The proposed research programme will attempt to create self-reconfiguring manufacturing systems that are based on intelligent and highly accurate models of manufacturing processes and the products being manufactured. The goal of the research is to enable a radical change in manufacturing effectiveness and sustainability. The target type of manufacturing is component-based modular reconfigurable systems, i.e. systems that are built up of various elements and assembled together, in a similar fashion to building with 'lego'. This is a class of manufacturing system that is typically used in assembly and handling applications, where you tend to find families of modular machine components that can be reused and reconfigured as the product, and hence production processes change. Major applications for this are in the automotive and aerospace sectors. One example is in powertrain assembly, as seen in the UK at Ford. If the re-configurability of such production systems can be enhanced, Ford estimate that potential savings of over 30% in costs are achievable with a target of a 50% reduction in the time to build and commission such a system that typically costs £30 million per engine line. The realisation of this research has the potential to help enable the retention of high value engineering activity in the UK by improving the competiveness in the engineering of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The capability to achieve this aim is to be built on the foundation of current, internationally leading research at Loughborough University, which has created a method for building reconfigurable systems from reusable components that is currently being adopted in automotive supply chains. The concepts of flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems are well established; however problems still exist in the effective, efficient, rapid, configuration of such flexible systems, particularly as lifecycle product changes occur, whether such changes are minor or more fundamental. Many flexible and reconfigurable system examples exist. However, most are designed intuitively and a systematic methodology is still lacking. Additionally, engineering this integration of product and processes is essential in a lifecycle context across the supply-chain, yet this remains largely unaddressed. Virtual engineering also has a major role to play in that we can simulate production systems and products. However the effectiveness of such simulation design tools for reconfigurable systems remains poor. Such tools need to be able to encompass the full system lifetime and be able to replicate the functions of the production system exactly in the models. These models are key enablers for understanding what might happen throughout a production system's lifecycle and can drive better configuration of the modular manufacturing systems we aspire to create.

The AI2M research cluster will bring together leading researchers and practitioners in high value manufacturing, information science, ICT, mathematical sciences and manufacturing services to address the needs for future globally competitive ICT-supported manufacturing practices and infrastructures. The cluster also leverages two distinct supply chains, automotive and aerospace and defence with associated ICT and manufacturing service providers. UK manufacturing has to migrate towards supplying innovative, high quality, variable volume solutions to a global market. Low wage competition and reduced profit margins increase the difficulty of recovering the costs of early lifecycle phases (specification, design, analysis and setup) especially for lower volume products. "Right first time" production is a necessity to survive. In the automotive domain the relatively high volume market is crippled by increased complexity, quality and customer demands for variety. The high added-value, low volume defence and aerospace domains are also under pressure from: the spectrum of product and process complexity; the harsh manufacturing and operational environments and severe safety and legislative requirements. The future of UK manufacturing depends on supply chains being able to: remove defects generated throughout manufacturing; formalise and share product and process knowledge; optimise strategy based on resource utilisation, traceability and lifecycle performance monitoring and understand the implications of design features on manufacturing and operational performance as well as the impact of new materials, components and legislation (e.g. End of Life Vehicle) and the impact of the adoption of new technologies and business models. To pay dividends both in supply chain efficiencies, compliance and new business models, companies must capture and analyse a larger range of data, faster, at lower cost and manage it better than ever before. The challenge of this project is therefore to develop an on-demand intelligent product lifecycle service system for increased yield for products and processes that can bridge the information gaps associated with inefficient supply chain integration and a lack of knowledge on product usage throughout lifecycles. Current commercial solutions are limited to "on-site" silos of information that are restricting UK manufacturing in terms of its ability to: optimise efficiency in materials, resource, energy utilisation; speed up innovation; improve the generation and exploitation of manufacturing intelligence; support supply chain collaboration throughout the product and process lifecycles, and enable new business models and technologies to be readily adopted (e.g. product service systems (PSS) supporting either product operation, usage or results oriented business models). The key research challenges to be addressed by this cluster include: Service Foundations (dynamically reconfigurable architectures, data and process integration and sematic enhanced service discovery); Service Composition (composability analyses, dynamic and adaptive processes, quality of service compositions, business driven compositions); Service Management and Monitoring (self: -configuring, -adapting, -healing, -optimising and -protecting and Service Design and Development engineering of business services, versioning and adaptivity, governance across supply chains).

The Innovative Manufacturing and Construction Research Centre (IMCRC) will undertake a wide variety of work in the Manufacturing, Construction and product design areas. The work will be contained within 5 programmes:1. Transforming Organisations / Providing individuals, organisations, sectors and regions with the dynamic and innovative capability to thrive in a complex and uncertain future2. High Value Assets / Delivering tools, techniques and designs to maximise the through-life value of high capital cost, long life physical assets3. Healthy & Secure Future / Meeting the growing need for products & environments that promote health, safety and security4. Next Generation Technologies / The future materials, processes, production and information systems to deliver products to the customer5. Customised Products / The design and optimisation techniques to deliver customer specific products.Academics within the Loughborough IMCRC have an internationally leading track record in these areas and a history of strong collaborations to gear IMCRC capabilities with the complementary strengths of external groups.Innovative activities are increasingly distributed across the value chain. The impressive scope of the IMCRC helps us mirror this industrial reality, and enhances knowledge transfer. This advantage of the size and diversity of activities within the IMCRC compared with other smaller UK centres gives the Loughborough IMCRC a leading role in this technology and value chain integration area. Loughborough IMCRC as by far the biggest IMRC (in terms of number of academics, researchers and in funding) can take a more holistic approach and has the skills to generate, identify and integrate expertise from elsewhere as required. Therefore, a large proportion of the Centre funding (approximately 50%) will be allocated to Integration projects or Grand Challenges that cover a spectrum of expertise.The Centre covers a wide range of activities from Concept to Creation.The activities of the Centre will take place in collaboration with the world's best researchers in the UK and abroad. The academics within the Centre will be organised into 3 Research Units so that they can be co-ordinated effectively and can cooperate on Programmes.