A plan to strengthen Illinois manufacturers

To strengthen small to mid-sized manufacturing companies in Illinois, Northern Illinois University’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET) and the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC) have received a grant to develop and adopt Industry 4.0 technologies that will strengthen and maintain national and international competitiveness in a cost-effective manner for Illinois manufacturers. The grant, from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), enables the university to add a new staff position to work hand-in-hand with IMEC and seek out Illinois manufacturers needing additional resources to stay competitive. The manufacturers will be paired with teams of enterprising senior engineering students to solve technology and engineering challenges. Ray Zignato, CEET’s manufacturing director who joined in July as a result of the grant, explained that through this partnership companies get solutions to real-world challenges that help grow and improve their businesses.