain Authentication
Rutgers is partnering with Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) to develop new methods to secure voice control technology and help manufacturers defend themselves against voice-based cyber attacks.
Project Number: 20-11-13
Preserving Privacy in Smart Manufacturing Analytics
Penn State will partner with Siemens to develop a technique to help manufacturers reduce the risk of privacy breaches during model inversion cyberattacks. In such attacks, an adversary uses model output to steal sensitive raw data.
Project Number: 19-12-02
Enabling Cybersecurity for the Digital Manufacturing Supply Chain
Techsolve, Inc. will partner with Siemens and several other MxD partners to benchmark and evaluate the OT and IT cybersecurity tools currently available to small and medium-size manufacturers.
Reducing Waste in Manufacturing Large Die-Cast Parts
PROBLEM
Discrete manufacturers waste material when die-casting complex metal parts.
Helping Businesses Counter Cyber-Attacks
PROBLEM:
More than half of all small-to-medium-size businesses have experienced a cyberattack in the last 12 months.
Cost Share Guidelines
MxD encourages contributions of voluntary or mandatory cost share to support the digital manufacturing institute ecosystem. Please review the Cost Share Guidelines to learn more or begin the cost share donation process here.
More Success Stories
2017
1. Cybersecurity in the DoD Supply Chain
MxD sponsors a study to assess how small and medium-sized manufacturers are complying with DoD’s new cybersecurity rules.
2016
2. Digitizing Legacy Machines
The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences leads a team to develop a sensor retrofit kit. The kit communicates data through an industry standard MTConnect interface to a cloud dashboard.
2017
3. Defining Manufacturing Jobs of the Future
MxD and ManpowerGroup release a digital workforce taxonomy, a groundbreaking analysis that identifies 165 new data-centric manufacturing jobs—roles like “collaborative robotics technician” and “predictive maintenance systems specialist.”
2019
4. Warning Manufacturers of Part, Materials Delays
Dow, Microsoft, ITAMCO, and two universities team up to build a supply chain risk alert system that will warn manufacturers further down the supply chain of delays caused by emergencies, weather, or natural disasters.
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Facts & Figures
Facts & Figures
How many projects has MxD funded?
Facts & Figures
More than 60 external projects across more than 35 states.
Facts & Figures
How much has MxD invested in R&D projects?
Facts & Figures
$90 million
Facts & Figures
How does digitization improve a factory’s bottom line?
Facts & Figures
Through operational efficiencies, predictive and preventative maintenance, better supply chain management, and inventory optimization.
Facts & Figures
Are Industry 4.0, The Fourth Revolution and smart manufacturing the same thing?
Facts & Figures
They boil down to the same concept: it’s all about applying information and communication technology to manufacturing.
Facts & Figures
Tap the square to reveal the answer
Facts & Figures
How many projects has MxD funded?
Facts & Figures
More than 60 external projects across more than 35 states.
Facts & Figures
How much has MxD invested in R&D projects?
Facts & Figures
$90 million
Facts & Figures
How does digitization improve a factory’s bottom line?
Facts & Figures
Through operational efficiencies, predictive and preventative maintenance, better supply chain management, and inventory optimization.
Facts & Figures
Are Industry 4.0, The Fourth Revolution and smart manufacturing the same thing?
Facts & Figures
They boil down to the same concept: it’s all about applying information and communication technology to manufacturing.