About the IfM

IfM, Alan Reece building

Engineering Department, Trumpington Street

Institute for Manufacturing

"Combining intellectual rigour with real-world relevance, the IfM has developed an integrated community of academics, students and industrialists with a shared passion for modern manufacturing."

Professor Mike Gregory, Head of IfM

The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is the public face of the Department of Engineering's Manufacturing and Management Division. The IfM takes a distinctive, cross-disciplinary approach, bringing together expertise in management, technology and policy to address the full spectrum of industrial issues. The IfM’s activities take place within an unusual structure that integrates research and education with practical application in industry, via a university-owned company, IfM Education and Consultancy Services Ltd.

IfM research is undertaken in close collaboration with companies, ensuring its relevance to industrial needs and the rapid dissemination of new ideas and approaches. It aims to develop practical solutions to current industrial issues and covers all areas from understanding markets and technologies, through product and process design to operations, distribution and related services.

Research is clustered into a number of research centres. Particular areas of expertise include industrial and innovation policy; the integration of technology considerations into business decisions; international manufacturing and supply networks; strategy and performance; next-generation inkjet technologies; and industrial photonics. Various interdisciplinary, cross centre programmes have been established to address such issues as service and support engineering, industrial sustainability, emerging industries and high value production.

The IfM is situated in the Alan Reece Building, a purpose-built building on the university’s West Cambridge site, which was opened in November 2009.