Officials with Mississippi State University hope a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center and the university will help improve the performance of Mississippi industries.

The partnership of ERDC and MSU’s Institute for Systems Engineering Research was formed in October 2014 with the primary goal of “developing a center of excellence for supporting systems’ engineering processes. Specifically, how they relate to the process going on in Mississippi industry,” institute director Randolph Jones told Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce members.

Jones said much of the money spent at ERDC is to find material solutions to get a product into manufacturing models and demonstration units.

“Their other activities involve participating in a portion or section of what is being built,” he said.

The institute, which is also known as ISER, wants to take advantage of what ERDC does in its acquisition and development process and use it to help improve industry.

“We want to spend taxpayer money to take advantage of what these processes are,” he said. “We’re spending state dollars in order to support the transition of some of these (ERDC) processes out to the state. We’re focused supporting industry with unique projects.”

That support, Jones said, comes through system engineering involving several disciplines, which he said is a “formalized process we go through to look at the big picture, and that’s very important when you want to produce something and be successful at it.

“We define the problem and define it in a way we can find a way to look at solutions. Once we find the solutions, we’ve got to make a decision on what we’re going to use and how we’re going to implement it. If it’s applied right and we go through the process, we’ll wind up with something that we need versus something that we want, and that’s real important.”

He said the institute is connected with another MSU program, the Institute for Computational Research Engineering and Science, which oversees some of the research that goes on at the MSU campus.

It’s main focus, Jones said, is making sure these processes from research are introduced into the private sector for performing technology transition and supporting industry processes.

That process, he said, is handled through the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, which is a center comprised of research, engineering design and development, and technology transfer teams for industry and government partners.

The center, better known as CAVS, has an extension office in Canton that is involved in industry interaction — projects, training industries and solving problems industry may be having.

In fiscal 2014, he said, the program had $16 million proposals funded to be conducted.

“They have grants that come through the (U.S.) Department of Commerce, and overseen by the National Institute for Standards and Testing that allow them to interact with industry and allow them to be funded through that mechanism to participate with projects with industry,” he said.

The grants also allow CAVS to bring in industry representatives for training programs that have had a significant impact on the economy since 2006, according to studies by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which he said goes to industries to determine the type of impact an activity has had on the industry’s bottom line.

“I think there are a lot of applied research (processes from ERDC) that I think has a part and the potential to be transitioned to the private sector,” Jones said.

He said ISER has done integrated projects with CAVS, citing projects with Nissan and Toyota to look as plant configurations to improve the flow od activity on their plants’ assembly lines by using built event models, which are simulations the can be put in motion in way to look like things happening on the assembly line. And with that you get into analysis to find problems,” he said. “Those are what you can do when you have a team of industrial engineers, system engineers and a team of experts who understand the manufacturing flow. You enhance flow and the bottom line.”

Using ERDC processes, Jones said, someone can look at item to determine if it can be built, examine potential problems and develop a process to highlight those problems before manufacturing starts “to give you insight into things you can take care of before you spend money when you try to develop something.”

He said ISER can serve as a liaison between research systems on behalf of industry “To bring you the information you’re looking for.

“We are interested in understanding the issues that you have,” he said. “If we can understand those issues, we can invest research dollars in trying to solve those issues. There are always things going on that you’re going to take on anyway, so we can come in and help perform some of those tasks with you. If it’s significant enough, we can do a funded project on your behalf to help you solve it.”