The proposal from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade & Industry that US and European companies should collaborate with Japanese firms to develop standards and technology for a so-called Intelligent Manufacturing System has made progress following trilateral talks in Tokyo this week. The US side said that it would explain the outcome of the talks to US industry and seek consensus on how to proceed, Associated Press reports. Japan is offering to put up 60% of the cost of the project. The Ministry first proposed the $1,000m 10-year project, to embrace integration of everything from sales order entry through design, manufacturing and production control (CI No 1,253). The proposal is that Japan should contribute machine tool technology, the US software and Europe, process technology. The US and European Community teams want more equal control of the project, and there are some fears that the main outcome of the collaboration would be to strengthen Japanese manufacturing industry in the two areas where it feels it lags its international rivals.
