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 worldwide industrial picture is changing. Emerging economies offer new capabilities as well as access to fresh markets. Manufacturing is becoming increasingly complex with many products assembled from components designed or made in multiple countries. The distinction between the manufacturing and service sectors is dissolving as more and more products are offered with integrated services. These changes create both serious challenges and exciting opportunities for companies and countries trying to succeed in a dynamic environment.

Companies must innovate across the full spectrum of their activities if they are to be successful. Innovation is required not only in terms of products and technologies but in ways of working. Novel business models and processes are needed to meet the changing circumstances. Companies have to develop new strategies and skills to manage not only constantly evolving technologies but the complex manufacturing and supply networks required to succeed in today’s globalised markets. Supporting such broad-based industrial innovation demands a multi-disciplinary approach.

The IfM brings together expertise in management, economics and technology to address the full spectrum of issues and enable:

• improved management of business opportunities, resources and networks
• a clear understanding of the policies needed to support innovation and enterprise
• successful development, application and commercialisation of technologies

This breadth of expertise is combined within a unique structure. The IfM is the only academic institution in the field to integrate research and education with practical application in industry. Research is undertaken in close collaboration with companies ensuring its relevance to industrial needs and providing a rapid dissemination route for new ideas. Industrialists contribute to our education programmes and host company-based projects, giving students experience of demanding, real-world problems. The IfM’s team of Industrial Fellows help companies of all sizes apply research-based improvement techniques via a programme of consultancy services.

The IfM’s broad expertise and integrated approach underpins its leading role in supporting industrial innovation and its contributions to the debate on manufacturing’s role in a successful economy.

About the Department of Engineering

The Department of Engineering teaches and conducts research in all the main branches of engineering except for Chemical Engineering which is a separate department. There are more than 1,000 undergraduate and 300 postgraduate students in the Department; the standard of both undergraduate and graduate entry is exceptionally high. The present staff of the Department consists of 33 Professors, 21 Readers, 21 Senior Lecturers and about 40 Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers. In both the 2001 and 1996 Research Assessment Exercises the department received the top grade of 5*A, and achieved an excellent result in the 1998 Teaching Quality Assessment.