MSID Programs (Research Areas):
	Manufacturing Enterprise Integration
	Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization
	Integrated Nano-to-Millimeter Manufacturing Technologies
	Predictive Process Engineering
	Product Engineering
	Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA)

Introduction

Information technology has had a tremendous influence on manufacturers' competitiveness throughout the world. Because of such influence integrating manufacturing systems is becoming increasingly complex. The explosive growth of information technology as a strategic tool by today's manufacturers demands that they adopt new, more powerful techniques to reduce inefficiencies and improve responsiveness, and thus stay competitive. The electronic interchange of manufacturing information within manufacturing enterprises and among partners often provides the ability to get to market before competitors. One of the biggest expenses and obstacles to the effective exploitation of information technology is interoperability among these systems.

"Imperfect interoperability imposes at least $1 billion per year on the members of the U.S. automotive supply chain. By far, the greatest component of these costs is the resources devoted to repairing or reentering data files that are not usable for downstream applications." [Research Triangle Institute, Interoperability Cost Analysis of the U.S. Automotive Supply Chain, 99-1 Planning Report, National Institute of Standards and Technology.]

The Manufacturing Systems Integration Division (MSID) responds to industry priorities for interoperability solutions by helping to define technically sound, neutral integration standards in cooperation with industrial partners. The Division also assists with the development of mechanisms for assessing conformance and interoperability of software implementations of these standards to ensure that these information standards solve the problems they are intended to address. Developing viable information technology standards for manufacturing is particularly challenging given the rapid pace of change in technology. Standards must be developed with an eye toward future extensibility. One such standard in which MSID has led is ISO 10303 (informally known as STEP - The Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) -- a revolutionary way to exchange fully attributed three-dimensional product design data, product configuration data, and an unlimited variety of domain-specific properties.

At minimum, MSID's standards and services are critical for use by: (1) the discrete manufacturing sector, including the various tiers of suppliers supporting industries such as automotive and aerospace; (2) the manufacturing software vendors providing engineering and production software tools; and (3) systems integrators who draw upon the standards to provide integrated solutions for manufacturers. NIST occupies a unique position as a neutral agent representing the interests of U.S. manufacturers, both large and small, domestically and internationally. As manufacturing industry faces this critical information revolution, the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division is responding by drawing upon advances in manufacturing systems integration theory to help define and promulgate timely, technically sound, open specifications for the interoperation of manufacturing systems.