Background
Originally chartered to assist the Army in modernizing and streamlining its munitions production enterprise, LCMS formed an industry team which, working with ARDEC and national weapons laboratories, helped to develop a widely used approach to manufacturing known as the Totally Integrated Manufacturing Enterprise.
In 2005, LCMS shifted its focus to the Navy shipbuilding enterprise and began working with Navy Tier 1 and Tier 2 shipyards in Mississippi and Louisiana. Those efforts have expanded steadily into major tasks for yards in Alabama, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Washington State. In addition, LCMS has conducted industry workshops in coordination with the Navy to focus on challenges facing shipbuilding, including supply-chain management and production planning.
In early 2012, LCMS committed to develop a presence at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, seeing an opportunity to work with NASA's site manager to diversify the facility's manufacturing capabilities while at the same time broadening the Defense technology base. Michoud’s manufacturing assets, housed in 43 acres under one roof, include more than $60 million in state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure improvements contributed by the State of Louisiana.
Fortuitously, NASA's decision to encourage diversification at its manufacturing facilities coincided closely with the push by Washington to foster U.S. manufacturing advances through establishment of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). The NNMI envisions a series of institutes throughout the country, each focused on a different aspect of advanced manufacturing. This initiative has drawn attention to Michoud's exceptional assets and its value in support of such institutes.
The leadership at Michoud and an umbrella group of Louisiana engineering universities recruited LCMS to lead and support Louisiana's participation in a five-state Southeast-region team in pursuit of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, and to organize a Louisiana-led national team to compete for the Lightweight and Modern Metals Innovation Institute, for which LCMS would be the managing organization at the Michoud Assembly Facility headquarters. That team finished second to the winning Michigan proposal.
In June 2015, LCMS received a two-year $500,000 planning grant from the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) to support formation of the Center for Accelerated Development of Large-Scale Structures (CADLSS). Supported by NIST's Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia Program and led by industry, CADLSS will develop technology roadmaps, advance technologies and speed development processes, all aimed at maintaining U.S. leadership in aerospace manufacturing, competing effectively in ground-vehicle manufacturing and building new markets and gaining market share in shipbuilding.
In 2016, LCMS was asked to organize a major national proposal effort, led by Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Houston (UH), for a $140 million Department of Energy (DOE) Modular Chemical Process Intensification Institute for Clean Energy Manufacturing. The Institute will be the tenth center selected and funded by a $70 million Federal 1:1 match as part of President Obama's National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The LSU/UH proposal finished second to that of a team led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.